Parasitism perturbs the mucosal microbiome of Atlantic Salmon

Interactions between parasite, host and host-associated microbiota are increasingly understood as important determinants of disease progression and morbidity. Salmon lice, including the parasitic copepod Lepeophtheirus salmonis and related species, are perhaps the most important problem facing Atlantic Salmon aquaculture after feed sustainability. Salmon lice parasitize the surface of the fish, feeding off mucus, scales and underlying tissue. Secondary bacterial infections are a major source of associated morbidity. In this study we tracked the diversity and composition of Salmo salar skin surface microbiota throughout a complete L. salmonis infection cycle among 800 post-smolts as compared to healthy controls. Among infected fish we observed a significant reduction in microbial richness (Chao1, P = 0.0136), raised diversity (Shannon, P < 7.86e-06) as well as highly significant destabilisation of microbial community composition (Pairwise Unifrac, beta-diversity, P < 1.86e-05; P = 0.0132) by comparison to controls. While undetectable on an individual level, network analysis of microbial taxa on infected fish revealed the association of multiple pathogenic genera (Vibrio, Flavobacterium, Tenacibaculum, Pseudomonas) with high louse burdens. We discuss our findings in the context of ecological theory and colonisation resistance, in addition to the role microbiota in driving primary and secondary pathology in the host.

Anomalous Heating and Plasmoid Formation in a Driven Magnetic Reconnection Experiment

We present a detailed study of magnetic reconnection in a quasi-two-dimensional pulsed-power driven laboratory experiment. Oppositely directed magnetic fields (B=3  T), advected by supersonic, sub-Alfvénic carbon plasma flows (V_{in}=50  km/s), are brought together and mutually annihilate inside a thin current layer (δ=0.6  mm). Temporally and spatially resolved optical diagnostics, including interferometry, Faraday rotation imaging, and Thomson scattering, allow us to determine the structure and dynamics of this layer, the nature of the inflows and outflows, and the detailed energy partition during the reconnection process. We measure high electron and ion temperatures (T_{e}=100  eV, T_{i}=600  eV), far in excess of what can be attributed to classical (Spitzer) resistive and viscous dissipation. We observe the repeated formation and ejection of plasmoids, consistent with the predictions from semicollisional plasmoid theory.

Search for Magnetic Monopoles with the MoEDAL Forward Trapping Detector in 13 TeV Proton-Proton Collisions at the LHC

MoEDAL is designed to identify new physics in the form of long-lived highly ionizing particles produced in high-energy LHC collisions. Its arrays of plastic nuclear-track detectors and aluminium trapping volumes provide two independent passive detection techniques. We present here the results of a first search for magnetic monopole production in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions using the trapping technique, extending a previous publication with 8 TeV data during LHC Run 1. A total of 222 kg of MoEDAL trapping detector samples was exposed in the forward region and analyzed by searching for induced persistent currents after passage through a superconducting magnetometer. Magnetic charges exceeding half the Dirac charge are excluded in all samples and limits are placed for the first time on the production of magnetic monopoles in 13 TeV pp collisions. The search probes mass ranges previously inaccessible to collider experiments for up to five times the Dirac charge.

French Translation and Validation of Three Scales Evaluating Stigma in Mental Health

OBJECTIVE

The concept of stigma refers to problems of knowledge (ignorance), attitudes (prejudice), and behavior (discrimination). Stigma may hinder access to care, housing, and work. In the context of implementation of programs such as "housing first" or "individual placement and support" in French speaking regions, validated instruments measuring stigma are necessary. "Attitudes to Mental Illness 2011" is a questionnaire that includes three scales measuring stigma through these three dimensions. This study aimed to translate, adapt, and validate these three scales in French.

METHODS

The "Attitudes to Mental Illness 2011" questionnaire was translated into French and back-translated into English by an expert. Two hundred and sixty-eight nursing students completed the questionnaire. Content validity, face validity, internal validity, and convergent validity were assessed. Long-term reliability was also estimated over a three-month period.

RESULTS

Experts and participants found that the questionnaire's content validity and face validity were appropriate. The internal validities of the three scales were also considered adequate. Convergent validity indicated that the scales did indeed measure what they were supposed to. Long-term stability estimates were moderate; this pattern of results suggested that the construct targeted by the three scales is adequately measured but does not necessarily represent stable and enduring traits.

CONCLUSION

Because of their good psychometric properties, these three scales can be used in French, either separately, to measure one specific dimension of stigma, or together, to assess stigma in its three dimensions. This would seem of paramount importance in evaluating campaigns against stigma since it allows measures to be adapted according to campaign goals and the target population.

