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In Michigan, the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted Black and Latinx communities. These communities experienced higher rates of exposure, hospitalizations, and deaths compared to Whites. We examine the impact of the pandemic and reasons for the higher burden on communities of color from the perspectives of Black and Latinx community members across four Michigan counties and discuss recommendations to better prepare for future public health emergencies.
Methods:
Using a community-based participatory research approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 40) with Black and Latinx individuals across the four counties. Interviews focused on knowledge related to the pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on their lives, sources of information, attitudes toward vaccination and participation in vaccine trials, and perspectives on the pandemic’s higher impact on communities of color.
Results:
Participants reported overwhelming effects of the pandemic in terms of worsened physical and mental health, financial difficulties, and lifestyle changes. They also reported some unexpected positive effects. They expressed awareness of the disproportionate burden among Black and Latinx populations and attributed this to a wide range of disparities in Social Determinants of Health. These included racism and systemic inequities, lack of access to information and language support, cultural practices, medical mistrust, and varied individual responses to the pandemic.
Conclusion:
Examining perspectives and experiences of those most impacted by the pandemic is essential for preparing for and effectively responding to public health emergencies in the future. Public health messaging and crisis response strategies must acknowledge the concerns and cultural needs of underrepresented populations.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent psychiatric condition that frequently originates in early development and is associated with a variety of functional impairments. Despite a large functional neuroimaging literature on ADHD, our understanding of the neural basis of this disorder remains limited, and existing primary studies on the topic include somewhat divergent results.
Objectives
The present meta-analysis aims to advance our understanding of the neural basis of ADHD by identifying the most statistically robust patterns of abnormal neural activation throughout the whole-brain in individuals diagnosed with ADHD compared to age-matched healthy controls.
Methods
We conducted a meta-analysis of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation studies of ADHD. This included, according to PRISMA guidelines, a comprehensive PubMed search and predetermined inclusion criteria as well as two independent coding teams who evaluated studies and included all task-based, whole-brain, fMRI activation studies that compared participants diagnosed with ADHD to age-matched healthy controls. We then performed multilevel kernel density analysis (MKDA) a well-established, whole-brain, voxelwise approach that quantitatively combines existing primary fMRI studies, with ensemble thresholding (p<0.05-0.0001) and multiple comparisons correction.
Results
Participants diagnosed with ADHD (N=1,550), relative to age-matched healthy controls (N=1,340), exhibited statistically significant (p<0.05-0.0001; FWE-corrected) patterns of abnormal activation in multiple brains of the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia across a variety of cognitive control tasks.
Conclusions
This study advances our understanding of the neural basis of ADHD and may aid in the development of new brain-based clinical interventions as well as diagnostic tools and treatment matching protocols for patients with ADHD. Future studies should also investigate the similarities and differences in neural signatures between ADHD and other highly comorbid psychiatric disorders.
Steinernema longicaudum Shen & Wang is redescribed based on a comparative morphological study of specimens from the type isolate from China, and two other isolates recovered from Korea and the USA. For the first and second generation female, the location of the vulva, shape of the vulval lips, and shape and length of the tail were newly observed diagnostic characters. A more detailed description of the morphology of the male spicules and gubernaculum, and the arrangement of the genital papillae is included. A description, based on scanning electron microscopy observations, of the lateral field pattern of the third-stage infective juveniles is also provided. Additionally, restriction fragment length polymorphism profiles based on the internal transcribed spacer region, and cross-breeding tests supplement the description of this species.
Broad-spectrum antimicrobials are commonly used without indication and contribute to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We implemented a syndrome-based stewardship intervention in a community hospital that targeted common infectious syndromes and antipseudomonal beta-lactam (APBL) use. Our intervention successfully reduced AMR, C. difficile rates, use of APBLs, and cost.
