The association between psychosocial factors and mental health symptoms in cervical spine pain with or without radiculopathy on health outcomes : a systematic review

Background Neck pain, with or without radiculopathy, can have significant negative effects on physical and mental wellbeing. Mental health symptoms are known to worsen prognosis across a range of musculoskeletal conditions. Understanding the association between mental health symptoms and health outcomes in this population has not been established. Our aim was to systematically review the association between psychosocial factors and/or mental health symptoms on health outcomes in adults with neck pain, with or without radiculopathy. Methods A systematic review of published and unpublished literature databases was completed. Studies reporting mental health symptoms and health outcomes in adults with neck pain with or without radiculopathy were included. Due to significant clinical heterogeneity, a narrative synthesis was completed. Each outcome was assessed using GRADE. Results Twenty-three studies were included (N = 21,968 participants). Sixteen studies assessed neck pain only (N = 17,604 participants); seven studies assessed neck pain with radiculopathy (N = 4,364 participants). Depressive symptoms were associated with poorer health outcomes in people with neck pain and neck pain with radiculopathy. These findings were from seven low-quality studies, and an additional six studies reported no association. Low-quality evidence reported that distress and anxiety symptoms were associated with poorer health outcomes in people with neck pain and radiculopathy and very low-quality evidence showed this in people with neck pain only. Stress and higher job strain were negatively associated with poorer health outcomes measured by the presence of pain in two studies of very low quality. Conclusions Across a small number of highly heterogenous, low quality studies mental health symptoms are negatively associated with health outcomes in people with neck pain with radiculopathy and neck pain without radiculopathy. Clinicians should continue to utilise robust clinical reasoning when assessing the complex factors impacting a person’s presentation with neck pain with or without radiculopathy. PROSPERO registration number CRD42020169497

Hyptiogastrites electrinus Cockerell, 1917, from Myanmar (Burmese) amber: Redescription and its placement within the Evanioidea (Insecta: Hymenoptera)

© The Natural History MuseumThe wasp Hyptiogastrites electrinus Cockerell, 1917, from the Lower Cretaceous (Upper Albian) Myanmar (Burmese) amber is redescribed from the well-preserved holotype and its relationship with extant Aulacidae and Gasteruptiidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea) evaluated. Although the wing venation is identical to the majority of extant Hyptiogastrinae (Gasteruptiidae), phylogenetic analysis places H. electrinus as sister taxon to the Aulacidae s.str., (i.e. Aulacus + Pristaulacus). Thus, Hyptiogastrinae is confirmed as having a restricted Southern Hemisphere distribution (i.e. Australasia and South America). Consistent with this result, H. electrinus is included within a slightly more broadly defined Aulacidae rather than being placed in a new monotypic family. Characters that align this species with the Aulacidae include: having small circular eyes, percurrent Y-shaped notauli, pyramidal shape of the propodeum and the presence of a groove or ovipositor guide on the hind coxae.John T. Jennings, Andrew D. Austin and Nicholas B. Steven

Using Ambient Seismic Noise to Determine Short Period Phase Velocities and Shallow Shear Velocities in Young Oceanic Lithosphere

Using 10 broadband ocean bottom seismometers from the 11-month-long deployment of the Gravity Lineations Intraplate Melting Petrologic and Seismologic Expedition (GLIMPSE) passive seismic experiment located in the south central Pacific, we have estimated the seismic impulse responses from ambient seismic noise for 45 station-to-station paths. The raw impulse responses show moveout with station-to-station distance, and there is a trend of decreasing signal-to-noise ratios as the station-to-station distance increases. The decrease in signal-to-noise ratio is expected as a smaller range of azimuths of propagating surface waves will contribute constructively to the cross-correlated signal with increasing distance, although scattering may also play a role in the coherence of seismic noise at periods less than 16 sec. From these station-to-station paths, we determined group velocities for the fundamental mode Rayleigh waves of a 2–16-sec period and the second mode Rayleigh wave of a 3.5–7-sec period. We calculate phase velocities for the fundamental mode and second mode Rayleigh wave over the same period range as the group velocities by applying a time variable filter to the noise correlation function and carefully unwrapping the phase spectrum of the resulting filtered impulse responses. Within this period range, there is a transition from waves at short periods, whose energy is mostly in the water column, to waves sensitive to crustal and upper mantle structure. The phase velocities for the second mode, which have peak sensitivity in the lower crust and shallow mantle, show evidence for azimuthal anisotropy. The average phase velocities of the station-to-station paths in the east–west direction are 2% faster than the north–south paths at the 4–7-sec period, consistent with the fast directions determined from SKS wave splitting measurements of N100°E. By incorporating the short-period fundamental and higher mode phase velocities from ambient seismic noise with longer period (16–100 sec) fundamental mode Rayleigh-wave phase velocities determined from teleseismic events, we inverted for the average crustal and upper mantle shear velocity structure and water column depth and velocity. The predicted phase velocities are extremely sensitive to the water column compressional velocity. We determined the average water column velocity to be 1466±3 m/sec, in contrast to the average of 1500 m/sec estimated from shipboard measurements weighted according to the Rayleigh-wave sensitivity kernel. The difference may be due to the dispersive effects of scattering by bathymetry or by the thin variable thickness sediment layer. The inversion also produces a Vp/Vs ratio of 1.88 for the crust. This method can provide useful information about the shallow seismic structure of the oceanic crust and uppermost mantle and is an important complement to longer period studies. <br/

