A spontaneous gravity prior: newborn chicks prefer stimuli that move against gravity

To investigate whether upward movement is attractive already at birth, before any previosu visual experience, we tested the early preferences of dark-hatched chicks (Gallus gallus) for upward vs downward moving visual stimuli. The results are published in Bliss et al. 2023, Biology Letters “A spontaneous gravity prior: Newborn chicks prefer stimuli that move against gravity" This entry contains experimental data (output from DeepLabCut tracking, python pre-processed data, summary .csv files of results) and data analysis scripts used in the publication. A readme file is also provided

A population-based observational study of diabetes during pregnancy in Victoria, Australia, 1999-2008

Objectives: This paper reports secular trends in diabetes in pregnancy in Victoria, Australia and examines the effect of including or excluding women with pre-existing diabetes on gestational diabetes (GDM) prevalence estimates

Heart failure following cancer treatment: characteristics, survival and mortality of a linked health data analysis

Background: Cardiotoxicity resulting in heart failure is a devastating complication of cancer therapy. A patient may survive cancer only to develop heart failure (HF), which has a higher mortality rate than some cancers. Aim: This study aimed to describe the characteristics and outcomes of HF in patients with blood or breast cancer after chemotherapy treatment. Methods: Queensland Cancer Registry, Death Registry and Hospital Administration records were linked (1996–2009). Patients were categorised as those with an index HF admission (that occurred after cancer diagnosis) and those without an index HF admission (non-HF). Results: A total of 15 987 patients was included, and 1062 (6.6%) had an index HF admission. Median age of HF patients was 67 years (interquartile range 58–75) versus 54 years (interquartile range 44–64) for non-HF patients. More men than women developed HF (48.6% vs 29.5%), and a greater proportion in the HF group had haematological cancer (83.1%) compared with breast cancer (16.9%). After covariate adjustment, HF patients had increased mortality risk compared with non-HF patients (hazard ratios 1.67 (95% confidence interval, 1.54–1.81)), and 47% of the index HF admission occurred within 1 year from cancer diagnosis and 70% within 3 years. Conclusion: Cancer treatment may place patients at a greater risk of developing HF. The onset of HF occurred soon after chemotherapy, and those who developed HF had a greater mortality risk

Neuropsychological and neurophysiological correlates of fatigue in post-acute patients with neurological manifestations of COVID-19: Insights into a challenging symptom

More than half of patients who recover from COVID-19 experience fatigue. We studied fatigue using neuropsychological and neurophysiological investigations in post-COVID-19 patients and healthy subjects. Neuropsychological assessment included: Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Fatigue Rating Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Apathy Evaluation Scale, cognitive tests, and computerized tasks. Neurophysiological examination was assessed before (PRE) and 2 min after (POST) a 1-min fatiguing isometric pinching task and included: maximum compound muscle action potential (CMAP) amplitude in first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI) following ulnar nerve stimulation, resting motor threshold, motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude and silent period (SP) duration in right FDI following transcranial magnetic stimulation of the left motor cortex. Maximum pinch strength was measured. Perceived exertion was assessed with the Borg-Category-Ratio scale. Patients manifested fatigue, apathy, executive deficits, impaired cognitive control, and reduction in global cognition. Perceived exertion was higher in patients. CMAP and MEP were smaller in patients both PRE and POST. CMAP did not change in either group from PRE to POST, while MEP amplitudes declined in controls POST. SP duration did not differ between groups PRE, increased in controls but decreased in patients POST. Patients' change of SP duration from PRE to POST was negatively correlated to FSS. Abnormal SP shortening and lack of MEP depression concur with a reduction in post-exhaustion corticomotor inhibition, suggesting a possible GABAB-ergic dysfunction. This impairment might be related to the neuropsychological alterations. COVID-19-associated inflammation might lead to GABAergic impairment, possibly representing the basis of fatigue and explaining apathy and executive deficits

