Abstract: A combination therapy with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) has made it possible to achieve a sustained virological response (SVR) of 50% in refractory cases with genotype 1b and high levels of plasma HCVRNA. Several factors including virus mutation and host factors such as age, gender, fibrosis of the liver, lipid metabolism, innate immunity, and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) are reported to be correlated to therapeutic effects. However, it is difficult to determine which factor is the most important predictor for an individual patient. Data mining analysis is useful for combining all these together to predict the therapeutic effects, It is important to analyze blood tests and to predict therapeutic effects prior to initiating treatment. Our aim is to determine the independent contribution of factors including age, gender, viral load, liver fibrosis, hepatitis activity index sore, and the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) score in predicting response to therapy in chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Multivariate analysis of factors predicting rapid (RVR) and sustained (SVR) virological response in 280 consecutive, treatment-naive CHC patients treated with peginterferon alpha and ribavirin in a prospective multicentre study.

Abstract: Objective: Antiphospholipid antibodies (APLAs) have high risk of vascularthrombosis with significant clinical comorbidities. Anticardiolipin antibodies (ACLAs)and Lupus anticoagulant (LA) are important APLAs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of APLAs(ACLAs and LA) and their clinical significance among sample of Iraqi patients with systemic lupus erythematosus patients (SLE). Patients and methods: A single center cross sectional study conducted on 50 SLE patients diagnosed according to the 1997 revised American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for SLE from February 2010 to April 2011. Patients' age at SLE diagnosis, disease duration, SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI), renal involvement, cerebral involvement, cardiac involvement, pregnancy events, and thrombotic events were analyzed. Serum samples were extracted and screened for IgG and IgM using an anticardiolipin (ACL) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Lupus anticoagulant (LA), prothrombin time (PT), partial thromboplastic time (PTT), kaolin clotting time (KCT), and KCT index were assessed in all patients. Results: Of 50 SLE patients, the prevalence of positive anticardiolipin antibodies (ACLA) was 10(20%) and positive LA 5 (10%). Abnormal KCT12 (24.5%), Abnormal KCT index 5(10), Abnormal PTT2 (4.1%), and Abnormal PT 2(4%). Thrombotic events, pregnancy events, and cerebral involvement were associated with positive serology (P = 0.000, 0.225, 0.083 respectively). Renal and cardiac involvement were associated with negative serology (P = 0.019, 0.094 respectively). No new thrombotic events were found. Conclusions: Prevalence of positive ACLAs was 20% and positive LA 10%. Thrombotic events, pregnancy events, and cerebral involvement were associated with positive serology while renal and cardiac involvement with negative serology. We suggest screening SLE patients for the presence of APLAsand larger sample with longer follow up for their clinical manifestations.

Abstract: One of the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is the need for consistency, repetition, rituals, and rigid patterns of play. The need for sameness may be extended to include videogame play and interaction with others.Unfamiliar social interactions and disruption of repetitive patterns of interests and behavior may easily exacerbate anxiety-related stress in individuals with ASD. Whereas, videogame can induce distraction of stress response. We examined the effects of videogame play on cortisol social under the situations of asked questions on daily events plasma.We conducted astructuredinterview consisting of the declarative memory recallon daily events during videogame.Before the start of the interviews, each participant played a videogame as the default context. Two serial contexts followed in which participants were exposed to different social stimuli. Twotypes of stimulators such as an unfamiliar female and an unfamiliar male asked the participants questions on unpleasant daily events, respectively. Immediately after these interviews, the participants were permitted to resume the video game play.A blood specimen for plasma cortisol determination were conducted twice: once at the time of 28 days before and again 5 minutes after the interviews.There were no significant differences in plasma cortisol levels between before and after the interview questions in the 10 children with ASD and the 7 normal healthy controls. Disruption of videogame play, asked questions conducted by the unfamiliar adults, and memory retrieval for the unpleasant daily life events may be able to increase plasma cortisol levels. However, plasma cortisol levels in the 10 children with ASD were not significantly increase plasma cortisol response. Considering that video playing has been found toinduce distraction or decrease and no stress response, video game play candistract cortisol response to stressors.

Abstract: Our study has shown that changes can be induced in human decision-making and emotions by using the PD and PDAS games. This suggests that economic games may provide a way to study cognitive functions in detail by analyzing the structure of the economic games using game theory. In addition, the combined use of economic games and neuroimaging techniques such as fNIRS, fMRI, and MEG may capture and quantify neural the substrates of various cognitive processes in a clinical setting. They might be effective in extracting human emotional ups and downs in the process of the decision-making. Further studies of economic games for patients with mental illness or brain damage are needed to explore this approach further.

Abstract: The subjects with Asperger’s Disorder (ASP) have difficulties in social interaction. The Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) is a well-known model in game theory that illustrates the paradoxical disposition of interaction between two individuals. We investigated the cognitive characteristics of ASP by using a PD game. The subjects were 29 individuals with ASP and 28 healthy controls. In the PD game, each player has two cards: card 1 (cooperation) and card 2 (betrayal). The score each player obtains is decided depending on the combination of their selections according to a 2 x 2 payoff matrix. The P-score (“P” for punishment) is defined as the score that is given when they both select betrayal. Both the P-score at the end of the PD game and the total score were significantly higher in the ASP group although the rate of cooperative selection (the choice of Card 1) revealed no statistically significant difference between ASP and controls. ASP might be free of the dilemma that commonly arises among two persons because of social deficits in ASP subjects. The PD game might be a useful diagnostic support tool to understand the cognitive abilities in ASP.