Differential contributions of performance-based and parental reports of executive functioning on memory in pediatric focal and generalized epilepsies.

Children with epilepsy often experience deficits in both executive functioning (EF) and memory. However, how these two domains interact and relate to specific epilepsy types remains unclear. This study compared two groups of children: those with localization-related epilepsy (LRE) and those with genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE).

Pediatric case of atypical spindle cell/pleomorphic lipomatous tumor within the vastus lateralis muscle.

This report presents a rare case of an atypical spindle cell/pleomorphic lipomatous tumor in a 13-year-old male patient. The tumor, located within the vastus lateralis muscle, was successfully resected, and the patient is currently under follow-up.

Patient-Level and Center-Level Factors Associated with Required Predonation Weight Loss among Obese Living Kidney Donors.

Key Points: Among obese living kidney donors, year of donation, preoperative body mass index, hypertension, and center percent of living kidney donor transplants were associated with required predonation weight loss. There were no significant differences in the likelihood of predonation weight loss requirement by race, sex, or age or by markers of preoperative metabolic dysfunction.

Background: The proportion of overweight/mildly obese living kidney donors (OLKDs) has increased in the past few decades, with significant center variation in the body mass index (BMI) of LKDs.

Diabetes-free survival among living kidney donors and non-donors with obesity: A longitudinal cohort study.

Background: Approval of living kidney donors (LKD) with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) risk factors, such as obesity, has increased. While lifetime ESKD development data are lacking, the study of intermediate outcomes such as diabetes is critical for LKD safety. Donation-attributable diabetes risk among persons with obesity remains unknown.

Change in Body Mass Index and Attributable Risk of New-Onset Hypertension Among Obese Living Kidney Donors.

Objective: To examine whether body mass index (BMI) changes modify the association between kidney donation and incident hypertension.

Background: Obesity increases hypertension risk in both general and living kidney donor (LKD) populations. Donation-attributable risk in the context of obesity, and whether weight change modifies that risk, is unknown.

Serial neuropsychological testing before and after hemispherectomy in a child with electrical status epilepticus in slow wave sleep.

Electrical status epilepticus in slow wave sleep (ESES) is typically characterized by neuropsychological deterioration to varying extents. While the syndrome is self-limiting for some, for others it has a swiftly declining course that requires aggressive neurosurgical intervention. Here, we present a patient with ESES secondary to a large left middle cerebral artery stroke in utero who experienced behavioral and neuropsychological deterioration that rapidly progressed.

Tooth Wear in Patients Undergoing Sleep Studies: A Blinded Observational Study.

Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common health problem that remains an underdiagnosed issue. Screening tools and clinical markers are needed from a variety of providers to determine patients at risk for OSA. Tooth wear could be a good potential identifier of patients at risk of having OSA.

A cross-sectional cohort study of post-concussive symptoms and their relationships with depressive symptoms in youth with and without concussion.

Objectives: To evaluate the frequency and severity of post-concussive symptoms in youth with a history of concussion relative to youth without concussion who had another medical diagnosis, as well as compare the correlations between post-concussive and depressive symptoms between groups. We hypothesized comparable symptom reporting and correlations in each group.

Methods: A total of 564 youth ages 8-18 years were assessed regarding post-concussive symptoms.

Are frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy dissociable in their memory functioning?

There is controversy in the literature as to how dissociable frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) are in terms of memory deficits. Some researchers have demonstrated that FLE is associated with greater executive dysfunction including working memory, whereas TLE is associated with greater memory impairment. Others have found the two groups to be comparable in memory functioning.

Patients' attitudes towards chaperone use for intimate physical examinations in general practice.

Background: The objective of this article is to investigate patients' attitudes to the use of chaperones for intimate physical examinations (IPEs) in a sample of Australian general practices.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of adult patients from 13 randomly selected general practices in regional New South Wales was conducted between September and November 2012. Generalised linear mixed models were used for analysis.

The effect of preexisting respiratory co-morbidities on burn outcomes.

Introduction: Burns cause physiologic changes in multiple organ systems in the body. Burn mortality is usually attributable to pulmonary complications, which can occur in up to 41% of patients admitted to the hospital after burn. Patients with preexisting comorbidities such as chronic lung diseases may be more susceptible.

Standardized experiments in mutant mice reveal behavioural similarity on 129S5 and C57BL/6J backgrounds.

Behavioural analysis of mice carrying engineered mutations is widely used to identify roles of specific genes in components of the mammalian behavioural repertoire. The reproducibility and robustness of phenotypic measures has become a concern that undermines the use of mouse genetic models for translational studies. Contributing factors include low individual study power, non-standardized behavioural testing, failure to address confounds and differences in genetic background of mutant mice.

Evolution of protein phosphorylation across 18 fungal species.

