Mental illness, violence risk, and race in juvenile detention: implications for disproportionate minority contact

Disproportionate minority contact (DMC) is a pervasive problem throughout the juvenile justice system. This article explored whether mental illness may be an explanatory factor in DMC. Data such as measures of violence risk and symptoms of mental illness were taken from intake interviews with 482 detained youth in Connecticut. Results indicated that racial minorities in detention have significantly lower violence risk than Caucasians but are disproportionately represented among detention populations relative to their proportions in the general population. In addition, DMC in these data was not explained by mental illness, seriousness of charges, violence risk, age, or gender. We suggest that mandated efforts to reduce DMC will need to address more than improving behavior or reducing symptoms of mental illness among detained minority youth. Instead, efforts should be focused on reducing the racial disparity evident in decisions made within the juvenile justice system.     

Two novel missense mutations in the TECTA gene in Korean families with autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss

The TECTA gene, which encodes alpha-tectorin, is known as a causative gene for DFNA8/DFNA12, and DFNB21 hearing loss in humans. In the present study, mutation analysis of the TECTA gene was performed in 62 Korean patients with hereditary hearing loss. Two novel nucleotide substitutions, p.V317E and p.T1866M, were identified for the first time in the Korean population. These mutations result in the substitution of amino acids in the zonadhesin (ZA) and the zona pellucida (ZP) domains, and show a genotype-phenotype correlation, which is a characteristic of TECTA-related mutations in autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss. Both mutations are located in highly conserved regions of alpha-tectorin and were not found in 120 unrelated control subjects with normal hearing. Based on this evidence, it is likely that both mutations are the pathogenic ones causing the hearing loss. This study provides useful information for the functional study of hereditary hearing loss caused by tectorial membrane defects.     

Practical approach to metabolic assessments in the pediatric human immunodeficiency virus outpatient clinic.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic assessment is not a routine part of the care of pediatric HIV-positive patients in the outpatient setting, although research studies are demonstrating an increasing prevalence of metabolic abnormalities in this population. Addition of metabolic assessments to routine clinic care can be hindered by the perception that collection of the data needed for the assessments will need too much clinic time and too many clinic resources to be practical. METHODS: A method to provide metabolic assessments using minimal clinic resources while offering educational opportunities for university students was developed and implemented at the University of Florida Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases weekly clinic. The success rate of metabolic assessment data collection from all clinic patients and the impact of data collection on the flow of clinic activity were monitored for a 12-month period. RESULTS: The metabolic assessment team interviewed 87% of all patients who came to the 454 clinic during the 12-month period and performed a complete metabolic assessment for 75% of the HIV-positive patients interviewed. Addition of metabolic assessments to the routine care of each patient did not result in any noticeable adverse effect on the functionality of the clinic. CONCLUSIONS: Addition of metabolic assessments to the routine clinic care of pediatric HIV positive patients can be an educational opportunity for university students and provide the clinic staff with changes in parameters indicative of metabolic abnormalities and without noticeable changes in maintaining the patient schedule at each clinic.     

An Evaluation of Vaginal Symptoms in Women with Crohn’s Disease

There are limited data available that address the prevalence of vaginal complaints in women with Crohn’s disease. This study assessed the frequency of vaginal involvement and types of vaginal symptoms in women with Crohn’s disease managed at a university inflammatory bowel disease program. The charts of 50 women with Crohn’s disease seen consecutively during a three-month period were reviewed for the presence of vaginal involvement. The intestinal distribution of Crohn’s disease [colonic, small bowel (SB), colonic/SB] was determined, and the presence of vaginal symptoms and types of complaints were assessed. Eleven of the 50 women (22%) described vaginal symptoms. Vaginal complaints included ten patients with labial swelling and one patient with passage of stool through the vagina. Nine of the 11 women with vaginal complaints also had concurrent intestinal symptoms and perineal manifestations (P < 0.001). This study suggests that vaginal involvement in Crohn’s disease may be a more frequent phenomenon than previously reported.     

Autonomic responses to dynamic displays of facial expressions in adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome

The behavioral phenotype characteristic of Williams syndrome(WS) is marked by strong interest in social interaction, manifestedin attention to human faces, empathy, approach behavior andsocial disinhibition, often coexisting with generalized anxiety.Despite their heightened social interest, people with WS showdeficits in explicit emotion recognition tasks similar to thoseof people with other developmental disabilities. In the currentstudy we explored whether individuals with WS show distinctiveautonomic responsiveness to social-emotional information, usingskin conductance response and heart rate measures. Autonomicactivation was investigated in response to facial expressionsof emotion in adolescents and adults with WS, compared to age-matchednormal controls and to age-, IQ- and language-matched individualswith learning or intellectual disabilities (LID). Overall participantswith WS were less electrodermally responsive to dynamicallypresented face stimuli than the age- and IQ-matched LID group,and showed more heart rate deceleration when viewing emotionalfaces than the controls. These findings, indicating hypoarousalbut increased interest in response to the dynamic presentationof facial emotions in WS, are consistent with the behavioralprofile of high approachability toward social stimuli in thispopulation.     

In vivo selection of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae by OmpK36 loss during meropenem treatment

We recovered a carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolate H224 under in vivo meropenem selection pressure. Insertional inactivation of a major porin gene, ompK36, by IS5 element might play a role in acquiring carbapenem resistance in this strain harboring plasmid-borne DHA-1 AmpC β-lactamase.