Rhinovirus Detection in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Children: Value of Host Transcriptome Analysis

RATIONALE

Rhinoviruses (RVs) are a major cause of symptomatic respiratory tract infection in all age groups. However, RVs can frequently be detected in asymptomatic individuals.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the ability of host transcriptional profiling to differentiate between symptomatic RV infection and incidental detection in children.

METHODS

Previously healthy children younger than 2 years old (n = 151) were enrolled at four study sites and classified into four clinical groups: RV- healthy control subjects (n = 37), RV+ asymptomatic subjects (n = 14), RV+ outpatients (n = 30), and RV+ inpatients (n = 70). Host responses were analyzed using whole-blood RNA transcriptional profiles.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

RV infection induced a robust transcriptional signature, which was validated in three independent cohorts and by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction with high prediction accuracy. The immune profile of symptomatic RV infection was characterized by overexpression of innate immunity and underexpression of adaptive immunity genes, whereas negligible changes were observed in asymptomatic RV+ subjects. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering identified two main clusters of subjects. The first included 93% of healthy control subjects and 100% of asymptomatic RV+ subjects, and the second comprised 98% of RV+ inpatients and 88% of RV+ outpatients. Genomic scores of healthy control subjects and asymptomatic RV+ children were similar and significantly lower than those of RV+ inpatients and outpatients (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Symptomatic RV infection induced a robust and reproducible transcriptional signature, whereas identification of RV in asymptomatic children was not associated with significant systemic transcriptional immune responses. Transcriptional profiling represents a useful tool to discriminate between active infection and incidental virus detection.

PracticeCALM: Coaching Anxiety Lessening Methods for Radiation Therapists: A Pilot Study of a Skills-Based Training Program in Radiation Oncology

PracticeCALM is an 8-week on-the-job training program to teach radiation therapists (RTs) techniques for assisting patients who are experiencing treatment-related anxiety. Twelve clinical RTs in a regional oncology program were recruited on a volunteer basis to participate in the training. A mixed-method approach was undertaken to evaluate perceived benefits to clinical practice. The quantitative findings from the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) showed there were no changes before and after training. Qualitative findings showed significant benefits to RTs, including (1) ability to empathically attune more effectively and earlier to signs of anxiety in patients; (2) improved confidence and self-efficacy for effectively intervening in difficult treatment situations; and (3) enhanced creative problem solving in partnership with patients to assist the acutely anxious patient. The PSS results suggest that intrinsic and extrinsic stressors are a variable but consistent part of the everyday reality of RT practice. A training program focusing on the therapeutic presence dimension of RT practice has a direct impact on effectiveness in assisting anxious patients undergoing RT. When embedded in the clinical life of a radiation therapy department, such a training program has the potential to capture the lived practice wisdom and creative skills of RTs, and effectively mediate these skills across a team through group discussions and documentation on patient charts.

Application of biological traits to further our understanding of the impacts of dredged material disposal on benthic assemblages

While the effects of coastal disposal of dredged material on benthic assemblage structure have been well studied, our understanding of the mechanism of such responses, and their potential ecological implications, remain relatively unknown. Data from a licenced disposal site off the northeast coast of England are analysed to address this and improve our ability to make informed licencing decisions for this activity. Assemblages within the disposal site displayed reduced number of species and total invertebrate density, an altered assemblage taxonomic structure, and a shift towards a greater numerical dominance of less-productive individuals. Following separate analyses of biological response and effect traits, a novel approach for marine benthic trait analysis, we identify the traits responsible (i.e. response traits) for the observed structural alterations. Furthermore, analysis of the effect traits revealed that the assemblages characterising the disposal site possess a greater bioturbative capability compared to those not directly impacted by disposal.

Women, madness and psychiatry: Insane or persuaded?

During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, feminist movements proliferated in Europe and USA in order to vindicate the rights of women both in the workplace and political issues, such as women's suffrage and birth policies, among others. At the same time, psychiatry tried to gain a foothold as a medical specialty, which created a positivist discourse where it was important to measure and quantify mental disorders and their possible causes. As many feminist writers have argued (Chesler, Showalter, Jordanova, and others) this occurs at the same historical moment that a “feminization of madness” was taking place in several ways: madness begins to be described in feminine terms, Freud was developing his research on hysteria; diagnostics, such as puerperal and involution psychosis were taking hold; the interest about the influence of hormones in women's mood were raising, and gynaecology was thought as the organic etiology of female madness. The hegemonic psychiatric discourse appeared to have been a catalyst for logical social inclusion and exclusion, notably influencing the design of a new feminity, distant from the danger of feminism that began to gain prominence. The boundaries between insanity and mental health were really diffuse in case of women. The aim of my work is to highlight how attitudes and attributes of women were transformed into psychiatric symptoms, as the feminist theorist support. I will make a retrospective about clinical women reports of the public asylum of Malaga from the beginning of twenty century.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Psychological experiences reported by offsprings of mothers with bipolar disorder: A clinical-qualitative study in a Brazilian university outpatient service

Introduction

Children of patients with bipolar disorder are at increased risk of developing psychopathology and psychosocial difficulties.

