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Impulsivity and aggression are known risk factors for suicide, with observed age and sex differences in their impact.
Aims
To explore variations in impulsivity and aggression based on sex and age and examine their roles in predicting suicide.
Method
We examined 582 participants (406 individuals who died by suicide, 176 non-suicidal sudden-death controls) using the psychological autopsy method. Measures of impulsivity and aggression included the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and the Brown–Goodwin History of Aggression (BGHA). Participants were categorised into four groups: suicide male, control male, suicide female and control female. For group comparisons, we used analyses of variance and Spearman’s rank correlation to assess the relationship between age and BIS and/or BGHA ratings. Stepwise logistic regression was used to identify predictors of suicide for each sex.
Results
Higher levels of BIS and BGHA ratings were found in the suicide group compared with controls (BIS: 51.3 v. 42.2, P = 0.002, η2 = 0.017; BGHA: 7.1 v. 4.1, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.028), with no significant sex differences. BIS and BGHA ratings decreased with age in the suicide groups (suicide male: impulsivity ρ = −0.327, P < 0.001; suicide female: aggression ρ = −0.175, P = 0.038) but not among controls. Logistic regression analysis revealed that for men, aggression (odds ratio 1.072, 95% CI: 1.032–1.112) was a key predictor. For women, younger age (odds ratio 0.970, 95% CI: 0.948–0.993), low BIS impulsivity ratings (odds ratio 1.018, 95% CI: 1.001–1.036) and living with children (odds ratio 0.448, 95% CI: 0.208–0.966) were protective factors.
Conclusions
Impulsive and aggressive behaviours are critical factors in suicide risk among younger individuals, indicating an age effect but no sex dimorphism, with aggressive behaviours being a better predictor for men and impulsive and aggressive behaviours for women.
To determine the minimum cost and affordability of three levels of diet quality in urban households in Cali, Colombia: a caloric-adequate diet, a nutrient-adequate diet, and a recommended diet.
Design
Least-cost diets were estimated for different demographic groups. The Cost of Caloric Adequacy (CoCA) and the Cost of Nutrient Adequacy (CoNA) were computed using linear programming models. The Cost of Recommended Diet (CoRD) adheres to Colombia’s Food-Based Dietary Guidelines. Individualized costs were aggregated for a representative household, and affordability was assessed by comparing these costs with household food expenditures. Data sources included the National Administrative Department of Statistics, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, and the Colombia Institute of Family Welfare.
Setting
Cali, Colombia
Participants
The per capita income and food expenditures of 885 urban households in Cali, taken from Colombia’s Great Integrated Household Survey.
Results
The CoNA per 1,000 kcal indicates that women require more nutrient-dense diets than men. Limiting nutrients include vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B12, and calcium. Three food groups ―(1) meat, eggs, legumes, nuts, and seeds; (2) milk and dairy products; and (3) vegetables and fruits― account for about 70% of the CoRD. The affordability analysis shows that 42.66% of households in the 10th income percentile cannot afford the CoCA, none below the 20th percentile can afford the CoNA, and only those above the 40th percentile can afford the CoRD.
Conclusions:
Urban households face significant barriers not only to affording diets that promote long-term health, but also to those that meet nutritional requirements.
Declining labor force participation of older men throughout the 20th century and recent increases in participation have generated substantial interest in understanding the effect of public pensions on retirement. The National Bureau of Economic Research's International Social Security (ISS) Project, a long-term collaboration among researchers in a dozen developed countries, has explored this and related questions. The project employs a harmonized approach to conduct within-country analyses that are combined for meaningful cross-country comparisons. The key lesson is that the choices of policy makers affect the incentive to work at older ages and these incentives have important effects on retirement behavior.
