Altered frontoparietal connectivity in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder during an fMRI cognitive reappraisal task

Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) present increased brain activity in orbitofrontal and limbic regions when experiencing negative emotions, which could be related to deficits in emotion regulation abilities. 30 OCD patients and 29 healthy controls (HC) performed a cognitive reappraisal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task and completed emotion regulation and OCD symptomatology questionnaires. Besides task activation, connectivity was also compared between groups through psychophysiological interaction analysis (PPI), using regions previously reported to be hyperactive in OCD as seeds. Finally, brain-behavior correlations were performed between activation/connectivity strength in group differential regions and the questionnaires’ scores, as well as the emotional ratings reported during the task. Behaviorally, patients with OCD were less successful than controls at lowering the emotional impact of negative images. At the brain level, there were no significant between-group differences in brain activation. Contrarily, PPI analyses showed that HC had increased frontoparietal connectivity when experiencing negative emotions in comparison to OCD patients, while this pattern was reversed when regulating emotions (increased connectivity in patients). Finally, frontoparietal connectivity was correlated with measures of emotion regulation success and OCD symptomatology. Our findings point towards frontoparietal altered connectivity as a potential compensatory mechanism during emotion regulation in OCD patients

A systematic review of evidence about advanced roles for therapeutic radiographer

Background: Advances in technology linked to specialist techniques and growing cancer care demand a greater level of autonomy, responsibility, and accountability in the Therapeutic Radiographer (TR) clinical practice driving the subsequent development of new roles, including “advanced practice roles”. The evidence is scattered, and the concept has evolved depending on the advances in treatments and increasing workload. This study aims to identify and synthesise the advanced roles in radiotherapy describing the scope of practice of the advanced practitioners. Methods: The systematic PRISMA review of the literature was carried out with PROSPERO registration: CRD42020177103. Articles were deemed eligible for inclusion if they were peer-reviewed and focused on the advanced practice of TR. The literature was scrutinised for advanced roles, tasks, or activities practised by TR. Thematic analysis was used to organise roles into themes (dimensions). Results: A total of 443 articles were screened for relevance of which 87 studies were selected for quality appraisal. Advanced roles were listed into seven different dimensions: patient care and support; treatment planning; treatment imaging and delivery; management and leadership; quality and risk management; research and service development; and education and training. Conclusion: This review highlights the variability of both advanced radiotherapy role implementation and description of the scope of this advanced level. TR has moved beyond the traditional scope of practice with skills-mix initiatives involving the collaboration of multidisciplinary teams. In two decades of advanced practice development in radiotherapy, the roles that become established are those that meet local service needs

Using scrum together with UML models: a collaborative university-industry R&D software project

Conducting research and development (R&D) software projects, in an environment where both industry and university collaborate, is challenging due to many factors. In fact, industrial companies and universities have generally different interests and objectives whenever they collaborate. For this reason, it is not easy to manage and negotiate the industrial companies’ interests, namely schedules and their expectations. Conducting such projects in an agile framework is expected to decrease these risks, since partners have the opportunity to frequently interact with the development team in short iterations and are constantly aware of the characteristics of the system under development. However, in this type of collaborative R&D projects, it is often advantageous to include some waterfall practices, like upfront requirements modeling using UML models, which are not commonly used in agile processes like Scrum, in order to better prepare the implementation phase of the project. This paper presents some lessons learned that result from experience of the authors in adopting some Scrum practices in a R&D project, like short iterations, backlogs, and product increments, and simultaneously using UML models, namely use cases and components.This research is sponsored by the Portugal Incentive System for Research and Technological Development PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2013 and by project in co–promotion nº 36265/2013 (Project HMIExcel - 2013-2015)

CRIOPRESERVAÇÃO DE SÊMEN CANINO COM UM DILUIDOR À BASE DE ÁGUA DE COCO NA FORMA DE PÓ (ACP-106®): EFEITO DA TEMPERATURA DE ADIÇÃO DO GLICEROL (27 E 4°C)

Objetivou-se comparar o efeito da temperatura de adição do glicerol sobre o sêmen canino diluído em água de coco na forma de pó (ACP-106®) e criopreservado. Coletaram-se doze ejaculados, para avaliação da fração espermática, dividida em duas alíquotas. A primeira foi diluída em ACP-106® com 5% de gema de ovo e 6% de glicerol a 27°C (G27) e a segunda em ACP-106® com 5% de gema de ovo, com a glicerolização a 4°C (G4). As amostras foram congeladas, posteriormente, descongeladas e submetidas às avaliações de morfologia, integridade acrossomal, teste hipo-osmótico e percentual de vivos. Não se observou diferença entre as temperaturas de adição do glicerol em todos os parâmetros. Na análise computadorizada, também não se evidenciou diferença entre os grupos na motilidade total e progressiva, percentual de espermatozoides com velocidade rápida e média, e velocidade média da trajetória (VAP) dos espermatozoides com velocidade rápida e média, sendo observadas, em G4 e G27, respectivamente, uma motilidade total de 24,45 ± 3,93% e 31,65 ± 3,87% e VAP dos espermatozoides rápidos de 91,24 ± 7,74µm/s e 106,25 ± 3,94µm/s. Conclui-se que a temperatura de adição do glicerol não influencia a qualidade pós-descongelação do sêmen canino diluído em ACP-106®. PALAVRAS-CHAVES: ACP-106®, cão, criopreservação, glicerol, sêmen.

a study from ecological theory and social network analysis perspective

The objective of the present study was to analyze and compare the setter's decision-making (DM) in the offensive construction of the side-out (attack from the reception) in high-level men's volleyball. The sample consisted of the analysis of 132 games of the Brazilian men's volleyball Super-League 2021/2022, with 22 games for each team. The results showed that the eigenvector values were higher for setting to position 3, central attacker next to the setter, simple block, and obtaining the attack point. In addition, the setter's DM was similar between teams, suggesting that the game strategies aim to provide subsidies for the setter to make the decisions according to the game context in a flexible way and generate benefits for the attackers about the number of blockers, being that under ideal conditions and due to the lifter's correct choices in distribution, central blockers avoid anticipating the setting, and this fact allows the conditions of a single block or double-broken blocks in most cases. As a practical application, setting for the central attacker in position 3 becomes an interesting option for point acquisition and is capable of influencing the number of blockers, as well as the optimal blocking condition. Another application would be for the central attacker to position themselves close to the setter, a strategy that would enable the use of the "pipe" attack in other areas of the court with lower defensive blocking power.9E1A-F9DD-3EB8 | Filipe Manuel ClementeN/