Cholestasis characterised by conjugated hyperbilirubinemia is a marker of hepatobiliary dysfunction following neonatal cardiac surgery. We aimed to characterise the incidence of conjugated hyperbilirubinemia following neonatal heart surgery and examine the effect of conjugated hyperbilirubinemia on post-operative morbidity and mortality.
Methods:
This was a retrospective study of all neonates who underwent surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD) at our institution between 1/1/2010 and 12/31/2020. Patient- and surgery-specific data were abstracted from local registry data and review of the medical record. Conjugated hyperbilirubinemia was defined as perioperative maximum conjugated bilirubin level > 1 mg/dL. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Survival analysis was conducted using the Kaplan–Meier survival function.
Results:
Conjugated hyperbilirubinemia occurred in 8.5% of patients during the study period. Neonates with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia were more likely to be of younger gestational age, lower birth weight, and non-Caucasian race (all p < 0.001). Patients with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia were more likely to have chromosomal and non-cardiac anomalies and require ECMO pre-operatively. In-hospital mortality among patients with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia was increased compared to those without (odds ratio 5.4). Post-operative complications including mechanical circulatory support, reoperation, prolonged ventilator dependence, and multi-system organ failure were more common with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia (all p < 0.04). Patients with higher levels of conjugated bilirubin had worst intermediate-term survival, with patients in the highest conjugated bilirubin group (>10 mg/dL) having a 1-year survival of only 6%.
Conclusions:
Conjugated hyperbilirubinemia is associated with post-operative complications and worse survival following neonatal heart surgery. Cholestasis is more common in patients with chromosomal abnormalities and non-cardiac anomalies, but the underlying mechanisms have not been delineated.
Self-harming behaviours are reported to be increasing amongst young people and are associated with increased risk of suicide. The recently published UK clinical guidelines highlight that cross-sector awareness and early psychosocial assessment of self-harming is necessary, alongside careful triaging as to the level of support required. Dialectical behaviour therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) is a recommended intervention for young people with more severe difficulties. The current study aims to contribute to the data available to inform ongoing clinical decisions about the feasibility and implementation of DBT-A by reporting the intervention method, participant characteristics, and clinical outcomes of a national (UK) DBT service for young people with high levels of need and risk. Young people who commenced treatment between 2015 and 2021 were included. Completion rates, reasons for non-completion, and discharge pathways are reported. Measurement and changes in outcomes, including self-harm, in-patient bed days, accident and emergency department attendances and education/work status, are reported, as well as for routine outcome measures assessing emotion dysregulation and symptoms of emerging borderline personality disorder, depression and anxiety. The clinical significance of these outcomes are considered. Ideas for service evaluation, which are feasible and replicable in busy clinical settings are proposed, as well as a discussion of potential adaptations to standardised protocols needed in this context to fit with National Health Service (NHS) resources and the needs of the target population.
Key learning aims
(1) To learn about the implementation of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and concurrent outcome monitoring in a UK National Health Service CAMHS out-patient setting.
(2) To understand the clinical profile and response to treatment of young people with high levels of suicidal and non-suicidal self-harming behaviours.
(3) To present a potential method for outcome monitoring and collection for CAMHS DBT services.
In this revised and updated edition of Hunt's classic textbook, Human Intelligence, two research experts explain how key scientific studies have revealed exciting information about what intelligence is, where it comes from, why there are individual differences, and what the prospects are for enhancing it. The topics are chosen based on the weight of evidence, allowing readers to evaluate what ideas and theories the data support. Topics include IQ testing, mental processes, brain imaging, genetics, population differences, sex, aging, and likely prospects for enhancing intelligence based on current scientific evidence. Readers will confront ethical issues raised by research data and learn how scientists pursue answers to basic and socially relevant questions about why intelligence is important in everyday life. Many of the answers will be surprising and stimulate readers to think constructively about their own views.
In the last chapter we presented evidence tying intelligence differences among individuals to quantified details of brain structure and function. There were never doubts that intelligence is a function of the brain, so modern neuroimaging findings were not controversial in principle.
