TrkB Activation during a Critical Period Mimics the Protective Effects of Early Visual Experience on Perception and the Stability of Receptive Fields in Adult Superior Colliculus.

During a critical period in development, spontaneous and evoked retinal activity shape visual pathways in an adaptive fashion. Interestingly, spontaneous activity is sufficient for spatial refinement of visual receptive fields (RFs) in superior colliculus (SC) and visual cortex (V1), but early visual experience is necessary to maintain inhibitory synapses and stabilize RFs in adulthood (Carrasco et al., 2005, 2011; Carrasco and Pallas, 2006; Balmer and Pallas, 2015a).

The impact of enriched environment and transplantation of murine cortical embryonic stem cells on recovery from controlled cortical contusion injury.

Purpose: The effectiveness of embryonic stem cell (eSC) therapy has been explored in many models of neurological disease and several research groups have shown that eSC treatment leads to improved outcomes in pre-clinical models of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Though functional recovery occurs, few surviving eSCs appear to develop neuronal characteristics; instead the majority of the surviving eSC express glial phenotypes. Additionally, researchers have shown that enriching the post-surgical environment of the subject promotes functional recovery following TBI.

Successive bilateral frontal controlled cortical impact injuries show behavioral savings.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) affect millions of people each year. Research investigating repeated or serial damage in the form of lesions indicates that behavioral deficits are reduced in animals given sequential lesions separated by a sufficient period of recovery. In the lesion literature, this phenomenon is known as the serial lesion effect (SLE).

Clinical and economic outcomes from the UK pilot psychiatric services for personality-disordered offenders.

Personality-disordered offenders are difficult individuals to manage, and knowledge about effective treatment is sparse. In the UK, novel forensic psychiatric services were recently established for the treatment of offenders with personality disorder. In this paper we report the clinical and economic findings from a 2-year follow-up of a cohort of service users recruited from these services.

An evaluation of new services for personality-disordered offenders: staff and service user perspectives.

Background: Little is known about effective treatment for personality-disordered (PD) offenders. We aimed to obtain the perspective of service users and staff on: (a) the experience of receiving treatment; and (b) the experience of delivering treatment, within new forensic services for PD offenders.

Material: Thematic analysis was applied to qualitative interviews with 30 service users and 22 staff.

Electrostatic deposition of graphene in a gaseous environment: a deterministic route for synthesizing rolled graphenes?

The synthesis of single-wall carbon nanotubes of desired diameters and chiralities is critical to the design of nanoscale electronic devices with desired properties. The existing methods are based on self-assembly, therefore lacking control over the diameters and chiralities. The present work reports a direct route for rolling graphene.

Best practice using Excellence in Practice Accreditation Scheme.

This article describes how the University of Teesside School of Health and Social Care practice development team, in partnership with local professional colleagues and organizations, have addressed the issue of providing continuous quality evidence-based practice within the context of clinical governance. The newly devised Excellence in Practice Accreditation Scheme (EPAS) measures the standard of practice for a given health and social care setting by providing objective data indicating the level of clinical excellence obtained for the team or organization. The EPAS differs from other organizational accreditation schemes by facilitating excellence based upon a comprehensive set of measurable core standards: working in organizations, collaborative working, user-focused care, continuous quality improvements, performance management, and measuring efficiency and effectiveness.