Research synthesis, using techniques such as meta-analysis to combine the results of a number of studies, is a particularly useful technique when there are multiple studies with conflicting results, or where there may be conflicting interests, and can serve to extract the maximum information from animal experiments. The effect of conventional cages and alternative housing systems on measures of production, behaviour, physical and physiological condition in laying hens is an important question that would benefit from research synthesis. We found that statistical constraints did not allow the usual methods of meta-analysis, so as a first step towards quantitative comparison, we used a simple vote-counting approach based on the treatment means. We counted the number of papers in which conventional cages or alternative systems had a higher weighted mean for various response variables. Egg production was higher in conventional cages than in alternative systems, though this effect was probably mostly confined to the comparison with multi-level indoor systems. Bones were stronger from hens kept in alternative systems than those kept in conventional cages. We confirmed previous reviews that birds show more comfort behaviour and possibly dustbathing (or vacuum dustbathing) behaviour in alternative systems, but aggressive pecking did not differ between systems. Perhaps surprisingly, mortality, feather pecking and body wounds were not found to differ between systems. The latter findings suggest that the chance of a mortality or cannibalism outbreak may be no greater in alternative systems than in cage systems, but it should be noted that our analysis did not consider the magnitude of the difference in mortality. In conclusion, the meta-comparison undertaken here supports some but contradicts other conclusions reached in qualitative reviews.

A bibliometric analysis was undertaken to chart the development of animal welfare (AW) science as a whole, and of the individuals, organisations and countries that have had most academic impact to date. Publication data were collected from the Web of Science for the year range 1968-2017 and by-hand pre-processing of the data was undertaken to identify reviews and original research articles on AW. VOSviewer was used to create bibliometric networks. There has been a 13.3% annual growth in AW publications in the last 50 years with Animal Welfare and Applied Animal Behaviour Science the most frequent publishers of AW publications. Farm animals continue to dominate the subject of AW research and comparison of network visualisations for five key species suggested possible gaps in the research, such as relatively little emphasis on emotion research for some farm animals and little research on inherited disorders in dogs. However, keyword analysis indicated a recent broadening of AW findings to include other international contexts, such as conservation and sustainability. Highly cited review articles were grouped into five clusters with affective state (ie emotions, moods) and fish welfare the most recent topics. Almost all core authors of original research articles study farm animals, though in the last ten years other topics, such as consumer attitudes and wildlife, have emerged as highly cited areas of original research articles. Network analysis of organisations revealed the University of Bristol, UK as the main publisher of original research articles. Citation analysis indicated that many low-cited articles were originating from Germany and were published in German journals, suggesting that many worthwhile results and opinions on AW may be being missed by other researchers due to a language barrier. Several limitations of bibliometric analysis to generate an overview of AW science were identified, including the challenge of how to search and extract all the relevant publications in this discipline. In conclusion, animal welfare science is still in an exponential phase of growth which will bring opportunities, such as for the publication of new journals, but also challenges. The insights generated by this study suggest bibliometric analysis to be a useful addition to other approaches investigating the trends and concepts of animal welfare.

We describe system verification tests and early science results from the pulsar processor (PTUSE) developed for the newly commissioned 64-dish SARAO MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerKAT is a high-gain (${\sim}2.8\,\mbox{K Jy}^{-1}$) low-system temperature (${\sim}18\,\mbox{K at }20\,\mbox{cm}$) radio array that currently operates at 580–1 670 MHz and can produce tied-array beams suitable for pulsar observations. This paper presents results from the MeerTime Large Survey Project and commissioning tests with PTUSE. Highlights include observations of the double pulsar $\mbox{J}0737{-}3039\mbox{A}$, pulse profiles from 34 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from a single 2.5-h observation of the Globular cluster Terzan 5, the rotation measure of Ter5O, a 420-sigma giant pulse from the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR $\mbox{J}0540{-}6919$, and nulling identified in the slow pulsar PSR J0633–2015. One of the key design specifications for MeerKAT was absolute timing errors of less than 5 ns using their novel precise time system. Our timing of two bright MSPs confirm that MeerKAT delivers exceptional timing. PSR $\mbox{J}2241{-}5236$ exhibits a jitter limit of $<4\,\mbox{ns h}^{-1}$ whilst timing of PSR $\mbox{J}1909{-}3744$ over almost 11 months yields an rms residual of 66 ns with only 4 min integrations. Our results confirm that the MeerKAT is an exceptional pulsar telescope. The array can be split into four separate sub-arrays to time over 1 000 pulsars per day and the future deployment of S-band (1 750–3 500 MHz) receivers will further enhance its capabilities.

