Meeting update: faecal microbiota transplantation––bench, bedside, courtroom?

A group of stakeholders met, under the aegis of the British Society of Gastroenterology, to discuss the current landscape of faecal microbiota transplant- ation (FMT) within the UK and beyond. The meeting covered a wide range of topics, ranging from the practical aspects of establishing an FMT service and regu- latory issues relating to its delivery, to research implications and likely future directions

Improving College-Going Trends for First Generation Latino Students: The Importance of Habitus, School Culture and Culturally Responsive Counseling

Throughout history, the United States has symbolized a place of opportunity, viewed as a place where achieving a better life is possible. This viewpoint still holds true for Latino immigrants, who currently account for more than half of the country’s population growth since 2000. Latino families and students specifically see higher education as a means by which to attain the proverbial “better life.” However, prior research dedicated to Latino students in the college-going process cites obstacles to enrollment in American colleges and universities. Inadequate academic preparation, language barriers, limited social capital, and restricted access to financial aid are among the challenges associated with lower attendance of Latino students in higher education, especially for those students who are first in the family to attend college. Educational professionals and school counselors emerge as influential in the college- going process for all students. School culture is also prominent in promoting a college-going ethos amongst students. Therefore, as Latino students continue to emerge in larger numbers throughout the nation’s schools, a further look into improving their rates of college enrollment warrant exploration. Rather than perpetuating former deficit models that highlight what impedes college enrollment for Latino students who are first in the family to attend college, current research seeks to identify aspects of school culture and culturally responsive counseling that support college-going for students in this population. This study explored the school culture and counseling programs/services offered to students at a selective school of choice in an urban environment where college enrollment rates of Latino students far exceeded data generally associated this group’s entry into colleges/universities. Using a qualitative, case study approach, this research employed semi-structured interviews with four school counselors, with ten students who were Latino, and first in the family to attend college. Questions focused on the degree to which the school and its counseling staff engaged in culturally responsive pedagogy. Furthermore, in considering school culture, the concept of “habitus” emerged as central to the positive college-going trends reported for this specialized high school. Conclusions from this research point to the importance of “habitus” as the cornerstone to improving college-going for all students and specifically for those who are Latino and first in the family to attend college

Did high debts distort loan and grant allocation to IDA countries?

We examine the allocation of net loans, net transfers and grants to IDA countries over the period 1982-2008 focusing on the role of debt and debt sustainability in the decisions of multilateral and bilateral donors. We find no evidence of defensive lending but strong evidence of defensive granting. A significant negative reaction of net loans to the debt ratio indeed characterizes the decisions of both multilateral and bilateral creditors. The impact of lower loans on the budget of debtor countries is however accommodated through higher grants, in addition to debt relief. These findings are consistent with a substitution of grants for loans and with the new approach to debt sustainability but question the efficiency and selectivity of foreign ai

Social media and virality in the 2014 student protests in Venezuela: Rethinking engagement and dialogue in times of imitation

This article examines the relationship between social media, political mobilization, and civic engagement in the context of the 2014 student protests in Venezuela. The study investigates whether these technologies were used by participants as a catalyst to trigger the protests and amplify them across the country or whether they were a galvanizing factor among more general conditions. The analysis uses cultural chaos and virality/contagion as theoretical approaches to discuss these events to provoke discussion about the relationship between protests and social media. However, far from a techno-deterministic assumption that sees social media as somehow having agency in itself, the authors highlight the role of social media as a platform for political engagement through imitation and emotions while rejecting false dichotomies of rationality/irrationality among the crowd

The Xmm-Newton Spectrum of a Candidate Recoiling Supermassive Black Hole: An Elusive Inverted P-Cygni Profile

We present a detailed spectral analysis of new XMM-Newton data of the source CXOC J100043.1+020637, also known as CID-42, detected in the COSMOS survey at z = 0.359. Previous works suggested that CID-42 is a candidate recoiling supermassive black hole (SMBH) showing also an inverted P-Cygni profile in the X-ray spectra at ~6 keV (rest) with an iron emission line plus a redshifted absorption line (detected at 3σ in previous XMM-Newton and Chandra observations). Detailed analysis of the absorption line suggested the presence of ionized material flowing into the black hole at high velocity. In the new long XMM-Newton observation, while the overall spectral shape remains constant, the continuum 2-10 keV flux decrease of ~20% with respect to previous observation and the absorption line is undetected. The upper limit on the intensity of the absorption line is EW \u3c 162 eV. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations show that the nondetection of the line is solely due to variation in the properties of the inflowing material, in agreement with the transient nature of these features, and that the intensity of the line is lower than the previously measured with a probability of 98.8%. In the scenario of CID-42 as a recoiling SMBH, the absorption line can be interpreted as being due to an inflow of gas with variable density that is located in the proximity of the SMBH and recoiling with it. New monitoring observations will be requested to further characterize this line

