Spanish validation of the Stigma of Occupational Stress Scale for Doctors (SOSS-D) and factors associated with physician burnout.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Stigma of Occupational Stress Scale for Doctors (SOSS-D) and the factors associated with Physician Burnout in Paraguay. METHODS: Participants included 747 Paraguayan healthcare workers, aged 24-77 years old, of both sexes. SOSS-D was translated into Spanish and validated through an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Participants were also scored with the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), the CAGE questionnaire, and the stigma subscale of the Perceived Barriers to Psychological Treatment (PBPT) measure. RESULTS: Three factors had a raw eigenvalue greater than 1, and explained 61.7% of total variance. The confirmatory analysis confirmed that the scale is three-dimensional. The model adjustment was good, according to all fit indices. OLBI results indicate clinically significant disengagement in 85.9% and clinically significant exhaustion in 91.6% of participants. Of the 747 participants, 57.6% reported alcoholic beverage consumption and among those, 19.3% had problematic alcohol consumption according to the CAGE questionnaire. The correlation between SOSS-D and the stigma subscale of the PBPT was statistically significant (r = 0.245, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the SOSS-D was found to have good psychometric properties and adequately reproduces the three-dimensional model of the original English version.

Chronic fluoxetine treatment induces structural plasticity and selective changes in glutamate receptor subunits in the rat cerebral cortex.

It has been postulated that chronic administration of antidepressant drugs induces delayed structural and molecular adaptations at glutamatergic forebrain synapses that might underlie mood improvement. To gain further insight into these changes in the cerebral cortex, rats were treated with fluoxetine (flx) for 4 weeks. These animals showed decreased anxiety and learned helplessness. N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate (AMPA) receptor subunit levels (NR1, NR2A, NR2B, GluR1 and GluR2) were analysed in the forebrain by both western blot of homogenates and immunohistochemistry. Both methods demonstrated an upregulation of NR2A, GluR1 and GluR2 that was especially significant in the retrosplenial granular b cortex (RSGb). However, when analysing subunit content in postsynaptic densities and synaptic membranes, we found increases of NR2A and GluR2 but not GluR1. Instead, GluR1 was augmented in a microsomal fraction containing intracellular membranes. NR1 and GluR2 were co-immunoprecipitated from postsynaptic densities and synaptic membranes. In the immunoprecipitates, NR2A was increased while GluR1 was decreased supporting a change in receptor stoichiometry. The changes of subunit levels were associated with an upregulation of dendritic spine density and of large, mushroom-type spines. These molecular and structural adaptations might be involved in neuronal network stabilization following long-term flx treatment.

First Report of Orange Rust of Sugarcane Caused by Puccinia kuehnii in Mexico, El Salvador, and Panama.

Symptoms of sugarcane orange rust were observed on July 17, 2008 on sugarcane cvs. Mex 57-1285, Mex 61-230, and Co 301 (a clone received in Mexico in 1953) at the Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Caña de Azúcar en Tuxtla Chico, Chiapas, Mexico. In El Salvador, from August 2008 through January 2009, rust symptoms were observed on cv. CP 72-2086 (previously resistant to brown rust caused by Puccinia melanocephala Syd. & P. Syd.) in 117 dispersed sugarcane-production fields in various localities of El Salvador. Likewise, rust symptoms were first observed on sugarcane cv. SP 74-8355 (more than 25% severity and considered resistant to brown rust) at Natá, Coclé Province in Panama from January to February 2008. Dried herbarium leaf samples of sugarcane rust-infected leaves collected in El Salvador and Mexico were sent to the ARS, USDA Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory in Beltsville MD for identification. Panamanian samples were collected similarly and analyzed at the CALESA Biotechnology Laboratory. Morphological features of uredinial lesions and urediniospores were distinct from those of P. melanocephala and consistent with P. kuehnii E. J. Butler observed previously on specimens from Florida, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua (1-3). Analysis of the ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2 and 28S large subunit rDNA sequences of the rust on infected cvs. Mex 57-1285, Mex 61-230, and Co 301 (BPI 878930, 879139, and 879140; GenBank Accession Nos. GO283006, GO283004, and GO283005, respectively) from Mexico and cv. CP 72-2086 from three locations in El Salvador (BPI 879135, 879136, and 879137; GenBank Accession Nos. GO283009, GO283007, and GO283008, respectively) all confirmed the identification of P. kuehnii. Similar analysis of the ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2 rDNA sequence for the rust infecting cv. SP 74-8355 (GenBank Accession No. GO281584) confirmed the identification of P. kuehnii in Panama. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. kuehnii causing orange rust disease of sugarcane in El Salvador, Mexico, and Panama. These findings also confirm the wider distribution of orange rust in the Western Hemisphere. References: (1) E. Chavarria et al. Plant Dis. 93:425, 2009. (2) J. C. Comstock et al. Plant Dis. 92:175, 2008. (3) W. Ovalle et al. Plant Dis. 92:973, 2008.

[Aggression and group dependence in asthmatic children and a control group]. / Agresión y dependencia en un grupo de niños asmáticos y un grupo testigo.

We studied a group of 60 boys and girls, 30 were asthmatics and 30 were controls in order to know more about factors that influenced the psychodynamics of the asthmatic and non asthmatic child. Both groups received the child's Thematic Aperception Test. Human version (CAT-H) and its supplement (CAT-S). No significant statistical differences were observed in relation to aggression but there was a significant difference in dependence (p.05). There results suggest us that the asthmatic child has lack of self confidence and has to look for support in other people.

[The cardiovascular manifestations of Marfan's syndrome. A case report and review of the management]. / Manifestaciones cardiovasculares en el síndrome de Marfán. Presentación de un caso y revisión del manejo.

The authors present the clinical history of a patient with Marfan's syndrome (MS) and aortic insufficiency, who expired at 22 years of age, in order to illustrate the clinical evolution and review the management of this problem. It is known that patients with MS and heart failure due to dilatation of the aortic annulus have an early mortality of almost 100%. The authors conclude that echocardiographic follow up of these patients is vital in their medical and surgical management and that the use of beta blockers is the best medical therapy, and that prophylactic surgery with composite graft (aortic valve and ascending aorta) gives the best survival rate.

Manifestaciones cardiovasculares en el síndrome de Marfán: presentación de un caso y revisión del manejo / The cardiovascular manifestations of Marfan's syndrome: a case report and review of the management

The authors present the clinical history of a patient with Marfan's syndrome (MS) and aortic insufficiency, who expired at 22 years of age, in order to illustrate the clinical evolution and review the management of this problem. It is known that patients with MS and heart failure due to dilatation of the aortic annulus have an early mortality of almost 100%. The authors conclude that echocardiographic follow up of these patients is vital in their medical and surgical management and that the use of beta blockers is the best medical therapy, and that prophylactic surgery with composite graft (aortic valve and ascending aorta) gives the best survival rate