Screening for cognitive impairment in non-affective psychoses: A comparison between the SCIP and the MoCA.

Background: Neuropsychological performance has a strong impact on real-life functioning and clinical outcomes in psychosis. However, conducting lengthy cognitive assessments may not be feasible in routine clinical practice. Brief, reliable and cost-effective tools are highly needed, but few studies are available to guide clinician choice.

Current clinical therapies for cartilage repair, their limitation and the role of stem cells.

The management of osteochondral defects of articular cartilage, whether from trauma or degenerative disease, continues to be a significant challenge for Orthopaedic surgeons. Current treatment options such as abrasion arthroplasty procedures, osteochondral transplantation and autologous chondrocyte implantation fail to produce repair tissue exhibiting the same mechanical and functional properties of native articular cartilage. This results in repair tissue that inevitably fails as it is unable to deal with the mechanical demands of articular cartilage, and does not prevent further degeneration of the native cartilage.

Closed-loop anesthetic drug concentration estimation using clinical-effect feedback.

This letter presents a novel closed-loop approach to anesthetic drug concentration estimation using clinical-effect measurement feedback. Compared with the open-loop prediction used in current target-controlled infusion systems, closed-loop estimation exploits the discrepancy between the measured and predicted clinical effects to make corrections to the drug-concentration estimate, achieving improved robustness against variability in the patient pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. A robust estimator, which processes drug administration and clinical-effect measurements to estimate the plasma- and effect-site drug concentrations, is designed using μ-synthesis theory.

Investigation of uptake and retention of atmospheric Hg(II) by boreal forest plants using stable Hg isotopes.

Although there is now a general consensus among mercury (Hg) biogeochemists that increased atmospheric inputs of inorganic Hg(II) to lakes and watersheds can result in increased methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in fish, researchers still lack kinetic data describing the movement of Hg from the atmosphere, through watershed and lake ecosystems, and into fish. The use of isotopically enriched Hg species in environmental studies now allows experimentally applied new Hg to be distinguished from ambient Hg naturally present in the system. Four different enriched stable Hg(II) isotope "spikes" were applied sequentially over four years to the ground vegetation of a microcatchment at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in the remote boreal forest of Canada to examine retention of Hg(II) following deposition.

Volatile arsenic species released from Escherichia coli expressing the AsIII S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase gene.

Biological systems, ranging from bacteria and fungi to humans, can methylate arsenic. Recent studies have suggested that the AsIII S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase (arsM) gene in bacteria was responsible for the removal of arsenic as the volatile arsines from the bacteria. However, there has been no direct measure of the arsines released from bacteria cultures.

Approach to managing undiagnosed chest pain: could gastroesophageal reflux disease be the cause?

Objective: To highlight gastroesophageal reflux disease as a common cause of undiagnosed chest pain.

Sources Of Information: Diagnostic considerations are based on information in peer-reviewed articles retrieved from MEDLINE. Studies had to be in English and involve at least 30 subjects.

Nurse practitioners in the Northern Alberta Renal Program.

The presence of nurse practitioners (NPs) in nephrology is not a new concept; literature out of the United States documents their existence quite well Since 1973, the collaboration of NPs and nephrologists has provided cost-effective care for dialysis patients and an alternative for health authorities anticipating a nephrologist shortage. Integration of NPs ensures high-quality, cost-effective, patient-focused care. In 1995, NPs began their integration into the Canadian nephrology field and, in 2004, the Northern Alberta Renal Program (NARP) hired its first nurse practitioner.

Two new species of Pseudogymnoascus with Geomyces anamorphs and their phylogenetic relationship with Gymnostellatospora.

Two new psychrophilic Pseudogymnoascus species with Geomyces anamorphs are described from a Sphagnum bog in Alberta, Canada. Pseudogymnoascus appendiculatus has long, branched, orange appendages and smooth, fusoid to ellipsoidal ascospores with a faint longitudinal rim. Pseudogymnoascus verrucosus has short, subhyaline appendages and warty peridial hyphae and ascospores, and both smooth to asperulate and irregularly warty conidia.

Continuous desorption rate measurement from a shallow-bed of poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) particles with correction for experimental artifacts.

A 0.50 mm high bed, containing ca. 3 mg of the nominally non-porous poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) (PS-DVB) sorbent Hamilton PRP-infinity, is located in a valve.

Assessing the impact of pelvic obliquity in post-operative neuromuscular scoliosis.

The goal of this pilot study was to explore the relationship between pelvic obliquity and patient pain, sitting tolerance, pressure sores, and function. Five neuromuscular patients who underwent spinal surgery 6-26 weeks prior to assessment took part in this on-going study (4F; 1M); age at surgery (14.6 +/- 2.

The effects of exposure to intense, 24 h light on the development of scoliosis in young chickens.

The aetiology of adolescent 5 coliosis remains unknown and hindering research is the absence of an appropriate animal model. It is now well-established that pinealectomy in young chickens results in the development of scoliosis that has many of the characteristics seen in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis but the mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains elusive. The principle product of the pineal gland is melatonin and so many studies have focused on studying the effects of reduced levels of this hormone.

High-flow nasal cannulae in the management of apnea of prematurity: a comparison with conventional nasal continuous positive airway pressure.

Apnea of prematurity (AOP) is frequently managed with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP). Nasal cannula (NC) are used at low flows (<0.5 L/min) to deliver supplemental oxygen to neonates.

Ring cleavage of sulfur heterocycles: how does it happen?

Sulfur heterocycles are common constituents of petroleum and liquids derived from coal, and they are found in some secondary metabolites of microorganisms and plants. They exist primarily as saturated rings and thiophenes. There are two major objectives driving investigations of the microbial metabolism of organosulfur compounds.