Association between bisphosphonate use and COVID-19 related outcomes.

Background: Although there are several efficacious vaccines against COVID-19, vaccination rates in many regions around the world remain insufficient to prevent continued high disease burden and emergence of viral variants. Repurposing of existing therapeutics that prevent or mitigate severe COVID-19 could help to address these challenges. The objective of this study was to determine whether prior use of bisphosphonates is associated with reduced incidence and/or severity of COVID-19.

Undiagnosing St Joan: She Does Not Need a Medical or Psychiatric Diagnosis.

This article traces the history of Joan of Arc through her brief life that includes leading an army in defense of France at the age of 17 and ending with her death at the stake at the age of 19. In her activities, St Joan reported that she was guided by voices and visions in which she communicated with venerated spiritual figures such as St Michael and St Margaret. Questions have arisen about the nature of these experiences, and various medical and psychiatric diagnoses have been offered by contemporary experts.

The forensic assessment of dissociation: Distinguishing real from the unreal.

Because a wide range of disorders incorporate dissociative symptoms, evaluators should be familiar with evidence-based approaches to evaluating dissociation claims in the clinical and forensic context. This article provides specific guidelines for practitioners when conducting a forensic assessment of individuals who report dissociative symptoms. We review the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition disorders that include dissociation as a symptom, highlight how to distinguish genuine versus atypical symptoms of dissociative identity disorder, and summarize strengths and weaknesses of structured assessments in the evaluation of dissociative claims.

Study of rare genetic variants in and in Pakistani probands and families with language impairment.

Language impairment (LI) is highly heritable and aggregates in families. Genetic investigation of LI has revealed many chromosomal regions and genes of interest, though very few studies have focused on rare variant analysis in non-English speaking or non-European samples. We selected four candidate genes ( and ) strongly suggested for specific language impairment (SLI), a subtype of LI, and investigated rare protein coding variants through Sanger sequencing of probands with LI ascertained from Pakistan.

Identification of the Fc-alpha/mu receptor in Xenopus provides insight into the emergence of the poly-Ig receptor (pIgR) and mucosal Ig transport.

The polyimmunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) transcytoses J chain-containing antibodies through mucosal epithelia. In mammals, two cis-duplicates of PIGR, FCMR, and FCAMR, flank the PIGR gene. A PIGR duplication is first found in amphibians, previously annotated as PIGR2 (herein xlFCAMR), and is expressed by APCs.