Neonatal Morbi-Mortality in Very Low Birth Weight in Europe: the Portuguese Experience

The aim of this study was to access evolution in care of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants after the implementation of a regionalization policy in Portugal. The data of the National Portuguese Network of VLBW infants are analyzed concerning mortality, morbidity, and quality of regionalization. A total of 12,826 VLBW infants born from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 2008 were enrolled, with a prevalence of 0.66%-0.99% of all live born. The global mortality was 11%. The major improvement in survival is in the babies more than 1000 g. Since 2004, the threshold of viability is 25 weeks, but the intact survival is around 28 weeks. In the last 10 years with more efficient regionalization more VLBW babies are born in the right place. The improvement in neonatal mortality rate was determinant in the good evolution of perinatal and infant mortalities. After reinforcement of regionalization policies, we found improvements in mortality for VLBW infants. The aims of regionalization were achieved. The reform of perinatal care in Portugal is an example of how a good diagnosis and adequate proposals combined with a strong political will is crucial for changing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: Should we submit patients without angina to coronary angiography?

Coronary artery disease (CAD) accounts for about two-thirds of cases of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) [1]. Angina symptoms and cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) are not sufficient to establish an ischemic etiology and according to recommendations coronary angiography (CA) is the gold standard [1–3]. There is a paucity of information on the performance of CA for detecting CAD in HFrEF without known CAD [4]. We aimed to determine the frequency of CAD in HFrEF patients of unknown etiology and without known CAD, and to identify variables associated with the presence and severity of CAD

Genetic and clinical characteristics of NEFL-related Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

OBJECTIVES: To analyse and describe the clinical and genetic spectrum of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) caused by mutations in the neurofilament light polypeptide gene (NEFL). METHODS: Combined analysis of newly identified patients with NEFL-related CMT and all previously reported cases from the literature. RESULTS: Five new unrelated patients with CMT carrying the NEFL mutations P8R and N98S and the novel variant L311P were identified. Combined data from these cases and 62 kindreds from the literature revealed four common mutations (P8R, P22S, N98S and E396K) and three mutational hotspots accounting for 37 (55%) and 50 (75%) kindreds, respectively. Eight patients had de novo mutations. Loss of large-myelinated fibres was a uniform feature in a total of 21 sural nerve biopsies and 'onion bulb' formations and/or thin myelin sheaths were observed in 14 (67%) of them. The neurophysiological phenotype was broad but most patients with E90K and N98S had upper limb motor conduction velocities <38 m/s. Age of onset was ≤3 years in 25 cases. Pyramidal tract signs were described in 13 patients and 7 patients were initially diagnosed with or tested for inherited ataxia. Patients with E90K and N98S frequently presented before age 3 years and developed hearing loss or other neurological features including ataxia and/or cerebellar atrophy on brain MRI. CONCLUSIONS: NEFL-related CMT is clinically and genetically heterogeneous. Based on this study, however, we propose mutational hotspots and relevant clinical-genetic associations that may be helpful in the evaluation of NEFL sequence variants and the differential diagnosis with other forms of CMT

Socio-Economic Instability and the Scaling of Energy Use with Population Size

The size of the human population is relevant to the development of a sustainable world, yet the forces setting growth or declines in the human population are poorly understood. Generally, population growth rates depend on whether new individuals compete for the same energy (leading to Malthusian or density-dependent growth) or help to generate new energy (leading to exponential and super-exponential growth). It has been hypothesized that exponential and super-exponential growth in humans has resulted from carrying capacity, which is in part determined by energy availability, keeping pace with or exceeding the rate of population growth. We evaluated the relationship between energy use and population size for countries with long records of both and the world as a whole to assess whether energy yields are consistent with the idea of an increasing carrying capacity. We find that on average energy use has indeed kept pace with population size over long time periods. We also show, however, that the energy-population scaling exponent plummets during, and its temporal variability increases preceding, periods of social, political, technological, and environmental change. We suggest that efforts to increase the reliability of future energy yields may be essential for stabilizing both population growth and the global socio-economic system

Unveiling relationships between crime and property in England and Wales via density scale-adjusted metrics and network tools

Scale-adjusted metrics (SAMs) are a significant achievement of the urban scaling hypothesis. SAMs remove the inherent biases of per capita measures computed in the absence of isometric allometries. However, this approach is limited to urban areas, while a large portion of the world’s population still lives outside cities and rural areas dominate land use worldwide. Here, we extend the concept of SAMs to population density scale-adjusted metrics (DSAMs) to reveal relationships among different types of crime and property metrics. Our approach allows all human environments to be considered, avoids problems in the definition of urban areas, and accounts for the heterogeneity of population distributions within urban regions. By combining DSAMs, cross-correlation, and complex network analysis, we find that crime and property types have intricate and hierarchically organized relationships leading to some striking conclusions. Drugs and burglary had uncorrelated DSAMs and, to the extent property transaction values are indicators of affluence, twelve out of fourteen crime metrics showed no evidence of specifically targeting affluence. Burglary and robbery were the most connected in our network analysis and the modular structures suggest an alternative to "zero-tolerance" policies by unveiling the crime and/or property types most likely to affect each other

