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The Vicissicaudata, a group of artiopods, originated and reached their highest diversity during the Cambrian period. However, relatively few vicissicaudatan species are known from the Paleozoic. Here we report a new species of vicissicaudatan arthropod, sister to the cheloniellids, from the Late Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstätte. The two specimens preserve a small eyeless head, a trunk comprising seven tergites with wide pleural lobes, a narrower postabdomen bearing two long, posteriorly directed caudal appendages, and a short, shield-shaped telson. This new species not only extends the stratigraphic range of the Vicissicaudata into the Late Paleozoic but also represents an intermediate morphology between the cheloniellids and other vicissicaudatans.
Bipolar I disorder (BD-I) is a chronic and recurrent mood disorder characterized by alternating episodes of depression and mania; it is also associated with substantial morbidity and mortality and with clinically significant functional impairments. While previous studies have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural abnormalities associated with BD-I, they have yielded mixed findings, perhaps due to differences in sampling and experimental design, including highly variable mood states at the time of scan.
Objectives
The purpose of this study is to advance our understanding of the neural basis of BD-I and mania, as measured by fMRI activation studies, and to inform the development of more effective brain-based diagnostic systems and clinical treatments.
Methods
We conducted a large-scale meta-analysis of whole-brain fMRI activation studies that compared participants with BD-I, assessed during a manic episode, to age-matched healthy controls. Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a comprehensive PubMed literature search using two independent coding teams to evaluate primary studies according to pre-established inclusion criteria. We then used multilevel kernel density analysis (MKDA), a well-established, voxel-wise, whole-brain, meta-analytic approach, to quantitatively synthesize all qualifying primary fMRI activation studies of mania. We used ensemble thresholding (p<0.05-0.0001) to minimize cluster size detection bias, and 10,000 Monte Carlo simulations to correct for multiple comparisons.
Results
We found that participants with BD-I (N=2,042), during an active episode of mania and relative to age-matched healthy controls (N=1,764), exhibit a pattern of significantly (p<0.05-0.0001; FWE-corrected) different activation in multiple brain regions of the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia across a variety of experimental tasks.
Conclusions
This study supports the formulation of a robust neural basis for BD-I during manic episodes and advances our understanding of the pattern of abnormal activation in this disorder. These results may inform the development of novel brain-based clinical tools for bipolar disorder such as diagnostic biomarkers, non-invasive brain stimulation, and treatment-matching protocols. Future studies should compare the neural signatures of BD-I to other related disorders to facilitate the development of protocols for differential diagnosis and improve treatment outcomes in patients with BD-I.
The work reported in the Research Communication investigated in vitro rumen gas kinetics and fermentation profile as well as in vivo performance of lactating ewes fed corn silage (CS), sunflower silage (SFS) and their 50 : 50 mixture (CS-SFS). For the in vivo experiment, nine early-lactation Suffolk × Texel ewes were grouped in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design of three 21-d periods. Treatments were based on ad libitum CS, SFS, and CS-SFS supplemented with concentrate at 48 g/kg LW0.75. In vitro results showed that the CS had the highest dry matter degraded substrate and microbial crude protein production followed by CS-SFS. The in vivo data showed that animals fed on CS had higher digestibility of dry matter and organic matter than CS-SFS, while SFS were intermediate. Nitrogen (N) intake, fecal N excretion, and urine N excretion were similar between groups, however, milk N excretion was lower in SFS than CS. Milk yield was higher for CS and CS-SFS than SFS group, however, SFS-fed ewes had higher milk fat content than either CS or CS-SFS (all differences reported here were significant, P < 0.05 or better). Overall, CS-SFS could be used as dietary roughage for dairy ewes without deleterious effects on nutrient intake, N-balance and milk yield whilst potentially offering a more sustainable alternative to CS.