P and S Delays Beneath Intraplate Volcanic Ridges and Gravity Lineations Near the East Pacific Rise

The Gravity Lineations Intraplate Melting Petrology and Seismic Expedition (GLIMPSE) explored the origin of two intraplate, non–hot spot ridge systems associated with gravity lineations in the south central Pacific. Using the 11 month ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) deployment of the GLIMPSE experiment, we determined the average P and S station delays for the region. Across the array, station delays varied by 1.22 s for P waves and 2.13 s for S waves. The presence of ultraslow shear velocity (&lt;400 m/s) sediment layers of variable thickness throughout the region introduced S delays, determined from P-to-S-converted phases generated at the crust-sediment boundary, of 0.08 to 0.43 s. Consequently, we corrected the S delays for these sediments to examine seismic anomalies due to crustal and mantle structure. We used the sediment delay times and the relative amplitudes of the converted phases to estimate the average regional shear velocity and thickness of the sediment layer beneath the stations. The range of sediment thickness in the region is 10–70 m, and the average shear velocity in the sediments is 140 m/s. Both the average P and sediment-corrected S delays show a positive correlation with seafloor age, with faster arrivals on older seafloor where the seismically fast lithosphere has thickened away from the spreading axis. The delay times also correlate with the residual mantle Bouguer gravity anomaly (rMBA), with slow arrivals coinciding with rMBA lows and the associated ridge systems. The delays are much too large to be caused by variations in crustal thickness and must represent anomalies within the mantle. These observations qualitatively support the either the channelized asthenospheric return flow model or the small-scale convection hypothesis for the origin of the gravity lineations. These models predict both positively correlated density and velocity anomalies caused by thermal anomalies and the pressure-release melting that migrates to the surface to form the volcanic ridges above the upwelling limbs of convection cells or channels. <br/

Mantle heterogeneity and off axis volcanism on young Pacific lithosphere

Plate tectonics and mantle plumes explain most volcanism on earth, but there are numerous actively forming linear volcanic chains in the middle of tectonic plates that are not explained by these theories. Using the multidisciplinary geophysical dataset of the MELT and GLIMPSE experiments, we show that associated with 3 volcanic chains west of the East Pacific Rise there are low seismic velocities and densities in the asthenosphere that extend to the East Pacific Rise spreading center. Analogous to the Hawaiian swell, the low-density anomalies produce swells beneath the volcanoes on young seafloor. The associated gravity anomalies are part of a set of gravity lineaments that have been previously interpreted as being due to thermo-elastic cracking of the lithosphere or small-scale convection. The correlation between the surface volcanism and subsurface density and velocity anomalies and their extension to the spreading center suggest that pre-existing, buoyant or fertile asthenospheric mantle heterogeneities are stretched in the direction of plate motion by shear between the plate and the underlying mantle. These heterogeneities seed small-scale convection, producing upwelling and pressure release melting, forming volcanic chains that extend nearly to the ridge axis

NSUN4 Is a Dual Function Mitochondrial Protein Required for Both Methylation of 12S rRNA and Coordination of Mitoribosomal Assembly

Biogenesis of mammalian mitochondrial ribosomes requires a concerted maturation of both the small (SSU) and large subunit (LSU). We demonstrate here that the m(5)C methyltransferase NSUN4, which forms a complex with MTERF4, is essential in mitochondrial ribosomal biogenesis as mitochondrial translation is abolished in conditional Nsun4 mouse knockouts. Deep sequencing of bisulfite-treated RNA shows that NSUN4 methylates cytosine 911 in 12S rRNA (m5C911) of the SSU. Surprisingly, NSUN4 does not need MTERF4 to generate this modification. Instead, the NSUN4/MTERF4 complex is required to assemble the SSU and LSU to form a monosome. NSUN4 is thus a dual function protein, which on the one hand is needed for 12S rRNA methylation and, on the other hand interacts with MTERF4 to facilitate monosome assembly. The presented data suggest that NSUN4 has a key role in controlling a final step in ribosome biogenesis to ensure that only the mature SSU and LSU are assembled