Prospective mental imagery as its link with anxiety and depression in prisoners

Mental imagery is known to play a key role in the development and maintenance of depression and anxiety. Prisoners commonly experience psychological distress, but interventions to address this are currently lacking. We aimed to examine the link between prospective mental imagery and anxiety and depression among prisoners. One hundred twenty-three male prisoners from a Category C prison in southwest England participated in the study. They completed the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the General Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) to measure whether they experience depression and/or anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, they completed additional questionnaires to evaluate their prospective mental imagery. Results showed that 67.5% of prisoners presented with more depression symptoms and 27.7% with more anxiety symptoms. Supporting earlier findings, our data revealed that some dimensions of prospective mental imagery were significantly related with increased anxiety and depression symptoms in prisoners. Namely, intrusive negative personally relevant imagery was a positive predictor and likelihood of positive events a negative predictor of both anxiety and depression symptoms. The perceived likelihood of negative events was a positive predictor of depression. Intrusive verbal thought was a positive predictor of anxiety. The obtained results suggest the need to develop interventions not only targeting the reduction of prospective negative imagery but also the enhancement of positive mental imagery

Discovery of Western European R1b1a2 Y Chromosome Variants in 1000 Genomes Project Data: An Online Community Approach

The authors have used an online community approach, and tools that were readily available via the Internet, to discover genealogically and therefore phylogenetically relevant Y-chromosome polymorphisms within core haplogroup R1b1a2-L11/S127 (rs9786076). Presented here is the analysis of 135 unrelated L11 derived samples from the 1000 Genomes Project. We were able to discover new variants and build a much more complex phylogenetic relationship for L11 sub-clades. Many of the variants were further validated using PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing. The identification of these new variants will help further the understanding of population history including patrilineal migrations in Western and Central Europe where R1b1a2 is the most frequent haplogroup. The fine-grained phylogenetic tree we present here will also help to refine historical genetic dating studies. Our findings demonstrate the power of citizen science for analysis of whole genome sequence data

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Local iron homeostasis in the breast ductal carcinoma microenvironment

Abstract BACKGROUND: While the deregulation of iron homeostasis in breast epithelial cells is acknowledged, iron-related alterations in stromal inflammatory cells from the tumor microenvironment have not been explored. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry for hepcidin, ferroportin 1 (FPN1), transferrin receptor 1 (TFR1) and ferritin (FT) was performed in primary breast tissues and axillary lymph nodes in order to dissect the iron-profiles of epithelial cells, lymphocytes and macrophages. Furthermore, breast carcinoma core biopsies frozen in optimum cutting temperature (OCT) compound were subjected to imaging flow cytometry to confirm FPN1 expression in the cell types previously evaluated and determine its cellular localization. RESULTS: We confirm previous results by showing that breast cancer epithelial cells present an 'iron-utilization phenotype' with an increased expression of hepcidin and TFR1, and decreased expression of FT. On the other hand, lymphocytes and macrophages infiltrating primary tumors and from metastized lymph nodes display an 'iron-donor' phenotype, with increased expression of FPN1 and FT, concomitant with an activation profile reflected by a higher expression of TFR1 and hepcidin. A higher percentage of breast carcinomas, compared to control mastectomy samples, present iron accumulation in stromal inflammatory cells, suggesting that these cells may constitute an effective tissue iron reservoir. Additionally, not only the deregulated expression of iron-related proteins in epithelial cells, but also on lymphocytes and macrophages, are associated with clinicopathological markers of breast cancer poor prognosis, such as negative hormone receptor status and tumor size. CONCLUSIONS: The present results reinforce the importance of analyzing the tumor microenvironment in breast cancer, extending the contribution of immune cells to local iron homeostasis in the tumor microenvironment context.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Disease Burden and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in the US &ndash; Evidence from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2016-2019