Spontaneous abortion is considered a public health problem having several causes, including infections. Among the infectious agents, bacteria of the vaginal microbiota and Ureaplasma parvum have been associated with abortion, but their participation needs to be further elucidated. This study aims to evaluate the influence of Mollicutes on the development of spontaneous abortion. Women who underwent spontaneous abortion and those with normal birth (control) were studied. Samples of cervical mucus (CM) and placental tissue were collected to identify Mollicutes using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction methodology. Eighty-nine women who had a miscarriage and 20 women with normal pregnancies were studied. The presence of Mollicutes in placental tissue increased the chance of developing miscarriage sevenfold. The prevalence of U. parvum in women who experienced spontaneous abortion was 66.3% in placental tissue. A positive association was observed between the detection of U. parvum in samples of placental tissue and abortion. There was a significant increase in microbial load in placental tissue for M. hominis, U. urealyticum and U. parvum compared to the control group. Detection of U. parvum in CM in pregnant women can ascend to the region of the placental tissue and trigger a spontaneous abortion.

The nosologies founded by Kraepelin (Psychotic Disorders) and Freud (Neurotic Disorders) still remain actual in categories F20-29, F30-39 and F40-49 of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision (ICD-10). The psychopathological mechanisms observed in classic disorders are shared with disorders considered in other categories regarding recognized etiologies (F10-19), ages of onset (F90-98), symptoms as precocious and enduring traces (F60-69) or specific symptoms (F50-59). Each classic pathology and its psychopathological mechanisms may be prototypical for a specific nosological spectrum that includes diseases which seem different at first glance. Accordingly, based on the combined knowledge of psychopathology and neurosciences, we assume that it is possible to conceive a more logical, rational and simpler way of organizing psychiatric nosology based on different psychopathological mechanisms emerging from five major questions:

1. 1. does the patient recognize his territory? (Dementia and delirium spectra),

2. 2. does the patient accurately recognise himself and the other? (Schizophrenic vs. autistic spectra),

3. 3. does the patient conserve his synchronicity with environmental and interpersonal rhythms? (Manic and depressive spectra),

4. 4. how does the patient feel about and react to threatening experiences? (Phobic vs. paranoid spectra), and

5. 5. how does the patient behave towards appetizing experiences? (Obsessive vs. Dissociative spectra).

We also discuss the relationship of these major questions with the encephalic stages (telencephalon, diencephalon, mesencephalon, and rhombencephalon).

The imprecise status of Psychiatry may be due to Cartesian dualism and the mind / body assumption. We can clarify this status resorting to an alternative ontology. Popper's Worlds 1, 2 and 3, and the corresponding concepts of matter, energy and information, from Von Bertalanffy and his General Systems Theory, are candidates for a new ontology. Applying them to the history and present structure of Western Medicine, we can assume that General Surgery is the branch of medicine which deals with bodily matter, Internal Medicine deals with energy and Psychiatry is the branch which deals with information. The respective basic disciplines are Anatomy, Physiology and Psychology. None of them is a medical specialty, because specialties, such as Neurology, Urology and Cardiology, deal with a sub-system of the organism and may have a surgical, medical or even psychiatric emphasis. In the same way that the body / mind problem seemed important for Cartesian dualism, this triadic structure of Medicine may also inform a new ontology. The recent history of Philosophy may be interpreted as an attempt of looking for it.

Children with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) show a strong preference for sex-typed behaviors more characteristic of the opposite sex and a rejection or avoidance of sex-typed behaviors more characteristic of one's own sex. There are also signs of distress and discomfort about one's status as a boy or a girl, including verbal expressions of dislike or disgust about one's genital anatomy.

The behaviors that characterize GID in children occur in concert, not in isolation. It is this behavioral patterning that is of clinical significance, and recognition of the patterning is extremely important in conducting a diagnostic assessment. the authors describe the case of a 6-year-old boy with GID. the clinical referral occurred 3 years after the onset of the condition, at the age of 6, when his parents begin to feel that the pattern of behavior was no longer a “phase” and worried about the implications of his symptoms in his academic and social life.

This case illustrates some of the problems of the diagnosis, assessment, associated psychopathologies, developmental trajectories and therapeutic strategies for childhood GID, including parental considerations.

The case of a 72-year-old male patient with initial depressive symptoms and visual hallucinations, added to a progressive motor and cognitive neurological impairment, is presented. the patient died of pneumonia 7 weeks after the onset of the symptoms; the necropsy confirmed the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) suggested previously by complementary diagnostic tests (brain magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalogram, 14-3-3 protein determination in the cerebrospinal fluid and study of the prionic protein gene).