Models Predicting Postpartum Glucose Intolerance Among Women with a History of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: a Systematic Review

Purpose of Review: Despite the crucial role that prediction models play in guiding early risk stratifcation and timely intervention to prevent type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), their use is not widespread in clinical practice. The purpose of this review is to examine the methodological characteristics and quality of existing prognostic models predicting postpartum glucose intolerance following GDM. Recent Findings. A systematic review was conducted on relevant risk prediction models, resulting in 15 eligible publications from research groups in various countries. Our review found that traditional statistical models were more common than machine learning models, and only two were assessed to have a low risk of bias. Seven were internally validated, but none were externally validated. Model discrimination and calibration were done in 13 and four studies, respectively. Various predictors were identifed, including body mass index, fasting glucose concentration during pregnancy, maternal age, family history of diabetes, biochemical variables, oral glucose tolerance test, use of insulin in pregnancy, postnatal fasting glucose level, genetic risk factors, hemoglobin A1c, and weight. Summary: The existing prognostic models for glucose intolerance following GDM have various methodological shortcomings, with only a few models being assessed to have low risk of bias and validated internally. Future research should prioritize the development of robust, high-quality risk prediction models that follow appropriate guidelines, in order to advance this area and improve early risk stratifcation and intervention for glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes among women who have had GDM.Yitayeh Belsti, Lisa Moran, Demelash Woldeyohannes Handiso, Vincent Versace, Rebecca Goldstein, Aya Mousa, Helena Teede, Joanne Enticot

Autonomic pain responses during sleep: a study of heart rate variability

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) reacts to nociceptive stimulation during sleep, but whether this reaction is contingent to cortical arousal, and whether one of the autonomic arms (sympathetic/parasympathetic) predominates over the other remains unknown. We assessed ANS reactivity to nociceptive stimulation during all sleep stages through heart rate variability, and correlated the results with the presence of cortical arousal measured in concomitant 32-channel EEG. Fourteen healthy volunteers underwent whole-night polysomnography during which nociceptive laser stimuli were applied over the hand. RR intervals (RR) and spectral analysis by wavelet transform were performed to assess parasympathetic (HF(WV)) and sympathetic (LF(WV) and LF(WV)/HF(WV) ratio) reactivity. During all sleep stages, RR significantly decreased in reaction to nociceptive stimulations, reaching a level similar to that of wakefulness, at the 3rd beat post-stimulus and returning to baseline after seven beats. This RR decrease was associated with an increase in sympathetic LF(WV) and LF(WV)/HF(WV) ratio without any parasympathetic HF(WV) change. Albeit RR decrease existed even in the absence of arousals, it was significantly higher when an arousal followed the noxious stimulus. These results suggest that the sympathetic-dependent cardiac activation induced by nociceptive stimuli is modulated by a sleep dependent phenomenon related to cortical activation and not by sleep itself, since it reaches a same intensity whatever the state of vigilance

Natural Course of COVID-19 and Independent Predictors of Mortality.

Background: During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, several biomarkers were shown to be helpful in determining the prognosis of COVID-19 patients. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prognostic value of N-terminal pro-Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-pro-BNP) in a cohort of patients with COVID-19. Methods: One-hundred and seven patients admitted to the Covid Hospital of Messina University between June 2022 and January 2023 were enrolled in our study. The demographic, clinical, biochemical, instrumental, and therapeutic parameters were recorded. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. A comparison between patients who recovered and were discharged and those who died during the hospitalization was performed. The independent parameters associated with in-hospital death were assessed by multivariable analysis and a stepwise regression logistic model. Results: A total of 27 events with an in-hospital mortality rate of 25.2% occurred during our study. Those who died during hospitalization were older, with lower GCS and PaO2/FiO2 ratio, elevated D-dimer values, INR, creatinine values and shorter PT (prothrombin time). They had an increased frequency of diagnosis of heart failure (p < 0.0001) and higher NT-pro-BNP values. A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that higher NT-pro-BNP values and lower PT and PaO2/FiO2 at admission were independent predictors of mortality during hospitalization. Conclusions: This study shows that NT-pro-BNP levels, PT, and PaO2/FiO2 ratio are independently associated with in-hospital mortality in subjects with COVID-19 pneumonia. Further longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm the results of this study

Optimization of cognitive assessment in Parkinsonisms by applying artificial intelligence to a comprehensive screening test.

