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Background Apathy is among the most common behavioral symptoms in dementia and is consistently associated with negative outcomes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Despite its prevalence and clinical relevance, available pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies to treat apathy in AD have been marked, respectively, by potentially severe side effects and/or limited efficacy. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a relatively novel non-pharmacological method of neuromodulation with promising results. Compared to previous tDCS formats, recent technological advances have increased the portability of tDCS, which creates the potential for caregiver-administered, home use. Our study aims to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of home-based tDCS for the treatment of apathy in AD. Methods/design This is an experimenter- and participant-blinded, randomized, sham-controlled, parallel-group (1:1 for two groups) pilot clinical trial, involving 40 subjects with AD. After a brief training, caregivers will administer tDCS for participants at home under remote televideo supervision by research staff to ensure the use of proper technique. Participants will be assessed at baseline, during treatment (week 2, week 4, and week 6), and 6 weeks post-treatment. Dependent measures will cover cognitive performance, apathy, and other behavioral symptoms. Data about side effects and acceptability will also be collected. Discussion Our study will address apathy, an overlooked clinical problem in AD. Our findings will advance the field of non-pharmacological strategies for neuropsychiatric symptoms, presenting a great potential for clinical translation. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04855643.

In this work, highly filled composites made of a commercial polypropylene resin and low melting point Tin particles, up to 50 vol.% in loadings, have been prepared by melt blending process. The introduction of stearic acid (SA), a common dispersant, was investigated in compositions. The developed systems were characterized in terms of dynamic rheological testing. Final results confirmed a reduction of linear viscoelastic domain, by increasing filler loadings, with an effect more emphasized in the presence of SA. Contrary to literature studies, at equal filler content (50%), both moduli resulted to be superior for formulations containing the dispersing agent. A further rheological characterization continued on systems at 30 vol.% of particle loadings for highlighting differences depending on the SA addition. Specific tests were also performed at temperatures above the melting of Tin particles. Finally, optical microscopic analyses were carried out for gaining insight on sample microstructure, in controlled conditions of temperature and shear rate.

This paper describes feasibility of and patient and peer satisfaction with a Veteran-to-Veteran peer support program purposefully integrated into prolonged exposure (PE) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to address barriers contributing to dropout from both in person and telemedicine delivered PE. Specifically, patients who had dropped out of PE were offered the opportunity to return to treatment, this time with a peer who themselves had completed PE, who would join them during a limited number of PE in vivo exposure homework trials. About half of the Veterans who dropped out indicated willingness to return to treatment, noting the peer as central to this decision, and about a third actually returned to treatment. Participants reported high satisfaction with the program, as did peers. Peers reported that their own symptoms were not exacerbated by engaging in exposure homework with the patients. While in the military, service members are trained to leverage the power of the group toward mission-specific tasks; and this training appears relevant to PTSD treatment in the present context.

Potassium depletion affects AQP2 expression and the cellular composition of the kidney collecting duct. This, in turn, contributes to the development of a secondary form of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus and hypokalemic nephropathy. Here we show that after 14 days of potassium depletion, the cellular fraction of A-type intercalated cells increases while the fraction of principal cells decreases along the outer medullary collecting duct in rats. The intercalated cells acquired a novel distribution pattern forming rows of cells attached to each other. These morphological changes occur progressively and reverse after 7 days of recovery on normal rat chow diet. The cellular remodeling mainly occurred in the inner stripe of outer medulla similar to the previously seen effect of lithium on the collecting duct cellular profile. The cellular remodeling is associated with the appearance of cells double labelled with both specific markers of principal and type-A intercalated cells. The appearance of this cell type was associated with the downregulation of the Notch signaling via the Hes1 pathways. These results show that the epithelium of the collecting duct has a high degree of plasticity and that Notch signaling likely plays a key role during hypokalemia.