Objectives

To understand the emotional experiences of adult children of mothers with bipolar disorder.

Method

Qualitative study, using in-depth semi-directed interviews with open-ended questions, sample closed by saturation information criteria, content analysis, discussion under psychodynamic concepts.

Results

From interviewees’ reports, it can be seen that offspring's experiences emotional vulnerability, such as directions given by early exposure to self injurious behaviour, psychiatric hospitalizations, routine absences from home and consequent perception of helplessness, especially in periods of the mother's crisis. The findings suggest that for the children the insecurity to assume the precociously inverted responsibility regarding the need of care to mother seems to experience by them as an entrapment to the care of the mother, for the effort they make to keep them alive, with an emotional burden due to both impaired childhood and adolescent.

Conclusion

It was analyzed the assumption that the evolution of reactive psychological stages regarding the mother affected by a mental illness marked by bipolarity manifestations, alternating with phases of the normality of psychic manifestations, would follow the evolution of the oscillating psychological stages of his/her own mother, which minimizes often both the disease and the treatment during the phases of remission of manifestations.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Folie à Deux: Shared or “Infected” Madness? About a Case Report

The shared madness or Folie à deux was described in France in the nineteenth century by Charles Lasage and Pierre Falret, as a condition where a person (the primary) builds a delusional system, sharing it with another (the secondary), who must be very close to the first affected, becoming delirious with the same subject. Several theories attempt to explain the phenomenon that challenges theories of personality structures, rooted in relational and/or environmental features of psychosis. Theoretically, there are many attempts to classify this psychotic experien in some manuals they distinguish various types of partners: the simultaneous psychosis, where the two people start to became delirious at once; imposed psychosis, in which the disorder arises first with one, then going on to “healthy” individual and symptomatology disappears after being separated; and communicated psychosis, where the first transmitted the psychotic experience to the second, and he or she develops his or her own delusion not interrupted even while separated. Other classifications about shared madness not only between two people, but three, and four, even a whole family show us how complicated the delirium systems can become. In our paper, we will discuss the different theories explaining this rare psychiatric condition based on a case about two brothers of 35 and 37, who live together with the rest of the family, and also come together to the same mental health center, although with different psychiatrists.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

ATP-binding cassette transporter 1 (ABCA1) deficiency decreases platelet reactivity and reduces thromboxane A2 production independently of hematopoietic ABCA1

ESSENTIALS: The role of ATP-binding cassette transporter 1 (ABCA1) in platelet functions is poorly characterized. We studied the impact of ABCA1 deficiency on platelet responses in a mouse model and two Tangier patients. ABCA1-deficient platelets exhibit reduced positive feedback loop mechanisms. This reduced reactivity is dependent on external environment and independent of hematopoietic ABCA1.

SUMMARY

BACKGROUND

The ATP-binding cassette transporter ABCA1 is required for the conversion of apolipoprotein A-1 to high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and its defect causes Tangier disease, a rare disorder characterized by an absence of HDL and accumulation of cholesterol in peripheral tissues. The role of ABCA1 in platelet functions remains poorly characterized.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the role of ABCA1 in platelet functions and to clarify controversies concerning its implication in processes as fundamental as platelet phosphatidylserine exposure and control of platelet membrane lipid composition.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We studied the impact of ABCA1 deficiency on platelet responses in a mouse model and in two Tangier patients. We show that platelets in ABCA1-deficient mice are slightly larger in size and exhibit aggregation and secretion defects in response to low concentrations of thrombin and collagen. These platelets have normal cholesterol and major phospholipid composition, granule morphology, or calcium-induced phosphatidylserine exposure. Interestingly, ABCA1-deficient platelets display a reduction in positive feedback loop mechanisms, particularly in thromboxane A2 (TXA2) production. Hematopoietic chimera mice demonstrated that defective eicosanoids production, particularly TXA2, was primarily dependent on external environment and not on the hematopoietic ABCA1. Decreased aggregation and production of TXA2 and eicosanoids were also observed in platelets from Tangier patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Absence of ABCA1 and low HDL level induce reduction of platelet reactivity by decreasing positive feedback loops, particularly TXA2 production through a hematopoietic ABCA1-independent mechanism.