Changes in intellectual ability over the adult years are complex and important to understand because they can inform social policies. There are 97 million people in the European Union at least sixty-five years old. Three out of 10 live alone, and only 9 out of 100 between sixty-five and seventy-five are economically active. In the United States, the number of people sixty-five or over is 48 million now, in 2023, and this number will rise to 98 million by 2060. In China, the estimate is 487 million people aged sixty-five or older by 2050. The number for Japan will be a quarter of its total population.
The brain is the mediator of every aspect of intelligence. Of the many mysteries locked inside human brains, solving how intelligence works may have the most far-reaching consequences. In the short term, knowing how the brain creates intelligence from genetic and nongenetic influences may redefine intelligence in terms of quantifiable brain characteristics and provide brain-based ways to assess individual differences in intelligence. In the longer term, if we learn how to tinker with brain mechanisms to increase reasoning ability, we might enter a new phase of personal achievement and societal well-being. Such knowledge might even create more geniuses on the level of Einstein, Newton, Cervantes, or Da Vinci. Increasing intelligence could even raise the bar for artificial intelligence to catch up to humans (Hawkins, 2021).
Psychometric models do not explain the processes that underlie thinking. They are not intended to do so, but they nevertheless contribute to understanding intelligence. This has been the case since at least 1923, when Charles Spearman wrote The Nature of Intelligence and the Principles of Cognition. As Sternberg (2016, p. 236) highlighted, “Spearman believed that apprehension of experience, education of relations, and education of correlates are the basic overlapping information processes of intelligence. … The great psychometricians of all time – Spearman and Carroll – were also astute cognitive psychologists.”
The first eight chapters of this book focused on individual differences in intelligence. In Chapter 1, we introduced issues about group comparisons (Box 1.2) and some of the sensitive issues surrounding them. Before we discuss findings about sex (Chapter 10), age (Chapter 11), and differences around the world (Chapter 12), this chapter describes and discusses a number of essential issues required for properly interpreting data at the group or population level.
Ancestry and country differences in intelligence test scores are a matter of heated discussion. This chapter addresses delicate issues. Even when the data are relatively clear, discussion about their interpretation and meaning easily slips into dispute. We wrote this chapter to shed light and insight instead of lightning and thunder. Our focus is the world because the issues are significant across the globe (Hunt, 2012; Jones, 2016; Rindermann, 2018). To maintain the global focus, we are not detailing data within the United States beyond what is summarized in Box 12.1. As we do throughout this book, we emphasize key research because we agree with James Flynn’s (2018, p. 128) view on this subject: “There will be bad science on both sides of the debate. The only antidote I know for that is to use the scientific method as scrupulously as possible.”
Every experience we have leaves an imprint in our brains. Physical and social experiences can change the brain. We refer to experience because environment (1) is a catch-all term and (2) suggests that humans are passive entities. We know that this is not the case, as carefully discussed almost a century ago by Louis Leon Thurstone (1923) during the behaviorism academic tidal wave that simplified all human behavior as comprising nothing more than responses to stimuli without any role for motivation, intention, or any other nonobservable construct (Watson, 1919). With today’s historical perspective, behaviorism was much less generalized and influential than usually discussed in textbooks about the history of psychology (Braat et al., 2020). Thurstone’s active view is illustrated in the bottom of Figure 7.1. Critiquing the passive approach of behaviorism, he wrote in “The Stimulus–Response Fallacy in Psychology,”
Are women smarter than men? Or is it the other way around? Other than intelligence, are other mental abilities different between women and men, and if so, do these differences matter when it comes to education, vocations, or any other practical matters? Here is the short story: women and men do not differ much, if at all, on average g-factor scores, but there are differences on certain cognitive abilities that may be relevant to education, vocational choice, and success in various walks of life. Of course, the long story is more complex and includes compelling evidence about sex differences in the brain and the basic question about where the differences come from. And there is a practical question: should any of these findings inform social and educational policy in some way?