Search

Objectives: Tick‐borne encephalitis virus and louping ill virus are neurotropic flaviviruses transmitted by ticks. Epidemiologically, tick‐borne encephalitis is endemic in Europe whereas louping ill's predominant geographical distribution is the UK. Rarely, these flaviviruses affect dogs causing neurological signs. This case series aimed to describe the clinical, clinicopathological, and imaging findings, as well as the outcomes in six dogs with meningoencephalitis and/or meningomyelitis caused by a flavivirus in the UK in 2021. Materials and Methods: Observational retrospective case‐series study. Clinical data were retrieved from medical records of dogs with positive serological or immunohistochemical results from three different institutions from spring to winter 2021. Results: Six dogs were included in the study. All dogs presented an initial phase of pyrexia and/or lethargy followed by progressive signs of spinal cord and/or intracranial disease. Magnetic resonance imaging showed bilateral and symmetrical lesions affecting the grey matter of the thalamus, pons, medulla oblongata, and thoracic or lumbar intumescences with none or mild parenchymal and meningeal contrast enhancement. Serology for tick‐borne encephalitis virus was positive in five dogs with the presence of seroconversion in two dogs. The viral distinction between flaviviruses was not achieved. One dog with negative serology presented positive immunohistochemistry at post‐mortem examination. Three dogs survived but presented neurological sequelae. Three dogs were euthanased due to the rapid progression of the clinical signs or static neurological signs. Clinical Significance: These cases raise awareness of the presence of tick‐borne encephalitis as an emergent disease or the increased prevalence of louping ill virus affecting dogs in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of 3 mental disorders (Depressive Disorder, Conduct Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), the prevalence of mental health problems, and rates of health-risk behaviours among those with problems, along with patterns of service utilisation, are reported for 1490 adolescents aged 13-17 years in Australia. Mental disorders were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV completed by parents. Parents and adolescents also completed standard questionnaires designed to assess mental health problems, health-risk behaviours and service use. On the basis of parent reports, 13% of adolescents were identified as having mental health problems, while 19% were identified as having problems on the basis of adolescent reports. Many of the adolescents with mental health problems also had problems in other areas of their lives. Only 31% of those identified by parents as having mental health problems and 20% of adolescents who identified themselves as having problems, had attended a professional service during the 6 months prior to the survey. School counselling was the service most frequently attended. Clinical and population health interventions must take into account the presence of co-morbid problems and low rates of health service usage reported amongst adolescents with mental health problems.

Guion, Clark, Harada and Wayland (2003) found that three factors affect English speakers' stress placement on bisyllabic non-words: syllabic structure, lexical class and stress patterns of phonologically similar real words. The current replication and extension included three groups (N = 30): native English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Participants produced and gave perceptual judgments on 40 non-words of varying syllabic structures in noun and verb sentence frames. A regression analysis used the three factors to predict stress placement in production and perception. All three groups showed significant effects from stress patterns of phonologically similar real words and lexical class. The effect of syllabic structure for early bilinguals was slightly different from that of native speakers and late bilinguals showed greatly reduced effects. Late bilinguals exhibited more initial stress overall, possibly due to L1 transfer. These results run counter to the prediction made by Long (1990) about age effects on phonological acquisition.

Seventeen native English speakers participated in an investigation of language users' knowledge of English main stress patterns. First, they produced 40 two-syllable nonwords of varying syllabic structure as nouns and verbs. Second, they indicated their preference for first or second syllable stress of the same words in a perception task. Finally, they indicated words they considered to be phonologically similar to the nonwords. Analyses of variance on the production and perception data indicated that both syllabic structure and lexical class (noun or verb) had an effect on main stress assignment. In logistic regression analyses on the production and perception responses, predictions of stress placement made by (1) syllable structure, (2) lexical class, and (3) stress patterns of phonologically similar words all contributed significantly and uniquely to the prediction of main stress assignment. The results indicate that phonological theories of English word stress need to allow for multiple, competing, probabilistic factors in accounts of main stress placement including syllabic structure (most notably vowel length), lexical class, and stress patterns of phonologically similar words. (Contains 3 tables, 2 figures and 7 footnotes.)

Odorants are released during the decomposition of organic waste at compost treatment plants. Composting releases volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), including alcohols, aldehydes, volatile fatty acids, ammonia and other nitrogen compounds, xenobiotic solvents, and various sulphur compounds into the environment as categorised by a compost odor wheel. Each odorant possesses a characteristic odour signature - quality and threshold as well as a toxicity value. This paper presents data relating the human odour detection limit to human health threshold criteria developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 and the World Health Organisation. This comparison indicates that: (1) the human odour threshold concentrations (OTC) for most compost odorants are far lower than their respective human health risk (regulator/) threshold values, (2) several compost odorants have OTC that are below some of their respective regulatory thresholds and above others (i.e, dimethyl amine, formic acid acetone, ethyl benzene and toluene) and (3) only the VOCs probably present as contaminants in the raw composting material have OTC greater than all of its regulatory thresholds (Le. benzene). Benzene is the most hazardous VOC associated with composting and should be monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a model of case management with rural clients entering drug and alcohol treatment. As part of a larger treatment protocol called Structured Behavioral Outpatient Rural Therapy, behavioral contracting is combined with strengths perspective case management to help rural clients motivate themselves to engage and complete drug and alcohol treatment. This combined approach is designed to continually communicate and teach an "A-B-C" cognitive-behavioral approach to problem-solving and change. While not a panacea for addressing the myriad problems facing clients with drug use problems, such an approach promises to improve "treatment as usual" formats, which often ignore the formidable obstacles to human change experienced by rural clients and clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]