Purpose We aimed to assess the role of radiologists, cardiologists, and other medical and non-medical figures in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research in the last 34 years, focusing on first and last authorship, number of published studies, and journal impact factors (IF). Methods Articles in the field of cardiac MRI were considered in this systematic review and retrospective bibliometric analysis. For included studies, the first and last authors were categorized as cardiologists, radiologists/nuclear medicine physicians, medical doctors (MD) with specialties in both cardiology and radiology/nuclear medicine, and other MD and non-MD. Differences in the number of papers published overall and by year and institution location for the first and last author category were assessed. Mean IF differences between author categories were also investigated. Results A total of 2053 articles were included in the final analysis. For the first authors (n = 2011), 52% were cardiologists, 22% radiologists/nuclear medicine physicians, 16% other MD, 10% other non-MD, and 1% both cardiologists and radiologists/nuclear medicine physicians. Similarly, the last authors (n = 2029) resulted 54% cardiologists, 22% radiologists/nuclear medicine physicians, 15% other MD, 8% other non-MD, and 2% both cardiologists and radiologists/nuclear medicine physicians. No significant differences due to institution location in the first and last authorship proportions were found. Average journal IF was significantly higher for cardiologist first and last authors when compared to that of radiologists/nuclear medicine physicians (both p < 0.0001). Conclusion Over 50% of studies in the field of cardiac MRI published in the last 34 years are conducted by cardiologists.

Background Effective treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (e.g., prolonged exposure (PE); cognitive processing therapy (CPT)) exist and are widely adopted by the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DoD). Unfortunately, dropout from these treatments regularly exceeds 30%. However, in a recent survey of patients who dropped out of PE, approximately half indicated a greater likelihood of completion if a peer who had completed treatment were available to help with the in vivo exposure homework. Methods We will use a between-groups randomized controlled design with repeated assessment at baseline, post treatment, and 3- and 6-month follow-up across measures of PTSD, depression, and functioning with 150 veterans who have indicated that they intend to drop out of treatment. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two PE + Peer Support conditions: (1) a peer will offer support directly during in vivo exposure homework for 3–4 weeks; vs (2) a peer will call weekly for 3–4 weeks to offer general support and to check in on treatment progress. Discussion The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that dropout from exposure-based PTSD treatment may be mitigated by using peers as support agents directly during PE in vivo homework experiences. Specifically, we intend to determine: whether patients who have dropped out of PE and are offered the “in vivo peer” adjunctive component to PE therapy will (1) return and complete treatment and (2) evince reduced PTSD symptomatology, compared to the same PE treatment, but with general peer support more reflective of current VA practices. Trial registration This study protocol is approved and information is available at ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT03485391. Registered on 2 April 2018.

Background While coins are still the most common foreign bodies swallowed by children, ingestion of batteries has become more frequent among children due to the increasing access to electronic toys and devices. Coin battery ingestion is potentially life threatening for children. Aortoesophageal fistula is the most common cause of death in children who have swallowed coin batteries, and there have not been any reported survivors. Case presentation A 3-year-old Caucasian girl presented to the emergency room of a community hospital complaining of abdominal pain. An abdominal X-ray showed a coin lithium battery located in the fundus of her stomach, and she was transferred to a referral pediatric hospital. In the following hours she developed massive hematemesis and severe hypovolemic shock. An emergency laparotomy was attempted, and the coin battery was removed. The initial surgery and multiple blood transfusions did not, however, improve the clinical situation. She was then referred to our tertiary referral center, where a multidisciplinary team decided to attempt a combined angiographic and endoscopic approach to resolve a life-threatening aortoesophageal fistula. A 3-year follow-up was uneventful. Conclusions Coin batteries are designed for a wide variety of small appliances, such as hearing aids, watches, remote controls, and toys. Although a change in the clinical approach to battery ingestion is needed to avoid misdiagnosis or delayed treatment, primary prevention of battery ingestion would be even more effective than an improved treatment.

The experimental program presented in this paper was aimed to investigate the steel–concrete bond behaviour of lightweight concrete. The lightweight concrete was obtained by substituting part of the traditional coarse aggregates with beads of expanded polystyrene (EPS). The addition of EPS in the concrete mix could influence the bond behaviour with steel reinforcing bars, albeit the same strength of a normal concrete is reached. After different mixtures of normal and lightweight concrete with EPS have been tested in order to check the influence of several parameters on the compressive strength, two mixtures of lightweight concrete with EPS and one of normal-weight concrete were finally prepared for carrying out the bond tests. A traditional pull-out scheme was assumed for the bond tests of black and zinc-coated steel bars embedded in concrete blocks made of the three mixtures.

