Sensory-based and higher-order operations contribute to abnormal emotional prosody processing in schizophrenia: an electrophysiological investigation.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is characterized by deficits in emotional prosody (EP) perception. However, it is not clear which stages of processing prosody are abnormal and whether the presence of semantic content contributes to the abnormality. This study aimed to examine event-related potential (ERP) correlates of EP processing in 15 chronic schizophrenia individuals and 15 healthy controls. METHOD: A total of 114 sentences with neutral semantic content [sentences with semantic content (SSC) condition] were generated by a female speaker (38 with happy, 38 with angry, and 38 with neutral intonation). The same sentences were synthesized and presented in the 'pure prosody' sentences (PPS) condition where semantic content was unintelligible. RESULTS: Group differences were observed for N100 and P200 amplitude: patients were characterized by more negative N100 for SSC, and more positive P200 for angry and happy SSC and happy PPS. Correlations were found between delusions and P200 amplitude for happy SSC and PPS. Higher error rates in the recognition of EP were also observed in schizophrenia: higher error rates in neutral SSC were associated with reduced N100, and higher error rates in angry SSC were associated with reduced P200. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that abnormalities in prosody processing occur at the three stages of EP processing, and are enhanced in SSC. Correlations between P200 amplitude for happy prosody and delusions suggest a role that abnormalities in the processing of emotionally salient acoustic cues may play in schizophrenia symptomatology. Correlations between ERP and behavioral data point to a relationship between early sensory abnormalities and prosody recognition in schizophrenia.

Prescribing practices and knowledge of tricyclic antidepressants among physicians caring for children.

We did not find any significant difference between pediatricians and family practitioners with regard to their knowledge of the potentially serious toxicities of the tricyclic antidepressants. One of this group, imipramine, is in widespread use for the treatment of enuresis. A large proportion of the pediatricians (40%) and family practitioners (50%) surveyed use this drug as the first or only approach to enuresis. It is disquieting to discover that, of those physicians choosing to use the drug, one third appear to be unaware of its toxic potential. Other effective treatment modes are available, and it is to be hoped that more physicians will explore them before turning to the more hazardous pharmacologic alternatives. Pediatricians, although not more knowledgeable than family practitioners, exhibited more careful prescribing practices.

The growing hierarchical self-organizing map: exploratory analysis of high-dimensional data.

The self-organizing map (SOM) is a very popular unsupervised neural-network model for the analysis of high-dimensional input data as in data mining applications. However, at least two limitations have to be noted, which are related to the static architecture of this model as well as to the limited capabilities for the representation of hierarchical relations of the data. With our novel growing hierarchical SOM (GHSOM) we address both limitations. The GHSOM is an artificial neural-network model with hierarchical architecture composed of independent growing SOMs. The motivation was to provide a model that adapts its architecture during its unsupervised training process according to the particular requirements of the input data. Furthermore, by providing a global orientation of the independently growing maps in the individual layers of the hierarchy, navigation across branches is facilitated. The benefits of this novel neural network are a problem-dependent architecture and the intuitive representation of hierarchical relations in the data. This is especially appealing in explorative data mining applications, allowing the inherent structure of the data to unfold in a highly intuitive fashion.

First Report of St. John's-Wort Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides in Switzerland.

In Switzerland, the increase in St. John's-wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) production was accompanied by the appearance of anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. The disease was first observed in 1995. In 1999, most of the 20 ha of St. John's-wort planted in Switzerland were grown organically, at an average gross income per hectare per year of 30,000 U.S. dollars. Anthracnose can destroy this perennial crop in the first year of cultivation, especially when it is grown in more humid areas and heavy soils. The restriction of fungicide use in organic farming can lead to a complete loss of the crop in such cases. Typical symptoms observed in the field were brown, sunken stem-girdling lesions and the reddish color of infected plants. In a later stage, aerial plant parts dried completely causing death. Acervuli that formed on stem lesions were sparsely setose. No saete occurred when the pathogen was grown on potato dextrose agar and ascospores of the teleomorph Glomerella cingulata (Stoneman) Spauld. & Schrenk were observed. Strain AN16 was sent to CABI Bioscience Identification Services (Egham, U.K.) who confirmed our identification. A conidial suspension (107 spores per ml) of AN16 was prepared and used to inoculate two St. John's-wort accessions, Hp 7 and Hp 9. Inoculation occurred under highly conducive conditions in the greenhouse. Symptoms developed on all infected plants 1 week after inoculation. One week later, the more susceptible Hp 9 was killed, whereas the more resistant Hp 7 showed only occasional stem lesions. Koch's rules were completed by reisolating the pathogen from infected plants.

