Psychometric Properties of Vietnamese Versions of the Clinician-Rated and Self-Reported Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology and the Patient Health Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the second-most prevalent mental health condition in Vietnam. This study aims to validate the Vietnamese versions of the self-reported and clinician-rated Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS-SR and QIDS-C, respectively) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and to assess the correlations between the QIDS-SR, QIDS-C, and PHQ-9. METHODS: 506 participants with MDD (mean age, 46.3 years; 55.5% women) were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5. The internal consistency, diagnostic efficiency, and concurrent validity of the Vietnamese versions of QIDS-SR, QIDS-C, and PHQ-9 were determined using the Cronbach's alpha, receiver operating characteristic curve, and Pearson correlation coefficient, respectively. RESULTS: The Vietnamese versions of QIDS-SR, QIDS-C, and PHQ-9 demonstrated acceptable validity, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.901, 0.967, and 0.864, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity, respectively, were 87.8% and 77.8% for QIDS-SR and 97.6% and 86.2% for QIDS-C at the cut-off score of 6, and were 82.9% and 70.1% for PHQ-9 at the cut-off score of 4. Cronbach's alphas for QIDS-SR, QIDS-C, and PHQ-9 were 0.709, 0.813, and 0.745, respectively. The PHQ-9 highly correlated with the QIDS-SR (r = 0.77, p < 0.001) and the QIDS-C (r = 0.75, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The Vietnamese versions of the QIDS-SR, QIDS-C, and PHQ-9 are valid and reliable tools for screening of MDD in primary healthcare settings.

Prediction of Zika-confirmed cases in Brazil and Colombia using Google Trends.

Zika virus infection in humans has been linked to severe neurological sequels and foetal malformations. The rapidly evolving epidemics and serious complications made the frequent updates of Zika virus mandatory. Web search query has emerged as a low-cost real-time surveillance system to anticipate infectious diseases' outbreaks. Hence, we developed a prediction model that could predict Zika-confirmed cases based on Zika search volume in Google Trends. We extracted weekly confirmed Zika cases of two epidemic countries, Brazil and Colombia. We got the weekly Zika search volume in the two countries from Google Trends. We used standard time-series regression (TSR) to predict the weekly confirmed Zika cases based on the Zika search volume (Zika query). The basis TSR model - using 1-week lag of Zika query and using 1-week lag of Zika cases as a control for autocorrelation - was the best for predicting Zika cases in Brazil and Colombia because it balanced the performance of the model and the advance time in the prediction. Our results showed that we could use Google search queries to predict Zika cases 1 week earlier before the outbreak. These findings are important to help healthcare authorities evaluate the outbreak and take necessary precautions.

Association between maternal depression and risk of infant diarrhea: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the evidence for an association between maternal depression and the risk of diarrheal illness in infants. STUDY DESIGN: This study is a meta-analysis. METHODS: Nine databases were searched systematically for studies that investigated the risk of diarrheal illness in infants born to mothers with depression. RESULTS: Our search strategy yielded 10 studies of the association between maternal depression and the risk of diarrheal illness in infants: eight studies of postnatal depression, two studies of antenatal depression, and one study of perinatal depression. Our meta-analysis showed that infants born to mothers with postnatal depression were more likely to develop diarrheal illness (odds ratio [OR] = 1.902, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.385-2.612, P < 0.001, n = 18,585). A similar trend was noted for antenatal depression (OR = 2.703, 95% CI = 0.920-7.942, P = 0.071, n = 583). Only one study reported an association between perinatal depression and risk of diarrhea in infants (OR = 1.848, log OR = 0.614, standard error = 0.093, n = 107,587). CONCLUSIONS: Only a few studies so far have identified an association between maternal depression and risk of diarrhea in infants. The evidence available to date suggests that infants born to mothers with depression are more likely to develop diarrhea than infants whose mothers do not have depression.

Proteomic profile of circulating immune complexes in chronic Chagas disease.

Immune complexes (ICs) are the direct and real-time products of humoral immune responses. The identification of constituent foreign or autoantigens within ICs might bring new insights into the pathology of infectious diseases. We applied immune complexome analysis of plasma to the study of Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Twenty seropositive plasma samples including cardiac and/or megacolon determinate patients (n = 11) and indeterminate (n = 9) were analysed along with 10 seronegative individuals to characterize the antigens bound to circulating ICs. We identified 39 T. cruzi antigens and 114 human autoantigens specific to patients with Chagas. Among those antigens, two T. cruzi antigens (surface protease GP63, glucose-6-isomerase) and six human autoantigens (CD180 antigen, ceruloplasmin, fibrinogen beta chain, fibrinogen beta chain isoform 2 preprotein, isoform gamma-A of fibrinogen γ-chain, serum paraoxonase) were detected in more than 50% of the patients tested. Human isoform short of complement factor H-related protein 2 and trans-sialidase of T. cruzi were more frequently found in the indeterminate (5/9 for both) compared with in the determinate Chagas (0/11, P = 0·046 for human, 1/11, P = 0·0498 for T. cruzi). The immune complexome could illustrate the difference of immune status between clinical forms of chronic Chagas disease.

Muon spin rotation and relaxation in the superconducting ferromagnet UCoGe.

We report zero-field muon-spin rotation and relaxation measurements on the superconducting ferromagnet UCoGe. Weak itinerant ferromagnetic order is detected by a spontaneous muon-spin precession frequency below the Curie temperature TC=3 K. The micro+ precession frequency persists below the bulk superconducting transition temperature Tsc=0.5 K, where it measures a local magnetic field Bloc=0.015 T. The amplitude of the microSR signal provides unambiguous proof for ferromagnetism present in the whole sample volume. We conclude ferromagnetism coexists with superconductivity on the microscopic scale.