Despite the great amount of work done in the last decade, retrieving information of interest from a large multimedia repository still remains an open issue. In this paper, we propose an intelligent browsing system based on a novel recommendation paradigm. Our approach combines usage patters with low-level features and semantic descriptors in order to predict users’ behavior and provide effective recommendations. The proposed paradigm is very general and can be applied to any type of multimedia data. In order to make the recommender system even more flexible, we introduce the concept of multichannel browser, i.e. a browser that allows concurrent browsing of multiple media channels. We implemented a prototype of the proposed system and tested the effectiveness of our approach in a virtual museum scenario. Experimental results have proved that the system greatly enhances users’ experience, thus encouraging further research in this direction.

We investigate the relation between structure and viscoelasticity of model polymer nanocomposite systems based on a mixture of spherical nanoparticles and different polymer matrices. When Brownian motions become relevant, the composites exhibit a strong time dependence of the linear visoelastic moduli, which is indicative of the three-dimensional structuring of the filler in the melt polymer. Despite the complexity of the rheological response, we show that the viscoelasticity of the samples can be rationalized by splitting it into the independent responses of the “viscous” suspending polymer melt and that of the “elastic” particle network. Besides underlying the similarities between polymer-based nanocomposites and Newtonian colloidal suspensions, our analysis is expected to be useful for understanding the behavior of other complex fluids where the elasticity of the components may be superimposed.

In this work we analyze the crystallization kinetics under steady shear flow conditions of different samples obtained by blending two isotactic poly(1-butene)s with different average molecular weights. It is observed that the addition of a small amount of high MW-polymer (

Neuroblastoma (NBL) is a heterogeneous tumor characterized by a wide range of clinical manifestations. A high tumor cell differentiation grade correlates to a favorable stage and positive outcome. Expression of the hypoxia inducible factors HIF1-α (HIF1A gene) and HIF2-α (EPAS1 gene) and/or hypoxia-regulated pathways has been shown to promote the undifferentiated phenotype of NBL cells. Our hypothesis is that HIF1A and EPAS1 expression represent one of the mechanisms responsible for the lack of responsiveness of NBL to differentiation therapy. Clinically, high levels of HIF1A and EPAS1 expression were associated with inferior survival in two NBL microarray datasets and patient subgroups with lower expression of HIF1A and EPAS1 showed significant enrichment of pathways related to neuronal differentiation. In NBL cell lines, the combination of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) with HIF1A or EPAS1 silencing led to an acquired glial-cell phenotype and enhanced expression of glial-cell differentiation markers. Furthermore, HIF1A or EPAS1 silencing might promote cell senescence independent of ATRA treatment. Taken together, our data suggest that HIF inhibition coupled with ATRA treatment promotes differentiation into a more benign phenotype and cell senescence in vitro. These findings open the way for additional lines of attack in the treatment of NBL minimal residue disease.

In this work the microwave absorbing properties of carbon black/silicone rubber blends were investigated in the frequency range 0.2÷6.0 GHz, varying the carbon black contents. In particular, the permittivity of the samples was measured by a network analyzer and then the experimental data were fitted as function of microwave frequency and carbon black content, e*=e*(f,C).

In this paper, the quiescent crystallization of polycaprolactone (PCL) melts is studied by rheological measurements coupled to calorimetry and optical microscopy. Based on a comparison between the different techniques, we find that the increase in viscoelastic properties during crystallization starts only when a relatively high degree of crystallinity is reached, which corresponds to a much developed crystalline microstructure. Like other semicrystalline thermoplastic polymers, the crystallization of PCL can be seen as a gelation process. In this case, however, we find a peculiar critical gel behavior, as the liquid-to-solid transition takes place at a very high (~20%) relative crystallinity, and this value is independent of temperature. These facts, and the comparison with optical microscopy observations, suggest that the microstructure at the gel point is controlled by the interactions between the growing crystallites. The gel time (from rheometry) and the half-crystallization time [from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)] both show an Arrhenius-like behavior and have the same pseudoactivation energy. A practical implication of this parallel behavior of t gel and t 0.5 is that the rheological measurements can be used to extend to higher temperatures the study of crystallization kinetics where DSC is not sufficiently sensitive.

There has been increasing interest in using video telehealth to deliver evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs). Telehealth may have numerous advantages over standard in-person care, including decreasing patients’ and providers’ costs and increasing system coverage area. However, little is known regarding the effectiveness of EBPs via video telehealth. This review had two goals, including a review of the existing literature and ongoing research on using video telehealth technologies to deliver EBPs as well as an informal survey of telehealth experts to discuss the special considerations and challenges present in adapting practices to video telehealth. Together, findings suggest that telehealth practices could represent an important component of the future of psychotherapy and clinical practice, especially in dissemination and implementation of EBPs in traditionally underserved areas and populations.

