The role of glutamatergic neurotransmission in the motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease: clinical cases and a review of the literature

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and, as such, many brain regions, including the basal ganglia, are rich in glutamatergic neurons. The importance of the basal ganglia in the control of voluntary movement has long been recognised, with the effect of dysfunction of the region exemplified by the motor symptoms seen in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the basal ganglia and the associated glutamatergic system also play a role in the modulation of emotion, nociception and cognition, dysregulation of which result in some of the non-motor symptoms of PD (depression/anxiety, pain and cognitive deficits). Thus, while the treatment of PD has traditionally been approached from the perspective of dopaminergic replacement, using agents such as levodopa and dopamine receptor agonists, the glutamatergic system offers a novel treatment target for the disease. Safinamide has been approved in over 20 countries globally for fluctuating PD as add-on therapy to levodopa regimens for the management of 'off' episodes. The drug has both dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic pharmacological effects, the latter including inhibition of abnormal glutamate release. The effect of safinamide on the glutamatergic system might present some advantages over dopamine-based therapies for PD by providing efficacy for motor (levodopa-induced dyskinesia) as well as non-motor (anxiety, mood disorders, pain) symptoms. In this article, we discuss the potential role of glutamatergic inhibition on these symptoms, using illustrative real-world examples of patients we have treated with safinamide

Dinámica relacional de los equipos de salud de atención primaria y su impacto en la construcción de la cogestión

Co-management is one of the guidelines found in Brazil’s National Humanization Policy, a policy that promotes the creation of collective spaces for its construction. Based on a social constructionist approach, qualitative research was carried out between 2015 and 2018 in order to describe and analyze the relational dynamics established in two primary care facilities – a Primary Care Unit and a Family Health Center – with the aim of analyzing organizational cultures and the social construction of co-management. Research was carried out in two phases: fieldwork and interviews. Given that the Family Health Center presented a culture closer to the idea of co-management, we describe and analyze factors contributing to this dynamic. Whereas in the case of the Primary Care Unit, which proved to be farther from co-management, we look at obstacles. Our goal is to demonstrate the complex and fluid nature of relational dynamics, and to show that their transformation requires that efforts be tailored to each specific context, and therefore the “implementation” of collective spaces is not sufficient on its own to generate effective co-management.La cogestión es uno de los lineamientos de la Política Nacional de Humanización de Brasil, que propone la apertura de espacios colectivos como dispositivos para su construcción. Desde una perspectiva construccionista social, entre 2015 y 2018 se realizó una investigación cualitativa que buscó describir y analizar las dinámicas relacionales en dos contextos de atención primaria de la salud, una unidad de atención primaria tradicional y un centro de salud de la familia, con el propósito de abordar la cultura organizacional y el proceso de construcción social de la cogestión. El trabajo se llevó a cabo en dos etapas: el trabajo de campo y las entrevistas. El núcleo de salud familiar, al tener una cultura más cercana a la cogestión, se describen y analizan facilitadores, mientras que la unidad de atención primaria de la salud tradicional, al alejarse de la cogestión, se detallan los obstaculizadores. Buscamos mostrar que las dinámicas relacionales son complejas y fluidas y que, para su transformación, requieren de un trabajo artesanal y específico en cada contexto, por lo que la “implementación” de espacios colectivos no es suficiente para una cogestión efectiva

Effects of the DASH Diet Alone and in Combination With Exercise and Weight Loss on Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Biomarkers in Men and Women With High Blood Pressure: The ENCORE Study

Although the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet has been shown to lower blood pressure (BP) in short-term feeding studies, it has not been shown to lower BP among free-living individuals, nor has it been shown to alter cardiovascular biomarkers of risk

Determinants and Consequences of Adherence to the DASH Diet in African American and White Adults with High Blood Pressure: Results from the ENCORE Trial

Although the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is an accepted non-pharmacologic treatment for hypertension, little is known about what patient characteristics affect dietary adherence and what level of adherence is needed to reduce blood pressure (BP)

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV