Problems associated with the diagnosis and the prescribing of anti-psychotic medication in children and adolescents for psychiatric conditions, by non-psychiatric specialists

Aim: The objective of this study is to assess the accuracy of the diagnosis and appropriateness of antipsychotic medication prescribed to children and adolescents referred to child guidance clinic, and how many of these remained on the said medication after consultant psychiatrist and multidisciplinary team review. Method: A retrospective case notes review of all the children referred to a child guidance clinic in the period June 2005 to July 2006 were analysed, looking specifically at the referral tickets, the treatment on first interview with a member of the multidisciplinary team at the clinic, the working diagnosis of the team, and the management plan after at least six months of follow up at child guidance clinic. There was very good interrater reliability between the two observers looking at the case notes. Results: One hundred and fifty four (63.1%) out of a total of 244 children who were referred carried an admission diagnosis, which differed from the working diagnosis after 6 months. A total of 66 children (27%) were started on various types of psychiatric treatment prior to referral. Thirty (45.5%) of these were prescribed sulpiride, an atypical neuroleptic. Following review by the multi-disciplinary team, the medication of 25 (83.3%) of these children was terminated or altered. Conclusion: This report highlights the need of consultation liaison with general practitioners and also Continued Medical Education courses for general practice management in child and adolescent psychiatry. It is advisable that non psychiatric specialists limit the use of antipsychotic medication to children and adolescents without expert advice and in addition, should refer all such children with urgency.peer-reviewe

Network layer access control for context-aware IPv6 applications

As part of the Lancaster GUIDE II project, we have developed a novel wireless access point protocol designed to support the development of next generation mobile context-aware applications in our local environs. Once deployed, this architecture will allow ordinary citizens secure, accountable and convenient access to a set of tailored applications including location, multimedia and context based services, and the public Internet. Our architecture utilises packet marking and network level packet filtering techniques within a modified Mobile IPv6 protocol stack to perform access control over a range of wireless network technologies. In this paper, we describe the rationale for, and components of, our architecture and contrast our approach with other state-of-the- art systems. The paper also contains details of our current implementation work, including preliminary performance measurements

Pediatric Bipolar disorder, in Malta is it under-diagnosed?

The objective of this retrospective study was to determine the frequency of Bipolar Disorder in children and adolescents referred to the Child Guidance Clinic (CGC), St. Luke’s Hospital, Malta, over a year. Diagnostic criteria were analyzed and compared to current literature. Of 141 children, none were diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. Further awareness of clinicians is advised, to identify Bipolar Disorder, thus limiting its long term morbidity and mortality.peer-reviewe

Expressive writing and posttraumatic growth: an Internet-based study

This study examined the effects of Internet-based expressive writing on posttraumatic growth. Expressive (n = 14) and control writing (n = 10) participants wrote for 15 min on 3 occasions spaced 3 days apart. Measures of intrusive and avoidant thoughts and posttraumatic growth were administered at baseline and 2- and 8-week postintervention follow-ups. Results showed that posttraumatic growth significantly increased from baseline to 8-week follow-up in the expressive writing group, while there was no significant change in levels of posttraumatic growth in the control group. Intrusive and avoidant cognitions did not differ between writing groups. Analyses of language use showed that greater use of insight words was associated with an increase in posttraumatic growth. Findings are consistent with cognitive processing models of expressive writing and have implications for Internet-administered expressive writing

Applying asymptotic methods to synthetic biology: modelling the reaction kinetics of the mevalonate pathway

The mevalonate pathway is normally found in eukaryotes, and allows for the production of isoprenoids, a useful class of organic compounds. This pathway has been successfully introduced to Escherichia coli, enabling a biosynthetic production route for many isoprenoids. In this paper, we develop and solve a mathematical model for the concentration of metabolites in the mevalonate pathway over time, accounting for the loss of acetyl-CoA to other metabolic pathways. Additionally, we successfully test our theoretical predictions experimentally by introducing part of the pathway into Cupriavidus necator. In our model, we exploit the natural separation of time scales as well as of metabolite concentrations to make significant asymptotic progress in understanding the system. We confirm that our asymptotic results agree well with numerical simulations, the former enabling us to predict the most important reactions to increase isopentenyl diphosphate production whilst minimizing the levels of HMG-CoA, which inhibits cell growth. Thus, our mathematical model allows us to recommend the upregulation of certain combinations of enzymes to improve production through the mevalonate pathway

Statistical approaches to access the effect of Lactobacillus sakei culture and ultrasound frequency on fatty acid profile of beef jerky

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of ultrasonic frequencies and drying time on fatty acid profiles of beef jerky samples possessing different microbial compositions. Beef slices were cured using curing solutions formulated both with and without Lactobacillus sakei. Curing was carried out for 18 h at 4 °C prior to hot air drying at 60 °C for 4 h. Jerky samples from both treatment groups were then subjected to ultrasonic frequencies of 25 kHz, 33 kHz and 45 kHz for 30 min. Beef jerky samples were subsequently analysed for fatty acid profile using Gas Chromatography. In the present study, beef slices showed a high level of MUFAs, which accounted for 45.6–53.8%, followed by the SFAs (36.3–47.8%) and PUFAs (4.8–13.7%), respectively. Results demonstrated a significant effect of beef jerky processing on fatty acid profile. Various correlation analyses showed that changes in fatty acid profiles were significantly affected by individual and/or interactive effects of L. sakei, drying time and ultrasonic frequency

Supervoid Origin of the Cold Spot in the Cosmic Microwave Background

We use a WISE-2MASS-Pan-STARRS1 galaxy catalog to search for a supervoid in the direction of the Cosmic Microwave Background Cold Spot. We obtain photometric redshifts using our multicolor data set to create a tomographic map of the galaxy distribution. The radial density profile centred on the Cold Spot shows a large low density region, extending over 10's of degrees. Motivated by previous Cosmic Microwave Background results, we test for underdensities within two angular radii, $5^\circ$, and $15^\circ$. Our data, combined with an earlier measurement by Granett et al 2010, are consistent with a large $R_{\rm void}=(192 \pm 15)h^{-1} Mpc$ $(2\sigma)$ supervoid with $\delta \simeq -0.13 \pm 0.03$ centered at $z=0.22\pm0.01$. Such a supervoid, constituting a $\sim3.5 \sigma$ fluctuation in the $\Lambda CDM$ model, is a plausible cause for the Cold Spot.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of IAU 306 Symposium: Statistical Challenges in 21st Century Cosmolog