‘Social buffering’. The effect of social presence on physiological fear responses in men

‚Social Buffering‘ beschreibt den positiven Einfluss eines Artgenossen auf die Verarbeitung aversiver Reize. In Tierexperimenten zeigte sich, dass Tiere mit geringeren Anspannungsreaktionen reagieren, wenn ein weiteres Tier während der Präsentation von Angstreizen anwesend ist. Eine Untersuchung an einer weiblichen Stichprobe replizierte den Effekt am Menschen. Allerdings gibt es Hinweise auf mögliche Geschlechtsunterschiede. Da vergleichbare Experimente bei Männern fehlen, will sich diese Studie der Frage nähern, ob die reine Anwesenheit einer fremden männlichen Person im Stande ist, autonome Angstreaktionen bei Männern abzumildern. Dafür wurden 72 männliche, psychisch gesunde Probanden auf zwei Gruppen aufgeteilt, welche eine identische Stimulation mit angstinduzierenden und neutralen Tönen erhielten. Die Männer der Alleinbedingung wurden allein getestet (n allein = 36), die der Sozialbedingung zusammen mit einer fremden männlichen Person (n sozial = 36). Bei allen Probanden wurden die Hautleitfähigkeitsreaktionen (skin conductance response; SCR) während der Antizipation und der Darbietung der Töne erfasst. Außerdem wurden die Probanden nach ihrem Gefühlszustand befragt (Rating). Als relevante Persönlichkeitsdimensionen wurden anhand von Fragebögen die Angstsensitivität (ASI-3), die Ängstlichkeit als Trait (STAI trait), die Ängstlichkeit als State (STAI state) und der Eindruck des Probanden von der anwesenden männlichen Person erhoben. Die Ergebnisse zeigten keine signifikanten Unterschiede in den SCRs und Ratings bezüglich des angstinduzierenden Tones. Dieses Ergebnis legt nahe, dass bei der männlichen Stichprobe kein ‚Social Buffering‘-Effekt vorlag. Weiterhin waren die autonomen Reaktionen auf die Angstreize höher, je ähnlicher der Mann die fremde Person zu sich bewertete. Die möglichen Ursachen des fehlenden ‚Social-Buffering‘-Effekts werden unter Berücksichtigung von Geschlechtsunterschieden im Umgang mit Angst und sozialer Unterstützung diskutiert.Social buffering describes the positive influence of a conspecific on the processing of aversive stimuli. Animal experiments showed a decrease in autonomic responses to aversive events in the presence of a conspecific. Studies in humans have shown that the mere presence of an unknown individual can reduce skin conductance responses to fear-inducing sounds. However, this social buffering of fear has only been shown in female participants. Here we use the same set up to test if male participants show similar social buffering of fear. Male participants (n = 72) were presented with fear-inducing and neutral sounds. One group of participants experienced the sounds alone (alone condition; n alone = 36), while the others were tested together with a second male person that was merely physically present (social condition; n social = 36). We measured participants’ skin conductance responses (SCRs) and they rated their emotions while receiving the sounds (ratings). Moreover, anxiety sensitivity (ASI-3), trait anxiety (STAI trait), state anxiety (STAI state) and the impression of the male confederate present in the social condition were measured as relevant personality dimensions. The results showed no significant differences in SCRs or ratings to the fear-inducing sounds between the alone and the social condition. Moreover, the SCRs to the fear-inducing stimuli were the higher the more similar the men perceived the present person to themselves. Potential reasons for the lack of social buffering in males in presence of a male partner are discussed

Decreasing and stabilising trends of antimicrobial consumption and resistance in and in segmented regression analysis, European Union/European Economic Area, 2001 to 2018.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadInvestments to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the European Union have been made, including efforts to strengthen prudent antimicrobial use. Using segmented regression, we report decreasing and stabilising trends in data reported to the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption Network and stabilising trends in data reported to the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network. Our results could be an early indication of the effect of prioritising AMR on the public health agenda.El Plan Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica, Desarrollo e Innovacion Tecnologica 2013-2016 Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Subdireccion General de Redes y Centros de Investigacion Cooperativa, Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases European Development Regional Fund "A way to achieve Europe", Operative program Intelligent Growth 2014-2020 Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC

First-line selective internal radiotherapy plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer (FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global): a combined analysis of three multicentre, randomised, phase 3 trials

