identifying demand for support by recording stroke patients’ and carers’ needs in different phases after stroke

Background Previous studies examining social work interventions in stroke often lack information on content, methods and timing over different phases of care including acute hospital, rehabilitation and out-patient care. This limits our ability to evaluate the impact of social work in multidisciplinary stroke care. We aimed to quantify social-work-related support in stroke patients and their carers in terms of timing and content, depending on the different phases of stroke care. Methods We prospectively collected and evaluated data derived from a specialized “Stroke-Service-Point” (SSP); a “drop in” center and non-medical stroke assistance service, staffed by social workers and available to all stroke patients, their carers and members of the public in the metropolitan region of Berlin, Germany. Results Enquiries from 257 consenting participants consulting the SSP between March 2010 and April 2012 related to out-patient and in-patient services, therapeutic services, medical questions, medical rehabilitation, self-help groups and questions around obtaining benefits. Frequency of enquiries for different topics depended on whether patients were located in an in-patient or out-patient setting. The majority of contacts involved information provision. While the proportion of male and female patients with stroke was similar, about two thirds of the carers contacting the SSP were female. Conclusion The social- work-related services provided by a specialized center in a German metropolitan area were diverse in terms of topic and timing depending on the phase of stroke care. Targeting the timing of interventions might be important to increase the impact of social work on patient’s outcome

Metabolic resistance to pre-emergence herbicides in grasses

Black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.) and rye-grass (Lolium spp) are very competitive grass weeds. During the last decades, they have evolved resistance to post-emergence herbicides, in particular ACCase- and ALS- inhibitors. This requires more complex weed management strategies. To ensure good control of both weeds, pre-emergence treatments become increasingly important. Particularly flufenacet has become a key herbicide for the control of multiple-resistant black-grass and rye-grass. Yet, in some of those populations, reduced flufenacet efficacy start to be observed. In a screening with black-grass and rye-grass populations of worldwide origins, most populations could be controlled with the registered field rate of flufenacet, however differences in the level of flufenacet efficacy were observed and were in correlation with enhanced flufenacet metabolism. This was particularly the case for rye-grass populations. The use of flufenacet in mixtures with diflufenican, particularly in combination with flurtamone or metribuzin or aclonifen, improved the efficacy significantly. In decreased flufenacet sensitive populations, the efficacy of other pre-emergence herbicides like pendimethalin, prosulfocarb, S-metolachlor, dimethenamid-P and pethoxamid, was also significantly decreased whereas other herbicides like pyroxasulfone or diflufenican remained highly active. This decreased efficacy of flufenacet as well as S-metolachlor was associated with higher metabolism involving glutathione-s-transferases. Although differences between populations were sometimes relatively small, best weed management practices (e.g. application of full dose rates and mixtures) should be applied to reduce selection pressure and prevent the development of resistance. This is particularly important as flufenacet is one of the few still active herbicides suitable for the control of multiple-resistant grass weeds. Use of mixtures associated with agronomic solutions in an Integrated Weed Management approach has to be the main approach

Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide SNPs

<p>Most psychiatric disorders are moderately to highly heritable. The degree to which genetic variation is unique to individual disorders or shared across disorders is unclear. To examine shared genetic etiology, we use genome-wide genotype data from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) for cases and controls in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We apply univariate and bivariate methods for the estimation of genetic variation within and covariation between disorders. SNPs explained 17-29% of the variance in liability. The genetic correlation calculated using common SNPs was high between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (0.68 +/- 0.04 s.e.), moderate between schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (0.43 +/- 0.06 s.e.), bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder (0.47 +/- 0.06 s.e.), and ADHD and major depressive disorder (0.32 +/- 0.07 s.e.), low between schizophrenia and ASD (0.16 +/- 0.06 s.e.) and non-significant for other pairs of disorders as well as between psychiatric disorders and the negative control of Crohn's disease. This empirical evidence of shared genetic etiology for psychiatric disorders can inform nosology and encourages the investigation of common pathophysiologies for related disorders.</p>