Genomic and personalized medicine approaches for substance use disorders (SUDs) looking at genome-wide association studies

Drug addiction, or substance use disorder (SUD), is a chronic, relapsing disorder in which compulsive drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviour persist despite serious negative consequences. Drug abuse represents a problem that deserves great attention from a social point of view, and focuses on the importance of genetic studies to help in understanding the genetic basis of addiction and its medical treatment. Despite the complexity of drug addiction disorders, and the high number of environmental variables playing a role in the onset, recurrence, and duration of the symptoms, several studies have highlighted the non-negligible role of genetics, as demonstrated by heritability and genome-wide association studies. A correlation between the relative risk of addiction to specific substances and heritability has been recently observed, suggesting that neurobiological mechanisms may be, at least in part, inherited. All these observations point towards a scenario where the core neurobiological factors of addiction, involving the reward system, impulsivity, compulsivity, stress, and anxiety response, are transmitted, and therefore, genes and mutations underlying their variation might be detected. In the last few years, the development of new and more efficient sequencing technologies has paved the way for large-scale studies in searching for genetic and epigenetic factors affecting drug addiction disorders and their treatments. These studies have been crucial to pinpoint single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes that affect the reaction to medical treatments. This is critically important to identify pharmacogenomic approaches for substance use disorder, such as OPRM1 SNPs and methadone required doses for maintenance treatment (MMT). Nevertheless, despite the promising results obtained by genome-wide association and pharmacogenomic studies, specific studies related to population genetics diversity are lacking, undermining the overall applicability of the preliminary findings, and thus potentially affecting the portability and the accuracy of the genetic studies. In this review, focusing on cannabis, cocaine and heroin use, we report the state-of-the-art genomics and pharmacogenomics of SUDs, and the possible future perspectives related to medical treatment response in people that ask for assistance in solving drug-related problems

Gender and Social Inequalities in Awareness of Coronary Artery Disease in European Countries

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the single leading cause of death in Europe and the most common form of cardiovascular disease. Little is known about awareness in the European population. A cross-sectional telephone survey of 2609 individuals from six European countries was conducted to gather information on perceptions of CAD, risk factors, preventive measures, knowledge of heart attack symptoms and ability to seek emergency medical care. Level of awareness was compared according to gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES) and educational level. Women were approximately five times less likely than men to consider heart disease as a main health issue or leading cause of death (OR = 0.224, 95% CI: 0.178-0.280, OR = 0.196, 95% CI: 0.171-0.226). Additionally, women were significantly less likely to have ever had a cardiovascular screening test (OR = 0.515, 95% CI: 0.459-0.578). Only 16.3% of men and 15.3% of women were able to spontaneously identify the main symptoms of a heart attack. Almost half of the sample failed to state that they would call emergency services in case of a cardiac event. Significant differences according to age, SES and education were found for many indicators amongst both men and women. Development of a European strategy targeting improved awareness of CAD and reduced gender and social inequalities within the European population is warranted

Ultrasonic signal modality: A novel approach for concrete damage evaluation

[EN] In this paper, a new approach for characterizing material damage, using ultrasonic waves, is proposed. Two concrete series with two types of cement with different C3A content and similar mechanical properties were subjected to external sulphate attack (ESA) and evaluated using a novel Recurrence Plot Quantification Analysis (RQA) method. This brand new technique was compared with several methods, such as mechanical tests (compressive and flexural strength determination), dynamic test (dynamic modulus) measurements, and traditional ultrasonic measurements (propagation velocity and ultrasonic wave attenuation). In these experiments, RQA showed a high sensitivity to damage in spoiled series, improving the reliability of damage detection with ultrasonics in non-homogeneous materials compared to other non-destructive techniques. Interesting advantages of this new non-destructive technique are: a) the RQA parameter is normalized (range of 0 to 1); b) a calibration process is not required; c) the values of its standard deviation show the dispersion of the damage. It can contribute greatly to the diagnosis of the degree of damage to a material, when combined with other traditional measures such as the attenuation of the material.This work was supported by the Spanish Government under grants TEC2011-23403, BIA2014-55311-C2-1-P and BIA2014-55311-C2-2-P. This work is protected by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) under reference P201630212.Carrión García, A.; Genovés, V.; Gosálbez Castillo, J.; Miralles Ricós, R.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ. (2017). Ultrasonic signal modality: A novel approach for concrete damage evaluation. Cement and Concrete Research. 101:25-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2017.08.011S253210

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum

Laser monitoring system for the CMS lead tungstate crystal calorimeter

We report on the multiple wavelength laser monitoring system designed for the CMS lead tungstate crystal calorimeter read-out with avalanche photodiodes (Barrel calorimeters) and vacuum phototriodes (End Cap calorimeters). Results are presented for the test beam performance of the system designed to achieve 0.5% relative inter-calibration of the optical transmittance for lead tungstate scintillation emission over nearly 80 000 channels. The system operates in continuous measurement cycles to follow each crystal?s evolution under irradiation and recovery periods foreseen during operation at the LHC