An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses

Background. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been increasingly used for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Although several meta-analyses have explored its effectiveness and safety, there is no umbrella review specifically focused on rTMS for OCD. This umbrella review followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and analyzed relevant meta-analyses on rTMS for OCD. Methods. Twenty-three articles were identified from PubMed, and after screening, 12 meta-analyses were included in the review. The studies analyzed in the meta-analyses ranged from 10 to 27, with total participants ranging from 282 to 791. The most commonly studied regions were the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), supplementary motor area (SMA), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Result. The majority of the meta-analyses consistently supported the effectiveness of rTMS in reducing OCD symptoms when applied to the DLPFC and SMA. Encouraging results were also observed when targeting the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) through deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS). However, there was a high level of heterogeneity in the findings of nine out of 12 meta-analyses. Conclusion. In conclusion, existing evidence suggests that rTMS targeting the DLPFC and SMA consistently reduces OCD symptoms, but targeting the mPFC and ACC through dTMS shows variable results. However, the high heterogeneity in the study findings indicates a need for further research and standardization in the field.publishersversionpublishe

Decision-making in crisis resolution and home treatment teams: The AWARE framework

The aim of the study is to improve patient safety by identifying factors influencing gatekeeping decisions by crisis resolution and home treatment teams. A theoretical sampling method was used to recruit clinicians. Semi-structured interviews to elicit various aspects of clinical decision-making were carried out. The transcripts were thematically analysed using a grounded theory approach.ResultsPatient needs (safety and treatment) was the primary driver behind decisions. The research also revealed that information gathered was processed using heuristics. We identified five key themes (anxiety, weighting, agenda, resource and experience), which were constructed into an acronym ‘AWARE’.Clinical implicationsAWARE provides a framework to make explicit drivers for decision-making that are often implicit. Incorporating these drivers into reflective practice will help staff be more mindful of undue influences and result in improved clinical decisions.Declaration of interestNone.</jats:sec

Correlated conformation and charge transport in multiwall carbon nanotube - conducting polymer nanocomposites

The strikingly different charge transport behaviors in nanocomposites of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and conducting polymer polyethylene dioxythiophene - polystyrene sulfonic acid (PEDOT-PSS) at low temperatures are explained by probing their conformational properties using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The SAXS studies indicate assembly of elongated PEDOT-PSS globules on the walls of nanotubes, coating them partially thereby limiting the interaction between the nanotubes in the polymer matrix. This results in a charge transport governed mainly by small polarons in the conducting polymer despite the presence of metallic MWNTs. At T > 4 K, hopping of the charge carriers following 1D-VRH is evident which also gives rise to a positive magnetoresistance (MR) with an enhanced localization length (~ 5 nm) due to the presence of MWNTs. However, at T < 4 K, the observation of an unconventional positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) is attributed to small polaron tunnelling. The exceptionally large negative MR observed in this temperature regime is conjectured to be due to the presence of quasi-1D MWNTs that can aid in lowering the tunnelling barrier across the nanotube - polymer boundary resulting in large delocalization.Comment: Accepted J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

Azide and sulfonylazide functionalized fluorophores for the selective and sensitive detection of hydrogen sulfide

