Neural correlates of reward processing in adolescents with a history of inhibited temperament.

Functional imaging data were acquired during performance of a reward-contingency task in a unique cohort of adolescents (ages 14-18 years) who were characterized since infancy on measures of temperamental behavioral inhibition. Neural activation was examined in striatal structures (nucleus accumbens, putamen, caudate) with a known role in facilitating response to salient reward-related cues. Adolescents with a history of behavioral inhibition, relative to noninhibited adolescents, showed increased activation in the nucleus accumbens when they believed their selection of an action would affect reward outcome.

The impact of bittering agents on pediatric ingestions of antifreeze.

Background: Legislation requiring bittering of antifreeze enables assessment of the impact on frequency, volume, and severity of pediatric antifreeze ingestions.

Methods: US poison control data for antifreeze ingestions in children younger than 5 years were analyzed comparing 232 ingestions occurring in states after enactment of bittering requirements with 6218 cases occurring in states (or at times) where bittering was not required.

Results: The frequency of pediatric antifreeze ingestions was unchanged after implementation of bittering in Oregon and California.

Amlodipine toxicity in children less than 6 years of age: a dose-response analysis using national poison data system data.

Background: Amlodipine is a long-acting calcium channel blocker capable of producing hypotension and dysrhythmia in overdose. The toxic doses of amlodipine in children are unclear.

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to describe amlodipine poisoning in children and to determine whether a dose-response relationship could be detected in this population using standardized call data from United States (US) poison centers.

AAPCC database characterization of native U.S. venomous snake exposures, 2001-2005.

Background: Differences in victim demographics, clinical effects, managements, and outcomes among native viperid (rattlesnake, copperhead, and cottonmouth) and elapid (coral snake) species have not been systematically characterized.

Methods: The database of the American Association of Poison Control Centers from 2001 through 2005 was analyzed.

Results: Between 2001 and 2005, there were 23,676 human exposures (average = 4,735/year) to native venomous snakes in the United States reported to U.

Clinical usefulness of the diagnostic manual-intellectual disability for mental disorders in persons with intellectual disability: results from a brief field survey.

Objective: The National Association for the Dually Diagnosed, in collaboration with the American Psychiatric Association, adapted the DSM-IV-TR for use with individuals with intellectual disability. This article presents the findings of a study to examine the utility of the Diagnostic Manual-Intellectual Disability (DM-ID) in clinical practice.

Method: In a survey conducted during the summer of 2006, clinicians reported on the extent to which the DM-ID was user friendly, whether it allowed the clinician to arrive at an appropriate diagnosis of the patient, if the clinician was able to arrive at a more specific diagnosis than with the DSM-IV-TR, and if it helped avoid the use of "not otherwise specified" (NOS) diagnostic categories.

Sport concussion assessment tool: baseline values for varsity collision sport athletes.

Objective: To determine baseline symptom and neurocognitive norms for non-concussed and previously concussed varsity athletes using the sport concussion assessment tool (SCAT).

Study Design: Descriptive cohort study.

Setting: University of Calgary.

Is protective equipment useful in preventing concussion? A systematic review of the literature.

Objective: To determine if there is evidence that equipment use reduces sport concussion risk and/or severity.

Data Sources: 12 electronic databases were searched using a combination of Medical Subject Headings and text words to identify relevant articles.

Review Methods: Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to select studies for review.

Effects of radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy on radiographic and scintigraphic outcomes in horses with palmar heel pain.

Objective: To investigate the effects of radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (RESWT) on radiographic and scintigraphic variables in horses with clinical pain referable to the palmar heel.

Methods: Eight client-owner horses with palmar heel pain were treated with RESWT for a total of three treatments. Nuclear scintigraphy and radiography were repeated at the beginning and completion of the study.

Tetherless thermobiochemically actuated microgrippers.

We demonstrate mass-producible, tetherless microgrippers that can be remotely triggered by temperature and chemicals under biologically relevant conditions. The microgrippers use a self-contained actuation response, obviating the need for external tethers in operation. The grippers can be actuated en masse, even while spatially separated.

Pick-and-place using chemically actuated microgrippers.

In this communication, we demonstrate the concept of single-use, chemically triggered, reversible tools in the form of mobile grippers that can be used to manipulate micro-objects. Both the closing and opening of the mobile grippers are triggered by chemicals, namely acetic acid (CH(3)COOH) and hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)), respectively. The grippers close and open en masse based on chemically triggered, mechanical property changes within trilayer joints patterned within the gripper, and no external power is needed for operation.

Opposite effects of high and low frequency rTMS on mood in depressed patients: relationship to baseline cerebral activity on PET.

Background: Optimal parameters of rTMS for antidepressant efficacy in general, or within patients, have not been adequately delineated.

Methods: Using a double-blind, sham-controlled, cross-over design, 22 adult patients with treatment refractory major depression (n=9; bipolar disorder, depressed phase) were randomized to active rTMS (20-Hz or 1-Hz) or sham rTMS conditions and given 5 rTMS treatments per week for two weeks. Repetitive TMS was administered at 100% of motor threshold for 1600 pulses over the left prefrontal cortex using a figure-eight coil.

