Risk of psychiatric diagnoses in children and adolescents of parents with torture trauma and war trauma.

OBJECTIVE: Evidence point to intergenerational effects of trauma in refugee populations. This study estimates the risk of psychiatric diagnoses in children of severely traumatized refugees. The unique clinical sample consisted of refugee parents treated for torture trauma and war trauma, and outcomes were investigated using population-level data. METHOD: A nationwide register study, following all children residing in Denmark. The exposure was parental torture trauma and war trauma, and outcomes were any psychiatric disorder, mood, neurotic, behavioural and emotional disorders and disorders of psychological development. Children's hazard of being diagnosed was estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. Study participants were followed from the date of birth or immigration to their 18th birthday. RESULTS: The cohort included 3 346 993 children of which 19 294 were identified as offspring to traumatized refugees. During the study period, 205 610 children were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. Children with parents from the Middle East and Northern Africa had a hazard ratio of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.72, 0.84) for those treated for parental trauma and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.76, 0.81) for those not treated compared with children of non-traumatized Danish-born parents. For children of parents from former Yugoslavia, the corresponding estimates were 0.69 (95% CI: 0.58, 0.81) and 0.69 (95% CI: 0.65, 0.73). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that children of parents with and without registered torture trauma and war trauma have a lower risk of being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder compared to children of Danish-born parents. These findings contradict research done on the transmission of trauma but supports evidence suggesting mental health services underutilization by refugee and ethnic minority populations.

The structures of liquid pyridine and naphthalene: the effects of heteroatoms and core size on aromatic interactions.

Total neutron scattering has been used in conjunction with H/D and *N/15N isotopic substitution to determine the detailed liquid-state structures of pyridine and naphthalene. Analysis of the data via an empirical potential-based structure refinement method has allowed us to interrogate the full six-dimensional spatial and orientational correlation surfaces in these systems, and thereby to deduce the fundamental effects of a heteroatom and aromatic core-size on intermolecular π-π interactions. We find that the presence of a nitrogen heteroatom, and concomitant dipole moment, in pyridine induces surprisingly subtle departures from the structural correlations observed in liquid benzene: in both cases the most probable local motif is based on perpendicular (edge-to-face) intermolecular contacts, while parallel-displaced configurations give rise to a clear shoulder in the correlation surface. However, the effect of the heteroatom is revealed through detailed analysis of the intermolecular orientational correlations. This analysis shows a tendency for neighbouring pyridine molecules to direct one meta- and one para-hydrogen towards the neighbouring aromatic π-orbitals in edge-to-face configurations, while head-to-tail alignment of adjacent nitrogen atoms is favoured in face-to-face configurations. In contrast to this, increasing aromatic core size from one to only two rings has a clear and profound effect on the π-π interactions and liquid structure. Our experiments show that naphthalene-naphthalene contacts are dominated by parallel-displaced configurations, akin to those found in graphite. This marks a fundamental difference with the structure of liquid benzene, in which perpendicular geometries are favoured. Furthermore, it is remarkable to note that in the systems studied, the most favoured spatio-orientational configurations observed in the liquid state are not predicted from ab initio calculations and/or solid state crystallographic studies. This highlights the need for caution when extrapolating the results of crystallographic and computational studies to aromatic interactions in liquids and disordered systems.

Comparison of clinically suspected injuries with injuries detected at whole-body CT in suspected multi-trauma victims.

