Modern methods in Structural Geology and Tectonics: a series of articles in honour of Martin Burkhard (1957-2006)

We briefly report on the conference held in May 2007 in honour of Martin Burkhard in Neuchâtel. We also present a short account of the achievements of this prominent scientist and teacher by selectively citing some of his work and briefly introduce the series of articles presented here, which represent a tribute to Martin Burkhard. We also add a complete list of publications by Martin Burkhard and co-worker

Predictors of readmission and health related quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure: a comparison of different psychosocial aspects

Psychological distress is common in patients with chronic heart failure. The impact of different psychological variables on prognosis has been shown but the comparative effects of these variables remain unclear. This study examines the impact of depression, anxiety, vital exhaustion, Type D personality, and social support on prognosis in chronic heart failure patients. One hundred eleven patients (mean age 57±14years) having participated in an exercise based ambulatory cardiac rehabilitation program were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Psychological baseline data were assessed at program entry. Mortality, readmission, and health-related quality of life were assessed at follow up (mean 2.8±1.1years). After controlling for disease severity none of the psychological variables were associated with mortality, though severe anxiety predicted readmission [HR=3.21 (95% CI, 1.04-9.93; P=.042)]. Health-related quality of life was independently explained by vital exhaustion, anxiety and either body mass index (physical dimension) or sex (emotional dimension). As psychological variables have a strong impact on health-related quality of life they should be routinely assessed in chronic heart failure patients's treatmen

Learning Obstacle Representations for Neural Motion Planning

Motion planning and obstacle avoidance is a key challenge in robotics applications. While previous work succeeds to provide excellent solutions for known environments, sensor-based motion planning in new and dynamic environments remains difficult. In this work we address sensor-based motion planning from a learning perspective. Motivated by recent advances in visual recognition, we argue the importance of learning appropriate representations for motion planning. We propose a new obstacle representation based on the PointNet architecture and train it jointly with policies for obstacle avoidance. We experimentally evaluate our approach for rigid body motion planning in challenging environments and demonstrate significant improvements of the state of the art in terms of accuracy and efficiency.Comment: CoRL 2020. See the project webpage at https://www.di.ens.fr/willow/research/nmp_repr

Association Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Myocardial Infarction and Liver Enzyme Levels: A Prospective Study

Background: Research in rodents demonstrated that psychological stress increases circulating levels of alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and alkaline phosphatase reflecting liver injury. Moreover, chronic posttraumatic stress disorder and transaminases predicted coronary heart disease. Aims: To investigate the hypothesis that severity of posttraumatic stress disorder following myocardial infarction would prospectively relate to liver enzymes. Methods: Study participants were 24 patients (mean 59±7years, 79% men) with an interviewer-rated diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder caused by an index myocardial infarction 3±3months before. After a mean follow-up of 26±6months, patients had a clinical interview to reassess posttraumatic stress disorder severity, a medical history, and blood collected to determine liver enzymes. Results: Total posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms assessed at study entry prospectively predicted plasma levels of alanine transaminase (r=.47, p=.031) and alkaline phosphatase (r=.57, p=.004), but not of aspartate transaminase (p=.15), controlling for follow-up duration and antidepressant use. Total posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms assessed at follow-up were associated with alanine transaminase (r=.72, p=.004), aspartate transaminase (r=.60, p=.018), and alkaline phosphatase (r=.64, p=.001) in the 16 patients who had maintained diagnostic posttraumatic stress disorder, but not in all 24 patients. Conclusions: The severity of posttraumatic stress disorder following myocardial infarction was associated with mild increase in liver enzyme levels, suggesting that chronic psychological stress relates to hepatic damage in humans. This might help to explain the previously observed increased cardiovascular risk in chronically traumatized individual

Health-Related Quality of Life is Associated with Positive Affect in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease Entering Cardiac Rehabilitation

