In vitro synthesis of tissue-specific type ii collagen by healing cartilage

The healing of surgically induced defects in mature rabbits' hyaline cartilage was examined histologically and biochemically. The subchondral bone underneath the lesion was the source of repair. At the end of the first month, mushroom-shaped chondroid buds were seen sprouting from the subchondral bone. By the tenth week, these buds fused to a cartilagenous plug filling the lesion. The repaired cartilage synthesized Type II collagen.     

Relationship of behavioural and symptomatic syndromes in schizophrenia to spatial working memory and attentional set-shifting ability

BACKGROUND: Behavioural syndromes (thought disturbance, social withdrawal, depressed behaviour and antisocial behaviour) offer a different perspective from that of symptomatic syndromes on the disability that may be associated with schizophrenia. Few studies have assessed their relationship with neuropsychological deficits. We hypothesized that these syndromes may represent behavioural manifestations of frontal-subcortical impairments, previously described in schizophrenia. METHOD: Long-stay inpatients (n=54) and community patients (n=43) with enduring schizophrenia were assessed, using measures of symptoms and behaviour and tests of executive functioning. The relationship between syndromes and neuropsychological function was assessed using multiple regression and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Significant associations were found between performance on the spatial working memory task and the psychomotor poverty symptomatic syndrome, and between attentional set-shifting ability and both disorganization symptoms and the thought disturbance behavioural syndrome. These results were not explained by the effect of premorbid IQ, geographical location, length of illness or antipsychotic medication. Length of illness was an independent predictor of attentional set-shifting ability but not of working memory performance. CONCLUSION: The specific relationship between negative symptoms and spatial working memory is consistent with involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The associations between difficulty with set-shifting ability and both disorganization symptoms and behaviours may reflect inability to generalize a rule that had been learned and impaired ability to respond flexibly. The specific relationship of illness duration to set-shifting ability may suggest progressive impairment on some executive tasks. The nature of these relationships and their neurobiological and rehabilitation implications are considered.     

A meta-analysis of experimental studies of diversion programs for juvenile offenders

Objective

Research to establish an evidence-base for the treatment of conduct problems and delinquency in adolescence is well established; however, an evidence-base for interventions with offenders who are diverted from the juvenile justice system has yet to be synthesized. The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of experimental studies testing juvenile diversion programs and to examine the moderating effect of program type and implementation quality.

Method

A literature search using PsycINFO, Web of Science, and the National Criminal Justice Reference Service data-bases and research institute websites yielded 28 eligible studies involving 57 experimental comparisons and 19,301 youths.

Results

Recidivism was the most common outcome reported across all studies. Overall, the effect of diversion programs on recidivism was non-significant (k = 45, OR = 0.83, 95%CI = 0.43-1.58). Of the five program types identified, including case management (k = 18, OR = 0.78), individual treatment (k = 11, OR = 0.83), family treatment (k = 4, OR = 0.57), youth court (k = 6, OR = 0.93), and restorative justice (k = 6, OR = 0.87), only family treatment led to a statistically significant reduction in recidivism. Restorative justice studies that were implemented with active involvement of researchers led to statistically significant reductions in recidivism (k = 3, OR = 0.69). Other outcomes, including frequency of offending, truancy, and psycho-social problems were reported infrequently and were not subjected to meta-analysis.

Conclusions

High levels of heterogeneity characterize diversion research. Results of this study recommend against implementation of programs limited to case management and highlight the promise of family interventions and restorative justice.     

Pelvic plexus contributes ganglion cells to the hindgut enteric nervous system.

The hindgut enteric nervous system (ENS) contains cells originating from vagal and sacral neural crest. In avians, the sacral crest gives rise to the nerve of Remak (NoR) and pelvic plexus. Whereas the NoR has been suggested to serve as the source of sacral crest-derived cells to the gut, the contribution of the pelvic ganglia is unknown. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the pelvic ganglia contribute ganglion cells to the hindgut ENS. We observed that the quail pelvic plexus develops from neural crest-derived cells that aggregate around the cloaca at embryonic day 5. Using chick-quail tissue recombinations, we found that hindgut grafts did not contain enteric ganglia unless the pelvic plexus was included. Neurofibers extended from the NoR into the intestine, but no ganglion cell contribution from the NoR was identified. These results demonstrate that the pelvic plexus, and not the NoR, serves as the staging area for sacral crest-derived cells to enter the avian hindgut, confirming the evolutionary conservation of this important embryologic process.     

Impairment of olfactory identification in obsessive-compulsive disorder

BACKGROUND: Olfactory identification ability has been associated with processing in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), an area that has been implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Although olfactory sensitivity is normal in patients with OCD, no study has investigated olfactory identification in this disorder. METHODS: A group of 20 subjects with OCD and 23 age- and education-matched controls performed a standardized test of olfactory identification. They also performed computerized tests of spatial memory span, spatial working memory and spatial recognition memory that have been shown previously to be sensitive to cognitive deficits in patients with OCD. RESULTS: Performance on the olfactory identification task, spatial recognition task and spatial span task was significantly worse in the OCD group than controls. CONCLUSIONS: While impairment in spatial cognition is consistent with previous studies of OCD, its significance for brain-behaviour models of OCD is unclear. However, the finding of abnormal olfactory identification in patients with OCD is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a disruption to processing at the level of the OFC in the disorder.     

The reduced adsorption of lysozyme at the phosphorylcholine incorporated polymer/aqueous solution interface studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry.

Coating hydrogel polymers onto solid substrates can reduce the adsorption of proteins onto these surfaces, but the extent of the reduction in protein adsorption is strongly dependent on how the surface layer is coated. We have examined the effect of coating conditions on the structure of thin polymer films formed from a number of poly(methacrylate)-based hydrogel polymers via the dip-coating method. We show in this work how the polarity of the solvent, the speed of lifting, and the annealing temperature affect the thickness and uniformity of ultrathin phosphorylcholine (PC)-incorporated polymer films coated on the surface of native oxide on silicon and the subsequent interaction of these coated surfaces with lysozyme molecules. Our results show that the uniformity of the polymer film, and thus the smoothness of the outer film surface, influence the extent of reduction in protein adsorption. We suggest that the reduction in lysozyme adsorption is the result of a layer of PC groups on the surface of the polymer film. The improvement of the smoothness of the film results in the formation of a close-packed PC layer on the outer surface of the polymer film, leaving few defects or cavities on which protein molecules can bind.