[EN] Three fluorescent probes (1–3) for the selective and sensitive detection of hydrogen sulfide have been synthesized and characterized. Probe 1 is a coumarin derivative functionalized with an azide moiety whereas 2 contain the azide reactive group into a naphthalene fluorophore backbone. Probe 3 is composed also by a naphthalene fluorophore but, in this case, functionalized with a sulfonylazide reactive moiety. Probes 1 and 3 are non-fluorescent whereas 2 is weakly emissive in HEPES (10 mM, pH 7.4)–DMSO 99:1 (v/v). The emission behavior of the three probes was tested against selected anions, bio-thiols and oxidant molecules. Of all the chemical species tested, only HS− is able to induce an enhancement in the emission intensity (50, 11 and 20-fold for 1, 2 and 3, respectively). The observed emission in the presence of hydrogen sulfide is ascribed, in the case of probes 1 and 2, to an azide–amine reduction induced by HS− anion, whereas for probe 3 the sensing mechanism is related with a sulfonylazide–sulfonamide conversion. The three probes are very sensitive to HS− anion with limits of detection of 0.17, 0.20 and 0.40 mM for 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Cell viability studies demonstrated that 1–3 probes are essentially non-toxic at concentrations 10–50 μM and are well suited for in vivo studies. Finally, probe 1 was used for the detection on intracellular HS− anion in HeLa cells by means of confocal microscopy.Financial support from the Spanish Government (Project MAT2012-38429-004-01) and the Generalitat Valenciana (Project PROMETEO/2009/016) is gratefully acknowledged. S.E. is grateful to the Generalitat Valenciana for his Santiago Grisolia fellow. C.T. also thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion for her FPU grant. L.E.S.F. thanks the Carolina Foundation and UPNFM-Honduras for his doctoral grant.El Sayed Shehata Nasr, S.; De La Torre Paredes, C.; Santos Figueroa, LE.; Marín Hernández, C.; Martínez Mañez, R.; Sancenón Galarza, F.; Costero Nieto, AM.... (2015). Azide and sulfonylazide functionalized fluorophores for the selective and sensitive detection of hydrogen sulfide. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical. 207(B):987-994. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2014.04.047S987994207

Evidence that breast cancer risk at the 2q35 locus is mediated through IGFBP5 regulation.

GWAS have identified a breast cancer susceptibility locus on 2q35. Here we report the fine mapping of this locus using data from 101,943 subjects from 50 case-control studies. We genotype 276 SNPs using the 'iCOGS' genotyping array and impute genotypes for a further 1,284 using 1000 Genomes Project data. All but two, strongly correlated SNPs (rs4442975 G/T and rs6721996 G/A) are excluded as candidate causal variants at odds against &gt;100:1. The best functional candidate, rs4442975, is associated with oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) disease with an odds ratio (OR) in Europeans of 0.85 (95% confidence interval=0.84-0.87; P=1.7 × 10(-43)) per t-allele. This SNP flanks a transcriptional enhancer that physically interacts with the promoter of IGFBP5 (encoding insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 5) and displays allele-specific gene expression, FOXA1 binding and chromatin looping. Evidence suggests that the g-allele confers increased breast cancer susceptibility through relative downregulation of IGFBP5, a gene with known roles in breast cell biology

Ultrafast photochemistry produces superbright short-wave infrared dots for low-dose in vivo imaging

12 p.-5 fig.Optical probes operating in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1,000-1,700 nm), where tissues are highly transparent, have expanded the applicability of fluorescence in the biomedical field. NIR-II fluorescence enables deep-tissue imaging with micrometric resolution in animal models, but is limited by the low brightness of NIR-II probes, which prevents imaging at low excitation intensities and fluorophore concentrations. Here, we present a new generation of probes (Ag2S superdots) derived from chemically synthesized Ag2S dots, on which a protective shell is grown by femtosecond laser irradiation. This shell reduces the structural defects, causing an 80-fold enhancement of the quantum yield. PEGylated Ag2S superdots enable deep-tissue in vivo imaging at low excitation intensities (<10 mW cm-2) and doses (<0.5 mg kg-1), emerging as unrivaled contrast agents for NIR-II preclinical bioimaging. These results establish an approach for developing superbright NIR-II contrast agents based on the synergy between chemical synthesis and ultrafast laser processing.Authors thank Dr A. Benayas (CICECO, U. Aveiro, Portugal), Prof G. Lifante and Prof J. García Sole (UAM) for helpful discussions. This work has been founded by Ministerio de Economı́a y Competitividad-MINECO (MAT2017-83111R and MAT2016-75362-C3-1-R) and the Comunidad de Madrid (B2017/BMD-3867 RENIM-CM) co-financed by European Structural and Investment Fund. D.M.-G. thanks UCM-Santander for a predoctoral contract (CT17/17-CT18/17). We thank the staff at the ICTS-National Centre for Electron Microscopy at the UCM for the help in the electron microscopy studies and C.M. at the beamline BL22-CLAESS of the Spanish synchrotron ALBA for his help in the XANES experiments. We also thank J.G.I at the Ultrafast Laser Laboratory at UCM for his help and fruitful discussion. Y.S. acknowledges the support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC File No. 201806870023). Additional funding was provided by the European Commission Horizon 2020 project NanoTBTech, the Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal project IMP18_38 (2018/0265). Ajoy K. Kar and Mark D. Mackenzie acknowledge support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Project CHAMP, EP/M015130/1). C. Jacinto thanks the financial support of the Brazilian agencies: CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) through the grants: Projeto Universal Nr. 431736/2018-9 and Scholarship in Research Productivity 1C under the Nr. 304967/20181; FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos) through the grants INFRAPESQ-11 and INFRAPESQ-12; FAPEAL (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Alagoas) grant Nr. 1209/2016. H. D. A. Santos was supported by a graduate studentship from CNPq and by a sandwich doctoral program (PDSE-CAPES) developed at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain, Project Nr. 88881/2016-01.Peer reviewe

