Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (sTMS) for the acute treatment of migraine: evaluation of outcome data for the UK post market pilot program

BACKGROUND: Single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (sTMS) is a novel treatment for acute migraine. Previous randomised controlled data demonstrated that sTMS is effective and well tolerated in the treatment of migraine with aura. The aim of the programme reported here was to evaluate patient responses in the setting of routine clinical practice. METHODS: Migraine patients with and without aura treating with sTMS had an initial review (n = 426) and training call, and then participated in telephone surveys at week six (n = 331) and week 12 during a 3-month treatment period (n = 190). RESULTS: Of patients surveyed with 3 month data (n = 190; episodic, n = 59; chronic, n = 131), 62 % reported pain relief, finding the device effective at reducing or alleviating migraine pain; in addition there was relief reported of associated features: nausea- 52 %; photophobia- 55 %; and phonophobia- 53 %. At 3 months there was a reduction in monthly headache days for episodic migraine, from 12 (median, 8–13 IQ range) to 9 (4–12) and for chronic migraine, a reduction from 24 (median, 16–30 IQ range) to 16 (10–30). There were no serious or unanticipated adverse events. CONCLUSION: sTMS may be a valuable addition to options for the treatment of both episodic and chronic migraine

Self-gravitating clouds of generalized Chaplygin and modified anti-Chaplygin Gases

The Chaplygin gas has been proposed as a possible dark energy, dark matter candidate. As a working fluid in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe, it exhibits early behavior reminiscent of dark matter, but at later times is more akin to a cosmological constant. In any such universe, however, one can expect local perturbations to form. Here we obtain the general equations for a self-gravitating relativistic Chaplygin gas. We solve these equations and obtain the mass-radius relationship for such structures, showing that only in the phantom regime is the mass-radius relationship large enough to be a serious candidate for highly compact massive objects at the galaxy core. In addition, we study the cosmology of a modified anti-Chaplygin gas. A self-gravitating cloud of this matter is an exact solution to Einstein's equations.Comment: 16 page

Adverse cardiovascular events during treatment with pioglitazone and rosiglitazone: population based cohort study

Objective To compare the risk of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and death in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with rosiglitazone and pioglitazone

Three-Dimensional Fermi Surface of Overdoped La-Based Cuprates

We present a soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the overdoped high-temperature superconductors La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ and La$_{1.8-x}$Eu$_{0.2}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. In-plane and out-of-plane components of the Fermi surface are mapped by varying the photoemission angle and the incident photon energy. No $k_z$ dispersion is observed along the nodal direction, whereas a significant antinodal $k_z$ dispersion is identified. Based on a tight-binding parametrization, we discuss the implications for the density of states near the van-Hove singularity. Our results suggest that the large electronic specific heat found in overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ can not be assigned to the van-Hove singularity alone. We therefore propose quantum criticality induced by a collapsing pseudogap phase as a plausible explanation for observed enhancement of electronic specific heat

Spin density wave induced disordering of the vortex lattice in superconducting La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4

We use small angle neutron scattering to study the superconducting vortex lattice in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ as a function of doping and magnetic field. We show that near optimally doping the vortex lattice coordination and the superconducting coherence length $\xi$ are controlled by a van-Hove singularity crossing the Fermi level near the Brillouin zone boundary. The vortex lattice properties change dramatically as a spin-density-wave instability is approached upon underdoping. The Bragg glass paradigm provides a good description of this regime and suggests that SDW order acts as a novel source of disorder on the vortex lattice.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev.

Hour-glass magnetic spectrum in an insulating, hole-doped antiferromagnet

Superconductivity in layered copper-oxide compounds emerges when charge carriers are added to antiferromagnetically-ordered CuO2 layers. The carriers destroy the antiferromagnetic order, but strong spin fluctuations persist throughout the superconducting phase and are intimately linked to super-conductivity. Neutron scattering measurements of spin fluctuations in hole-doped copper oxides have revealed an unusual `hour-glass' feature in the momentum-resolved magnetic spectrum, present in a wide range of superconducting and non-superconducting materials. There is no widely-accepted explanation for this feature. One possibility is that it derives from a pattern of alternating spin and charge stripes, an idea supported by measurements on stripe-ordered La1.875Ba0.125CuO4. However, many copper oxides without stripe order also exhibit an hour-glass spectrum$. Here we report the observation of an hour-glass magnetic spectrum in a hole-doped antiferromagnet from outside the family of superconducting copper oxides. Our system has stripe correlations and is an insulator, which means its magnetic dynamics can conclusively be ascribed to stripes. The results provide compelling evidence that the hour-glass spectrum in the copper-oxide superconductors arises from fluctuating stripes.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Natur

Norwich COVID-19 testing initiative pilot: evaluating the feasibility of asymptomatic testing on a university campus

Background: There is a high prevalence of COVID-19 in university-age students, who are returning to campuses. There is little evidence regarding the feasibility of universal, asymptomatic testing to help control outbreaks in this population. This study aimed to pilot mass COVID-19 testing on a university research park, to assess the feasibility and acceptability of scaling up testing to all staff and students. Methods: This was a cross-sectional feasibility study on a university research park in the East of England. All staff and students (5625) were eligible to participate. All participants were offered four PCR swabs, which they self-administered over two weeks. Outcome measures included uptake, drop-out rate, positivity rates, participant acceptability measures, laboratory processing measures, data collection and management measures. Results: 798 (76%) of 1053 who registered provided at least one swab; 687 (86%) provided all four; 792 (99%) of 798 who submitted at least one swab had all negative results and 6 participants had one inconclusive result. There were no positive results. 458 (57%) of 798 participants responded to a post-testing survey, demonstrating a mean acceptability score of 4.51/5, with five being the most positive. Conclusions: Repeated self-testing for COVID-19 using PCR is feasible and acceptable to a university population

Modeling tourists' personality in recommender systems: how does personality influence preferences for tourist attractions?

Personalization is increasingly being perceived as an important factor for the effectiveness of Recommender Systems (RS). This is especially true in the tourism domain, where travelling comprises emotionally charged experiences, and therefore, the more about the tourist is known, better recommendations can be made. The inclusion of psychological aspects to generate recommendations, such as personality, is a growing trend in RS and they are being studied to provide more personalized approaches. However, although many studies on the psychology of tourism exist, studies on the prediction of tourist preferences based on their personality are limited. Therefore, we undertook a large-scale study in order to determine how the Big Five personality dimensions influence tourists' preferences for tourist attractions, gathering data from an online questionnaire, sent to Portuguese individuals from the academic sector and their respective relatives/friends (n=508). Using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, we extracted 11 main categories of tourist attractions and analyzed which personality dimensions were predictors (or not) of preferences for those tourist attractions. As a result, we propose the first model that relates the five personality dimensions with preferences for tourist attractions, which intends to offer a base for researchers of RS for tourism to automatically model tourist preferences based on their personality.GrouPlanner Project under the European Regional Development Fund POCI-01-0145-FEDER29178 and by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within the Projects UIDB/00319/2020 and UIDB/00760/202