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The Syriac term yaṣrā, “inclination,” “urge,” “wilfulness,” and its use in Syriac texts, has not until recently been the subject of any detailed study, and this is perhaps surprising not only because of its interest for an understanding of early Syriac Christian thought, but also for its potential contribution to discussions of the origins and development of Jewish concepts of the yeṣer.
The Cognitive Battery of the National Institutes of Health Toolbox (NIH-TB) is a collection of assessments that have been adapted and normed for administration across the lifespan and is increasingly used in large-scale population-level research. However, despite increasing adoption in longitudinal investigations of neurocognitive development, and growing recommendations that the Toolbox be used in clinical applications, little is known about the long-term temporal stability of the NIH-TB, particularly in youth.
Methods
The present study examined the long-term temporal reliability of the NIH-TB in a large cohort of youth (9–15 years-old) recruited across two data collection sites. Participants were invited to complete testing annually for 3 years.
Results
Reliability was generally low-to-moderate, with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging between 0.31 and 0.76 for the full sample. There were multiple significant differences between sites, with one site generally exhibiting stronger temporal stability than the other.
Conclusions
Reliability of the NIH-TB Cognitive Battery was lower than expected given early work examining shorter test-retest intervals. Moreover, there were very few instances of tests meeting stability requirements for use in research; none of the tests exhibited adequate reliability for use in clinical applications. Reliability is paramount to establishing the validity of the tool, thus the constructs assessed by the NIH-TB may vary over time in youth. We recommend further refinement of the NIH-TB Cognitive Battery and its norming procedures for children before further adoption as a neuropsychological assessment. We also urge researchers who have already employed the NIH-TB in their studies to interpret their results with caution.
A Canadian outbreak investigation into a cluster of Escherichia coli O121 was initiated in late 2016. When initial interviews using a closed-ended hypothesis-generating questionnaire did not point to a common source, cases were centrally re-interviewed using an open-ended approach. The open-ended interviews led cases to describe exposures with greater specificity, as well as food preparation activities. Data collected supported hypothesis generation, particularly with respect to flour exposures. In March 2017, an open sample of Brand X flour from a case home, and a closed sample collected at retail of the same brand and production date, tested positive for the outbreak strain of E. coli O121. In total, 76% (16/21) of cases reported that they used or probably used Brand X flour or that it was used or probably was used in the home during their exposure period. Crucial hypothesis-generating techniques used during the course of the investigation included a centralised open-ended interviewing approach and product sampling from case homes. This was the first outbreak investigation in Canada to identify flour as the source of infection.
Historical foundations rooted in reproductive oppression have implications for how racism has been integrated into the structures of society, including public policies, institutional practices, and cultural representations that reinforce racial inequality in maternal health. This article examines these connections and sheds light on how they perpetuate both racial disparities in maternal health and high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity among Black women.
Progress monitoring is an important part of any prevention and intervention model. The data can be used not only to evaluate whether the intervention is working, but also to suggest potential modifications to the intervention. This chapter defines progress monitoring, and presents data-based decision making, formative evaluation, and psychometric theory as the foundations for it. We also discuss the role of general outcome measures and subskill mastery measures in light of the last 25 years of research. Finally, the chapter discusses the role that progress monitoring has in a prevention model by providing an overview of decision-making models and how the data can be used to intensify interventions.
Compulsory admission procedures of patients with mental disorders vary between countries in Europe. The Ethics Committee of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) launched a survey on involuntary admission procedures of patients with mental disorders in 40 countries to gather information from all National Psychiatric Associations that are members of the EPA to develop recommendations for improving involuntary admission processes and promote voluntary care.
Methods.
The survey focused on legislation of involuntary admissions and key actors involved in the admission procedure as well as most common reasons for involuntary admissions.
Results.
We analyzed the survey categorical data in themes, which highlight that both medical and legal actors are involved in involuntary admission procedures.
Conclusions.
We conclude that legal reasons for compulsory admission should be reworded in order to remove stigmatization of the patient, that raising awareness about involuntary admission procedures and patient rights with both patients and family advocacy groups is paramount, that communication about procedures should be widely available in lay-language for the general population, and that training sessions and guidance should be available for legal and medical practitioners. Finally, people working in the field need to be constantly aware about the ethical challenges surrounding compulsory admissions.