Leaving no-one behind? Informal economies, economic inclusion, and Islamic extremism in Nigeria

This article examines how the Post-2015 commitment to economic inclusion affects informal economic actors in developing countries. It highlights the selective dynamics of inclusive market models which generate new processes of exclusion in which the most vulnerable continue to be left behind. The case of Nigeria reveals how inclusive market initiatives reinforce parallel processes of informalization, poverty and Islamic extremism in the north of the country. Fieldwork in northern Nigeria shows that inclusive initiatives are intensifying competitive struggles within the informal economy in which stronger actors are crowding out poorer, less educated and migrant actors, exacerbating disaffection and vulnerability to radicalization

Guiding of relativistic electron beams in dense matter by laser-driven magnetostatic fields

Intense lasers interacting with dense targets accelerate relativistic electron beams, whichtransport part of the laser energy into the target depth. However, the overall laser-to-targetenergy coupling efficiency is impaired by the large divergence of the electron beam, intrinsicto the laser-plasma interaction. Here we demonstrate that an efficient guiding ofMeV electrons with about 30MA current in solid matter is obtained by imposing a laserdrivenlongitudinal magnetostatic field of 600 T. In the magnetized conditions the transportedenergy density and the peak background electron temperature at the 60-μm-thicktarget's rear surface rise by about a factor of five, as unfolded from benchmarked simulations.Such an improvement of energy-density flux through dense matter paves the ground foradvances in laser-driven intense sources of energetic particles and radiation, driving matter toextreme temperatures, reaching states relevant for planetary or stellar science as yet inaccessibleat the laboratory scale and achieving high-gain laser-driven thermonuclear fusion

On the dynamical downscaling and bias correction of seasonal-scale winter precipitation predictions over North India

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Tiwari, P. R., Kar, S. C., Mohanty, U. C., Dey, S., Sinha, P., Raju, P. V. S. and Shekhar, M. S., ‘On the dynamical downscaling and bias correction of seasonal-scale winter precipitation predictions over North India’, quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 142 (699):2398-2410, June 2016, which has been published in final form at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2832. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. © 2016 Royal Meteorological SocietyThis study presents the results of high-resolution (30 km) climate simulations over North India using an optimized configuration of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM), driven by a global spectral model (T80 model with horizontal resolution of ∼1.4◦) for a period of 28 years (1982–2009). The main aim of this work is to analyze the capabilities of the RegCM to simulate the wintertime precipitation over North India in the recent past.The RegCM validation revealed a good improvement in reproducing the precipitation compared to results obtained from the T80 model. This improvement comes due to better representation of vertical pressure velocity, moisture transport, convective heating rate and temperature gradient at two different latitudinal zones. Moreover, orography in the high-resolution RegCM improves the precipitation simulation in the region where sharp orography gradient plays an important role in wintertime precipitation processes. Two bias correction (BC) methods namely mean bias-remove (MBR) and quantile mapping (QM) have been applied on the T80 driven RegCM model simulations. It was found that the QM method is more skillful than the MBR in simulating the wintertime precipitation over North India. A comparison of model-simulated and bias corrected precipitation with observed precipitation at 17 station locations has also been carried out. Overall, the results suggest that when the BC is applied on dynamically downscaled model, it has better skill in simulating the precipitation over North India and this model is a useful tool for further regional downscaling studies.Peer reviewe