A Comparison of Virtual Reality and Mental Imagery Scenarios to Promote Self-Compassion and Reduce Shame and Self-Criticism

Aims: This study aimed to establish whether an immersive virtual reality (VR) compassionate scenario is any more effective at nurturing self-compassion and positively influencing state levels of shame, self-criticism and mood compared to a mental imagery (MI) comparison in healthy individuals with high levels of self-criticism. This study also investigated whether state self-compassion, self-criticism and shame undergo any further change following two weeks of independent mental imagery practice based on the experimental scenario. Method: Forty participants who met the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated to either a one-off VR or MI experimental session. State measures of self-compassion, self-criticism, shame and mood were administered pre, post-intervention and at two-week follow-up following daily mental imagery practice based on the experimental compassionate scenario. Results: Both conditions had a small to medium positive effect on state levels of self-compassion and shame and a large effect on self-criticism post-intervention, which was maintained at follow-up. No main effect of condition across any of the dependent variables was found however. In addition, the prediction that frequency of mental imagery rehearsal, ease of recall, and vividness of the mental imagery would be related to the amount of change in levels of self-compassion, shame and self-criticism was also not supported by the data. Conclusion: This study found that a novel immersive VR scenario designed to nurture compassion and an MI control condition both demonstrated short-term therapeutic benefits in healthy individuals with high average levels of self-criticism. However, the overall results indicate that the use of VR technology to enable participants to directly experience both giving and receiving compassion from the self, affords no extra benefit over a guided MI analogue. Further research is therefore warranted in clinical populations

Enhanced nasopharyngeal infection and shedding associated with an epidemic lineage of emm3 group A Streptococcus

Background: A group A Streptococcus (GAS) lineage of genotype emm3, sequence type 15 (ST15) was associated with a six month upsurge in invasive GAS disease in the UK. The epidemic lineage (Lineage C) had lost two typical emm3 prophages, Φ315.1 and Φ315.2 associated with the superantigen ssa, but gained a different prophage (ΦUK-M3.1) associated with a different superantigen, speC and a DNAse spd1. Methods and Results: The presence of speC and spd1 in Lineage C ST15 strains enhanced both in vitro mitogenic and DNAse activities over non-Lineage C ST15 strains. Invasive disease models in Galleria mellonella and SPEC-sensitive transgenic mice, revealed no difference in overall invasiveness of Lineage C ST15 strains compared to non-Lineage C ST15 strains, consistent with clinical and epidemiological analysis. Lineage C strains did however markedly prolong murine nasal infection with enhanced nasal and airborne shedding compared to non-Lineage C strains. Deletion of speC or spd1 in two Lineage C strains identified a possible role for spd1 in airborne shedding from the murine nasopharynx. Conclusions: Nasopharyngeal infection and shedding of Lineage C strains was enhanced compared to nonLineage C strains and this was, in part, mediated by the gain of the DNase spd1 through prophage acquisition

Wavelet entropy of stochastic processes

We compare two different definitions for the wavelet entropy associated to stochastic processes. The first one, the Normalized Total Wavelet Entropy (NTWS) family [Phys. Rev. E 57 (1998) 932; J. Neuroscience Method 105 (2001) 65; Physica A (2005) in press] and a second introduced by Tavares and Lucena [Physica A 357 (2005)~71]. In order to understand their advantages and disadvantages, exact results obtained for fractional Gaussian noise (-1<alpha< 1) and the fractional Brownian motion (1 < alpha < 3) are assessed. We find out that NTWS family performs better as a characterization method for these stochastic processes.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physica

TFE3 Translocation-Associated Renal Cell Carcinoma Presenting as Avascular Necrosis of the Femur in a 19-Year-Old Patient: Case Report and Review of the Literature

In the United States, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for approximately 3% of adult malignancies and 90–95% of all neoplasms arising from the kidney. According to the National Cancer Institute, 58 240 new cases and 13 040 deaths from renal cancer will occur in 2010. RCC usually occurs in older adults between the ages of 50 and 70 and is rare in young adults and children. We describe a case of a TFE3 translocation-associated RCC in a 19-year-old patient presenting as avascular necrosis of the femur. Due to the rarity of this malignancy, we present this case including a review of the existing literature relative to diagnosis and treatment

Carbon Monoxide Effects on Electrophysiological Mechanisms of Ventricular Arrhythmogenesis

