The use of the French Dimensional Apathy Scale (f-DAS) to assess apathy in schizophrenia: Properties and profiles.

Background: Apathy can be defined as a quantitative reduction of self-generated voluntary and purposeful (or goal-directed) behaviour. The literature underlines the triadic dimensional nature of apathy, but in schizophrenia there are inconsistencies due to difficulty in assessment. The Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS) and its validation into French (f-DAS) provide measurement of three neurobehavioral apathy subtypes: Executive, Emotional and Initiation, but these subtypes have never been explored in schizophrenia.

Reduced atherosclerotic lesion size in P-selectin deficient apolipoprotein E-knockout mice fed a chow but not a fat diet.

P-selectin. We investigated the role of P-selectin on the development of vascular lesions in an ApoE(-/-) male mice. Double-knockout (ApoE(-/-), P-selectin(-/-); DKO) were compared to single-knockout (ApoE(-/-); SKO) mice.

Ets transcription factors bind and transactivate the core promoter of the von Willebrand factor gene.

von Willebrand factor (vWF) gene expression is restricted to endothelial cells and megakaryocytes. Previous results demonstrated that basal transcription of the human vWF gene is mediated through a promoter located between base pairs -89 and +19 (cap site: +1) which is functional in endothelial and non endothelial cells. Two DNA repeats TTTCCTTT correlating with inverted consensus binding sites for the Ets family of transcription factors are present in the -56/-36 sequence.

Comparison of the 5'-flanking sequences of the human and bovine von Willebrand factor-encoding genes reveals alternation of highly homologous domains with species-specific Alu-type repeats.

von Willebrand factor (vWF), a multimeric glycoprotein important for hemostasis, is specifically synthesized in endothelial cells and in platelet precursors (megakaryocytes). Recent studies from two laboratories, including ours, were published regarding the cell-specific transcription of reporter genes controlled by the human (hu) vWF promoter in transfected bovine (bo) endothelial cells and cells of non-endothelial origins. In order to verify that the regulatory domains previously characterized in the 5' region of hu vWF are also present in bo vWF, we have sequenced 1.

Hepatic abscess due to occult biliary stones.

The advent of radiologic percutaneous drainage of abdominal abscesses has revealed that a significant percentage involve a fistulous communication to other organs or structures. We present two cases in which abscessograms revealed unsuspected fistulous communication to an incompletely or intermittently obstructed biliary tree with retained stones.