Health-related quality of life (QoL) is an important and widely used outcome measure in cardiac populations. We examined the relationship between positive affect and health-related quality of life, controlling for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, clinical variables and negative affect. We further investigated the role of gender in this relationship given the well-known gender differences in cardiovascular health. We enrolled 746 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) before they entered outpatient cardiac rehabilitation. All patients completed the Global Mood Scale and the SF-36 Health Survey. Positive affect was independently associated with mental (p<.001) and physical QoL (p<.001) after controlling for control variables. Gender moderated the relationship between positive affect and physical QoL (p=.009) but not mental QoL (p=.60). Positive affect was positively associated with physical QoL in men (p<.001) but not in women (p=.44). The health-related QoL of patients with CHD is associated with a person's level of positive affec

Training-related modulations of the autonomic nervous system in endurance athletes: is female gender cardioprotective?

The risk of sudden death is increased in athletes with a male predominance. Regular physical activity increases vagal tone, and may protect against exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmias. We investigated training-related modulations of the autonomic nervous system in female and male endurance athletes. Runners of a 10-mile race were invited. Of 873 applicants, 68 female and 70 male athletes were randomly selected and stratified according to their average weekly training hours in a low (≤4h) and high (>4h) volume training group. Analysis of heart rate variability was performed over 24h. Spectral components (high frequency [HF] and low frequency [LF] power in normalized units) were analyzed for hourly 5min segments and averaged for day- and nighttime. One hundred and fourteen athletes (50% female, mean age 42±7years) were included. No significant gender difference was observed for training volume and 10-mile race time. Over the 24-h period, female athletes exhibited a higher HF and lower LF power for each hourly time-point. Female gender and endurance training hours were independent predictors of a higher HF and lower LF power. In female athletes, higher training hours were associated with a higher HF and lower LF power during nighttime. In male athletes, the same was true during daytime. In conclusion, female and male athletes showed a different circadian pattern of the training-related increase in markers of vagal tone. For a comparable amount of training volume, female athletes maintained their higher markers of vagal tone, possibly indicating a superior protection against exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmia

Reply to Sopek Merkaš, I.; Lakušić, N. Comment on "von Känel et al. Early Trauma-Focused Counseling for the Prevention of Acute Coronary Syndrome-Induced Posttraumatic Stress: Social and Health Care Resources Matter. J. Clin. Med. 2022, 11, 1993".

We thank Merkaš and Lakušić for commenting on our recently published paper; in the paper, we suggested that resources in a patient's social environment may moderate the benefit of one single-session trauma-focused counseling in the prevention of acute coronary syndrome (ACS)-induced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms [...]

Early Trauma-Focused Counseling for the Prevention of Acute Coronary Syndrome-Induced Posttraumatic Stress: Social and Health Care Resources Matter.

BACKGROUND A one-size-fits-all approach might explain why early psychological interventions are largely ineffective in preventing the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms triggered by acute medical events. We examined the hypothesis that social and health care resources are moderators of an intervention effect. METHODS Within 48 h of hospital admission, 129 patients (mean age 58 years, 83% men) with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) self-rated their social support and were randomized to one single session of trauma-focused counseling (TFC) or stress-focused counseling (SFC) (active control intervention). Clinician-rated PTSD symptoms, use of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) and use of psychotherapy were assessed at 3 and 12 months. Random mixed regression multivariable models were used to analyze associations with PTSD symptoms over time. RESULTS TFC did not prevent ACS-induced PTSD symptom onset better than SFC; yet, there were significant and independent interactions between "intervention" (TFC or SFC) and social support (p = 0.013) and between "intervention" and duration of CR in weeks (p = 0.034). Patients with greater social support or longer participation in CR had fewer PTSD symptoms in the TFC group compared with the SFC group. The number of psychotherapy sessions did not moderate the intervention effect. CONCLUSIONS Early psychological intervention after ACS with a trauma-focused approach to prevent the development of PTSD symptoms may be beneficial for patients who perceive high social support or participate in CR for several weeks