Antioquia Brushfinch Atlapetes blancae is a recently rediscovered Colombian microendemic species with a restricted distribution. Although the species might use a variety of habitats, current information suggests that it is a shrubland specialist. It is categorised as “Critically Endangered” because due to habitat loss its population has been estimated to be smaller than 50 individuals. Such estimates are based on indirect measurements of its population and assumptions regarding its restricted range/habitat. We provide the first direct population estimates and adult sex ratio for seven localities, using mark-resighting techniques. Individuals were captured using mist-nets, bled, and colour banded. Subsequently, we performed censuses along transects to record banded and non-banded individuals. Population estimates were obtained using the classic closed population mark-resighting model. In addition, we used the abundance–area relationship to estimate population size at other sites where the species has been previously recorded. Finally, individuals were sexed by amplifying the Z and W-linked Chromo-Helicase DNA-binding gene (CHD) genes. In total, we banded 55 individuals at four locations. Summarising across the seven sampled localities, we found that the population is most likely composed of 109 individuals in the 122 ha sampled. Based on the abundance–area relationship, we estimated that the population of Antioquia Brushfinch could be as large as 405 individuals in 322 ha of suitable habitat. We found that male/female sex ratio was 0.45 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.32–0.6) and that it was not significantly biased. Our results suggest that the population of Antioquia Brushfinch is at least eight times larger than suggested by secondary information. We found that populations are properly structured at least regarding sex ratio, although we caution for further research on sex biases of immature and juvenile individuals. We recommend that future studies should focus on population trends and the impact of habitat transformation on the demography of this iconic species.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a persistent neuroinflammatory disease of the central nervous system that affects young adults, and is pathologically characterized by multiple and distributed focal white matter lesions, although they are characteristically located in periventricular regions. Cognitive impairment occurs in all clinical forms of the disease, with great variability and great impact on the quality of life of patients. Recent research indicates that in addition to cognitive and physical deficits, they also have deficits in social cognition, such as Theory of Mind. Although social cognition in patients with multiple sclerosis has begun to be studied in recent years, there is still little knowledge about its impact in the early stages of the disease, when the load of injuries is low and physical disability is not yet present. A series of 7 cases of patients diagnosed with MS in follow-up by the Multiple Sclerosis polyclinic of the Institute of Neurology of the Hospital de Clínicas is presented.
Participants and Methods:
Clinically stable patients with no recent urges and no cognitive complaint were included. They were evaluated with the ACE-R screening test and Theory of Mind tests: Reading the mind in the eyes and Faux Pas tests.
Results:
All patients presented normal ACE results, without indicators of cognitive impairment and poor performance in the emotion reading test. In two cases, poor yields in Faux Pas were also found.
Conclusions:
Social cognition has a great impact on quality of life, and there are indicators of involvement in early stages of the disease in which other typical cognitive deficits are not yet evident, and may constitute the first indicator of deterioration. The evaluation and early detection of deficits in social cognition could contribute to the treatment and quality of life of patients.
Acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP) is a rare hematological disease whose clinical management includes caplacizumab along with plasma exchange and immunosuppression, according to international guidelines. Caplacizumab has been available in Colombia since 2022. This study seeks to determine the therapeutic classification of caplacizumab according to the methodology of the Instituto de Evaluación Tecnológica en Salud.
Methods
The classification was carried out through a deliberative process following the modified Delphi technique, with a panel of experts, made up of four hemato-oncologists, a pharmaceutical chemist, and a patient. The results of effectiveness and safety obtained through a systematic review, therapeutic thresholds (clinical significance), and degree of acceptability (willingness to use the technology) were used for the classification.
Results
Fourteen effectiveness and safety outcomes were submitted for the classification process. Caplacizumab showed clinical significance for some effectiveness outcomes, was not considered inferior in terms of safety, and displayed acceptability of use. Through consensus, the panel determined that caplacizumab plus the standard regimen is superior to the standard regimen in terms of treatment response and composite outcome, and no different for the other effectiveness and safety outcomes. Likewise, in overall terms, the panel determined that caplacizumab together with the standard regimen is superior to the standard regimen.
Conclusion
Treatment with caplacizumab together with the standard regimen was considered superior to the standard regimen for the treatment of patients with aTTP, as it showed clinically significant benefits in critical outcomes for decision making, and a safety profile no different to its comparator.
The aim of this contribution is to provide a new methodology regarding the use of photogrammetry and 3D modelling in the classroom. By means of a practicum taught at Complutense University of Madrid and a survey conducted afterwards, we show the different steps of the activity, as well as the reception of the students, who learnt to elaborate 3D figures.
Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dates (n = 78) from human bone collagen were analyzed in the largest high-resolution chronology study to date at the ancient city of Teotihuacan in central Mexico (ca. AD 1–550). Samples originate from the residential neighborhood of La Ventilla, located in the heart of this major urban center. Here, a trapezoidal model using Bayesian statistics is built from 14C dates combined with data derived from the stylistic analysis of ceramics from burial contexts. Based on this model, we suggest possible refinements to Teotihuacan’s ceramic chronology, at least within the La Ventilla neighborhood. We also explore the abandonment and reoccupation of La Ventilla after the political collapse of Teotihuacan in the Metepec and Coyotlatelco phases. Findings suggest that these ceramic phases began earlier than is currently projected and that the well-documented abandonment period of La Ventilla may have occurred more abruptly than originally estimated.
Site E19 (19:N1W5), near Tlailotlacan, the “Zapotec Barrio” of Teotihuacan, contains evidence of both Tlailotlacan and Michoacan affiliation. To verify and better understand the Michoacan relationship, 22 enamel and 19 bone samples from five E19-affiliated burials were analyzed to determine their oxygen isotope compositions, which provide an indication of an individual's area of residence when that particular tissue was forming. Because prismatic blades and Thin Orange ceramics from Teotihuacan occur widely in the Lakes Region of north central Michoacan we obtained samples from several sites there for comparative purposes. The results show that most of the E19 people had passed their later years in the Patzcuaro Basin of the Lakes Region. Although in E19 the archaeological evidence of this relationship declined over time, the isotopic evidence indicates that Patzcuaro ties continued to the end of E19's occupation. It seems that the people of E19, originally Michoacanos, gradually adopted a core identity as Teotihuacanos while continuing to deploy their Michoacan ancestry during their stays in Michoacan.
