Epitheliocystis and the importance of Chlamydia-related bacteria on fish health

This book offers unique coverage of all presently known amoeba-resistant microorganisms and their significance in the study of infectious diseases. It highlights the role of free-living amoebae as a widespread evolutionary crib for the development of virulence traits in resistant microbes, including the ability of intracellular bacteria to survive to other phagocytic cells such as human macrophages. The emphasis is on public health risks associated with the presence in drinking water of intra-amoebal bacteria as well as the ecology and pathogenic role of amoebae-resisting bacteria as new emerging human pathogens

Beiträge zur syrischen und jüdischen Geschichte : kritische Untersuchungen zur Seleukidenliste und zu den beiden ersten Makkabäerbüchern

von Walther Kolbe

Taking personalized medicine seriously: Biomarker approaches in phase IIb/III studies in major depression and schizophrenia

The success rate in the development of psychopharmacological compounds is insufficient. Two main reasons for failure have been frequently identified: 1) treating the wrong patients and 2) using the wrong dose. This is potentially based on the known heterogeneity among patients, both on a syndromal and a biological level. A focus on personalized medicine through better characterization with biomarkers has been successful in other therapeutic areas. Nevertheless, obstacles toward this goal that exist are 1) the perception of a lack of validation, 2) the perception of an expensive and complicated enterprise, and 3) the perception of regulatory hurdles. The authors tackle these concerns and focus on the utilization of biomarkers as predictive markers for treatment outcome. The authors primarily cover examples from the areas of major depression and schizophrenia. Methodologies covered include salivary and plasma collection of neuroendocrine, metabolic, and inflammatory markers, which identified subgroups of patients in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. A battery of vegetative markers, including sleep-electroencephalography parameters, heart rate variability, and bedside functional tests, can be utilized to characterize the activity of a functional system that is related to treatment refractoriness in depression (e.g., the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system). Actigraphy and skin conductance can be utilized to classify patients with schizophrenia and provide objective readouts for vegetative activation as a functional marker of target engagement. Genetic markers, related to folate metabolism, or folate itself, has prognostic value for the treatment response in patients with schizophrenia. Already, several biomarkers are routinely collected in standard clinical trials (e.g., blood pressure and plasma electrolytes), and appear to be differentiating factors for treatment outcome. Given the availability of a wide variety of markers, the further development and integration of such markers into clinical research is both required and feasible in order to meet the benefit of personalized medicine. This article is based on proceedings from the "Taking Personalized Medicine Seriously-Biomarker Approaches in Phase IIb/III Studies in Major Depression and Schizophrenia" session, which was held during the 10th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Clinical Trials Meeting (ISCTM) in Washington, DC, February 18 to 20, 2014.

Subtyping schizophrenia: A comparison of positive/negative and system-specific approaches

BACKGROUND Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder. Over the years, different approaches have been proposed to approach this heterogeneity by categorizing symptom patterns. The study aimed to compare positive/negative and system-specific approaches to subtyping. METHODS We used the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Bern Psychopathology Scale (BPS), which consists of subscales for three domains (language, affect and motor behavior) that are hypothesized to be related to specific brain circuits, to assess cross-sectional psychopathological characteristics in a sample of 100 inpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. We then categorized participants into positive/negative and system-specific subgroups to allow comparisons of the two approaches. RESULTS The analyses revealed correlations between the PANSS positive subscore and the BPS affective subscore (r=.446, p<.001) and between the PANSS negative subscore and the BPS motor behavior subscore (r=.227, p=.023). As regards the positive and negative subtype, more participants were classified as positive in the language-dominant subtype (30.3%) and affect-dominant subtype (30.3%), whereas more were classified as negative in the motor behavior-dominant subtype (44.4%). However, most patients met the criteria for the mixed subtype. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that the positive/negative and system-specific approaches can be regarded as complementary. Future studies should examine both approaches in a longitudinal assessment of psychopathological symptoms and link them with qualitative-phenomenological approaches.

Kollektive Erinnerung. Topographie und Topik in Walthers ›Palästinalied‹

The French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs (1877–1945) conceived re- membrance as a product of ›collective memory‹ and explained this idea in his book on ›La Topographie légendaire des Évangiles en Terre sainte‹ (1941) showing that the topography of the Holy Land was predominantly an imaginary landscape construed by Christian communities. Following this concept, this article studies the ›Palästinalied‹, a text describing the arrival of a pilgrim in the Holy Land in the time of the crusades, abundantly transmitted under the name of Walther von der Vogelweide. The high degree of textual variance in the diverse manuscripts testifies the acting of ›collective memory‹ in the medieval poetic tradition. Of special interest in this context are the strophic arrangements, the variation of deictic markers, the reworking of melodic models documented in the manuscript transmission and the diatopic opposition existing between the emphasis of ›distant love‹ expressed in Jaufré Rudel’s Occitan song ›Lanqand li jorn son lonc en mai‹ (one of the named models) and the attitude of proximity prevailing in the ›Palästinalied‹.

