Whose place? Lessons from a case study of a guardianship determination for an Australian Indigenous child

Whose values matter when considering which environment is healthier for a child whose guardianship is contested? The biological mother from a remote Australian Aboriginal community, who voluntarily relinquished her but has now requested her return? The foster mother who has cared for her in a metropolitan centre in another State of Australia, thousands of kilometres away? The welfare professionals who also live in that city? Or the child herself, who left her birth home and community five years earlier at the age of two? Drawing on a case study of a seven-year old Aboriginal girl, the authors argue that non-Indigenous values trumped Indigenous values without the realisation of key players who were empowered to make such determinations. The article uses Manuel DeLanda's neo-assemblage theory to consider the range of processes that exert themselves to shape place-values and social identity in colonised nations. It will also draw on Erik Erikson's and Lev Vygotsky's theories of psychosocial development to consider competing sets of values that raised feelings of dissonance within the child. Beliefs about what makes a place health-giving are revealed to be complex in colonised nations. Despite policy and legislative changes to better support Aboriginal people and their right to difference, non-Indigenous professionals can continue to be driven by an unrecognised systemic racism. While place-values are not, of course, the only (or perhaps even the most significant) consideration in guardianship determinations, this article will argue they can play a significant and covert role.     

胶质瘤复发与放射性脑损伤的MRI鉴别诊断探讨

目的:讨论胶质瘤复发与放射性脑损伤的MRI鉴别诊断。方法:回顾性分析2018年1月~2020年2月本院收治的68例胶质瘤术后患者,对所有患者进行MRI平扫、增强以及灌注加权成像(PWI)扫描,记录影像学特征,对脑血容量中位数最大值(rCBV_max)、表观扩散系数(ADC_mean、ADC_min)指标进行对比。结果:有15例患者复发,其胶质瘤复发率为22.06%,其放射性脑损伤的发生率为8.82%(6例);胶质瘤复发与放射性脑损伤患者rCBV_max、ADC_min值有明显差异(P<0.05),ADC_mean比较无明显差异(P>0.05)。结论:进行MRI检查临床效果较好,可准确鉴别胶质瘤复发与反射性脑损伤。     

Glycaemic control for patients with severe acute brain injury: Protocol for a systematic review

Background

Hyperglycaemia is common in patients with acute brain injury admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). Many studies have found associations between development of hyperglycaemia and increased mortality in hospitalised patients. However, the optimal target for blood glucose control is unknown. We want to conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis to explore the beneficial and harmful effects of restrictive versus liberal glucose control on patient outcomes in adults with severe acute brain injury.

Methods

We will systematically search medical databases including CENTRAL, Embase, MEDLINE and trial registries. We will search the following websites for ongoing or unpublished trials: http://www.controlled-trials.com/ , http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ , www.eudraCT.com , http://centerwatch.com/ , The Cochrane Library's CENTRAL, PubMed, EMBASE, Science Citation Index Expanded and CINAHL. Two authors will independently review and select trials and extract data. We will include randomised trials comparing levels of glucose control in our analyses and observational studies will be included to address potential harms. The primary outcomes are defined as all-cause mortality, functional outcome and health-related quality of life. Secondary outcomes include serious adverse events including hypoglycaemia, length of ICU stay and duration of mechanical ventilation, and explorative outcomes including intracranial pressure and infection. Trial Sequential Analysis will be used to investigate the risk of type I error due to repetitive testing and to further explore imprecision. Quality of trials will be evaluated using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool, and quality of evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach.

Discussion

The results of the systematic review will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication. With the review, we hope to inform future randomised clinical trials and improve clinical practice.     

Contribution of different somatosensory afferent input to subcortical somatosensory evoked potentials in humans

ObjectivesTo investigate the subcortical somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) to electrical stimulation of either muscle or cutaneous afferents.MethodsSEPs were recorded in 6 patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease (PD) who underwent electrode implantation in the pedunculopontine (PPTg) nucleus area. We compared SEPs recorded from the scalp and from the intracranial electrode contacts to electrical stimuli applied to: 1) median nerve at the wrist, 2) abductor pollicis brevis motor point, and 3) distal phalanx of the thumb. Also the high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) were analysed.ResultsAfter median nerve and pure cutaneous (distant phalanx of the thumb) stimulation, a P1-N1 complex was recorded by the intracranial lead, while the scalp electrodes recorded the short-latency far-field responses (P14 and N18). On the contrary, motor point stimulation did not evoke any low-frequency component in the PPTg traces, nor the N18 potential on the scalp. HFOs were recorded to stimulation of all modalities by the PPTg electrode contacts.ConclusionsStimulus processing within the cuneate nucleus depends on modality, since only the cutaneous input activates the complex intranuclear network possibly generating the scalp N18 potential.SignificanceOur results shed light on the subcortical processing of the somatosensory input of different modalities.     

