Brain Changes in Long-Term Zen Meditators Using Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Diffusion Tensor Imaging: A Controlled Study

Introduction: This work aimed to determine whether 1H magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are correlated with years of meditation and psychological variables in long-term Zen meditators compared to healthy non-meditator controls. Materials and Methods: Design. Controlled, cross-sectional study. Sample. Meditators were recruited from a Zen Buddhist monastery. The control group was recruited from hospital staff. Meditators were administered questionnaires on anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment and mindfulness. 1H-MRS (1.5 T) of the brain was carried out by exploring four areas: both thalami, both hippocampi, the posterior superior parietal lobule (PSPL) and posterior cingulate gyrus. Predefined areas of the brain were measured for diffusivity (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) by MR-DTI. Results: Myo-inositol (mI) was increased in the posterior cingulate gyrus and Glutamate (Glu), N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) and N-acetyl-aspartate/Creatine (NAA/Cr) was reduced in the left thalamus in meditators. We found a significant positive correlation between mI in the posterior cingulate and years of meditation (r = 0.518; p = .019). We also found significant negative correlations between Glu (r =20.452; p = .045), NAA (r =20.617; p = .003) and NAA/Cr (r =20.448; P = .047) in the left thalamus and years of meditation. Meditators showed a lower Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) in the left posterior parietal white matter than did controls, and the ADC was negatively correlated with years of meditation (r =20.4850, p = .0066). Conclusions: The results are consistent with the view that mI, Glu and NAA are the most important altered metabolites. This study provides evidence of subtle abnormalities in neuronal function in regions of the white matter in meditators

Design, construction and operation of the ProtoDUNE-SP Liquid Argon TPC

The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) that was constructed and operated in the CERN North Area at the end of the H4 beamline. This detector is a prototype for the first far detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which will be constructed at the Sandford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, U.S.A. The ProtoDUNE-SP detector incorporates full-size components as designed for DUNE and has an active volume of 7 × 6 × 7.2 m3. The H4 beam delivers incident particles with well-measured momenta and high-purity particle identification. ProtoDUNE-SP's successful operation between 2018 and 2020 demonstrates the effectiveness of the single-phase far detector design. This paper describes the design, construction, assembly and operation of the detector components

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from ST1 lineage harboring a new SCCmec IV subtype (SCCmec IVm) containing the tetK gene

Marina F C&ocirc;rtes,1 Ana MN Botelho,1 Luiz GP Almeida,2 Rangel C Souza,2 Oberdan de Lima Cunha,2 Marisa F Nicol&aacute;s,2 Ana TR Vasconcelos,2 Agnes MS Figueiredo1 1Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Bateria, Department of Medical Microbiology, Paulo de Goes Institute of Microbiology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 2National Laboratory of Scientific Computing, Bioinformatics Laboratory, Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Abstract: A pivotal event in the evolutionary path of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the acquisition of the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) element carrying the mecA gene, the determinant of methicillin resistance. Community-acquired (CA) MRSA is commonly associated with skin/soft tissue infections, and doxycycline is one of the drug choices for this purpose. Doxycycline resistance is associated with the acquisition of the tetK gene carried by the S. aureus plasmid pT181, which may also be integrated into SCCmec III and V. The aim of this study was to describe a novel SCCmec IV subtype (IVm) carrying tetK and reveal the genetic context of this element. The SCCmec sequence was obtained by whole-genome sequencing of the MRSA strain 2288 (ST1 CA-MRSA) and genomic analysis performed using different bioinformatics tools. A copy of pT181 was found to be integrated in the new SCCmec IVm of the strain 2288. The SCCmec IVm has high nucleotide identity (99%) with SCCmec IVa of the strain MW2, except for the J3 region, where the pT181 &ndash; carrying tetK gene &ndash; is inserted. Inverted repeats (IRs) flanking pT181 were found in this region, suggesting the occurrence of recombination events. The strain 2288 (spa type t125) shares most of the virulence attributes with MW2 (spa type t128), which is recognized in the past as a cause of severe infections in children in USA. The pattern of branching in the phylogenetic tree depicts a recent common ancestor shared by the 2228 strain and other MRSA from USA, including ERS410852, TCH70, CIG1835, CO-41, MW2, and USA400-0051, but none of them carried pT181. This study also showed that the tetK carried by SCCmec IVm is functional, determining resistance to doxycycline and tetracycline. The potential dissemination of the tetK and mecA genes in the same genetic event by the acquisition of this new SCCmec subtype is of concern for community infections. Keywords: MRSA, mec cassette, CA-MRSA, doxycycline resistanc

A Novel Keyword Ontology Generator Method Tested on “Digital Transformation in Higher Education” Topic

Ponencia de la conferencia "1st International Workshop on Higher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online, HELMeTO 2019; Novedrate; Italy; 6 June 2019 through 7 June 2019"The practice of using ontology to understand a field of study through the analysis of keywords was not found to have been documented, and a five-step method is therefore presented to generate ontologies of keywords: data selection and extraction, data unification strategy, keyword processing, weight and connection standardisation and final representation. Using the proposed method, an experimental evaluation was undertaken using as the field of study the digital transformation in universities and university institutions, generating a knowledge graph that enables the clear visualisation of the various connections among different topics in a chosen field of study. Finally, the effectiveness and the observed limitations are discussed while stressing that each researcher should perform a thorough analysis of those relationships, enabling to obtain useful information for teaching and learning processes, especially in higher education environments