Existing measures of patient treatment satisfaction are largely characterized by a lack of psychometric evaluation, varied definitions across studies, and small numbers of items. The present study evaluated a patient treatment satisfaction questionnaire specifically designed for psychiatric outpatient treatment satisfaction, the Charleston Psychiatric Outpatient Satisfaction Scale (CPOSS), to extend previous findings by examining: 1) the psychometric properties of the CPOSS and the common domains within patient treatment satisfaction, and 2) the preliminary relations between the CPOSS and treatment outcome during exposure therapy in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present investigation included two studies. The first involved 170 combat veterans with PTSD who completed brief psychotherapy, and whose post-treatment CPOSS scores were used for the factor analytic investigations. The second study involved 63 combat veterans with PTSD who received a course of brief exposure-based psychotherapy and completed pre- and post-treatment assessments to investigate the relations between the CPOSS and treatment outcome. The first study supported the psychometric properties of the CPOSS, including identifying four psychometrically-sound subscales for: respectful care, appearance of facility, convenience of facility, and recommendation to friends/family. The second study demonstrated that the CPOSS was a significant predictor of post-treatment PTSD symptoms, relative to demographics and pre-treatment symptoms. Together, these findings support the use of the CPOSS as a valuable addition in psychiatric outpatient settings to both assess and potentially improve patient treatment satisfaction.

Exposure to natural disasters has been associated with increased risk for various forms of psychopathology. Evidence indicates that socioeconomic status (SES) may be important for understanding post-disaster psychiatric distress; however, studies of SES-relevant factors in non-Western, disaster-exposed samples are lacking. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the role of pre-typhoon SES-relevant factors in relation to post-typhoon psychiatric symptoms among Vietnamese individuals exposed to Typhoon Xangsane.In 2006, Typhoon Xangsane disrupted a mental health needs assessment in Vietnam in which the Self Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20), and the Demographic and Health Surveys Wealth Index, a measure of SES created for use in low-income countries, were administered pre-typhoon. The SRQ-20 was re-administered post-typhoon.Results of a linear mixed model indicated that the covariates of older age, female sex, and higher levels of pre-typhoon psychiatric symptoms were associated with higher levels of post-typhoon psychiatric symptoms. Analysis of SES indicators revealed that owning fewer consumer goods, having lower quality of household services, and having attained less education were associated with higher levels of post-typhoon symptoms, above and beyond the covariates, whereas quality of the household build, employment status, and insurance status were not related to post-typhoon psychiatric symptoms.Even after controlling for demographic characteristics and pre-typhoon psychiatric symptoms, certain SES factors uniquely predicted post-typhoon psychiatric distress. These SES characteristics may be useful for identifying individuals in developing countries who are in need of early intervention following disaster exposure.

Bis-cyclopentadienyl titanium dichloride (Cp2TiCl2) is utilized as initiator for aqueous emulsion homopolymerization of 1,3-butadiene and isoprene and for copolymerization of the same diene monomers with styrene. The obtained homo- and copolymers are fully characterized by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, thermal analysis and gel permeation chromatography.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), added to the DSM nosology in 1980, has become a widely used and studied psychiatric diagnosis—though it has also been the subject of much criticism and controversy. In this paper, we review and discuss a number of issues related to the future of PTSD within the DSM, including the conceptual basis of the disorder, summary of proposed changes to DSM-V, the empirical basis for or against specific disorder criteria, forensic implications, and conclusions and recommendations regarding the future of the disorder in DSM. Overall, the current proposed changes for DSM-V represent a modest improvement over DSM-IV criteria, though they are incremental and relatively minor in nature. As such, they are unlikely to have a meaningful impact on prevalence rates, treatment approaches, or forensic applications of the disorder—and the disorder, as defined, remains problematic in many ways. The empirical data on latent structure of responses to traumatic and general life stressors seem to indicate that perhaps PTSD should be replaced by a dimensional general stress response disorder within the DSM system.