Maternal obesity is an established risk factor for poor infant neurodevelopmental outcomes; however, the link between maternal weight and fetal development in utero is unknown. We investigated whether maternal obesity negatively influences fetal autonomic nervous system (ANS) development. Fetal heart rate variability (HRV) is an index of the ANS that is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in the infant. Maternal–fetal magnetocardiograms were recorded using a fetal biomagnetometer at 36 weeks (n = 46). Fetal HRV was represented by the standard deviation of sinus beat-to-beat intervals (SDNN). Maternal weight was measured at enrollment (12–20 weeks) and 36 weeks. The relationships between fetal HRV and maternal weight at both time points were modeled using adjusted ordinary least squares regression models. Higher maternal weight at enrollment and 36 weeks were associated with lower fetal HRV, an indicator of poorer ANS development. Further study is needed to better understand how maternal obesity influences fetal autonomic development and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes.
In 2017, transgender woman Danica Roem stunned political observers in Virginia by unseating a long-time anti-LGBTQ legislator from a conservative district in the Virginia House of Delegates.1 She was the first openly transgender person elected and seated to a state legislature. Delegate Roem’s election was historic in LGBTQ political representation, but it also occurred in a period when backlash against the LGBTQ community seemed to be growing (Taylor, Lewis, and Haider-Markel 2018). These two threads led us to ask: How are LGBTQ candidates achieving historic successes even as forces seem mobilized against them?
Clusters of Salmonella Enteritidis cases were identified by the Minnesota Department of Health using both pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) single nucleotide polymorphism analysis from 1 January 2015 through 31 December 2017. The median turnaround time for obtaining WGS results was 11 days longer than for PFGE (12 vs. 1 day). WGS analysis more than doubled the number of clusters compared to PFGE analysis, but reduced the total number of cases included in clusters by 34%. The median cluster size was two cases for WGS compared to four for PFGE, and the median duration of WGS clusters was 27 days shorter than PFGE clusters. While the percentage of PFGE clusters with a confirmed source (46%) was higher than WGS clusters (32%), a higher percentage of cases in clusters that were confirmed as outbreaks reported the vehicle or exposure of interest for WGS (78%) than PFGE (46%). WGS cluster size was a significant predictor of an outbreak source being confirmed. WGS data have enhanced S. Enteritidis cluster investigations in Minnesota by improving the specificity of cluster case definitions and has become an integral part of the S. Enteritidis surveillance process.
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a devastating rare disease that affects individuals regardless of ethnicity, gender, and age. The first-approved disease-modifying therapy for SMA, nusinursen, was approved by Health Canada, as well as by American and European regulatory agencies following positive clinical trial outcomes. The trials were conducted in a narrow pediatric population defined by age, severity, and genotype. Broad approval of therapy necessitates close follow-up of potential rare adverse events and effectiveness in the larger real-world population.
Methods:
The Canadian Neuromuscular Disease Registry (CNDR) undertook an iterative multi-stakeholder process to expand the existing SMA dataset to capture items relevant to patient outcomes in a post-marketing environment. The CNDR SMA expanded registry is a longitudinal, prospective, observational study of patients with SMA in Canada designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of novel therapies and provide practical information unattainable in trials.
Results:
The consensus expanded dataset includes items that address therapy effectiveness and safety and is collected in a multicenter, prospective, observational study, including SMA patients regardless of therapeutic status. The expanded dataset is aligned with global datasets to facilitate collaboration. Additionally, consensus dataset development aimed to standardize appropriate outcome measures across the network and broader Canadian community. Prospective outcome studies, data use, and analyses are independent of the funding partner.
Conclusion:
Prospective outcome data collected will provide results on safety and effectiveness in a post-therapy approval era. These data are essential to inform improvements in care and access to therapy for all SMA patients.
Aging is marked by cognitive decline, which in the case of Alzheimer’s disease is associated with tremendous global economic burden. Identifying modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline is therefore of paramount importance. In this chapter, we describe how aging compromises sleep quality and sleep architecture at a rate that parallels normal age-related cognitive decline. We argue that understanding the neurocognitive functions of sleep – frontal lobe restoration, memory consolidation, and metabolite clearance – and how such functions change in later life will be key to informing why some older individuals maintain healthy cognitive functioning and other older individuals do not. Critically, by investigating how sleep, cognition, and aging interact, researchers and clinicians can develop sleep-related treatments that target preventing, or at least ameliorating, pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease.
To utilise a community-based participatory approach in the design and implementation of an intervention targeting diet-related health problems on Navajo Nation.
