Factores de riesgo cardiovascular en distintos grupos profesionales

Introducción: Las enfermedades cardiovasculares son en España la primera causa de muerte, además también es la principal causa de fallecimiento en el trabajo. Finalidad: Comparar diferentes factores de riesgo cardiovascular en distintos perfiles profesionales según la carga física de los mismos y verificar si existe una mayor frecuencia de dichos factores de riesgo cardiovascular en las profesiones con mayor exigencia física en comparación a otras profesiones con menor carga física mediante un estudio epidemiológico descriptivo de tipo transversal. Resultados: Se analizaron a 300 trabajadores, divididos en cuatro grupos profesionales de 75 trabajadores cada uno, operarios de la construcción, personal de oficina, personal docente y peones agrícolas, con un 66% de varones y un 34% de mujeres. Los valores más altos hallados para las diferentes variables fueron: edad media 44,6 años, IMC media de 27,4, tensión arterial sistólica media 130,1 mmHg, tensión arterial diastólica media 80,9 mmHg, glucemia basal media 88,2 mg/dl, colesterol medio 216,8 mg/dl, nivel de triglicéridos medio 201,8 mg/dl, nivel medio de GPT 29,5 U/L, nivel medio de GGT 69,2 U/L, porcentaje de fumadores 68%, consumo de alcohol diario 25,33%, todos ellos para el grupo de operarios de la construcción, y por último porcentaje de realización de ejercicio físico fuera del trabajo 73,33% en el grupo del personal docente. Conclusiones principales: Los grupos con mayor exigencia física, presentaron valores más elevados en los diferentes factores de riesgo cardiovascular que los que tenían menos exigencia física

Lack of Association between Anti-Phospholipid Antibodies (APLA) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children

Numerous studies have shown the pathological influence anti-phospholipid antibodies (APLA) have on the physiology of the single neuron as well as the function of the entire human nervous system. The influence is well demonstrated in the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). This syndrome is characterized by a triad of arterial or venous thrombotic events, recurrent fetal loss and thrombocytopenic purpura. The syndrome exhibits different neurological pathologies such as: chorea, seizures, transverse myelopathy, migraine, cerebral ataxia, hemiballismus and transient global amnesia, which are not fully explained by the procoagulopathic trait of APLA. A study on mice induced with APS demonstrated hyperactive behavior when compared to the control group. The information gathered from these different studies raised the question whether APLA has any part in the etiology of Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) in children

Appreciating methodological complexity and integrating neurobiological perspectives to advance the science of resilience

Kalisch and colleagues identify several routes to a better understanding of mechanisms underlying resilience and highlight the need to integrate findings from neuroscience and animal learning. We argue that appreciating methodological complexity and integrating neurobiological perspectives will advance the science of resilience and ultimately help improve the lives of those exposed to stress and adversit

Modern Views of Machine Learning for Precision Psychiatry

In light of the NIMH's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), the advent of functional neuroimaging, novel technologies and methods provide new opportunities to develop precise and personalized prognosis and diagnosis of mental disorders. Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are playing an increasingly critical role in the new era of precision psychiatry. Combining ML/AI with neuromodulation technologies can potentially provide explainable solutions in clinical practice and effective therapeutic treatment. Advanced wearable and mobile technologies also call for the new role of ML/AI for digital phenotyping in mobile mental health. In this review, we provide a comprehensive review of the ML methodologies and applications by combining neuroimaging, neuromodulation, and advanced mobile technologies in psychiatry practice. Additionally, we review the role of ML in molecular phenotyping and cross-species biomarker identification in precision psychiatry. We further discuss explainable AI (XAI) and causality testing in a closed-human-in-the-loop manner, and highlight the ML potential in multimedia information extraction and multimodal data fusion. Finally, we discuss conceptual and practical challenges in precision psychiatry and highlight ML opportunities in future research

Predicting non-response to multimodal day clinic treatment in severely impaired depressed patients: a machine learning approach

A considerable number of depressed patients do not respond to treatment. Accurate prediction of non-response to routine clinical care may help in treatment planning and improve results. A longitudinal sample of N = 239 depressed patients was assessed at admission to multi-modal day clinic treatment, after six weeks, and at discharge. First, patient’s treatment response was modelled by identifying longitudinal trajectories using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17). Then, individual items of the HDRS-17 at admission as well as individual patient characteristics were entered as predictors of response/non-response trajectories into the binary classification model (eXtremeGradient Boosting; XGBoost). The model was evaluated on a hold-out set and explained in human-interpretable form by SHapley Additive explanation (SHAP) values. The prediction model yielded a multi-class AUC = 0.80 in the hold-out set. The predictive power for the binary classification yielded an AUC = 0.83 (sensitivity = .80, specificity = .77). Most relevant predictors for non-response were insomnia symptoms, younger age, anxiety symptoms, depressed mood, being unemployed, suicidal ideation and somatic symptoms of depressive disorder. Non-responders to routine treatment for depression can be identified and screened for potential next-generation treatments. Such predictors may help personalize treatment and improve treatment response

The impacts of changing transport and precipitation on pollutant distributions in a future climate