Melissa H Roberts,1 David M Mannino,2,3 Douglas W Mapel,4 Orsolya Lunacsek,5 Shahla Amin,5 Eileen Farrelly,5 Norbert Feigler,6 Michael F Pollack6 1College of Pharmacy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA; 2College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA; 3COPD Foundation, Miami, FL, USA; 4Northern Arizona Pulmonary Associates, Flagstaff, AZ, USA; 5Global Consulting, Cencora, Conshohocken, PA, USA; 6BioPharmaceuticals, US Medical, AstraZeneca, Wilmington, DE, USACorrespondence: Michael F Pollack, BioPharmaceuticals, Global Medical Evidence, AstraZeneca, Wilmington, DE, USA, Email [email protected]: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disease associated with reduced life expectancy, increased morbidity, mortality, and cost. This study characterized the US COPD burden, including socioeconomic and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes.Study Design and Methods: In this retrospective, cross-sectional study using nationally representative estimates from Medical Expenditures Survey (MEPS) data (2016– 2019), adults (≥ 18 years) living with and without COPD were identified. Adults living without COPD (control cohort) and with COPD were matched 5:1 on age, sex, geographic region, and entry year. Demographics, clinical characteristics, socioeconomic, and generic HRQoL measures were examined to include a race-stratified analysis of people living with COPD.Results: A total of 4,135 people living with COPD were identified; the matched dataset represented a weighted non-institutionalized population of 11.3 million with and 54.2 million people without COPD. Among people living with COPD, 66.3% had ≥ 1 COPD-related condition; 62.7% had ≥ 1 cardiovascular condition, compared to 33.5% and 50.5% without COPD. More people living with COPD were unemployed (56.2% vs 45.3%), unable to work due to illness/disability (30.1% vs 12.1%), had problems paying bills (16.1% vs 8.8%), reported poorer perceived health (fair/poor: 36.2% vs 14.4%), missed more working days due to illness/injury per year (median, 2.5 days vs 0.0 days), and had limitations in physical functioning (40.1% vs 19.4%) (all P< 0.0001). In race-stratified analyses for people living with COPD, people self-reporting as Black had higher prevalence of cardiovascular-risk conditions, poorer socioeconomic and HRQoL outcomes, and higher healthcare expenses than White or Other races.Conclusion: Adults living with COPD had higher clinical disease burden, lower socioeconomic status, and reduced HRQoL than those without, with greater disparities among Black people living with COPD compared to White and other races. Understanding the characteristics of patients helps address care disparities and access challenges.Keywords: COPD, burden of illness, healthcare cost, race/ethnicit

The K2 M67 study: A curiously young star in an eclipsing binary in an old open cluster

We present an analysis of a slightly eccentric (e = 0.05), partially eclipsing, long-period (P = 69.73 days) main-sequence binary system (WOCS 12009, Sanders 1247) in the benchmark old open cluster M67. Using Kepler K2 and ground-based photometry, along with a large set of new and reanalyzed spectra, we derived highly precise masses (1.111 ± 0.015 and 0.748 ± 0.005 Mo) and radii (1.071 ± 0.008 ± 0.003 and 0.713 ± 0.019 ± 0.026 Ro, with statistical and systematic error estimates) for the stars. The radius of the secondary star is in agreement with theory. The primary, however, is approximately 15% smaller than reasonable isochrones for the cluster predict. Our best explanation is that the primary star was produced from the merger of two stars, as this can also account for the nondetection of photospheric lithium and its higher temperature relative to other cluster main-sequence stars at the same V magnitude. To understand the dynamical characteristics (low measured rotational line broadening of the primary star and low eccentricity of the current binary orbit), we believe that the most probable (but not the only) explanation is the tidal evolution of a close binary within a primordial triple system (possibly after a period of Kozai-Lidov oscillations), leading to merger approximately 1 Gyr ago. This star appears to be a future blue straggler that is being revealed as the cluster ages and the most massive main-sequence stars die out

Search for Dark Matter and Supersymmetry with a Compressed Mass Spectrum in the Vector Boson Fusion Topology in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

A comparison of low-dose risperidone to paroxetine in the treatment of panic attacks: a randomized, single-blind study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Because a large proportion of patients with panic attacks receiving approved pharmacotherapy do not respond or respond poorly to medication, it is important to identify additional therapeutic strategies for the management of panic symptoms. This article describes a randomized, rater-blind study comparing low-dose risperidone to standard-of-care paroxetine for the treatment of panic attacks.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty six subjects with a history of panic attacks were randomized to receive either risperidone or paroxetine. The subjects were then followed for eight weeks. Outcome measures included the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS), the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (Ham-A), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D), the Sheehan Panic Anxiety Scale-Patient (SPAS-P), and the Clinical Global Impression scale (CGI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All subjects demonstrated a reduction in both the frequency and severity of panic attacks regardless of treatment received. Statistically significant improvements in rating scale scores for both groups were identified for the PDSS, the Ham-A, the Ham-D, and the CGI. There was no difference between treatment groups in the improvement in scores on the measures PDSS, Ham-A, Ham-D, and CGI. Post hoc tests suggest that subjects receiving risperidone may have a quicker clinical response than subjects receiving paroxetine.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We can identify no difference in the efficacy of paroxetine and low-dose risperidone in the treatment of panic attacks. Low-dose risperidone appears to be tolerated equally well as paroxetine. Low-dose risperidone may be an effective treatment for anxiety disorders in which panic attacks are a significant component.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT100457106</p