Previous research in US populations has found associations between disaster-related variables, psychological variables, and post-disaster increases in smoking and alcohol use. To date, no research has examined this association in an international population of disaster exposed individuals. Data used in this study were drawn from a larger study involving a two-wave assessment of a disaster-affected sample of Vietnamese citizens (N = 798). Interviews were conducted to assess the effects of mental health variables and typhoon related variables on reported increases in alcohol use and cigarette smoking. Results indicate that post-disaster increases in smoking were associated with post-disaster diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder. Post-disaster increases in alcohol use were associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and panic disorder. None of the typhoon-characteristics were significantly associated with increases in substance use. Implications for mental health providers and future research directions are discussed.

The increasingly demanding applications of polymer based materials owing to their well established benefits over traditional materials ask for ever more improved performance not always achievable by commercial solutions.

As the mouse nasal embryonic LHRH factor gene (Nelf) encodes a guidance molecule for the migration of the olfactory axon and gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons, its human homolog, NELF, is a candidate gene for Kallmann syndrome, a disease of idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH) with anosmia or hyposmia. We report here characterization of NELF and results of mutation analysis in 65 IHH patients. Assembling EST clones, RACE, and sequencing showed that NELF mapped to 9q34.3 is composed of 16 exons and 15 introns with a 1,590-bp ORF encoding 530 amino acids. RT-PCR on a fetal brain cDNA library revealed five alternatively spliced variants. Among them, NELF-v1 has 93–94% identity at the amino acid level to mouse/rat Nelf, and four other transcripts are also highly conserved among the three species. A 3.0-kb transcript is expressed most highly in the adult and fetal brain, testis, and kidney, indicating that NELF plays a role in the function of these tissues. Mutation screening detected in a patient with IHH one novel heterozygous missense mutation (1438A>G, T480A) at the donor-splice site in exon 15 of NELF. As this mutation was not found in 100 normal control individuals, T480A may be associated with IHH. Four other novel SNPs (102C>T and 1029C>T within the coding region, and two IVS14+47C>T and IVS15+41G>A) were also identified in NELF.

he enzymatic activity (expressed as milliunits per milligram total proteins) of three intestinal brush-border membrane enzymes, leucine aminopeptidase, alkaline phosphatase and maltase, measured over a range of temperatures between 1.5 and 37-degrees-C, has been found to be much higher in the Antarctic fish Pagothenia bernacchii than in the temperate fish Anguilla anguilla. To explain this experimental observation the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant, the maximal velocity, the activation energy values and the thermal stability of these three enzymes were measured. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant values of leucine amino peptidase and alkaline phosphatase were different in the intestine mucosal homogenate of the two fish at each measured temperature (from a minimum of 2.5 to a maximum of 37-degrees-C). However, the values found at 2.5-degrees-C for the Antarctic species and 15-degrees-C for the eel where comparable. Furthermore, its value was unchanged in eel intestine apical membranes, both in the presence and without enzyme lipid microenvironment. While the maximal enzymatic activities of the leucine aminopeptidase and maltase did not decrease without their enzyme lipid microenvironment, produced by treatment with Triton X-100, the impairment of alkaline phosphatase maximal activity cannot be significantly differentiated from a non-specific inhibitory effect of the detergent. The activation energy values of leucine amino peptidase, alkaline phosphatase and maltase were lower in the Antarctic fish (11.7, 5.6 and 11.8 kcal.mol-1, respectively) than in the eel (13.6, 7.6 and 13.1 kcal . mol-1, respectively). The thermal stability of alkaline phosphatase and maltase is different in Pagothenia bernacchii and Anguilla anguilla intestinal homogenate.

Research on epidemiological assessment of interpersonal violence in younger adults indicates that there are essential components of interview-based queries necessary to maximize the likelihood that episodes of physical and sexual assault will be identified. These include phrasing to prime comprehensive disclosure, combined with extremely behaviorally specific descriptive questions about assault events. Such methodology permits simultaneous assessment of violence perpetrated by intimates or caregivers (i. e., abuse) as well as that perpetrated by strangers (i. e., assault), and is easily conducted via telephone. However, these strategies have not been used to simultaneously measure both abuse and assault in older adults, and some question exists as to the applicability of telephone interview techniques to geriatric populations. A total of 106 elder respondents were surveyed, approximately half in person and half via the telephone, to evaluate the feasibility of using a telephone-based structured interview to measure both assault and abuse, as well as to screen for psychopathology in a geriatric population. In order to assure that a sufficient number of crime victims were available to assess the ability of dependent measures to detect a variety of abuse and assault types, approximately half of the group in each interview context was comprised of a victim oversample referred by local police departments, whereas the remainder of each group were randomly selected from local telephone directories. Data indicated that the methodology was successfully adapted to the geriatric population. Rates of lifetime and recent abuse and assault detected by in-person and telephone methods were comparable, and medical problems associated with aging posed no significant problem. The methodology was acceptable to older adults and very effective in identifying both abuse and assault events, perpetrator status, and psychopathology. Telephone-based interviewing appeared to be a valid alternative to in-person interviews in identifying victimization and psychopathology.