The assessment of cognitive deficits is pivotal for diagnosis and management in patients with parkinsonisms. Low levels of correspondence are observed between evaluations assessed with screening cognitive tests in comparison with those assessed with in-depth neuropsychological batteries. A new tool, we named CoMDA (Cognition in Movement Disorders Assessment), was composed by merging Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). In total, 500 patients (400 with Parkinson's disease, 41 with vascular parkinsonism, 31 with progressive supranuclear palsy, and 28 with multiple system atrophy) underwent CoMDA (level 1-L1) and in-depth neuropsychological battery (level 2-L2). Machine learning was developed to classify the CoMDA score and obtain an accurate prediction of the cognitive profile along three different classes: normal cognition (NC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and impaired cognition (IC). The classification accuracy of CoMDA, assessed by ROC analysis, was compared with MMSE, MoCA, and FAB. The area under the curve (AUC) of CoMDA was significantly higher than that of MMSE, MoCA and FAB (p < 0.0001, p = 0.028 and p = 0.0007, respectively). Among 15 different algorithmic methods, the Quadratic Discriminant Analysis algorithm (CoMDA-ML) showed higher overall-metrics performance levels in predictive performance. Considering L2 as a 3-level continuous feature, CoMDA-ML produces accurate and generalizable classifications: micro-average ROC curve, AUC = 0.81; and AUC = 0.85 for NC, 0.67 for MCI, and 0.83 for IC. CoMDA and COMDA-ML are reliable and time-sparing tools, accurate in classifying cognitive profile in parkinsonisms.This study has been registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04858893)

Affective Pictures and the Open Library of Affective Foods (OLAF): Tools to Investigate Emotions toward Food in Adults

The authors wish to thank Jaime Vila for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and Oscar Cervilla, Irene Forte, Alba Garrido, Laura Krutman, Lisa Mazzoni, and Teresa Mena for help with data collection and reduction.Recently, several sets of standardized food pictures have been created, supplying both food images and their subjective evaluations. However, to date only the OLAF (Open Library of Affective Foods), a set of food images and ratings we developed in adolescents, has the specific purpose of studying emotions toward food. Moreover, some researchers have argued that food evaluations are not valid across individuals and groups, unless feelings toward food cues are compared with feelings toward intense experiences unrelated to food, that serve as benchmarks. Therefore the OLAF presented here, comprising a set of original food images and a group of standardized highly emotional pictures, is intended to provide valid between-group judgments in adults. Emotional images (erotica, mutilations, and neutrals from the International Affective Picture System/IAPS) additionally ensure that the affective ratings are consistent with emotion research. The OLAF depicts high-calorie sweet and savory foods and low-calorie fruits and vegetables, portraying foods within natural scenes matching the IAPS features. An adult sample evaluated both food and affective pictures in terms of pleasure, arousal, dominance, and food craving, following standardized affective rating procedures. The affective ratings for the emotional pictures corroborated previous findings, thus confirming the reliability of evaluations for the food images. Among the OLAF images, high-calorie sweet and savory foods elicited the greatest pleasure, although they elicited, as expected, less arousal than erotica. The observed patterns were consistent with research on emotions and confirmed the reliability of OLAF evaluations. The OLAF and affective pictures constitute a sound methodology to investigate emotions toward food within a wider motivational framework. The OLAF is freely accessible at digibug.ugr.es.Yeshttp://www.plosone.org/static/editorial#pee