The effect of oral administration of three different nematode-trapping fungi, in aqueous suspension containing either Dactylaria sp. or Arthrobotrys oligospora conidia or Duddingtonia flagrans chlamydospores, on the number of Haemonchus contortus infective larvae in sheep faeces, was evaluated. The three selected species of fungi produce three-dimensional adhesive nets in the presence of nematodes. Sixteen Creole sheep were divided into four groups of four animals each. Groups 1 and 2 were orally drenched with a suspension containing 2×107 conidia of either A. oligospora or Dactylaria sp. Group 3, received a similar treatment, with D. flagrans chlamydospores, instead of conidia, being administered, at the same dose. Group 4 acted as control, without any fungi. Faecal samples were collected directly from the rectum of each sheep and faecal cultures were prepared and incubated at 15 and 21 days. Larvae were recovered from faecal cultures and counted. The highest reduction of the nematode population occurred in the D. flagrans group, reaching reductions of 96.3% and 91.4% in individual samplings in plates incubated for 15 and 21 days, respectively. Arthrobotrys oligospora showed moderate reductions in the faecal larval population, ranging between 25–64% at 15 days incubation. In general, Dactylaria sp., was less efficient in its trapping ability. Despite the inconsistent results with Dactylaria sp., reduction percentages of 73.4% and 80.7% were recorded in individual samplings during the first and second days, in plates incubated for 15 days. Duddingtonia flagrans, was shown to be a potential biological control agent of H. contortus infective larvae.
Chronic psychiatric patients admitted to subacute and long-stay hospital units are especially vulnerable to the situation of confinement due to the pandemic. Throughout 2020 and 2021 they have suffered the consequences of multiple strict confinements given the differences in isolation protocols in hospitalized patients compared to the general population. This has repercussions on the increase in anxious symptomatology, which influences a more torpid and prolonged evolution of mental disorders in this subpopulation.
Objectives
The objective of this study is to study the anxiety levels of patients admitted to a sub-acute and long-stay mental health unit in a situation of confinement due to covid-19.
Methods
We have carried out a cross-sectional descriptive observational study in 25 patients admitted to the subacute and long-stay unit of the Barcelona Forum Center between December 8 and 23, 2021 in the context of confinement due to a covid-19 outbreak. Sociodemographic and clinical variables are collected. We have used the self-administered STAI scale to assess clinical anxiety.
Results
The mean age is 47.7 years; women 60%. 80% with single marital status. 90% of the patients presented active tobacco consumption, with an average of 21.2 cigarettes/day. The mean score on the STAI scale was 58.8 for state anxiety and 46.7 for trait anxiety, both levels above the 75th percentile for adults, both men (state anxiety 28, trait anxiety 25) and women (state anxiety 31, trait anxiety 32).
Conclusions
The state and trait anxiety scores of the STAI scale of hospitalized patients are higher than the average of the general population, which could be due to the situation of confinement due to the covid pandemic.
Viruses are the most numerically abundant biological entities on Earth. As ubiquitous replicators of molecular information and agents of community change, viruses have potent effects on the life on Earth, and may play a critical role in human spaceflight, for life-detection missions to other planetary bodies and planetary protection. However, major knowledge gaps constrain our understanding of the Earth's virosphere: (1) the role viruses play in biogeochemical cycles, (2) the origin(s) of viruses and (3) the involvement of viruses in the evolution, distribution and persistence of life. As viruses are the only replicators that span all known types of nucleic acids, an expanded experimental and theoretical toolbox built for Earth's viruses will be pivotal for detecting and understanding life on Earth and beyond. Only by filling in these knowledge and technical gaps we will obtain an inclusive assessment of how to distinguish and detect life on other planetary surfaces. Meanwhile, space exploration requires life-support systems for the needs of humans, plants and their microbial inhabitants. Viral effects on microbes and plants are essential for Earth's biosphere and human health, but virus–host interactions in spaceflight are poorly understood. Viral relationships with their hosts respond to environmental changes in complex ways which are difficult to predict by extrapolating from Earth-based proxies. These relationships should be studied in space to fully understand how spaceflight will modulate viral impacts on human health and life-support systems, including microbiomes. In this review, we address key questions that must be examined to incorporate viruses into Earth system models, life-support systems and life detection. Tackling these questions will benefit our efforts to develop planetary protection protocols and further our understanding of viruses in astrobiology.