Background Data suggest selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT) in third-line or subsequent therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer has clinical benefit in patients with colorectal liver metastases with liver-dominant disease after chemotherapy. The FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global randomised studies evaluated the efficacy of combining first-line chemotherapy with SIRT using yttrium-90 resin microspheres in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer with liver metastases. The studies were designed for combined analysis of overall survival. Methods FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global were randomised, phase 3 trials done in hospitals and specialist liver centres in 14 countries worldwide (Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, South Korea, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA). Chemotherapy-naive patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (WHO performance status 0 or 1) with liver metastases not suitable for curative resection or ablation were randomly assigned (1:1) to either oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy (FOLFOX: leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin) or FOLFOX plus single treatment SIRT concurrent with cycle 1 or 2 of chemotherapy. In FOXFIRE, FOLFOX chemotherapy was OxMdG (oxaliplatin modified de Gramont chemotherapy; 85 mg/m2oxaliplatin infusion over 2 h, L-leucovorin 175 mg or D,L-leucovorin 350 mg infusion over 2 h, and 400 mg/m2bolus fluorouracil followed by a 2400 mg/m2continuous fluorouracil infusion over 46 h). In SIRFLOX and FOXFIRE-Global, FOLFOX chemotherapy was modified FOLFOX6 (85 mg/m2oxaliplatin infusion over 2 h, 200 mg leucovorin, and 400 mg/m2bolus fluorouracil followed by a 2400 mg/m2continuous fluorouracil infusion over 46 h). Randomisation was done by central minimisation with four factors: presence of extrahepatic metastases, tumour involvement of the liver, planned use of a biological agent, and investigational centre. Participants and investigators were not masked to treatment. The primary endpoint was overall survival, analysed in the intention-to-treat population, using a two-stage meta-analysis of pooled individual patient data. All three trials have completed 2 years of follow-up. FOXFIRE is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN83867919. SIRFLOX and FOXFIRE-Global are registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, numbers NCT00724503 (SIRFLOX) and NCT01721954 (FOXFIRE-Global). Findings Between Oct 11, 2006, and Dec 23, 2014, 549 patients were randomly assigned to FOLFOX alone and 554 patients were assigned FOLFOX plus SIRT. Median follow-up was 43·3 months (IQR 31·6â\u80\u9358·4). There were 411 (75%) deaths in 549 patients in the FOLFOX alone group and 433 (78%) deaths in 554 patients in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group. There was no difference in overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1·04, 95% CI 0·90â\u80\u931·19; p=0·61). The median survival time in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group was 22·6 months (95% CI 21·0â\u80\u9324·5) compared with 23·3 months (21·8â\u80\u9324·7) in the FOLFOX alone group. In the safety population containing patients who received at least one dose of study treatment, as treated, the most common grade 3â\u80\u934 adverse event was neutropenia (137 [24%] of 571 patients receiving FOLFOX alone vs 186 (37%) of 507 patients receiving FOLFOX plus SIRT). Serious adverse events of any grade occurred in 244 (43%) of 571 patients receiving FOLFOX alone and 274 (54%) of 507 patients receiving FOLFOX plus SIRT. 10 patients in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group and 11 patients in the FOLFOX alone group died due to an adverse event; eight treatment-related deaths occurred in the FOLFOX plus SIRT group and three treatment-related deaths occurred in the FOLFOX alone group. Interpretation Addition of SIRT to first-line FOLFOX chemotherapy for patients with liver-only and liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer did not improve overall survival compared with that for FOLFOX alone. Therefore, early use of SIRT in combination with chemotherapy in unselected patients with metastatic colorectal cancer cannot be recommended. To further define the role of SIRT in metastatic colorectal cancer, careful patient selection and studies investigating the role of SIRT as consolidation therapy after chemotherapy are needed. Funding Bobby Moore Fund of Cancer Research UK, Sirtex Medical

The LHCb upgrade I

International audienceThe LHCb upgrade represents a major change of the experiment. The detectors have been almost completely renewed to allow running at an instantaneous luminosity five times larger than that of the previous running periods. Readout of all detectors into an all-software trigger is central to the new design, facilitating the reconstruction of events at the maximum LHC interaction rate, and their selection in real time. The experiment's tracking system has been completely upgraded with a new pixel vertex detector, a silicon tracker upstream of the dipole magnet and three scintillating fibre tracking stations downstream of the magnet. The whole photon detection system of the RICH detectors has been renewed and the readout electronics of the calorimeter and muon systems have been fully overhauled. The first stage of the all-software trigger is implemented on a GPU farm. The output of the trigger provides a combination of totally reconstructed physics objects, such as tracks and vertices, ready for final analysis, and of entire events which need further offline reprocessing. This scheme required a complete revision of the computing model and rewriting of the experiment's software

Measurement of Ξc+\Xi_{c}^{+} production in ppPb collisions at sNN=8.16\sqrt{s_{NN}}=8.16 TeV at LHCb

International audienceA study of prompt $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ production in proton-lead collisions is performed with the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 8.16 TeV in 2016 in $p$Pb and Pb$p$ collisions with an estimated integrated luminosity of approximately 12.5 and 17.4 nb$^{-1}$, respectively. The $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ production cross-section, as well as the $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ to $\Lambda_{c}^{+}$ production cross-section ratio, are measured as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity and compared to latest theory predictions. The forward-backward asymmetry is also measured as a function of the $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ transverse momentum

Measurement of Ξc+\Xi_{c}^{+} production in ppPb collisions at sNN=8.16\sqrt{s_{NN}}=8.16 TeV at LHCb

International audienceA study of prompt $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ production in proton-lead collisions is performed with the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 8.16 TeV in 2016 in $p$Pb and Pb$p$ collisions with an estimated integrated luminosity of approximately 12.5 and 17.4 nb$^{-1}$, respectively. The $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ production cross-section, as well as the $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ to $\Lambda_{c}^{+}$ production cross-section ratio, are measured as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity and compared to latest theory predictions. The forward-backward asymmetry is also measured as a function of the $\Xi_{c}^{+}$ transverse momentum