Differences Between Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults in the Recognition of Anger from Facial Motion Remain after Controlling for Alexithymia

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - To date, studies have not established whether autistic and non-autistic individuals differ in emotion recognition from facial motion cues when...     

An empirical evaluation of the performance of antibody identification tasks

Four empirical studies were conducted for better understanding of the nature of problem-solving activities by medical technologists and medical technology students when performing antibody identification tasks. The results indicated the importance of strategies that ensure the collection of converging evidence, as these strategies protect against the fallibility of commonly used heuristics and against errors due to simple slips. The results also indicate that not only do students make significant numbers of errors, but so do practicing technologists. In one of the studies covering a 1-year period, for instance, a group of 16 technologists made a total of 41 errors in 1057 cases. On the basis of these findings, several alternatives are proposed to reduce errors.     

Cortisol resistance in the New World revisited.

Insights into the molecular basis of glucocorticoid action have been obtained from the analysis of cortisol resistance. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in both New World primates and guinea pigs has a decreased affinity, in vivo, for cortisol; this is achieved by two distinct mechanisms. In the New World primates recent studies have identified a key role for co-chaperones. The amino acids responsible for cortisol resistance in the guinea pig GR lie not in the ligand-binding pocket but on the surface of the receptor. We hypothesize that this region might be the site of interaction between the co-chaperones and the GR, and hence that the resistance occurs through the same mechanism, albeit from opposite sides.     

Are people with learning disabilities able to contribute to focus groups on health promotion?

AIM: This paper shows the differences between the success of three focus groups in promoting group discussion on health promotion and also the detailed effects of individual members with speech and language difficulties in participating. BACKGROUND: Conducting focus groups with people with learning disabilities can promote their social inclusion. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that focus groups are an effective method of conducting exploratory research with adults with learning disabilities in the community, however, ability to participate with other members may be a limiting factor. Furthermore, special arrangements may need to be made for groups to be successful, including the use of an interpreter. The preparation of the moderator is also an important factor in group success.     

Prognostic implications of microRNA-21 overexpression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: an international multicenter study of 686 patients

Despite progress in genomic characterization, no single prognostic marker that can be evaluated using an easy-to-perform and relatively inexpensive method is available for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). MicroRNAs, which are stable, tumor- and tissue-specific molecules, are potentially ideal biomarkers, and we established an inter-laboratory validated method to investigate miR-21 as a prognostic biomarker in PDAC. The study samples of PDAC patients were recruited from a test cohort of Glasgow (n = 189) and three validation cohorts of Pisa (n = 69), Sydney (n = 249), and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) (n = 249). Tissue microarrays were used for miR-21 staining by chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH). The patients were subdivided into no/low and high miR-21 staining groups using a specific histoscore. Furthermore, miR-21 staining was evaluated against clinicopathological variables and follow-up data by Fisher/log-rank test and Cox proportional models. The prognostic variables found to be significant in univariate analysis (P value < 0.10) were included in multivariate analysis in a backward-stepwise fashion. MiR-21 expression was cytoplasmic, with more consistent staining in the malignant ductal epithelium than in the stroma. The expression of miR-21 was significantly associated with tumor size and lymph node metastasis, whereas no association was observed with other clinicopathological variables. High miR-21 staining (histoscore ≥ 45 [median score]) was an independent predictor of survival in the Glasgow test cohort (HR 2.37, 95% CI: 1.42-3.96, P < 0.0001) and three validation cohorts (Pisa, HR 2.03, 95% CI: 1.21-3.39, P = 0.007; Sydney, HR 2.58, 95% CI (1.21-3.39), P < 0.0001; and ICGC, HR 3.34, 95% CI: 2.07-5.84, P = 0.002) when adjusted for clinical variables in a multivariate model. In comparison to the patients with low miR-21, the patients with high miR-21 expression had significant increase in OS as they benefit from gemcitabine-based adjuvant chemotherapy (Glasgow 16.5 months [with chemotherapy] vs 10.5 months [without chemotherapy]); Sydney 25.0 vs 10.6; ICGC 25.2 vs 11.9. These results indicated that miR-21 is a predictor of survival, prompting prospective trials. Evaluation of miR-21 offers new opportunities for the stratification of patients with PDAC and might facilitate the implementation of clinical management and therapeutic interventions for this devastating disease.     

Multidrug-resistant organisms in patients from Ukraine in the Netherlands,March to August 2022

Since March 2022, there has been an emergence of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) in the Netherlands in patients originating from Ukraine (58 patients, 75 isolates). For about half of these patients, recent hospitalisation in Ukraine was reported. Genomic surveillance revealed that the majority of the MDRO represent globally spread epidemic lineages and that 60% contain New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM) genes. Professionals should be aware of an increase in such MDRO associated with migration and medical evacuation of people from Ukraine.