Air pollution (ozone and particulate matter in surface air) is strongly linked to synoptic weather and thus is likely sensitive to climate change. In order to isolate the responses of air pollutant transport and wet removal to a warming climate, we examine a simple carbon monoxide–like (CO) tracer (COt) and a soluble version (SAt), both with the 2001 CO emissions, in simulations with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory chemistry-climate model (AM3) for present (1981–2000) and future (2081–2100) climates. In 2081–2100, projected reductions in lower-tropospheric ventilation and wet deposition exacerbate surface air pollution as evidenced by higher surface COt and SAt concentrations. However, the average horizontal general circulation patterns in 2081–2100 are similar to 1981–2000, so the spatial distribution of COt changes little. Precipitation is an important factor controlling soluble pollutant wet removal, but the total global precipitation change alone does not necessarily indicate the sign of the soluble pollutant response to climate change. Over certain latitudinal bands, however, the annual wet deposition change can be explained mainly by the simulated changes in large-scale (LS) precipitation. In regions such as North America, differences in the seasonality of LS precipitation and tracer burdens contribute to an apparent inconsistency of changes in annual wet deposition versus annual precipitation. As a step toward an ultimate goal of developing a simple index that can be applied to infer changes in soluble pollutants directly from changes in precipitation fields as projected by physical climate models, we explore here a “Diagnosed Precipitation Impact” (DPI) index. This index captures the sign and magnitude (within 50%) of the relative annual mean changes in the global wet deposition of the soluble pollutant. DPI can only be usefully applied in climate models in which LS precipitation dominates wet deposition and horizontal transport patterns change little as climate warms. Our findings support the need for tighter emission regulations, for both soluble and insoluble pollutants, to obtain a desired level of air quality as climate warms

Recordando una sociología de los derechos humanos

A sociology of human rights sounds almost like a contradiction in terms. Sociology is about social groups, about particular experiences, about how people, embedded in space and time, make sense of their lives and give meaning to their world. It deals with power and interest and the social bases of our experiences. On the other hand, human rights are about human beings in general, without temporal or spatial references, not about groups and their boundaries. Human rights are about humanity, located in the world and connected to an inviolable nature. Global media representations, among others, create new cosmopolitan memories, providing new epistemological vantage points and emerging moral-political interdependencies. As such, memories of the Holocaust contribute to the creation of a common European cultural memory based on the abstract notion of human rights. Sociologically, a theory of human rights has to show how universal and particular memories co-exist, are reconciled etc. and what it means for the recognition of the “other”, and the broadening of circles of solidarity.Una sociología de los derechos humans suena casi como un oxímoron. La sociología se fija en los grupos sociales, en las experiencias particulares, y en cómo las personas, marcadas por el espacio y el tiempo, dan sentido a sus vidas y atribuyen un significado al mundo. Trata del poder, el interés y la base social de nuestras experiencias. Contrariamente, los derechos humanos se refieren a humanos en general, sin referencias temporales ni espaciales, y no a grupos y sus límites. Los derechos humanos tratan de la humanidad, ubicado en el mundo y conectado con su naturaleza inviolable. Representaciones mediáticas globales, entre otras, crean memorias cosmopólitas nuevas, disponiendo nuevos puntos de vista epistemológicos y interdependencias morales-políticas emergentes. Así, las memorias del Holocausto contribuyen a la creación de una memoria cultural europea común, basada en las nociones abstractas de los derechos humanos. Sociológicamente, una teoría de los derechos humanos tiene que mostrar cómo las memorias universales y particulares coexisten, se reconcilian etc. y qué significan para el reconocimiento del “otro” y la ampliación de los círculos de solidaridad

Effect of Phenylalanine–Arginine Beta-Naphthylamide on the Values of Minimum Inhibitory Concentration of Quinolones and Aminoglycosides in Clinical Isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii

Acinetobacter baumannii; Antimicrobial resistance; Efflux pump inhibitorsAcinetobacter baumannii; Resistencia antimicrobiana; Inhibidores de bomba de eflujoAcinetobacter baumannii; Resistència antimicrobiana; Inhibidors de bomba d'eflux(1) Background: Acinetobacter baumannii has become the most important pathogen responsible for nosocomial infections in health systems. It expresses several resistance mechanisms, including the production of β-lactamases, changes in the cell membrane, and the expression of efflux pumps. (2) Methods: A. baumannii was detected by PCR amplification of the blaOXA-51-like gene. Antimicrobial susceptibility to fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides was assessed using the broth microdilution technique according to 2018 CLSI guidelines. Efflux pump system activity was assessed by the addition of a phenylalanine–arginine beta-naphthylamide (PAβN) inhibitor. (3) Results: A total of nineteen A. baumannii clinical isolates were included in the study. In an overall analysis, in the presence of PAβN, amikacin susceptibility rates changed from 84.2% to 100%; regarding tobramycin, they changed from 68.4% to 84.2%; for nalidixic acid, they changed from 73.7% to 79.0%; as per ciprofloxacin, they changed from 68.4% to 73.7%; and, for levofloxacin, they stayed as 79.0% in both groups. (4) Conclusions: The addition of PAβN demonstrated a decrease in the rates of resistance to antimicrobials from the family of quinolones and aminoglycosides. Efflux pumps play an important role in the emergence of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strains, and their inhibition may be useful as adjunctive therapy against this pathogen.This research was supported through Incentive for Research of the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (Nº UPC-C007-2020), Lima, Peru. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, and analysis, nor in the decision to publish or the preparation of the manuscript