Climate Change Induced Migration, Solutions & Implications

The issue of migration is already a contentious issue in today’s political environment. Moving into the future, displacements of large numbers of people will continue to increase in both frequency and magnitude. One of the largest driving factors of future migrations will be anthropogenic climate change. This paper mainly focuses on sea level rise and the potential impacts changing oceans will inflict on coastal communities. Given projections of sea level rise and current coastal populations the potential for unprecedented levels of displacement is enormous. As such, there is a need for creative solutions that will aid in preventing, mitigating, and accepting future climate migrants. The approach advocated for in this paper will be three-pronged. First, add environmental displacements into the UNHCR definition of a refugee. Second, prevent and mitigate future displacements, now, by investing into infrastructure and renewable technologies. Last, implement a refugee trading scheme to equitably distribute the load on developed nations for taking in refugees once they are displaced

The application of fluorescence techniques in meningioma surgery-a review

Surgical resections of meningiomas, the most common intracranial tumor in adults, can only be curative if radical resection is achieved. Potentially, the extent of resection could be improved, especially in complex and/or high-grade meningiomas by fluorescence-guided surgery using 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), indocyanine green (ICG), or fluorescein. This review aims to summarize and evaluate these fluorescence-guided meningioma surgery techniques. PubMed and Embase were searched for relevant articles. Additionally, we checked reference lists for further studies. Forty-eight articles were included in the final analysis. 5-ALA fluoresced with varying sensitivity and selectivity in meningiomas and in invaded bone and dura mater. Although ICG was mainly applied for video angiography, one report shows tumor fluorescence 18-28 h post-ICG injection. Lastly, the use of fluorescein could aid in the identification of tumor remnants; however, detection of dural tail is highly questionable. Fluorescence-guided meningioma surgery should be a reliable, highly specific, and sensitive technique. Despite numerous studies reporting the use of fluorescent dyes, currently, there is no evidence that these tools improve the radical resection rate and long-term recurrence-free outcome in meningioma surgery without neurological deficits. Evidence regarding the effectiveness and increased safety of resection after the application of these fluorophores is currently lacking. Future research should focus on the development of a meningioma-targeted, highly sensitive, and specific fluorophore

Validating the Radboud faces database from a child's perspective

Contains fulltext : 207293.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Facial expressions play a central role in diverse areas of psychology. However, facial stimuli are often only validated by adults, and there are no face databases validated by school-aged children. Validation by children is important because children still develop emotion recognition skills and may have different perceptions than adults. Therefore, in this study, we validated the adult Caucasian faces of the Radboud Faces Database (RaFD) in 8- to 12-year-old children (N = 652). Additionally, children rated valence, clarity, and model attractiveness. Emotion recognition rates were relatively high (72%; compared to 82% in the original validation by adults). Recognition accuracy was highest for happiness, below average for fear and disgust, and lowest for contempt. Children showed roughly the same emotion recognition pattern as adults, but were less accurate in distinguishing similar emotions. As expected, in general, 10- to 12-year-old children had a higher emotion recognition accuracy than 8- and 9-year-olds. Overall, girls slightly outperformed boys. More nuanced differences in these gender and age effects on recognition rates were visible per emotion. The current study provides researchers with recommendation on how to use the RaFD adult pictures in child studies. Researchers can select appropriate stimuli for their research using the online available validation data.17 p

Alcohol homograph priming in alcohol-dependent inpatients

Item does not contain fulltextAim: Alcohol dependency is characterized by alcohol-related interpretation biases (IBs): Individuals with high levels of alcohol consumption generate more alcohol-related than alcohol-unrelated interpretations in response to ambiguous alcohol-related cues. However, a response bias could be an alternative account, meaning that individuals with high levels of alcohol consumption generate more alcohol-related IBs because of a greater baseline tendency to endorse alcohol-related responses. Methods: To test this alternative explanation, the present study employed a homograph-priming task, reliability of which was also examined. The sample included 577 clinically diagnosed alcohol-dependent inpatients and 61 control inpatients. Participants completed a homograph priming task (primes: homographs with and without an alcohol-related meaning, target words: alcohol and soft drinks) before commencing their behavioral cognitive treatment at a rehabilitation clinic. Results: Contrary to our expectations, we did not find an enhanced priming effect in alcohol-dependent inpatients. Moreover, there was no correlation between the priming score and levels of harmful drinking (AUDIT scores). Conclusions: The data provide limited support for the existence of alcohol-related IBs, possibly because of the low reliability of the priming task, the features of the task, and the study’s design.8 p