Design:
A dual strategy approach of community needs/assets assessment and engagement of cross-sectorial partners in programme design with systematic cyclical feedback for programme modifications.
Setting:
Navajo Nation, USA.
Participants:
Navajo families with individuals meeting criteria for programme enrolment. Participant enrolment increased with iterative cycles.
Results:
The Navajo Fruit and Vegetable Prescription (FVRx) Programme.
Conclusions:
A broad, community-driven and culturally relevant programme design has resulted in a programme able to maintain core programmatic principles, while also allowing for flexible adaptation to changing needs.
This paper explores the complex story of a particular style of rock art in western Arnhem Land known as ‘Painted Hands’. Using new evidence from recent fieldwork, we present a definition for their style, distribution and place in the stylistic chronologies of this region. We argue these motifs played an important cultural role in Aboriginal society during the period of European settlement in the region. We explore the complex messages embedded in the design features of the Painted Hands, arguing that they are more than simply hand stencils or markers of individuality. We suggest that these figures represent stylized and intensely encoded motifs with the power to communicate a high level of personal, clan and ceremonial identity at a time when all aspects of Aboriginal cultural identity were under threat.
Introduction: Whole-body computed tomography scans (WBCT) are a mainstay in the work-up of polytrauma or multiple trauma patients in the emergency department. While incredibly useful for identifying traumatic injuries, WBCTs also reveal incidental findings in patients, some of which require further diagnostic testing and subsequent treatment. Although the presence of incidental findings in WBCTs have been well documented, there has been no systematic review conducted to organize and interpret findings, determine IF prevalence, and document strategies for best management. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using MEDLINE, PUBMED, and EMBASE. Specific journals and reference lists were hand-mined, and Google Scholar was used to find any additional papers. Data synthesis was performed to gather information on patient demographics, prevalence and type of incidental findings (IFs), and follow-up management was collected. All documents were independently assessed by the two reviewers for inclusion and any disagreements were resolved by consensus. Results: 1231 study results were identified, 59 abstracts, and 12 included in final review. A mean of 53.9% of patients had at least one IF identified, 31.5% had major findings, and 68.5% had minor findings. A mean of 2.7 IFs per patient was reported for articles that included number of total IFs. The mean age of patients included in the studies were 44 years old with IFs more common in older patients and men with more IFs than women. IFs were most commonly found in the abdominal/pelvic region followed by kidneys. Frequency of follow-up documentation was poor. The most common reported mechanisms of injury for patients included in the study were MVA and road traffic accidents (60.0%) followed by falls from >3m (23.2%). Conclusion: Although there is good documentation on the mechanism of injury, patient demographics, and type of IF, follow-up for IFs following acute trauma admission lacks documentation and follow-up and is an identified issue in patient management. There is great need for systematic protocols to address management of IFs in polytrauma patients.
We sought to explore whether obstetric complications (OCs) are more likely to occur in the presence of familial/genetic susceptibility for schizophrenia or whether they themselves represent an independent environmental risk factor for schizophrenia.
Methods
The presence of OCs was assessed through maternal interview on 216 subjects, comprising 36 patients with schizophrenia from multiply affected families, 38 of their unaffected siblings, 31 schizophrenic patients with no family history of psychosis, 51 of their unaffected siblings and 60 normal comparison subjects. We examined the familiality of OCs and whether OCs were commoner in the patient and sibling groups than in the control group.
Results
OCs tended to cluster within families, especially in multiply affected families. Patients with schizophrenia, especially those from multiply affected families, had a significantly higher rate of OCs compared to normal comparison subjects, but there was no evidence for an elevated rate of OCs in unaffected siblings.
Conclusion
Our data provides little evidence for a link between OCs and genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia. If high rates of OCs are related to schizophrenia genes, this relationship is weak and will only be detected by very large sample sizes.
To investigate trends in health-related quality of life and health service use associated with diabetes and/or major depression in South Australia from 1998 to 2008.
Methods
Data analyzed were from 9,059 persons aged ≥15 years who participated in representative surveys of the South Australian population in 1998, 2004 and 2008. Major depression was determined using the mood module of the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD). Diagnosed diabetes and health service use was determined by self-report. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the 15-item Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) instruments. Weighted age-standardized and multiple-adjusted means of dependent measures were computed.