Living organisms have evolved protein phosphorylation, a rapid and versatile mechanism that drives signaling and regulates protein function. We report the phosphoproteomes of 18 fungal species and a phylogenetic-based approach to study phosphosite evolution. We observe rapid divergence, with only a small fraction of phosphosites conserved over hundreds of millions of years.

The effect of smoking status on burn inhalation injury mortality.

Introduction: Three factors that effect burn mortality are age, total body surface of burn (TBSA), and inhalation injury. Of the three, inhalation injury is the strongest predictor of mortality thus its inclusion in the revised Baux score (age+TBSA+17* (inhalation injury, 1=yes, 0=no)). However, the weighted contribution of specific comorbidities such as smoker status on mortality has traditionally not been accounted for nor studied in this subset of burn patients.

The measured effect magnitude of co-morbidities on burn injury mortality.

Introduction: The ability to better prognosticate burn injury outcome is challenging and historically, most center use the Baux or revised Baux score to help prognosticate burn outcome, however, the weighted contribution of comorbidity on burn mortality has traditionally not been accounted for nor adequately studied. We therefore sought to determine the effect of comorbidities, using the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) on burn mortality.

Methods: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of comorbidities on burn injury mortality as determined by the LA50 (lethal TBSA burn at which 50% of the cohort will succumb from the burn injury) in a retrospective analysis of patients admitted to a regional burn center from 2002 to 2012.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF) in children and adolescents with ADHD.

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF) is a parent report measure designed to assess executive skills in everyday life. The present study employed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate three alternative models of the factor structure of the BRIEF. Given the executive functioning difficulties that commonly co-occur with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the participants included 181 children and adolescents with a diagnosis of ADHD.

[Formula: see text]Differences in memory functioning between children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or focal epilepsy.

Prior research has shown that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy are frequently comorbid and that both disorders are associated with various attention and memory problems. Nonetheless, limited research has been conducted comparing the two disorders in one sample to determine unique versus shared deficits. Hence, we investigated differences in working memory (WM) and short-term and delayed recall between children with ADHD, focal epilepsy of mixed foci, comorbid ADHD/epilepsy and controls.

Mutations in RAB39B cause X-linked intellectual disability and early-onset Parkinson disease with α-synuclein pathology.

Advances in understanding the etiology of Parkinson disease have been driven by the identification of causative mutations in families. Genetic analysis of an Australian family with three males displaying clinical features of early-onset parkinsonism and intellectual disability identified a ∼45 kb deletion resulting in the complete loss of RAB39B. We subsequently identified a missense mutation (c.

Detection and measurement of staphylococcal enterotoxin-like K (SEl-K) secretion by Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin-like K (SEl-K) is a potent mitogen that elicits T-cell proliferation and cytokine production at very low concentrations. However, unlike the classical enterotoxins SEB and toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1), the gene for SEl-K is commonly present in more than half of all Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates and is present in almost all USA300 community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA) isolates.

Evolution of GluN2A/B cytoplasmic domains diversified vertebrate synaptic plasticity and behavior.

Two genome duplications early in the vertebrate lineage expanded gene families, including GluN2 subunits of the NMDA receptor. Diversification between the four mammalian GluN2 proteins occurred primarily at their intracellular C-terminal domains (CTDs). To identify shared ancestral functions and diversified subunit-specific functions, we exchanged the exons encoding the GluN2A (also known as Grin2a) and GluN2B (also known as Grin2b) CTDs in two knock-in mice and analyzed the mice's biochemistry, synaptic physiology, and multiple learned and innate behaviors.

TNiK is required for postsynaptic and nuclear signaling pathways and cognitive function.

Traf2 and NcK interacting kinase (TNiK) contains serine-threonine kinase and scaffold domains and has been implicated in cell proliferation and glutamate receptor regulation in vitro. Here we report its role in vivo using mice carrying a knock-out mutation. TNiK binds protein complexes in the synapse linking it to the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) via AKAP9.

Neurobehavioral abnormalities in first-degree relatives of individuals with autism.

Context: Studying sensorimotor and neurocognitive impairments in unaffected family members of individuals with autism may help identify familial pathophysiological mechanisms associated with the disorder.

Objective: To determine whether atypical sensorimotor or neurocognitive characteristics associated with autism are present in first-degree relatives of individuals with autism.

Design: Case-control comparison of neurobehavioral functions.

Effects of polymer type and storage relative humidity on the kinetics of felodipine crystallization from amorphous solid dispersions.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of polymer type and storage relative humidity (RH) on the crystallization kinetics of felodipine from amorphous solid dispersions.

Methods: Crystallization of the model drug felodipine from amorphous solid dispersion samples containing poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) and hypromellose acetate succinate (HPMCAS) were evaluated. Samples at three different drug-polymer weight ratios (10, 25, and 50 wt.