Psychomotor symptoms of schizophrenia map on the cerebral motor circuit

Schizophrenia is a devastating disorder thought to result mainly from cerebral pathology. Neuroimaging studies have provided a wealth of findings of brain dysfunction in schizophrenia. However, we are still far from understanding how particular symptoms can result from aberrant brain function. In this context, the high prevalence of motor symptoms in schizophrenia such as catatonia, neurological soft signs, parkinsonism, and abnormal involuntary movements is of particular interest. Here, the neuroimaging correlates of these motor symptoms are reviewed. For all investigated motor symptoms, neural correlates were found within the cerebral motor system. However, only a limited set of results exists for hypokinesia and neurological soft signs, while catatonia, abnormal involuntary movements and parkinsonian signs still remain understudied with neuroimaging methods. Soft signs have been associated with altered brain structure and function in cortical premotor and motor areas as well as cerebellum and thalamus. Hypokinesia is suggested to result from insufficient interaction of thalamocortical loops within the motor system. Future studies are needed to address the neural correlates of motor abnormalities in prodromal states, changes during the course of the illness, and the specific pathophysiology of catatonia, dyskinesia and parkinsonism in schizophrenia.

A 5'-3' exonuclease activity involved in forming the 3' products of histone pre-mRNA processing in vitro.

Histone RNA 3' processing in vitro produces one or more 5' cleavage products corresponding to the mature histone mRNA 3' end, and a group of 3' cleavage products whose 5' ends are mostly located several nucleotides downstream of the mRNA 3' end. The formation of these 3' products is coupled to the formation of 5' products and dependent on the U7 snRNP and a heat-labile processing factor. These short 3' products therefore are a true and general feature of the processing reaction. Identical 3' products are also formed from a model RNA containing all spacer nucleotides downstream of the mature mRNA 3' end, but no sequences from the mature mRNA. Again, this reaction is dependent on both the U7 snRNP and a heat-labile factor. Unlike the processing with a full-length histone pre-mRNA, this reaction produces only 3' but no 5' fragments. In addition, product formation is inhibited by addition of cap structures at the model RNA 5' end, indicating that product formation occurs by 5'-3' exonucleolytic degradation. This degradation of a model 3' product by a 5'-3' exonuclease suggests a mechanism for the release of the U7 snRNP after processing by shortening the cut-off histone spacer sequences base paired to U7 RNA.

Psychomotor retardation is linked to frontal alpha asymmetry in major depression

BACKGROUND Psychomotor disturbances are a main clinical feature of major depressive disorder (MDD) but little is known about their EEG signature. One of the most replicated EEG findings in MDD is resting frontal asymmetry in the alpha band (FAA), which is thought to be a correlate of withdrawal behavior and reduced approach motivation. The purpose of this study was to assess psychomotor alterations, alpha band power, FAA and investigate the association between them. METHODS 20 MDD patients and 19 healthy subjects were enrolled. Alpha power and FAA scores were calculated from a resting state EEG. Wrist actigraphy was recorded from the non-dominant arm for 24 h and activity level scores (AL) were extrapolated from the wakeful periods. RESULTS MDD patients had a left-lateralized frontal alpha activity and lower AL scores when compared to healthy subjects. A significant correlation was found between mean FAA and AL scores. A negative covariance between power in the lower alpha range and AL scores over the motor cortex bilaterally was detected. LIMITATIONS Relatively small sample size. Patients were pharmacologically treated with antidepressants. CONCLUSIONS This study replicates the finding of left-lateralized FAA and lower AL scores in MDD patients, and establishes the first evidence of significant correlations between alpha power, FAA scores and measures of motor activity, which may be interpreted as an expression of impaired motivational drive in MDD.

Factor structure of the Bern Psychopathology Scale in a sample of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

BACKGROUND The Bern Psychopathology Scale (BPS) is based on a system-specific approach to classifying the psychopathological symptom pattern of schizophrenia. It consists of subscales for three domains (language, affect and motor behaviour) that are hypothesized to be related to specific brain circuits. The aim of the study was to examine the factor structure of the BPS in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. METHODS One hundred and forty-nine inpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were recruited at the Department of Psychiatry II, Ulm University, Germany (n=100) and at the University Hospital of Psychiatry, Bern, Switzerland (n=49). Psychopathology was assessed with the BPS. The VARCLUS procedure of SAS(®) (a type of oblique component analysis) was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Six clusters were identified (inhibited language, inhibited motor behaviour, inhibited affect, disinhibited affect, disinhibited language/motor behaviour, inhibited language/motor behaviour) which explained 40.13% of the total variance of the data. A binary division of attributes into an inhibited and disinhibited cluster was appropriate, although an overlap was found between the language and motor behaviour domains. There was a clear distinction between qualitative and quantitative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS The results argue for the validity of the BPS in identifying subsyndromes of schizophrenia spectrum disorders according to a dimensional approach. Future research should address the longitudinal assessment of dimensional psychopathological symptoms and elucidate the underlying neurobiological processes.

Schizophrenic Psychoses with Motor-Dominant Symptoms: Considerations for a System-Specific Approach

In order to reduce heterogeneity in schizophrenia, a system-specific approach consisting of the domains "language", "affect" and "motor behavior" has been proposed. We examined this system-specific approach for its applicability to clinical practice in the motor behavior domain, using the methodological approach of case studies, and discuss here the differences to the positive/negative concept. We analyzed eight cases with stable motor-dominant symptoms, and also quantitatively assessed motor behavior by using the Bern Psychopathology Scale (BPS), a standardized psychopathological assessment instrument, as well as actigraphic data. Characterization of cases using the positive/negative approach was not helpful. We found an overlap of the motor behavior domain with the other two domains. This complicates the application of the system-specific approach in the sense of a typology. Furthermore, we found both relapsing courses with full remission and chronic courses with deterioration within the motor-dominant subtype. Nevertheless, the system-specific approach has heuristic utility for the future.