Results
The prevalence of diabetes only, major depression only, and comorbid diabetes and major depression increased by 74%, 36% and 53% from 1998 to 2008. Mean health-related quality of life scores were 9% to 41% lower (worse), and health service use was 49% higher for persons with comorbid diabetes and major depression than for those with diabetes only (all P-values < 0.05), consistently over the 10-year period.
Conclusions
If past trends continue, our results suggest that the population health and economic burden of comorbid diabetes and major depression will grow similarly over the next decade or so. These trends have important implications for making health policy and resource allocation decisions.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have observed functional abnormalities in fronto-striatal and temporo-parietal brain regions during tasks of inhibitory and attention control. However, hardly any modern functional imaging studies have investigated functions of interference inhibition or attention control in adult ADHD.
We used fMRI combined with a variant of the Simon task that measures interference inhibition as well as attention allocation to compare 11 medication-naïve adults (26-30 yrs) with inattentive/hyperactive behaviours and 15 age-matched healthy controls. Patients were followed up from childhood ADHD, recruited from a 20-year prospective longitudinal epidemiological study. All met criteria for inattentive/hyperactive behaviours on an Adult Hyperactive Interview, but only 8 met clinical diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Correlation analyses were furthermore conducted within patients to correlate symptoms with brain activation. Functional connectivity analyses for group differences in fronto-striatal connectivity will be presented at the conference.
No differences were observed in task performance. During interference inhibition, adults with persistent inattentive/hyperactive compared to controls showed reduced activation in predominantly left orbitofrontal and medial cortex, caudate and putamen. During attention allocation adults with hyperactive behaviours showed dysfunction in left inferior/dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and in right inferior and superior parietal areas. Correlation analysis showed a significant negative correlation between inattentive/hyperactive behaviours and the parietal activation cluster during interference inhibition. The study demonstrates the continuity of the pattern of fronto-striatal and parietal neurofunctional abnormalities during tasks of interference inhibition and attention allocation from childhood to adult ADHD even with symptomatic improvement.
This study investigated the diurnal output of saliva cortisol and saliva amylase in women with symptoms of depression postnatally.
Method
Twenty one depressed and 30 non depressed women at 7.5 weeks postpartum, and 21 non perinatal controls, collected saliva at waking, 30 minutes, and three and twelve hours post waking.
Results
Women who were not depressed postnatally showed a pattern of cortisol secretion over the day similar to non perinatal controls. There was a significant difference in diurnal pattern between postnatally depressed and postnatally non depressed women, due to a difference in the first two time points (waking and +30 mins): compared to the other two groups who each had a significant increase in cortisol levels from waking to +30 minutes, the depressed women had significantly higher cortisol levels at waking and no increase at +30 minutes. Analyses of amylase are underway and will be presented.
Conclusion
The lack of a morning rise in the depressed women is similar to that reported for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and chronic fatigue syndrome and may reflect a response, in vulnerable women, to the marked cortisol withdrawal that occurs after delivery. Alternatively it could be a trait marker for women at risk of developing postnatal depression.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children has been associated with functional abnormalities in fronto-striatal brain regions during tasks of inhibitory control. In adults with ADHD, however, no functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study has investigated the neurofunctional correlates of the most compromised cognitive functions of motor response inhibition or cognitive flexibility.
fMRI was used combined with a tracking Stop task of motor response inhibition and a cognitive Switch task to compare brain function between 11 medication-naïve adults (26-30 yrs) with inattentive/hyperactive behaviours and 14 age-matched healthy controls. Patients were followed up from childhood ADHD, recruited from a 20-year prospective longitudinal epidemiological study. All met criteria for inattentive/hyperactive behaviours on an Adult Hyperactive Interview, but only 8 met clinical diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Whole brain regression MR analyses were furthermore conducted within patients to correlate symptoms with brain activation. Functional connectivity analyses for group differences in fronto-striatal connectivity will be presented at the conference.
Despite comparable task performance, adults with persistent inattentive/hyperactive behaviours showed reduced activation compared to controls in inferior prefrontal cortex, caudate and thalamus during both tasks, as well as in parietal lobes during the Switch task. Regression analyses furthermore showed a linear negative correlation between behavioural symptoms and overlapping, but more extensive fronto-striatal, parietal and cerebellar brain dysfunction. The findings demonstrate for the first time the persistence of the typical childhood ADHD pattern of fronto-striatal dysfunction during tasks of cognitive control in adults with persisting behavioural symptoms, suggesting stability/continuity of neurofunctional abnormalities between childhood and early adulthood.