Starting from atypical psychosis as a model of a psychotic entity typically associated with states of altered consciousness, and having as organic and physiological comparative models epileptic psychosis and dream, respectively, the authors seek to establish a fundamental condition for these phenomena. Then, assuming a phenomenological perspective, we analyze the latest neuroscientific findings in the field of psychosis, including schizophrenia, trying to extrapolate the findings obtained in atypical psychoses to all forms of psychosis, achieving a defining principle of psychosis. We conclude that psychosis consists in a disturbance of consciousness, namely, of a pre-reflective consciousness. This will be dependent on a complex neural system which, starting from a primordial feeling of Self, differentiates and branches out through higher brain structures along the ontogenetic development. A significant interference on the connectivity of this system leads to a commitment of effective intentionality in the psychotic individual, with a discontinuity in the search for meaning, and interaction of individuals in the world, where the regulation of primitive emotional tendencies for higher cognitive components is lost.

After the original description of the Ganser syndrome (GS), in 1898, there has been a great debate over the etiological primacy of either hysteria or psychosis (including organic states). Even now, despite the DSM-IV classification of GS as a dissociative disorder, this condition remains an extensively misunderstood condition. Not only has it been reported in association with various functional psychiatric disorders but also as organic states, most often in patients with head injury and stroke, especially those involving the frontal lobes.

A case of GS in a 47-year-old male patient admitted in the psychiatry ward due to a reactive depressive syndrome along with a personality disorder is presented. Throughout his stay in the inpatient unit, the patient developed a full blown GS after defenestration - in a paranoid context - with consequent head-trauma and internal hemorrhage in the fronto-temporal region of the dominant hemisphere.

The case illustrates some of the problems of nosology, clinical presentation, and psychopathology that this syndrome raises. The authors discuss the etiological dilemma and the complexities of the diagnosis of GS in the presence of an organic lesion accompanied by an overwhelming emotional component.

Narcolepsy is a disabling sleep disorder affecting 0.02% of adults worldwide. It is characterized by irresistible daytime sleepiness, catalepsy and can be associated with sleep paralysis, and hipnagogic hallucinations.

The treatment is essentially symptomatic with stimulant drugs (mostly dopaminergic) for daytime sleepiness and sleep attacks, antidepressants (mostly noradrenergic) for catalepsy and hypnotics for disturbed night-time sleep. Special care must be taken, with close blood monitoring for toxicity, in the prescription of these drugs to patients with concurrent renal or hepatic disease.

The authors present a case of a 72 year-old female patient with the diagnoses of narcolepsy and conjoint severe chronic renal and hepatic insufficiency, with intolerance for most of the recommended treatments for her sleep disorder. The patient is observed in a psychiatric consultation after several bone fractures due to cataleptic phenomena.

We describe a successful therapeutical approach with reboxetine, with a significant improvement in daytime sleepiness, reflected by a decrease of 52% on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Furthermore, a significant reduction in the cataplexy subscore of the Ullanlinna Narcolepsy Scale was also found. Consequently, this treatment led to a decrease in the frequency of catalepsy attacks and secondary traumatic injuries and an increase in the Global Assessment of Functioning scale.

Multi-decade observing campaigns of the globular clusters 47 Tucanae and M15 have led to an outstanding number of discoveries. Here, we report on the latest results of the long-term observations of the pulsars in these two clusters. For most of the pulsars in 47 Tucanae we have measured, among other things, their higher-order spin period derivatives, which have in turn provided stringent constraints on the physical parameters of the cluster, such as its distance and gravitational potential. For M15, we have studied the relativistic spin precession effect in PSR B2127+11C. We have used full-Stokes observations to model the precession effect, and to constrain the system geometry. We find that the visible beam of the pulsar is swiftly moving away from our line of sight and may very soon become undetectable. On the other hand, we expect to see the opposite emission beam sometime between 2041 and 2053.

Many studies have assessed use of the outdoor ‘range’ area on free-range laying farms, and have revealed that percentage range use at any one time rarely exceeds 50% of the flock, and is sometimes below 10%. What constitutes a ‘good’ range use is difficult to determine without better knowledge of ranging bout lengths under ideal conditions. Well documented factors that affect percentage range use include prevailing weather, flock size and shelter on the range. Other factors such as pophole design, internal and external stocking density and system design appear to play a role although their effects are not as clear and more research would be valuable to truly understand their relevance. Factors affecting bird distribution on the range are also reviewed.