Natural disasters are becoming more common and destructive. There is a critical need to build accessible legal services for vulnerable populations that suffer disproportionately from natural disasters. Law schools, legal clinics, and law professors are well-positioned to serve vulnerable and marginalized communities and can address the issues of poverty and race that exacerbate the harm caused by natural disasters. Access to justice and civil legal aid after natural disasters should be rooted in preparedness and planning before the disaster. Understanding the nature of natural disasters, the ecosystem of response systems, existing networks, common legal issues, and the typical arc of recovery will help law schools, legal clinics, and lawyers prepare and plan for response. The models and lessons discussed in this chapter may help provide increased post disaster legal services to vulnerable people to empower them with confidence and tools to serve their communities. This chapter builds on lessons learned from previous natural disasters and offers information and insights on responsive program design, professionalism, and disaster response systems. Building a framework for institutional responses in the legal academy can advance and improve access to justice for vulnerable communities recovering after a disaster so that they can survive, rebuild and return home.
One of the most important aspects of genetic evaluation (GE) is the definition of contemporary groups (CG), commonly defined as animals of the same sex born in the same herd, year and season. The objective of this study was to use an aridity index (AI) to classify season and evaluate the implications on the GE of Braunvieh cattle. A data set with 32 777 and 22 448 birth weight (BW) and weaning weight adjusted to 240 days (WW) records, respectively, was used to compare two methods of classification of climatic seasons to be used in the definition of CG for GE models. The first method considered rain season criterion (RC), and the second method is a proposed classification using an AI. Both methods were compared using two approaches. The first approach examined differences in mixed models using the RC and AI season to select the best model for BW and WW, evaluated by different goodness of fit measures. The second approach considered fitting a GE model including the season classifications into the CG structure. Lower probability values for season effect and better goodness of fit measures were obtained when the season was classified according to the AI. Results showed that although differences are small, the AI allows a better model fitting for live-weight traits than RC and revealed a re-ranking effect on expected progeny differences data. Further analysis with other traits would demonstrate the extended utility of AI indicators to be considered for fitting models under a climatic change environment.
This paper presents a methodology that permits to automate binary classification using the minimum possible number of attributes. In this methodology, the success of the binary prediction does not lie in the accuracy of an algorithm but in the evaluation metrics, which give information about the goodness of fit; which is an important factor when the data batch is unbalanced. The proposed methodology assesses the possible biases in identifying one algorithm as the best performer when considering the goodness of fit of an algorithm through evaluation metrics. The dimension of data has been reduced through the cumulative explained variance. Then, the performance of six machine learning classification models has been compared through Matthew correlation coefficient (MCC), area under curve – receiver operating characteristic (ROC-AUC), and area under curve – precision-recall (AUC-PR). The results show graphically and numerically how the evaluation metrics interfere with the most optimal outcome of an algorithm. The algorithms with the best performance in terms of evaluation metrics have been random forest and gradient boosting. In the imbalanced datasets, MCC has provided better prediction results than ROC-AUC or AUC-PR. The proposed methodology is adapted to the case of bankruptcy prediction.
The role of anthropometric status on dengue is uncertain. We investigated the relations between anthropometric characteristics (height, body mass index and waist circumference (WC)) and two dengue outcomes, seropositivity and hospitalisation, in a cross-sectional study of 2038 children (aged 2–15 years) and 408 adults (aged 18–72 years) from Bucaramanga, Colombia. Anthropometric variables were standardised by age and sex in children. Seropositivity was determined through immunoglobulin G antibodies; past hospitalisation for dengue was self-reported. We modelled the prevalence of each outcome by levels of anthropometric exposures using generalised estimating equations with restricted cubic splines. In children, dengue seropositivity was 60.8%; 9.9% of seropositive children reported prior hospitalisation for dengue. WC was positively associated with seropositivity in girls (90th vs. 10th percentile adjusted prevalence ratio (APR) = 1.19; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.36). Among adults, dengue seropositivity was 95.1%; 8.1% of seropositive adults reported past hospitalisation. Height was inversely associated with seropositivity (APR = 0.90; 95% CI 0.83–0.99) and with hospitalisation history (APR = 0.19; 95% CI 0.04–0.79). WC was inversely associated with seropositivity (APR = 0.89; 95% CI 0.81–0.98). We conclude that anthropometry correlates with a history of dengue, but could not determine causation. Prospective studies are warranted to enhance causal inference on these questions.