妊娠晚期孕妇抑郁情绪对新生儿神经行为发育的影响

目的探讨妊娠晚期孕妇抑郁情绪对新生儿神经行为发育的影响。方法选取2017年1月—2018年12月,收治本院的160例妊娠晚期孕妇抑郁情绪患者一般临床资料,妊娠周期28周以上,对孕妇抑郁情绪进行统计采用爱丁堡抑郁自评量表、负性认知加工偏向量表,对新生儿神经行为进行评估时按照婴儿神经国际量表。结果160例妊娠晚期孕妇抑郁情绪患者中,阳性30例、阴性130例,与阴性妊娠妇女相比,抑郁阳性妊娠妇女负性沉思偏向、负性解释偏向、负性记忆偏向、负性注意偏向均显著较高,差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05)。160例新生儿中,婴儿神经国际量表评分处于临界值为60例,正常值为100例,神经行为异常发生率为37.50%,负性沉思偏向、负性注意偏向与婴儿神经国际临界值呈负相关关系(P<0.05);与抑郁自评量表无明显相关性(P>0.05)。结论妊娠晚期孕妇具有较高抑郁发生率,其中负性认知加工偏向中负性沉思偏向、负性注意偏向与新生儿神经行为发育具有明显相关性。     

Memory specificity is linked to repetition effects in event-related potentials across the lifespan

The specificity with which past experiences can be remembered varies across the lifespan, possibly due to differences in how precisely information is encoded. Memory formation can be investigated through repetition effects, the common finding that neural activity is altered when stimuli are repeated. However, whether differences in this indirect measure of memory formation relate to lifespan differences in memory specificity has not yet been established. In the present study, we examined repetition effects in event-related potentials and their relation to recognition. During incidental encoding, children (aged 7–9 years), young adults (18–30 years), and older adults (65–76 years) viewed repeated object images from different categories. During subsequent recognition, we distinguished memory for the specific items versus the general categories. We identified repetition suppression in all age groups, and repetition enhancement for adults. Furthermore, individual item recognition performance comprising lure discrimination was positively associated with the magnitude of the neural repetition effects, which did not differ between groups, indicating common neural mechanisms of memory formation. Our findings demonstrate that neural repetition effects reflect the formation of highly specific memory representations and highlight their significance as a neural indicator of individual differences in episodic memory encoding across the lifespan.     

Association Between Abnormal Fetal Head Growth and Autism Spectrum Disorder

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脑转移瘤影像组学研究进展

脑转移瘤是成人最常见的颅内肿瘤,发病率呈上升趋势。影像组学可对医学影像进行定量分析处理来指导临床实践。近年来,基于CT、MRI的影像组学逐渐应用于脑转移瘤的精准诊疗,如肿瘤精准检测和分割、与其他脑肿瘤的鉴别诊断、原发肿瘤的判别、疗效评价及预后预测等。本文就脑转移瘤影像组学研究现状予以综述。     

Apelin-13 inhibits apoptosis and excessive autophagy in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury

Apelin-13 is a novel endogenous ligand for an angiotensin-like orphan G-protein coupled receptor, and it may be neuroprotective against cerebral ischemia injury. However, the precise mechanisms of the effects of apelin-13 remain to be elucidated. To investigate the effects of apelin-13 on apoptosis and autophagy in models of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, a rat model was established by middle cerebral artery occlusion. Apelin-13(50 μg/kg) was injected into the right ventricle as a treatment. In addition, an SH-SY5 Y cell model was established by oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion, with cells first cultured in sugar-free medium with 95% N2 and 5% CO2 for 4 hours and then cultured in a normal environment with sugar-containing medium for 5 hours. This SH-SY5 Y cell model was treated with 10–7 M apelin-13 for 5 hours. Results showed that apelin-13 protected against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. Apelin-13 treatment alleviated neuronal apoptosis by increasing the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax and significantly decreasing cleaved caspase-3 expression. In addition, apelin-13 significantly inhibited excessive autophagy by regulating the expression of LC3 B, p62, and Beclin1. Furthermore, the expression of Bcl-2 and the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase(PI3 K)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin(mTOR) pathway was markedly increased. Both LY294002(20 μM) and rapamycin(500 nM), which are inhibitors of the PI3 K/Akt/mTOR pathway, significantly attenuated the inhibition of autophagy and apoptosis caused by apelin-13. In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggest that Bcl-2 upregulation and mTOR signaling pathway activation lead to the inhibition of apoptosis and excessive autophagy. These effects are involved in apelin-13-induced neuroprotection against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, both in vivo and in vitro. The study was approved by the Animal Ethical and Welfare Committee of Jining Medical University, China(approval No. 2018-JS-001) in February 2018.