Estimating Investment Risk in Small-Scale Plantation Rainforest Cabinet Timbers and Eucalypts

‘This book is a landmark opening and first attempt at such a process for defining farm forestry, as well as making a contribution to small-scale forestry.’

Landholder Attitudes to and Participation in Farm Forestry Activities in Sub-tropical and Tropical Eastern Australia

‘This book is a landmark opening and first attempt at such a process for defining farm forestry, as well as making a contribution to small-scale forestry.’

Comorbid major depression in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients

Although major depressive disorder (MDD) has been consistently considered the most frequent complication of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), little is known about the clinical characteristics of patients with both disorders. This study assessed 815 Brazilian OCD patients using a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation. Clinical and demographic variables, including OCD symptom dimensions, were compared among OCD patients with and without MDD. Our findings showed that prevalence rates of current MDD (32%) and lifetime MDD (67.5%) were similar for both sexes in this study. In addition, patients with comorbid MDD had higher severity scores of OCD symptoms. There was no preferential association of MDD with any particular OCD symptom dimension. This study supports the notion that depressed OCD patients present more severe general psychopathology. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Elevated left and reduced right orbitomedial prefrontal fractional anisotropy in adults with bipolar disorder revealed by tract-based spatial statistics

Context Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in adults with bipolar disorder (BD) indicate altered white matter (WM) in the orbitomedial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC), potentially underlying abnormal prefrontal corticolimbic connectivity and mood dysregulatioin in BD. Objective: To use tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to examine VVM skeleton (ie, the most compact whole-brain WM) in subjects with BD vs healthy control subjects. Design: Cross-sectional, case-control, whole-brain DTI using TBSS. Setting: University research institute. Participants: Fifty-six individuals, 31 having a DSM-IV diagnosis of BD type 1 (mean age, 35.9 years [age range, 24-52 years]) and 25 controls (mean age, 29.5 years [age range, 19-52 years]). Main Outcome Measures: Fractional anisotropy (FA) longitudinal and radial diffusivities in subjects with BD vs controls (covarying for age) and their relationships with clinical and demographic variables. Results: Subjects with BD vs controls had significantly greater FA (t > 3.0, P <=.05 corrected) in the left uncinate fasciculus (reduced radial diffusivity distally and increased longitudinal diffusivity centrally), left optic radiation (increased longitudinal diffusivity), and right anterothalamic radiation (no significant diffusivity change). Subjects with BD vs controls had significantly reduced FA (t > 3.0, P <=.05 corrected) in the right uncinate fasciculus (greater radial diffusivity). Among subjects with BD, significant negative correlations (P <.01) were found between age and FA in bilateral uncinate fasciculi and in the right anterothalamic radiation, as well as between medication load and FA in the left optic radiation. Decreased FA (P <.01) was observed in the left optic radiation and in the right anterothalamic radiation among subjects with BD taking vs those not taking mood stabilizers, as well as in the left optic radiation among depressed vs remitted subjects with BD. Subjects having BD with vs without lifetime alcohol or other drug abuse had significantly decreased FA in the left uncinate fasciculus. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to use TBSS to examine WM in subjects with BD. Subjects with BD vs controls showed greater WM FA in the left OMPFC that diminished with age and with alcohol or other drug abuse, as well as reduced WM FA in the right OMPFC. Mood stabilizers and depressed episode reduced WM FA in left-sided sensory visual processing regions among subjects with BD. Abnormal right vs left asymmetry in FA in OMPFC WM among subjects with BD, likely reflecting increased proportions of left-sided longitudinally aligned and right-sided obliquely aligned myelinated fibers, may represent a biologic mechanism for mood dysregulation in BD.