In recent years, a variety of efforts have been made in political science to enable, encourage, or require scholars to be more open and explicit about the bases of their empirical claims and, in turn, make those claims more readily evaluable by others. While qualitative scholars have long taken an interest in making their research open, reflexive, and systematic, the recent push for overarching transparency norms and requirements has provoked serious concern within qualitative research communities and raised fundamental questions about the meaning, value, costs, and intellectual relevance of transparency for qualitative inquiry. In this Perspectives Reflection, we crystallize the central findings of a three-year deliberative process—the Qualitative Transparency Deliberations (QTD)—involving hundreds of political scientists in a broad discussion of these issues. Following an overview of the process and the key insights that emerged, we present summaries of the QTD Working Groups’ final reports. Drawing on a series of public, online conversations that unfolded at www.qualtd.net, the reports unpack transparency’s promise, practicalities, risks, and limitations in relation to different qualitative methodologies, forms of evidence, and research contexts. Taken as a whole, these reports—the full versions of which can be found in the Supplementary Materials—offer practical guidance to scholars designing and implementing qualitative research, and to editors, reviewers, and funders seeking to develop criteria of evaluation that are appropriate—as understood by relevant research communities—to the forms of inquiry being assessed. We dedicate this Reflection to the memory of our coauthor and QTD working group leader Kendra Koivu.1
Abnormalities in the semantic and syntactic organization of speech have been reported in individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis. The current study seeks to examine whether such abnormalities are associated with changes in brain structure and functional connectivity in CHR individuals.
Methods.
Automated natural language processing analysis was applied to speech samples obtained from 46 CHR and 22 healthy individuals. Brain structural and resting-state functional imaging data were also acquired from all participants. Sparse canonical correlation analysis (sCCA) was used to ascertain patterns of covariation between linguistic features, clinical symptoms, and measures of brain morphometry and functional connectivity related to the language network.
Results.
In CHR individuals, we found a significant mode of covariation between linguistic and clinical features (r = 0.73; p = 0.003), with negative symptoms and bizarre thinking covarying mostly with measures of syntactic complexity. In the entire sample, separate sCCAs identified a single mode of covariation linking linguistic features with brain morphometry (r = 0.65; p = 0.05) and resting-state network connectivity (r = 0.63; p = 0.01). In both models, semantic and syntactic features covaried with brain structural and functional connectivity measures of the language network. However, the contribution of diagnosis to both models was negligible.
Conclusions.
Syntactic complexity appeared sensitive to prodromal symptoms in CHR individuals while the patterns of brain-language covariation seemed preserved. Further studies in larger samples are required to establish the reproducibility of these findings.
To assess the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), and validate it against external criteria of intimate partner violence (IPV).
Methods:
A case control, transversal study was designed. Spanish version of the ISA was administered to 405 women (223 controls and 182 IPV cases). Spanish items weights were developed. Internal consistency was assessed through Cronbach's alfa, and factor structure by means of principal component analysis (PCA). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to validate the ISA against external criteria.
Results:
PCA analysis yielded two factors that accounted the 69% of variance, and reproduced partially the original factors: physical (ISA-P) and non-physical (ISA-NP). Internal consistency coefficients oscillated between 0,88 and 0,98. For the ISA global score, the AUC value for detecting IPV was 0,99; and 0,89 for detecting physical IPV. The optimal cut-off scores were 13 for detecting IPV, and 15 for detecting physical IPV. For the ISA subscales, 6 was the optimal cut-off score for the ISA-P, and 13 was the optimal cut-off for the ISA-NP.