The domestication of the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus

Lactobacillus acidophilus is a Gram-positive lactic acid bacterium that has had widespread historical use in the dairy industry and more recently as a probiotic. Although L. acidophilus has been designated as safe for human consumption, increasing commercial regulation and clinical demands for probiotic validation has resulted in a need to understand its genetic diversity. By drawing on large, well-characterised collections of lactic acid bacteria, we examined L. acidophilus isolates spanning 92 years and including multiple strains in current commercial use. Analysis of the whole genome sequence data set (34 isolate genomes) demonstrated L. acidophilus was a low diversity, monophyletic species with commercial isolates essentially identical at the sequence level. Our results indicate that commercial use has domesticated L. acidophilus with genetically stable, invariant strains being consumed globally by the human population

Giant congenital melanocytic naevi: review of literature

giant congenital pigmented naevi is a great reconstructive challenge for the pediatric and plastic surgeons. due to the increased risk of malignant transformation in such lesions, many procedures have been used to remove giant congenital naevi like dermoabrasion, laser treatment or surgical excision combined with reconstruction through skin expansion or skin grafting; among these, only a complete excision can offer an efficacious treatment. in our centre we use the "tissue expansion" technique in order to achieve a sufficient quantity of normal skin to perform a both staged and radical excision of these giant lesions

Gamma-ray emission revealed at the western edge of SNR G344.7-0.1

We report on the investigation of a very high energy (VHE), Galactic gamma-ray source recently discovered at >50GeV using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. This object, 2FHL J1703.4-4145, displays a very hard >50GeV spectrum with a photon index ~1.2 in the 2FHL catalog and, as such, is one of the most extreme sources in the 2FHL sub-sample of Galactic objects. A detailed analysis of the available multi-wavelength data shows that this source is located on the western edge of the supernova remnant (SNR) G344.7--0.1, along with extended TeV source, HESS J1702-420. The observations and the spectral energy distribution modeling support a scenario where this gamma-ray source is the byproduct of the interaction between the SNR shock and the dense surrounding medium, with escaping cosmic rays (CRs) diffusing into the dense environment and interacting with a large local cloud, generating the observed TeV emission. If confirmed, an interaction between the SNR CRs and a nearby cloud would make 2FHL J1703.4-4145 another promising candidate for efficient particle acceleration of the 2FHL Galactic sample, following the first candidate from our previous investigation of a likely shock-cloud interaction occurring on the West edge of the Vela SNR.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to ApJ June 15, 2020. Accepted for publication Oct 2, 202

The prevalence and predictors of comorbid bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Background: Although some authors have recently investigated the co-occurrence of anxiety and bipolar disorders, the topic remains insufficiently studied. Defining the prevalence and predictors of BD-OCD comorbidity has important nosological, clinical and therapeutic implications. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted on the prevalence and predictors of comorbid BD-OCD. Relevant papers published through March 30th, 2015 were identified searching the electronic databases MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library. Results: 46 articles met inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of OCD in BD was 17.0% (95% CI 12.7-22.4%), which was comparable to the results reported by the pooled prevalence of BD in OCD (18.35%, 95% CI 13.2-24.8%). With regard to OCD-BD predictors, a higher mean age predicted a lower prevalence of OCD in BD patients. Sub group meta-analyses reported higher OCD prevalence rates in BD children and adolescents (24.2%, compared to 13.5% in adults), in BD-I patients (24.6%, compared to 13.6% in mixed BD patients), and among population-based studies (22.2%, compared to 13.2% in hospital-based studies). Limitations: Most studies use retrospective assessment scales with low sensitivity in discriminating true ego-dystonic obsessions from depressive ruminations that may bias results towards an overestimation of obsessive symptom prevalence. Conclusions: This first systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence and predictors of comorbid BD-OCD confirms that BD-OCD comorbidity is a common condition in psychiatry with children and adolescents and BD-I patients as the most affected subgroups