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Article

02 July 2024

Early Risk Indicators for DSM-IV Diagnoses in Adolescents and Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Objective: To identify risk indicators at ages 618 years that are associated with DSM-IV diagnoses in adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities five years later. To assess the potential health gain and efficiency of preventive interventions targeting these risk indicators. Method: Parents reported on potential child, parental, and environmental risk indicators. Five years later, parents were interviewed using a standardised psychiatric interview schedule (DISC-IV) to assess DSM-IV diagnoses in children with ID (N = 614) at the age of 11 to 24 years. Logistic regression and linear probability models were used to test the contribution of risk indicators to the prediction of DSM-IV diagnoses. Results: Deviant levels of internalising and externalising problems, inadequate adaptive behaviour, and parental psychopathology predicted psychiatric disorder. Children/adolescents exposed to multiple risk indicators were at greater risk of developing DSM-IV disorders. Conclusions: Strategies aiming for the risk reduction of psychiatric disorders in children/adolescents with ID should focus on intervening at an early age, improving psychopathology and adaptive behaviour skills of the children/adolescents, and supporting their parents.

Article

28 June 2024

Shifting Prospects: Views and Strategies for Transforming Livestock and Meat Value Chains in a Dynamic Location

Rural areas characterized by resource-dependent industries often experience growth but also lock-in and transformation pressures. We ask what strategies industries and businesses pursue that successfully exploit the transformative potential of such a location and what prevents other industries and businesses from doing the same. Based on interviews with stakeholders and experts from the livestock and meat sector in a highly specialized location, we explore the will, resources, and capabilities of industries and actors to transform their businesses and entire value chains in ways that can stabilize the local growth regime. The analysis is based on a conceptual framework derived from resource-based and dynamic capability theories at the micro level and the concept of Strategic Action Fields (SAFs) at the meso level. The results suggest that incumbents from the old industrial core tend to counteract the transformation of the SAF with conservative strategies. Challengers from former support activities, in contrast, want to move away from cost competition towards new markets. Their product variation and horizontal diversification can exploit favorable cluster characteristics to develop future-proof capabilities. This should be encouraged, along with new entrepreneurial activity, even if the region is then no longer hosting the core industries of the transformed field. 

Meeting Report

26 June 2024

12th International Workshop on the CCN Family of Genes

Cellular Communication Network factors 1-6 (CCNs) are matricellular proteins consisting of an N-terminal secretory peptide and four multifunctional structural domains. The CCN1-6 members belonging to this family have a complex network of interacting ligands that can affect diverse signaling pathways through a multitude of mechanisms. Specifically, these proteins play crucial roles in cell proliferation, differentiation, angiogenesis, apoptosis, chondrogenesis, wound repair, and extracellular matrix (ECM) formation/remodeling. This short communication provides a brief summary of the 12th International Workshop on the CCN Family of Genes held at the Scandic Holmenkollen Park Hotel in Oslo, Norway from 20–23 June 2024.

Opinion

26 June 2024

Prospective Approaches for Ecosystem Sustainability Including Climate Mitigation

A summary, based upon foresight, futures, ideation and frontier technology studies of prospective approaches to foster ecosystem sustainability including climate mitigation at the technology and societal levels which are at scale and profitable. Approaches summarized include halophytes/salt plants grown on deserts/wastelands using saline/seawater, to address land, water, food, energy and climate, frontier energetics, nascent climate mitigation concepts, cellular agriculture, materials optimization, the virtual age, efficiency and redesigning the ecosystem for the Anthropocene. Solution/mitigation approaches are targeted at deforestation, desertification, pollution writ large (land, sea, air, space), and extensive urbanization along with soil salination, ocean acidification, mining, and water scarcity.

Review

25 June 2024

Solute Carrier Family 26 Member 4 (SLC26A4), A Potential Therapeutic Target for Asthma

Asthma is a prevalent respiratory condition with multifaceted pathomechanisms, presenting challenges for therapeutic development. The SLC (Solute Carrier) gene family, encompassing diverse membrane transport proteins, plays pivotal roles in various human diseases by facilitating solute movement across biological membranes. These solutes include ions, sugars, amino acids, neurotransmitters, and drugs. Mutations in these ion channels have been associated with numerous disorders, underscoring the significance of SLC gene families in physiological processes. Among these, the SLC26A4 gene encodes pendrin, an anion exchange protein involved in transmembrane transport of chloride, iodide, and bicarbonate. Mutations in SLC26A4 are associated with Pendred syndrome. Elevated SLC26A4 expression has been linked to airway inflammation, hyperreactivity, and mucus production in asthma. Here, we review novel insights from SLC gene family members into the mechanisms of substrate transport and disease associations, with specific emphasis on SLC26A4. We explore triggers inducing SLC26A4 expression and its contributions to the pathogenesis of pulmonary diseases, particularly asthma. We summarize the inhibitors of SLC26A4 that have shown promise in the treatment of different phenotypes of diseases. While SLC26A4 inhibitors present potential treatments for asthma, further research is imperative to delineate their precise role in asthma pathogenesis and develop efficacious therapeutic strategies targeting this protein.

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