Conclusions:
The Spanish version of the ISA is a valid and reliable instrument for detecting and measuring the intensity of the IPV in Spanish women population.
Tapentadol is a centrally-acting synthetic analgesic which acts as a mu-opioid receptor agonist as well as a norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor. It is use to treat cronic pain. Most prevalence adverse effects are gastrointestinal and nervous symptoms. Furthermore, it has objectified, with less frequency, psychiatric disturbances.
Objetives
To analyse the relationship between a maniac episode and tapentadol.
Methods
Forty-nine-year-old female, with personal history of dyslipidemia and lumbar herniated discs in L4-L5, L5-S1, in treatment with tapentadol 200 mg/day for 20 days and no past psychiatric history. She was admitted to the Psychiatry Department due to a maniac episode, with desinhibition, pressure and loud speech, euphoria, megalomaniac delusion and sleep disturbance for the last 10 days. Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) was 36 points. Olanzapina 15 mg/day was introduced and tapentadol was removed. Symptoms remitted quickly and 6 days later, at discharge, YMRS was 4 points. One year later, the patient continued to be asymptomatic.
Results
Opioids can produce psychiatric disorders like hallucination, sleep disorders, depressed mood, disorientation, agitation, nervousness, restlessness, euphoric mood. Secondary mania to tapentadol mechanism is unknown, but having opiate cases described, it is possible to attribute this episode to tapentadol.
Conclusions
– Secondary mania is associated with various medical conditions, including vitamin B12 deficiency, brain injury, HIV infection and drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, sympathomimetics, steroids, bupropion, isoniazid, clarithromycin and opioids.
– Further research is required to determine if the maniac episode was only isolated by the tapentadol or it is the beginning of a bipolar disorder.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is classified primarily as a movement disorder. Psychiatric complications, however, are common during the progression of the disease. Psychosis is rare in untreated patients with PD, but the prevalence rises to 40% during dopaminergic treatment.
Objectives
We report the clinical course of a ropinirole induced psychosis in a 57-year-old female with PD.
Aims/methods
The patient was treated with different antiparkinsonians (rasagiline, ropinirole and levodopa), and after a dosage increase of ropinirole, psychotic symptoms appeared (auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusion). Antipsychotic treatment started with quetiapine and a gradual dose reduction of antiparkisonians. Nevertheless, psychotic symptoms required a hospital admission.
Rasagiline was suspended at admission, the dose of ropinirole was decreased until withdrawal, and the dose of levodopa was reduced. The dose of quetiapine was increased to control psychotic symptoms.
Results
The pathogenesis of psychosis in PD is poorly understood. It has been related with the presence of dementia and concomitant treatment with dopaminergic agonists (DA). According to the literature, pergolide is associated with a significantly increased risk for the development of psychosis, followed by ropinirole, pramipexole and cabergoline, whereas levodopa has the lowest associated risk. Treatment includes, in the first place, suspending anticholinergics and selegiline, and then, amantadine, DA, and entacapone. Finally, levodopa may also be reduced. These patients frequently require antipsychotic treatment that may worsen extrapyramidal symptoms.
Conclusions
Psychosis should be considered in PD, especially in patients treated with DA. Treatment begins with reducing antiparkinsonians and then adding antipsychotics. Clozapine and quetiapine are a good choice.
Description of a manic episode with psychotic symptoms in a patient by consumption of energy drinks.
Aims and methods
Literature review of the relationship between energy drink consumption and the possibility of suffering a manic episode and description of a clinical case.
Case
This case report describes a patient with no history of psychiatric interest suffers a manic episode with psychotic symptoms after consuming high amounts of energy drinks.
Results and conclusions
To my knowledge, this is one of the few cases that describe a manic episode in relation to the consumption of energy drinks, given this possibility, clinicians should consider asking about the consumption of energy drinks to young people without previous psychiatric history presenting a manic episode.