The neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, disrupt the chicken sperm quality through calcium efflux.

Imidacloprid (IMI), an insecticide from the neonicotinoid group widely used in agriculture, has drawn attention due to its potential harmful effects on non-target species, including bird populations. In the present work, we investigated the effect of IMI on avian semen by in vitro exposure of rooster spermatozoa to this pesticide. The semen was collected twice a week.

Radiomic Analysis to Predict Histopathologically Confirmed Pseudoprogression in Glioblastoma Patients.

Purpose: Pseudoprogression mimicking recurrent glioblastoma remains a diagnostic challenge that may adversely confound or delay appropriate treatment or clinical trial enrollment. We sought to build a radiomic classifier to predict pseudoprogression in patients with primary isocitrate dehydrogenase wild type glioblastoma.

Methods And Materials: We retrospectively examined a training cohort of 74 patients with isocitrate dehydrogenase wild type glioblastomas with brain magnetic resonance imaging including dynamic contrast enhanced T1 perfusion before resection of an enhancing lesion indeterminate for recurrent tumor or pseudoprogression.

Health Care Spending on Respiratory Diseases in the United States, 1996-2016.

Respiratory conditions account for a large proportion of health care spending in the United States. A full characterization of spending across multiple conditions and over time has not been performed. To estimate health care spending in the United States for 11 respiratory conditions from 1996 to 2016, providing detailed trends and an evaluation of factors associated with spending growth.

Spending on Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the United States: 1996 to 2016.

Background: Spending on cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular risk factors (cardiovascular spending) accounts for a significant portion of overall US health care spending. Our objective was to describe US adult cardiovascular spending patterns in 2016, changes from 1996 to 2016, and factors associated with changes over time.

Methods: We extracted information on adult cardiovascular spending from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's disease expenditure project, which combines data on insurance claims, emergency department and ambulatory care visits, inpatient and nursing care facility stays, and drug prescriptions to estimate >85% of all US health care spending.

MRI radiomic features are associated with survival in melanoma brain metastases treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background: Melanoma brain metastases historically portend a dismal prognosis, but recent advances in immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been associated with durable responses in some patients. There are no validated imaging biomarkers associated with outcomes in patients with melanoma brain metastases receiving ICIs. We hypothesized that radiomic analysis of magnetic resonance images (MRIs) could identify higher-order features associated with survival.

Adjusting health spending for the presence of comorbidities: an application to United States national inpatient data.

Background: One of the major challenges in estimating health care spending spent on each cause of illness is allocating spending for a health care event to a single cause of illness in the presence of comorbidities. Comorbidities, the secondary diagnoses, are common across many causes of illness and often correlate with worse health outcomes and more expensive health care. In this study, we propose a method for measuring the average spending for each cause of illness with and without comorbidities.

Tracking development assistance and government health expenditures for 35 malaria-eliminating countries: 1990-2017.

Background: Donor financing for malaria has declined since 2010 and this trend is projected to continue for the foreseeable future. These reductions have a significant impact on lower burden countries actively pursuing elimination, which are usually a lesser priority for donors. While domestic spending on malaria has been growing, it varies substantially in speed and magnitude across countries.

US Spending on Personal Health Care and Public Health, 1996-2013.

Importance: US health care spending has continued to increase, and now accounts for more than 17% of the US economy. Despite the size and growth of this spending, little is known about how spending on each condition varies by age and across time.

Objective: To systematically and comprehensively estimate US spending on personal health care and public health, according to condition, age and sex group, and type of care.

Spending on Children's Personal Health Care in the United States, 1996-2013.

Importance: Health care spending on children in the United States continues to rise, yet little is known about how this spending varies by condition, age and sex group, and type of care, nor how these patterns have changed over time.

Objective: To provide health care spending estimates for children and adolescents 19 years and younger in the United States from 1996 through 2013, disaggregated by condition, age and sex group, and type of care.

Evidence Review: Health care spending estimates were extracted from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Disease Expenditure 2013 project database.

Assessing the Complex and Evolving Relationship between Charges and Payments in US Hospitals: 1996 - 2012.

Background: In 2013 the United States spent $2.9 trillion on health care, more than in any previous year. Much of the debate around slowing health care spending growth focuses on the complicated pricing system for services.

Development assistance for health: past trends, associations, and the future of international financial flows for health.

Background: Disbursements of development assistance for health (DAH) have risen substantially during the past several decades. More recently, the international community's attention has turned to other international challenges, introducing uncertainty about the future of disbursements for DAH.

Methods: We collected audited budget statements, annual reports, and project-level records from the main international agencies that disbursed DAH from 1990 to the end of 2015.

Tracking development assistance for HIV/AIDS: the international response to a global epidemic.

Objective: To better understand the global response to HIV/AIDS, this study tracked development assistance for HIV/AIDS at a granular, program level.

Methods: We extracted data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Financing Global Health 2015 report that captured development assistance for HIV/AIDS from 1990 to 2015 for all major bilateral and multilateral aid agencies. To build on these data, we extracted additional budget data, and disaggregated development assistance for HIV/AIDS into nine program areas, including prevention, treatment, and health system support.

