Impact of Season of Birth on Psychiatric Disorder Susceptibility and Drug Abuse Incidence in a Population from the Köppen Tropical Savanna Region of Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Despite much evidence that season of birth (SOB) my influence the vulnerability to psychiatric disorders, divergence has been reported, in particular between populations born in the northern and southern hemispheres. We analyzed the potential modified risk by SOB to psychiatric disorder or drug addiction comorbidity in a population born in the Triângulo Mineiro region, a southern hemisphere Köppen tropical savanna region in Brazil. METHOD: We accessed the records of 98,457 of patients and healthy controls of the National Datacenter of Medical Promptuary to evaluate the influence of SOB as a modifying factor on the occurrence of mental disorders and drug abuse conditions among individuals born from the year 2000 to 2016. RESULTS: The data revealed significant modification of the relative incidence of major depressive disorder (MDD) (F11, 72 = 2.898; p = 0.003; eta-squared, ES = 0.313; ⍺ = 0.97), anxiety-related disorder (ARD) (F11, 81 =2.389; p = 0.013; ES = 0.241; ⍺ = 0.932), and schizophrenia (SZ) (F11, 83 = 2.764; p = 0.005; ES = 0.303; α = 0.963), while there was no increase in the number of healthy controls born in any month of the year (F11, 71 = 1.469; p = 0.163). Post hoc analyses indicated a significant higher vulnerability to MDD or ARD if the patient was born in August, or October to December, respectively. A relative increase in the incidence of SZ was also observed in patients born from August to October, compared to patients born from November to January. CONCLUSIONS: SOB may influence the risk for psychiatric disorders in the TMR population. Regional particularities associated with the climatic regime may account for the apparent divergence between studies.

Identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae by a real-time PCR assay targeting SP2020.

Real-time PCR targeting lytA (the major autolysin gene) and piaB (permease gene of the pia ABC transporter) are currently used as the gold-standard culture-independent assays for Streptococcus pneumoniae identification. We evaluated the performance of a new real-time PCR assay - targeting SP2020 (putative transcriptional regulator gene) - and compared its performance with the assays previously described. A collection of 150 pneumococci, 433 non-pneumococci and 240 polymicrobial samples (obtained from nasopharynx, oropharynx, and saliva; 80 from each site) was tested. SP2020 and lytA-CDC assays had the best performance (sensitivity of 100% for each compared to 95.3% for piaB). The specificity for lytA and piaB was 99.5% and for SP2020 was 99.8%. Misidentifications occurred for the three genes: lytA, piaB and SP2020 were found in non-pneumococcal strains; piaB was absent in some pneumococci including a serotype 6B strain. Combining lytA and SP2020 assays resulted in no misidentifications. Most polymicrobial samples (88.8%) yielded concordant results for the three molecular targets. The remaining samples seemed to contain non-typeable pneumococci (0.8%), and non-pneumococci positive for lytA (1.7%) or SP2020 (8.7%). We propose that combined detection of both lytA-CDC and SP2020 is a powerful strategy for the identification of pneumococcus either in pure cultures or in polymicrobial samples.

The SIM Time Network.

The Sistema Interamericano de Metrologia (SIM) is a regional metrology organization (RMO) whose members are the national metrology institutes (NMIs) located in the 34 nations of the Organization of American States (OAS). The SIM/OAS region extends throughout North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean Islands. About half of the SIM NMIs maintain national standards of time and frequency and must participate in international comparisons in order to establish metrological traceability to the International System (SI) of units. The SIM time network (SIMTN) was developed as a practical, cost effective, and technically sound way to automate these comparisons. The SIMTN continuously compares the time standards of SIM NMIs and produces measurement results in near real-time by utilizing the Internet and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Fifteen SIM NMIs have joined the network as of December 2010. This paper provides a brief overview of SIM and a technical description of the SIMTN. It presents international comparison results and examines the measurement uncertainties. It also discusses the metrological benefits that the network provides to its participants.