A randomly selected sample of 549 women age 55 years and older and 2,669 women age 18–34 years was interviewed via telephone to determine prevalences of physical and sexual assault, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and depression. Prevalences of sexual and physical assaults were lower in older compared to younger women. In addition, given a trauma, prevalences and proportionate risk of posttraumatic psychopathology and depression were also lower for older, relative to younger women. Specifically, multivariate analyses revealed that sexual assault predicted only PTSD avoidance in older adults, but all forms of PTSD symptomatology and depression in younger adult women. Similarly, physical assault predicted only PTSD re-experiencing symptoms in older women, but all forms of PTSD symptoms and depression in younger women. Self-reported health status was not associated with any increased risk of psychopathology, and low income predicted increased avoidance and depression only in younger women.

In this work dynamic rheological and peel strength measurements on laminates of polyamide and several modified polyolefins were made to evaluate the interfacial compatibilization phenomena. The polyolefins used were a low-density polyethylene, without any treatment and γ-ray irradiated in air, and two copolymers, an ethylene–tert-butyl acrylate–acrylic acid terpolymer and a partially neutralized ethylene–methacrylic acid copolymer containing sodium cations. Multilayer structures containing different amounts of both interfacial surface and volume fraction were studied. Relationships between viscoelastic functions and composition were used to analyze the effect of bulk and surface modification in the polyolefins at the interface with the polyamide. The results show that dynamic rheological measurements of stratified polymers can be used as a tool to investigate interfacial activity in multiphase systems.

The DSM-IV does not subclassify patients with depression on the basis of anxiety level. Hence a significant confound may exist in all outcome studies that employ DSM definitions of depression. To establish that objectively identifiable anxious and nonanxious subtypes of depression do indeed exist, a psychophysiological assessment battery was used with 114 treatment-seeking older adults. Dichotomous criterion categorization as either Nonanxious Depressed or Anxious Depressed was based on (a) DSM-III-R/DSM-IV diagnosis, and (b) standardized questionnaires of psychopathology. Multivariate analyses revealed no differences between groups when DSM criteria were used to classify participants. However, identical analyses using phenomenological diagnostic criteria indicated that anxious and nonanxious depressed participants differed in their psychophysiological response to negative imagery. Although anxious and nonanxious depressed participants evince different psychophysiological response patterns, these differences unfortunately are obscured by the DSM. Consequently, a phenomenological classification system may be more appropriate with affective disorders.

The capillary flow properties of novel engineering thermoplastic phenolphthalein poly(ether ether ketone) (PEK-C) have been investigated using capillary rheometer. The dependence of viscosity on the wall shear rate and temperature were obtained. The entrance effect was calculated and from which the extensional behavior was also estimated. From the extudate swell ratio the principal normal stress were also evaluated. The melt fracture phenomena were checked and discussed.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is moderately heritable, with estimates ranging from 30 to 70%.1 However, most of the genetic variation accounting for this heritability has yet to be identified, and the majority of molecular studies to date on PTSD have been candidate gene designs.2 Only one genome wide association study of PTSD has been published. In a sample of white non-Hispanic trauma-exposed veterans and their spouses/partners with and without PTSD, Logue and colleagues3 found that one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs8042149) in the retinoid-related orphan receptor alpha gene (RORA) reached genome-wide significance. RORA has been implicated, in part, in protecting brain cells from the damaging effects of injury, stress and disease,3 and it is possible that individuals with the variation in RORA may be at increased risk for developing PTSD due to deficits in initiating neuroprotective processes after trauma. We sought to provide supporting evidence for the genetic association between RORA*rs8042149 and PTSD using data from the 2004 Florida hurricanes study.