Of the five nominal species in the genus Caranx Lacepède 1801 distributed throughout the Eastern Central Pacific, Caranx caballus and Caranx sexfasciatus are the only two that have formal fish larval descriptions based on diagnostic characteristics (morphology, meristics and pigmentation). In this study, the diagnostic characteristics of three Caranx species larvae were validated using DNA barcoding analysis cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI; 651 bp). For the first time, the morphological taxonomic assignation of C. caballus fish larvae was confirmed using COI gene partial sequences of adults, with a genetic similarity between 99.8–100%. However, molecular evidence demonstrated that fish larvae previously described as C. sexfasciatus had high genetic similarity (99.7–100%) and low genetic distance (<1%) to Caranx caninus adults. An undescribed larval morphotype collected in the present study genetically matched (100%) with COI sequences of C. sexfasciatus adults. The diagnostic characteristics of this new morphotype were a lack of pigmentation in the supraoccipital crest, over the gut, and at the terminal region of the gut. The combination of diagnostic characteristics and DNA barcoding evidence allowed the discrimination and validation of C. caballus, C. caninus and C. sexfasciatus larvae. The diagnostic characteristics and COI sequences of Caranx lugubris and Caranx melampygus larvae, which are also distributed in the Eastern Central Pacific, remain to be investigated.
This systematic review examines the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of behavioural health integration into primary healthcare in the management of depression and unhealthy alcohol use in low- and middle-income countries. Following PRISMA guidelines, this review included research that studied patients aged ≥18 years with unhealthy alcohol use and/or depression of any clinical severity. An exploration of the models of integration was used to characterise a typology of behavioural health integration specific for low- and middle-income countries.
Results
Fifty-eight articles met inclusion criteria. Studies evidenced increased effectiveness of integrated care over treatment as usual for both conditions. The economic evaluations found increased direct health costs but cost-effective estimates. The included studies used six distinct behavioural health integration models.
Clinical implications
Behavioural health integration may yield improved health outcomes, although it may require additional resources. The proposed typology can assist decision-makers to advance the implementation of integrated models.
We present the main results from the analysis of the Hα-[NII] emission lines with integral field spectroscopy observations gathered with MEGARA at the GTC of the nearby Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC7469. We obtained maps of the ionised gas in the inner 12.5 arcsec × 11.3 arcsec, at spatial scales of 0.62 arcsec, with an unprecedented spectral resolution (R ˜ 20 000). We characterized the kinematics and ionisation mechanism of the distinct kinematic components (Cazzoli et al.2019).
Chagas Disease is a zoonosis caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Several high-resolution markers have subdivided T. cruzi taxon into at least seven lineages or Discrete Typing Units (DTUs) (TcI-TcVI and TcBat). Trypanosoma cruzi I is the most diverse and geographically widespread DTU. Recently a TcI genotype related to domestic cycles was proposed and named as TcIDOM. Herein, we combined traditional markers and housekeeping genes and applied a Multispecies Coalescent method to explore intra-TcI relationships, lineage boundaries and genetic diversity in a random set of isolates and DNA sequences retrieved from Genbank from different countries in the Americas. We found further evidence supporting TcIDOM as an independent and emerging genotype of TcI at least in Colombia and Venezuela. We also found evidence of high phylogenetic incongruence between parasite's gene trees (including introgression) and embedded species trees, and a lack of genetic structure among geography and hosts, illustrating the complex dynamics and epidemiology of TcI across the Americas. These findings provide novel insights into T. cruzi systematics and epidemiology and support the need to assess parasite diversity and lineage boundaries through hypothesis testing using different approaches to those traditionally employed, including the Bayesian Multispecies coalescent method.
This study is a dosimetric and acute toxicity comparison of endometrial cancer patients treated with either Axxent (Xoft, Inc., San José, CA, USA) electronic and interstitial brachytherapy versus interstitial high dose rate brachytherapy (HDRBT).