Association between genetic polymorphisms in apoptosis-related genes and risk of cutaneous melanoma in women and men

The P53 Arg72Pro, MDM2 c.+309T > G, BAX c.-248G > A, and BCL2 c.-717C > A polymorphisms have variable roles in the apoptosis pathways. The P53 Arg72Pro, MDM2 c.+309T > G, BAX c.-248G > A, and BCL2 c.-717C > A polymorphisms have variable roles in the apoptosis pathways. Genomic DNA of 200 CM patients and 215 controls was analyzed by PCR-RFLP. In women, the frequencies of BAX GG (83.0% vs. 71.0%, P = 0.04), BM AA (32.0% vs. 15.0%, P = 0.003), P53 ArgArg plus BAX GG (84.9% vs. 63.2%, P = 0.01), P53 ArgArg plus BCL2 AA (37.0% vs. 13.1%, P = 0.003), BAX GG plus BCL2 AA (70.3% vs. 33.3%, P = 0.001), MDM2 GG plus BAX GG plus BCL2 AA (27.3% vs. 3.7%, P = 0.03), and P53 ArgArg plus MDM2 GG plus BAX GG plus BCL2 AA (33.3% vs. 5.6%, P = 0.04) genotypes were higher in patients than in controls. Female carriers of the respective genotypes were under 1.98 (95% CI: 1.01-3.91), 2.87 (95% CI: 1.43-5.77), 3.48 (95% CI: 1.34-9.04), 4.23 (95% CI: 1.63-10.96), 6.04 (95% CI: 2.10-17.37), 25.61 (95% CI: 1.29-507.24), and 25.69 (95% CI: 1.11-593.59)-fold increased risks for CM than others, respectively. In men, the frequencies of BCL2 CA + AA (83.0% vs. 67.6%, P = 0.01) and MDM2 TG + GG plus BCL2 CA + AA (94.2% vs. 68.3%, P = 0.003) genotypes were higher in patients than in controls. Male carriers of the respective genotypes were under 2.43 (95% CI: 1.23-4.82) and 9.22 (95% CI: 2.16-39.31)-fold increased CM risks than others, respectively. The data suggest for the first time that P53 Arg72Pro, MDM2 c.+309T > G, BAX c.-248G > A, and BCL2 c.-717C > A polymorphisms, enrolled in apoptosis pathways, constitute distinct determinants of CM in women and men742135141FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP2009/12602-0; 2010/18904-

Dutch translation and adaptation of the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale (BDEFS)

Background: Based on his model of self-regulation and executive functions, Barkley developed a self- and other-report questionnaire (the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale – BDEFS). The BDEFS measures deficits in executive functions as expressed in daily life activities like self-management of time, self-organization, self-restraint, self-motivation, and self-regulation of emotion. Objectives: This study created and analyzed a Dutch translation and adaptation in conformance with official guidelines. Methods: The Dutch and English BDEFS were completed by 25 bilingual Dutch adults to evaluate semantic correspondence. Consequently, 60 Dutch participants completed the Dutch BDEFS, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-Eleventh edition (BIS-11) and the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) to evaluate concurrent validity and internal consistency. Results: The versions demonstrated sufficient semantic equivalence and Spearman’s rho of total scores was high; items mostly showed moderate-to-high correlations. Regression analysis showed no proportional bias. Internal consistency was also high. Correlations between BDEFS, BIS-11 and DEX supported concurrent validity. Discussion: We conclude that a successful BDEFS translation and adaptation was created with satisfactory reliability and validity. Further research should assess the utility of the BDEFS in Dutch clinical practice