Dynamic clamp with StdpC software

Dynamic clamp is a powerful method that allows the introduction of artificial electrical components into target cells to simulate ionic conductances and synaptic inputs. This method is based on a fast cycle of measuring the membrane potential of a cell, calculating the current of a desired simulated component using an appropriate model and injecting this current into the cell. Here we present a dynamic clamp protocol using free, fully integrated, open-source software (StdpC, for spike timing-dependent plasticity clamp). Use of this protocol does not require specialist hardware, costly commercial software, experience in real-time operating systems or a strong programming background. The software enables the configuration and operation of a wide range of complex and fully automated dynamic clamp experiments through an intuitive and powerful interface with a minimal initial lead time of a few hours. After initial configuration, experimental results can be generated within minutes of establishing cell recording

Inducible and constitutive heat shock gene expression responds to modification of Hsp70 copy number in Drosophila melanogaster but does not compensate for loss of thermotolerance in Hsp70 null flies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The heat shock protein Hsp70 promotes inducible thermotolerance in nearly every organism examined to date. Hsp70 interacts with a network of other stress-response proteins, and dissecting the relative roles of these interactions in causing thermotolerance remains difficult. Here we examine the effect of <it>Hsp70 </it>gene copy number modification on thermotolerance and the expression of multiple stress-response genes in <it>Drosophila melanogaster</it>, to determine which genes may represent mechanisms of stress tolerance independent of Hsp70.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Hsp70 </it>copy number in four strains is positively associated with <it>Hsp70 </it>expression and inducible thermotolerance of severe heat shock. When assayed at carefully chosen temperatures, <it>Hsp70 </it>null flies are almost entirely deficient in thermotolerance. In contrast to expectations, increasing <it>Hsp70 </it>expression levels induced by thermal pretreatment are associated with increasing levels of seven other inducible <it>Hsps </it>across strains. In addition, complete <it>Hsp70 </it>loss causes upregulation of the inducible <it>Hsps </it>and six constitutive stress-response genes following severe heat shocks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Modification of <it>Hsp70 </it>copy number quantitatively and qualitatively affects the expression of multiple other stress-response genes. A positive association between absolute expression levels of <it>Hsp70 </it>and other <it>Hsps </it>after thermal pretreatment suggests novel regulatory mechanisms. Severe heat shocks induce both novel gene expression patterns and almost total mortality in the <it>Hsp70 </it>null strain: alteration of gene expression in this strain does not compensate for <it>Hsp70 </it>loss but suggests candidates for overexpression studies.</p

Having a lot of a good thing: multiple important group memberships as a source of self-esteem.

Copyright: © 2015 Jetten et al. This 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 creditedMembership in important social groups can promote a positive identity. We propose and test an identity resource model in which personal self-esteem is boosted by membership in additional important social groups. Belonging to multiple important group memberships predicts personal self-esteem in children (Study 1a), older adults (Study 1b), and former residents of a homeless shelter (Study 1c). Study 2 shows that the effects of multiple important group memberships on personal self-esteem are not reducible to number of interpersonal ties. Studies 3a and 3b provide longitudinal evidence that multiple important group memberships predict personal self-esteem over time. Studies 4 and 5 show that collective self-esteem mediates this effect, suggesting that membership in multiple important groups boosts personal self-esteem because people take pride in, and derive meaning from, important group memberships. Discussion focuses on when and why important group memberships act as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem.This study was supported by 1. Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100238) awarded to Jolanda Jetten (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 2. Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP110200437) to Jolanda Jetten and Genevieve Dingle (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 3. support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being Program to Nyla Branscombe, S. Alexander Haslam, and Catherine Haslam (see http://www.cifar.ca)

Contrasting Patterns of Transposable Element Insertions in Drosophila Heat-Shock Promoters

The proximal promoter regions of heat-shock genes harbor a remarkable number of P transposable element (TE) insertions relative to both positive and negative control proximal promoter regions in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster. We have screened the sequenced genomes of 12 species of Drosophila to test whether this pattern is unique to these populations. In the 12 species' genomes, transposable element insertions are no more abundant in promoter regions of single-copy heat-shock genes than in promoters with similar or dissimilar architecture. Also, insertions appear randomly distributed across the promoter region, whereas insertions clustered near the transcription start site in promoters of single-copy heat-shock genes in D. melanogaster natural populations. Hsp70 promoters exhibit more TE insertions per promoter than all other genesets in the 12 species, similarly to in natural populations of D. melanogaster. Insertions in the Hsp70 promoter region, however, cluster away from the transcription start site in the 12 species, but near it in natural populations of D. melanogaster. These results suggest that D. melanogaster heat-shock promoters are unique in terms of their interaction with transposable elements, and confirm that Hsp70 promoters are distinctive in TE insertions across Drosophila

Who Cares About Being Gentle? The Impact of Social Identity and the Gender of One’s Friends on Children’s Display of Same-Gender Favoritism

This research assessed children’s same-gender favoritism by examining whether children value traits descriptive of their own gender more than traits descriptive of the other gender. We also investigated whether children’s proportion of same-gender friends relates to their same-gender favoritism. Eighty-one third and fourth grade children from the Midwest and West Coast of the U.S. rated how well 19 personality traits describe boys and girls, and how important each trait is for their gender to possess. Results replicate and extend past trait assignment research by demonstrating that both genders valued same-gender traits significantly more than other-gender traits. Results also indicated that boys with many same-gender friends derogated feminine-stereotyped traits, which has implications for research on masculinity norms within male-dominated peer groups