Materials and Methods
Between 2015 and 2017, 94 patients with postoperative endometrial cancer were treated in our centre with the Axxent electronic brachytherapy (eBT) system. The V150 and V200 are evaluated prospectively for each plan. The mean age of patients was 65.9 years (age range 33–84 years), with different tumour staging. Of the 94 patients, 37 received exclusive adjuvant brachytherapy (25 Gy in five sessions); the remaining patients received external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with a regimen of 23 sessions of 2 Gy each to the entire pelvis, followed by eBT (15 Gy in three sessions). Additionally, the absorbed doses received by the organs at risk (OAR), urinary bladder, rectum and sigmoid colon were compared with HDRBT plans, evaluating D2cc, V50% and V35%. Median follow-up was done for each of the 94 patients to assess the toxicity of the treatment: vaginal mucosa toxicity, rectal and urinary toxicity; and results are presented for acute toxicity, toxicity at 1 month after the end of treatment and follow-up after 12 months for a portion of patients according to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) toxicity criteria.
Results
The doses in OAR for eBT plans were lower than that for HDRBT plans, both Ir-192 and Co-60 plans, whose doses were similar. The dose in bladder with eBT was 63.8% of the prescribed dose for D2cc versus 70.1% for HDRBT Ir-192, for V50% was 7.2% versus 12.7% and for V35% was 15.2% versus 28.2%. In rectum the D2cc was 61.2% versus 68.4%, for V50% was 7.9% versus 14.3% and for V35% was 16.7% versus 32%. Results demonstrated lower doses to OAR in all eBT plans. Acute toxicity in eBT was very low in cases of mucositis, with only one case of toxicity greater than grade 1, rectal toxicity and urinary toxicity; results at 1 month are equally good, toxicity symptoms disappeared and no relapses have occurred to date.
Conclusions
The results of treatment with the Axxent eBT unit for 94 patients are very good, as no recurrence has been observed and the toxicity of the treatment is very low. The increase in V150 and V200 has not produced an increase in vaginal mucosa toxicity, and the doses in the OAR are lower than in the plans implemented for HDRBT with Ir-192 or Co-60. eBT is a good alternative to treat endometrial cancer in centres without conventional HDR availability. To date, there are limited published studies reporting on outcomes from patients treated with eBT.
Newly discovered archaeological sites in the Uribe Kosta region of northern Spain are illuminating the establishment of late prehistoric coastal farming settlements and specialised tool-production activities.
Second-order diffraction (SOD) of x-rays refers to all diffraction processes where the photons reaching the detector have been diffracted twice within a crystal lattice. By measuring the two dimensional intensity profile of SOD, it is possible to distinguishing rescattering processes taking place inside each grain (perfect crystal domain) or in between grains. These two SOD regimes, usually called dynamical and kinematical, respectively, are ruled by size and relative orientation of the grains. In this work, we demonstrate how to explore SOD phenomena to understand the micro scale grain structure in plastically deformed silicon single crystal.
The polychaete Gallardoneris iberica was described in soft-bottom benthic habitats from the Atlantic Iberian Peninsula coasts in 2012. Since then, successive studies have found this species in Spain, Italy and Croatia. The present study is the first to report G. iberica for Greece and Cyprus (42 new records) confirming its wide geographic distribution on southern European coasts. Taxonomic accounts and ecological preferences based on a large survey and review of available literature are being presented. The species was frequently found in habitats characterized by infralittoral muddy sands with variable organic matter and ‘Moderate’ ecological quality status; nevertheless it was also recorded in coarser and finer sediments, circalittoral mixed sediments, phytal substrates and undisturbed sites. Its relative abundance per sample was always lower than 2%. A review of the available ecological and geographic data of the other Gallardoneris species and a worldwide taxonomic key to Gallardoneris species are provided.
The behavior of Active Regions (ARs) is directly related to the occurrence of some remarkable phenomena in the Sun such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CME). In this sense, changes in the magnetic field of the region can be used to uncover other relevant features like the evolution of the ARs magnetic structure and the plasma flow related to it. In this work we describe the evolution of the magnetic structure of the active region AR NOAA12443 observed from 2015/10/30 to 2015/11/10, which may be associated with several X-ray flares of classes C and M. The analysis is based on observations of the solar surface and atmosphere provided by HMI and AIA instruments on board of the SDO spacecraft. In order to investigate the magnetic energy buildup and release of the ARs, we shall employ potential and linear force free extrapolations based on the solar surface magnetic field distribution and the photospheric velocity fields.
Submicron-sized poly(lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles (PLGA-NPs) stabilised with bovine serum albumin (BSA) are dual radiolabelled using gamma emitters with different energy spectra incorporated into the core and coating. PLGA core is labelled by encapsulation of 111In-doped iron oxide NPs inside PLGA-NPs during NP preparation, while the BSA coating is labelled by electrophilic substitution using 125I. After intravenous administration into rats, energy-discriminant single-photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT) resolved each radioisotope independently. Imaging revealed different fates for the core and coating, with a fraction of the two radionuclides co-localising in the liver and lungs for long periods of time after administration, suggesting that NPs are stable in these organs. The general methodology reported here represents an excellent alternative for visualising the degradation process of multi-labelled NPs in vivo and can be extended to a wide range of engineered NPs.