Observations on the idioblasts of Dieffenbachia.

The toxicity of the Arum genus, especially the Dieffenbachia, has long been a topic of controversy. Some believe that the injury inflicted is primarily mechanical, the result of needle like crystals of calcium oxalate (raphides) found in the stems and leaves. Others cite evidence supporting the existence of enzymatic and allergic injury. This paper describes a hitherto neglected third factor, specialized cells which can forcibly shoot the raphides and which may be necessary for the toxic effect since raphide containing plants devoid of these cells are not toxic. The effects of physical and chemical factors on the behavior of these cells are described.

Black widow spider bites.

Black widow spiders (Latrodectus species) are found worldwide. Envenomation of humans usually occurs as the result of chance intrusion into the spider's domain by the human. The venom is regarded as one of the most potent biologic toxins. The venom acts by destabilization of cell membranes and degranulation of nerve terminals resulting in the release of neurotransmitters. The clinical picture is characterized by painful muscle spasm and hypertension. The very young, the elderly or enfeebled, and those with cardiovascular disease are at greatest risk. While not always necessary, the most effective treatment is specific antiserum. Muscle relaxants, analgesics and intravenous calcium are useful adjuvant treatment.

Castor bean toxicity re-examined: a new perspective.

Commonly used references present a very gloomy prognosis for castor seed ingestion. This appears to be based chiefly on extrapolations from laboratory animal studies of toxicity of the component, ricin. This is not in concordance with actual experience when actual case report experience is sought out and examined in detail. The literature has been confused by recursive references among secondary sources and mortality statistics have been distorted by reliance on data generated nearly a century ago which do not accurately reflect the capabilities of modern medical management. This is elucidated by actually tracking down and studying difficult-to-find original case reports from the early decades of the 20th century. It is time to reappraise our estimates of the hazard of ingesting castor seeds in the light of present day medical capabilities.

Ask your pharmacist?

Retail pharmacists should recognize their inadequate knowledge of Ipecac instructions. When confronted with an acute poisoning, these patients should be referred to their physician or nearest regional poison control center (3). Providing improper instructions creates the risks of: Vomiting a substance with which emesis is contraindicated; Unnecessary emesis; and Use of ineffective and unsafe methods of inducing emesis. Only 2 (6.25%) pharmacists gave complete and accurate instructions for the use of Ipecac--with the exception of mentioning the contraindications to emesis. However, both pharmacists referred the caller to their regional poison control center.

Safety closures after fifteen years.

Safety closures still are often the butt of jokes and many adults complain of inability to use CRCs. It has been suggested that pharmacists should devote more attention to instructing patients in the use of CRCs. We studied a random sample of adults (AC) and three "Golden Age" groups (GA). We measured the time taken in operating CRCs and the effect of training. For palm/turn CRCs there was no difference between AC and GA, or trained (T) and untrained (UT) groups. For "arrow" CRCs a significant (p less than .01) difference was found in all comparisons (UTAC vs TAC, UTGA vs TGA, UTAC vs UTGA, TAC vs TGA). The GA groups had difficulty seeing the white on white arrows but once found, could open the CRC with one hand and preferred this type CRC. This physical defect could not be overcome by training. All pretraining times were so short that training makes no important improvement. Improving visibility of characters on the CRC would be a greater utility.

Trends in childhood poisoning: a collaborative study 1970, 1975, 1980.

A collaborative study of 273 treated poisonings at three regional poison control centers showed a significant decrease in salicylism from 19% of all cases in 1970 to 9% in 1975 and 11% in 1980. A temporal correlation with safety packaging was also seen in the decrease in poisonings by household products from 36% and 42% of all treated poisonings in 1970 and 1975 to 21% in 1980. Poisonings by non-salicylate medications increased from 45% to 68% of treated ingestions. Therapeutic mishaps were relatively constant at 27%, 20% and 20% of all poisonings by medications. In children under one year of age 59% of medicinal poisonings were therapeutic mishaps, significantly higher than the 27% incidence for ages 1 to 5 years. Therapeutic mishaps and ingestions of household products resulted in significantly longer hospitalizations than accidental ingestion of medications. Additional data from two other regional centers permitted analysis of a total of 47 cases of treated salicylism. Therapeutic mishaps showed a possible upward trend from 27% of salicylate poisonings in 1970 to 36% in 1980. Almost all of the therapeutic mishaps with salicylates involved repeated overdose; 18 of the 19 mishaps due to other medications were allergic reactions.