Self-loading lithographically structured microcontainers: 3D patterned, mobile microwells.

We demonstrate mass-producible, mobile, self-loading microcontainers that can be used to encapsulate both non-living and living objects, thus forming three-dimensionally patterned, mobile microwells.

Interregional cerebral metabolic associativity during a continuous performance task (Part II) : differential alterations in bipolar and unipolar disorders.

Unipolar and bipolar disorders have often been reported to exhibit abnormal regional brain activity in prefrontal cortex and paralimbic structures compared with healthy controls. We sought to ascertain how regions postulated to be abnormal in bipolar and unipolar disorders were functionally connected to the rest of the brain, and how this associativity differed from healthy controls. Thirty patients with bipolar disorder (BPs), 34 patients with unipolar disorder (UPs), and 66 healthy volunteers (Willis, M.

Interregional cerebral metabolic associativity during a continuous performance task (Part I): healthy adults.

One emerging hypothesis regarding psychiatric illnesses is that they arise from the dysregulation of normal circuits or neuroanatomical patterns. In order to study mood disorders within this framework, we explored normal metabolic associativity patterns in healthy volunteers as a prelude to examining the same relationships in affectively ill patients (Part II). We applied correlational analyses to regional brain activity as measured with FDG-PET during an auditory continuous performance task (CPT) in 66 healthy volunteers.

Effects of methylprednisolone acetate and glucosamine on proteoglycan production by equine chondrocytes in vitro.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) on proteoglycan production by equine chondrocytes and to investigate whether glucosamine hydrochloride modulates these effects at clinically relevant concentrations.

Sample Population: Articular cartilage with normal gross appearance from metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints of 8 horses (1 to 10 years of age).

Procedures: In vitro chondrocyte pellets were pretreated with glucosamine (0, 1, 10, and 100 microg/mL) for 48 hours and exposed to MPA (0, 0.

South Pole Telescope optics.

The South Pole Telescope is a 10 m diameter, wide-field, offset Gregorian telescope with a 966-pixel, millimeter-wave, bolometer array receiver. The telescope has an unusual optical system with a cold stop around the secondary. The design emphasizes low scattering and low background loading.

From the educational bench to the clinical bedside: translating the Dreyfus developmental model to the learning of clinical skills.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Outcome Project has shifted the focus of residents' education to competency-based outcomes of learning. The challenge of meaningful assessment of learner competence has stimulated interest in the Dreyfus and Dreyfus Model, a framework for assessing skill acquisition that describes developmental stages beginning with novice and progressing through advanced beginner, competent, proficient, expert, and master. Many educators have adopted this model, but no consensus about its adaptation to clinical medicine has been documented.

Aggressive challenging behaviour and intellectual disability.

Purpose Of Review: The aim of this article is to review reports of aggressive challenging behaviour in individuals with intellectual disability from September 2006 to March 2008.

Recent Findings: Studies continued to demonstrate the prevalence and significance of aggressive challenging behaviour in persons with intellectual disability. Over half of the population engages in some form of aggression, but only a small number is responsible for frequent or severe acts.

Repetitive TMS combined with exposure therapy for PTSD: a preliminary study.

Treatment for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) includes exposure therapy and medications, but some patients are refractory. Few studies of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for anxiety or PTSD exist. In this preliminary report, rTMS was combined with exposure therapy for PTSD.

Interleukin-4 induces lipogenesis in porcine endothelial cells, which in turn is critical for induction of protection against complement-mediated injury.

Interleukin (IL)-4 has been shown to induce protection in porcine vascular endothelial cells (ECs) from killing by human complement. This protection is dependent on the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. In this study, we investigated mechanisms downstream of Akt and found that activation of the lipid biosynthesis pathway is required for protection from complement in ECs treated with IL-4.

DNA inhibits catalysis by the carboxyltransferase subunit of acetyl-CoA carboxylase: implications for active site communication.

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) catalyzes the first committed step in the synthesis of long-chain fatty acids. The crystal structure of the Escherichia coli carboxyltransferase component of ACC revealed an alpha(2)beta(2) subunit composition with two active sites and, most importantly, a unique zinc domain in each alphabeta pair that is absent in the eukaryotic enzyme. We show here that carboxyltransferase binds DNA.

Myoclonus associated with continuous dobutamine infusion in a patient with end-stage renal disease.

Purpose: The occurrence of myoclonus associated with continuous i.v. infusion of dobutamine in a patient with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is described.

Prospective observational multi-poison center study of ziprasidone exposures.

Background: Ziprasidone is an atypical antipsychotic associated with QTc prolongation during therapeutic use. We characterized the clinical manifestations associated with ziprasidone overdoses, in particular the incidence and severity of QTc prolongation.

Methods: Four regional poison centers prospectively collected ziprasidone overdose data from August 1, 2003 to October 1, 2005.