Increased dissolved carbon monoxide decreases ICa,L IK1 and IKr, and increases late INa currents in rat and guinea pig patch-clamped isolated ventricular myocytes. Action potentials are prolonged. These effects are reproduced by scaling the currents in the Gattoni et al., 2016 (rat) and Luo and Rudy, 1994 (guinea-pig) cell models. Using the same scaling of currents in the O’Hara-Rudy (2011) models the endo-, mid-myo- and epi-cardial APD90 is prolonged. CO abolishes alternans in endo-, and induces alternans in mid-myo -cardial cell models at cycle lengths < 280ms. In the homogenous human ventricular tissue models these CO effects decrease epi-, endocardial conduction velocities from 0.4 to 0.32m/s, and increase the widths of the vulnerable windows by +9%, +8% . In the ventricular wall model (a third each of endo-, mid-myo- and epicardial) CO increased transmural propagation times from 44 to 55 ms and maximal difference in propagating APD from 68 to 73 ms. The computed effects of CO on human ventricular tissue are pro-arrhythmogenic

Upper Tract Imaging in Patients with Initial or Terminal Hematuria Suggestive of Bleeding from the Lower Urinary Tract: How Often is the Upper Urinary Tract Responsible for the Hematuria?

Objectives: Visible hematuria (VH) is a common urological complaint. A history of initial or terminal VH in men is indicative of a lower urinary tract (LUT) source. A careful clinical history could limit unnecessary extensive upper tract imaging in this group of patients with VH. We conducted a single-center prospective study to examine the usefulness of investigating the upper tract in patients with a history of VH likely from a LUT source (initial and/or terminal VH) with specific reference to the incidence of demonstrable significant upper tract abnormalities. Methods: We conducted a single-center prospective study of consecutive male patients presenting with VH over eight months. All patients underwent standard investigations including physical examination, flexible cystoscopy (FC), and radiological imaging (ultrasound scan (USS) and/or computed tomography urogram (CTU)). Those with a clear history of initial or terminal VH were identified for further scrutiny with regards to detectable upper tracts abnormalities. Results: In total, 57 patients (aged 23–95 years) with initial or terminal VH were identified. Of these, 56 had FC and nine patients were subsequently diagnosed with a LUT malignancy. With regards to upper urinary tract (UUT), 35 patients (61.4%) had an USS, 46 (80.7%) underwent a CTU, and 25 (43.9%) patients had both. In this group, no UUT malignancy was identified on upper tract imaging. Conclusions: Initial or terminal VH patients may not need extensive upper tract imaging. FC is recommended, but a non-invasive USS can be a safe initial investigation for the UUT, with a CTU subsequently considered in those with abnormalities on USS and those with ongoing bleeding. Further combined multicenter analysis will help corroborate these findings and could have several beneficial outcomes including a reduction in investigations cost, patient inconvenience, and ionizing radiation

Droplet Microfluidics XRD Identifies Effective Nucleating Agents for Calcium Carbonate

The ability to control crystallization reactions is required in a vast range of processes including the production of functional inorganic materials and pharmaceuticals and the prevention of scale. However, it is currently limited by a lack of understanding of the mechanisms underlying crystal nucleation and growth. To address this challenge, it is necessary to carry out crystallization reactions in well‐defined environments, and ideally to perform in situ measurements. Here, a versatile microfluidic synchrotron‐based technique is presented to meet these demands. Droplet microfluidic‐coupled X‐ray diffraction (DMC‐XRD) enables the collection of time‐resolved, serial diffraction patterns from a stream of flowing droplets containing growing crystals. The droplets offer reproducible reaction environments, and radiation damage is effectively eliminated by the short residence time of each droplet in the beam. DMC‐XRD is then used to identify effective particulate nucleating agents for calcium carbonate and to study their influence on the crystallization pathway. Bioactive glasses and a model material for mineral dust are shown to significantly lower the induction time, highlighting the importance of both surface chemistry and topography on the nucleating efficiency of a surface. This technology is also extremely versatile, and could be used to study dynamic reactions with a wide range of synchrotron‐based techniques

Gene set-based analysis of polymorphisms: finding pathways or biological processes associated to traits in genome-wide association studies

Genome-wide association studies have become a popular strategy to find associations of genes to traits of interest. Despite the high-resolution available today to carry out genotyping studies, the success of its application in real studies has been limited by the testing strategy used. As an alternative to brute force solutions involving the use of very large cohorts, we propose the use of the Gene Set Analysis (GSA), a different analysis strategy based on testing the association of modules of functionally related genes. We show here how the Gene Set-based Analysis of Polymorphisms (GeSBAP), which is a simple implementation of the GSA strategy for the analysis of genome-wide association studies, provides a significant increase in the power testing for this type of studies. GeSBAP is freely available at http://bioinfo.cipf.es/gesbap