AIM: To assess the accuracy of the trauma team leader's clinical suspicion of injury in patients who have undergone whole-body computed tomography (WBCT) for suspected polytrauma, and to assess the frequency of unsuspected injuries and specific patterns of injury at WBCT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Requests for patients who underwent WBCT for suspected polytrauma from April 2011 to March 2014 were reviewed and each body area that was clinically suspected to be injured was recorded. Body areas were divided into the following groups based on anatomical regions covered in each segment of the WBCT examination: head (including facial bones); neck (including cervical spine); chest (including thoracic spine); and abdomen/pelvis (including lumbar spine). The formal radiology report for each study was reviewed and injuries found at CT were grouped into the same body areas. For each patient, the number of clinically suspected injured areas was compared to the number of confirmed injured areas at WBCT. RESULTS: Five hundred and eighty-eight patients were included in the study. Thirty-two percent (186/588) had a normal scan. Ninety-three percent (546/588) had fewer injured body areas at WBCT than suspected. Four percent (27/588) had the equivalent number of injured areas at WBCT as suspected. Three percent (15/588) had more injured areas at WBCT than suspected. Fifty percent (263/527) with clinically suspected chest injuries were confirmed to have chest injuries at WBCT. This was lower for other areas: abdomen/pelvis 31% (165/535); head 29% (155/533); neck 13% (66/513). Four percent of (24/588) patients had unsuspected injuries found at WBCT. Seventy-five percent (18/24) of unsuspected injuries were considered as serious, where failure to treat would have the potential for significant morbidity. Most of these patients had severe injuries to other body areas that were correctly suspected. Of the 165 with abdominal/pelvic region injuries, there were associated injuries in the thoracic region in 62% (103/165) cases. Of the 278 thoracic injuries, there were abdominal/pelvic region injuries in 37% (103/278) and injuries to the neck in 19% (52/278) cases. Of the 158 head injuries, there were neck injuries in 22% (34/158) cases. CONCLUSION: Clinical suspicion of injury correlates poorly with findings at WBCT, with a high proportion of uninjured body areas. The number of unsuspected injuries found at WBCT was low, but the majority of these were serious injuries, possibly masked by distracting injury to other body areas. The use of a WBCT protocol is recommended for suspected polytrauma, but regular monitoring of WBCT findings and regular feedback of the results to emergency physicians is suggested to help inform their selection of patients for trauma WBCT.

Ammonia absorption in calcium graphite intercalation compound: in situ neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and magnetization.

The structure and superconducting properties of ammoniated calcium-graphite intercalation compound (Ca-GIC) have been investigated using in situ time-of-flight neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and magnetization studies. Ammonia absorption has been carried out by exposing preformed Ca-GIC to ammonia vapour at various pressures. Our in situ neutron diffraction data reveal a complex ammonia pressure dependent structural transformation, in which the growth of secondary ammoniated Ca-GIC phases are observed at the expense of the pristine CaC(6) and graphite. The ammonia absorption is irreversible in nature, and degassing the sample at elevated temperature leads to the formation of calcium amide and hydrogen. The Raman spectroscopy and magnetization studies show that the ammonia absorption not only leads to a large stacking disorder, but it also reduces the superconducting CaC(6) phase fraction. Finally, we propose a molecular stacking model which accounts for the observed ammonia absorption and concomitant structural phase transitions.

Secretion of a bacterial cellulase by yeast.

Gene fusions were constructed between a yeast expression plasmid and a Cellulomonas fimi DNA fragment encoding an endo-1,4-beta-D-glucanase or carboxymethylcellulase. Yeast transformed with the recombinant plasmids secreted carboxymethylcellulase activity. Secretion of active enzyme was greatly increased when the leader of a secreted yeast protein, the Kl toxin, was inserted immediately upstream of and in frame with the bacterial cellulase sequence. This is the first step in constructing a functional cellulase complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It also provides an excellent system for the detailed examination of the determinants of protein secretion because of the ease with which secreted cellulase can be detected.

Erratum to 'Radiological investigations in neuroanaesthesia and neurocritical care, part 2: magnetic resonance imaging' [BJA Educ 18 (2018) 357-363].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.bjae.2018.08.004.].

Analysis of the inducible MEL1 gene of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis and its secreted product, alpha-galactosidase (melibiase).

We have determined both the nucleotide sequence of the MEL1 gene of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis and the N-terminal amino acid (aa) sequence of its extracellular gene product, alpha-galactosidase (melibiase) (alpha-Gal). The predicted translation product of MEL1 is a pre-alpha-Gal protein containing an 18 aa N-terminal signal sequence for secretion. The purified enzyme is a dimer consisting of two 50-kDal polypeptides, each of which is glycosylated with no more than eight side chains. The 5'-flank of the MEL1 gene contains a region (UASm) having certain areas of sequence homology to similar sites found upstream of the structural genes GAL1, GAL7 and GAL10, which are also regulated by the action of the products of genes GAL4 and GAL80. There are three TATA boxes between UASm and the initiation codon of pre-alpha-Gal, as well as a typical yeast cleavage/polyadenylation sequence in the 3'-flank of the gene.