Unusual upper critical field of the ferromagnetic superconductor UCoGe.

We report upper critical field B(c2)(T) measurements on a single-crystalline sample of the ferromagnetic superconductor UCoGe. B(c2)(0) obtained for fields applied along the orthorhombic axes exceeds the Pauli limit for B parallela,b and shows a strong anisotropy B(c2)(a) approximately B(c2)(b)>>B(c2)(c). This provides evidence for an equal-spin pairing state and a superconducting gap function of axial symmetry with point nodes along the c axis, which is also the direction of the uniaxial ferromagnetic moment m(0)=0.07micro(B). An unusual curvature or kink is observed in the temperature variation of B(c2) which possibly indicates UCoGe is a two-band ferromagnetic superconductor.

Superconductivity on the border of weak itinerant ferromagnetism in UCoGe.

We report the coexistence of ferromagnetic order and superconductivity in UCoGe at ambient pressure. Magnetization measurements show that UCoGe is a weak ferromagnet with a Curie temperature T(C)=3 K and a small ordered moment m(0)=0.03 micro(B). Superconductivity is observed with a resistive transition temperature T(s)=0.8 K for the best sample. Thermal-expansion and specific-heat measurements provide solid evidence for bulk magnetism and superconductivity. The proximity to a ferromagnetic instability, the defect sensitivity of T(s), and the absence of Pauli limiting, suggest triplet superconductivity mediated by critical ferromagnetic fluctuations.

Treatment of fulminant liver failure by transplantation of microencapsulated primary or immortalized xenogeneic hepatocytes.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo function of hepatocytes after immortalization, cryopreservation, encapsulation, and xenotransplantation into mice with fulminant liver failure (FLF). METHODS: Rat and human hepatocytes were isolated by collagenase digestion. Human hepatocytes were immortalized using lentiviral vectors. Rat and immortalized human hepatocytes (IHH) were encapsulated in 400 microm of alginate-poly-L-lysine (PLL; Sigma, Buchs, Switzerland)-alginate membranes and cryopreserved using a computerized device. In vitro, encapsulated hepatocytes (cryopreserved or noncryopreserved) were cultured; albumin secretion was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Microencapsulated (cryopreserved or noncryopreserved) hepatocytes were transplanted intraperitoneally to mice with FLF: group 1 (n = 10) transplantation of empty capsules; group 2 (n = 12) transplantation of free primary rat hepatocytes; group 3 (n = 12) transplantation of cryopreserved encapsulated rat hepatocytes; group 4 (n = 10) transplantation of encapsulated rat hepatocytes; group 5 (n = 9) transplantation of cryopreserved encapsulated IHH; group 6 (n = 10) transplantation of encapsulated IHH. RESULTS: Compared with free primary hepatocytes, cryopreserved or noncryopreserved encapsulated rodent hepatocytes showed similar levels of continuous in vitro albumin secretion over 1 week. Cryopreserved or noncryopreserved encapsulated IHH showed minimal albumin secretion compared with free primary human hepatocytes. Fulminant liver failure, produced by a combination of acetaminophen and 30% hepatectomy, resulted in a 20% to 30% host survival. In groups 1 and 2, survival was unmodified, compared with untreated mice. For groups 3 and 4, transplantation of cryopreserved or noncryopreserved encapsulated rat hepatocytes significantly increased survival rates to 66% and 80%, respectively (P < .01). For groups 5 and 6, transplantation of cryopreserved or noncryopreserved encapsulated IHH improved host survival to 50% and 55%, respectively (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Primary rodent hepatocytes maintained synthetic functions after encapsulation and cryopreservation. Immortalized human hepatocytes showed minimal albumin secretion in the absence of encapsulation and cryopreservation, suggesting that hepatocytes lose some specific functions after immortalization. After induction of FLF in mice, intraperitoneal transplantation of encapsulated (primary or immortalized, cryopreserved or noncryopreserved) xenogeneic hepatocytes significantly improved survival. These results indicate that naive and genetically modified hepatocytes can be successfully encapsulated, stored by cryopreservation, and transplanted into xenogeneic recipients with FLF to sustain liver metabolic functions.

The analysis of heparin-protein interactions using evanescent wave biosensor with regioselectively desulfated heparins as the ligands.

Evanescent wave biosensor has been recently employed as a powerful tool for analyses of macromolecular interactions. In the present study, evanescent wave biosensor analysis was developed to analyze the heparin-protein interaction using as ligands a series of heparin derivatives regioselectively desulfated by chemical methods, particularly to evaluate the effect of each sulfate group of heparin. The method for immobilizing heparin on the cuvette of the evanescent wave biosensor equipment was optimized to obtain the high response required for accurate measurement. The best result was achieved when the amino group introduced at the reducing end of heparin was coupled with carboxymethyl dextran on the surface of the cuvette using glycolchitosan as a multivalent linker. The established system appeared to describe well the interactions of heparin with such proteins as acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors and tissue factor pathway inhibitor.

The cognitive P40, N60 and P100 components of somatosensory evoked potentials and the earliest electrical signs of sensory processing in man.

Selective attention tasks involving random sequences of electrical stimulation of fingers were designed to compare cerebral potentials to identical stimuli (for example to the left thumb) when they are 'infrequent target' signals or 'frequent-neglected' signals in the series. The experiments were carried out in normal adult subjects. The early SEP components were analyzed for the earliest cortical electrical sign of information processing stages. Two new components, P40 (with onset at 26 msec) and N60, precede the processing positivity P100 which may be more significant in somatosensory processing than the negativities recorded in auditory or visual tasks.