Vaccine Assistance To Low- And Middle-Income Countries Increased To $3.6 Billion In 2014.

In the 2012 Global Vaccine Action Plan, development assistance partners committed to providing sustainable financing for vaccines and expanding vaccination coverage to all children in low- and middle-income countries by 2020. To assess progress toward these goals, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation produced estimates of development assistance for vaccinations. These estimates reveal major increases in the assistance provided since 2000.

Sources and Focus of Health Development Assistance, 1990-2014.

Importance: The governments of high-income countries and private organizations provide billions of dollars to developing countries for health. This type of development assistance can have a critical role in ensuring that life-saving health interventions reach populations in need.

Objectives: To identify the amount of development assistance that countries and organizations provided for health and to determine the health areas that received these funds.

Social Anxiety Disorder Comorbid with Schizophrenia: The Importance of Screening for This Under recognized and Under treated Condition.

Background: While the presence of comorbid anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder have been well described in schizophrenia, comorbid social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been less emphasized. The goal of this study was to examine the prevalence of SAD in our ambulatory population of patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: A group of 50 outpatients with schizophrenia randomly selected from our public mental health outpatient population was evaluated with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)-schizophrenia section, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS), the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF).

Treatment of sex offenders in Israeli prison settings.

The number of incarcerated sex offenders in the Israeli prison system has steadily increased during the past decade. While treatment of sex offenders is complex, treatment of those in prison seems to be more challenging. This publication presents major considerations and dilemmas, clinical as well as ethics-related, derived from the experience of the psychiatric division in the Israeli prison service in treating sex offenders in this special setting.

AKAP-independent localization of type-II protein kinase A to dynamic actin microspikes.

Regulation of the cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) in subcellular space is required for cytoskeletal dynamics and chemotaxis. Currently, spatial regulation of PKA is thought to require the association of PKA regulatory (R) subunits with A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs). Here, we show that the regulatory RIIalpha subunit of PKA associates with dynamic actin microspikes in an AKAP-independent manner.

[Instruments for the assessment of violent behavior towards others among the mentally ill population].

Dangerousness is the propensity for performing aggressive and/or criminal acts. The tension between denying the liberty of a suspect and the necessity to protect the environment he/she threatens makes evaluation of the "extent of dangerousness" a significant factor in decisions regarding compulsory intervention and denial of rights. EvaLuation of dangerousness aims to protect the Life of the patient--prevent harm and defend public safety.

Schizophrenia sex offenders: a clinical and epidemiological comparison study.

While the incidence of criminal offense in individuals with schizophrenia does not necessarily differ from that of the normal population, in contrast, the rate of sexual crimes among individuals with schizophrenia is relatively low. Due to low numbers, description of sexual criminal behavior among schizophrenia patients remains relatively unexplored. In order to investigate clinical, socio-demographic and sexual factors associated with deviant sexual behavior in schizophrenia sex offenders we retrospectively compared a large subgroup of schizophrenia sex offenders with a group of schizophrenia patients incarcerated for other criminal behaviors and a group of sex offenders without schizophrenia.

The role of real-time computerized neuropsychological examination in forensic psychiatry practice.

Neuropsychological examination (NPE) is an important tool for evaluation of cognitive functioning in clinical and forensic situations. In forensic practice, NPE usually focuses on competency to stand trial, the mental state at the time of the offense, risk for future violence and malingering/aggravation issues. Real-time computerized NPE shows more accurate results than traditional pen-and-paper tests and provides quantitative data in a relatively standard format.

Quality of life of Israeli adults with borderline intelligence quotient and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The quality of life of 127 Israeli young adults diagnosed as having borderline intelligence quotient and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and living in community residences, was studied with respect to personal, disability and social ecology data. Overall, quality of life was associated with studying in inclusive education, total attention-deficit disorder symptomatology score, monthly income, participation in leisure activities and having a personal friend. Two significant predictors of quality of life were attention-deficit disorder symptomatology score and monthly income.

Digit Symbol Substitution test performance: sex differences in a Hebrew-readers' health population.

The Digit Symbol Substitution test is simple to administer and sensitive to individual differences related to cognitive performance. The present study evaluated sex-related differences in performance by a Hebrew reading sample. The test was administered to 275 men and 252 women (age range: 20-44 years).

Simple real-time computerized tasks for detection of malingering among murderers with schizophrenia.

It is our contention that computer-based two-alternative forced choice techniques can be useful tools for the detection of patients with schizophrenia who feign acute psychotic symptoms and cognitive impairment as opposed to patients with schizophrenia with a true active psychosis. In our experiment, Visual Simple and Choice Reaction Time tasks were used. Reaction time in milliseconds was recorded and accuracy rate was obtained for all subjects' responses.

Stalking.

Stalking is a frequently reported crime. It has a strong impact on the lives and mental health of the victims. It is perpetrated by persons who often suffer from mental disorders.

Computerized neuropsychological examination of impulsiveness: A selective review.

There is a rapidly accumulating body of knowledge related to the neurobiology of impulsiveness from multidisciplinary neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies. This paper reviews recent research on impulsiveness in the context of neuropsychological theory and research. It has been emphasized that the controversy regarding the results of neuropsychological studies is related to different aspects of impulsiveness.