Plos One
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Portal hypertension is a direct consequence of hepatic fibrosis, and several hepatic fibrosis markers have been evaluated as a noninvasive alternative to the detection of portal hypertension and esophageal varices. In the present study, we compared the diagnostic and prognostic values of the noninvasive fibrosis markers in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. A total of 219 consecutive alcoholic cirrhosis patients were included. ⋯ Among the tested noninvasive markers, only Lok index significantly improved discrimination function of MELD score in predicting overall survival. In conclusion, LS and LSPS most accurately predict CSPH in patients with compensated alcoholic cirrhosis. In the prediction of overall survival in decompensated patients, however, Lok index is an independent prognostic factor and improves the predictive performance of MELD score.
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The present study examined age-related differences in multisensory integration and the effect of spatial disparity on the sound-induced flash illusion--an illusion used in previous research to assess age-related differences in multisensory integration. Prior to participation in the study, both younger and older participants demonstrated their ability to detect 1-2 visual flashes and 1-2 auditory beep presented unimodally. After passing the pre-test, participants were then presented 1-2 flashes paired with 0-2 beeps that originated from one of five speakers positioned equidistantly 100 cm from the participant. ⋯ In addition, both older and younger individuals showed a significant increase in reaction time for fusion trials, where two flashes and one beep are perceived as a single flash, as compared to congruent single flash trials. This increase in reaction time was not found for fission trials, where one flash and two beeps were perceived as two flashes. This suggests that processing may differ for the two forms for fission as compared to fusion illusions.
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Including questions about sexual health in the annual Health Survey for England (HSE) provides opportunities for regular measurement of key public health indicators, augmenting Britain's decennial National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal). However, contextual and methodological differences may limit comparability of the findings. We examine the extent of these differences between HSE 2010 and Natsal-3 and investigate their impact on parameter estimates. ⋯ While a relatively high response to sexual health questions in HSE 2010 demonstrates the feasibility of asking such questions in a general health survey, differences with Natsal-3 do exist. These are likely due to the HSE's context as a general health survey and methodological limitations such as its current use of pen-and-paper questionnaires. Methodological developments to the HSE should be considered so that its data can be interpreted in combination with those from dedicated sexual health surveys, thus improving our ability to monitor trends in sexual health.
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Research suggests that altered interregional connectivity in specific networks, such as the default mode network (DMN), is associated with cognitive and psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia. In addition, frontal and limbic connectivity alterations have been associated with trauma, drug use and urban upbringing, though these environmental exposures have never been examined in relation to DMN functional connectivity in psychotic disorder. ⋯ Increased functional connectivity in individuals with (increased risk for) psychotic disorder may reflect trait-related network alterations. The within-network "connectivity at rest" intermediate phenotype was not associated with (subclinical) psychotic or cognitive symptoms. The association between familial risk and DMN connectivity was not conditional on environmental exposure.
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Airway microbiota composition has been clearly correlated with many pulmonary diseases, and notably with cystic fibrosis (CF), an autosomal genetic disorder caused by mutation in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Recently, a new molecule, ivacaftor, has been shown to re-establish the functionality of the G551D-mutated CFTR, allowing significant improvement in lung function. ⋯ Several airway microbiota components, notably anaerobes (obligate or facultative anaerobes), could be valuable biomarkers of lung function improvement under ivacaftor, and could shed light on the pathophysiology of lung disease in CF patients.