Please don\u2019t! The automatic extrapolation of dangerous intentions

Facial emotions and emotional body postures can easily grab attention in social communication. In the context of faces, gaze has been shown as an important cue for orienting attention, but less is known for other important body parts such as hands. In the present study we investigated whether hands may orient attention due to the emotional features they convey. By implying motion in static photographs of hands, we aimed at furnishing observers with information about the intention to act and at testing if this interacted with the hand automatic coding. In this study, we compared neutral and frontal hands to emotionally threatening hands, rotated along their radial-ulnar axes in a Sidedness task (a Simon-like task based on automatic access to body representation). Results showed a Sidedness effect for both the palm and the back views with either neutral and emotional hands. More important, no difference was found between the two views for neutral hands, but it emerged in the case of the emotional hands: faster reaction times were found for the palm than the back view. The difference was ascribed to palm views\u2019 \u201coffensive\u201d pose: a source of threat that might have raised participants' arousal. This hypothesis was also supported by conscious evaluations of the dimensions of valence (pleasant-unpleasant) and arousal. Results are discussed in light of emotional feature coding

Functional infrared imaging of paroxysmal ischemic events in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon.

The use of thermal infrared (IR) imaging together with the study of the thermal recovery from a controlled cold challenge has been proposed in the diagnosis and follow-up of therapeutic response of Raynaud's Phenomenon (RP) and Systemic Sclerosis (SSc). The controlled cold challenge test usually performed during IR investigations may induce a RP in patients with the latter condition. In our Institution we routinely perform capillaroscopy and thermal IR to follow-up SSc patients. In this paper, we describe the thermal recovery patterns shown by two SSc patients (a 40 year-old male with diffuse variant of SSc and a 71 year-old female with a limited variant of SSc) who presented ischemic and paroxysmal RP attack while recovering from the routine controlled cold challenge test. During RP attack, the cutaneous temperature of some fingers continued to decrease for some minutes even after the cessation of the cold stress. To the best of our knowledge, to date, no literature report has documented the thermal behaviour of SSc patients' fingers which occasionally present ischemic and paroxysmal response. Triggering of ischemic RP attack appears to not rely only on morphological and structural finger impairment, but also upon other aspects, like the emotional attitude of the subject and the possible discomfort experienced with the proceeding of the functional cold stress test

The use of infrared thermography to detect the skin temperature response to physical activity

Physical activity has a noticeable effect on skin blood flow and temperature. The thermal regulatory and hemodynamic processes during physical activity are controlled by two conflicting mechanisms: the skin vasoconstriction induced by the blood flow demand to active muscles and the skin vasodilation required by thermoregulation to increase warm blood flow and heat conduction to the skin. The time-evolution of skin temperature during exercise can give useful information about the adaptation of the subject as a function of specific type, intensity and duration of exercise. In this paper, infrared thermography is used to investigate the thermal response of skin temperature during running exercise on treadmill for a group of seven healthy and trained runners. Two different treadmill exercises are considered: a graded load exercise and a constant load exercise; for both exercises the duration was 30 minutes. Within the limits due to the relatively small size of the sample group, results typically indicate a fall in skin temperature during the initial stage of running exercise. As the exercise progresses, the dynamics of the skin temperature response depends on the type of exercise (graded versus constant load) and probably on the level of training of the subject

COVID-19 Accelerated Cognitive Decline in Elderly Patients with Pre-Existing Dementia Followed up in an Outpatient Memory Care Facility

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may affect the cognitive function and activities of daily living (ADL) of elderly patients. This study aimed to establish the COVID-19 effect on cognitive decline and the velocity of cognitive function and ADL changes in elderly patients with dementia followed up in an outpatient memory care facility. Methods: In total, 111 consecutive patients (age 82 ± 5 years, 32% males) with a baseline visit before infection were divided into those who had or did not have COVID-19. Cognitive decline was defined as a five-point loss of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score and ADL comprising basic and instrumental ADL indexes (BADL and IADL, respectively). COVID-19 effect on cognitive decline was weighted for confounding variables by the propensity score, whereas the effect on change in the MMSE score and ADL indexes was analyzed using multivariate mixed-effect linear regression. Results: COVID-19 occurred in 31 patients and a cognitive decline in 44. Cognitive decline was about three and a half times more frequent in patients who had COVID-19 (weighted hazard ratio 3.56, 95% confidence interval 1.50–8.59, p = 0.004). The MMSE score lowered on average by 1.7 points/year, independently of COVID-19, but it lowered twice faster in those who had COVID-19 (3.3 vs. 1.7 points/year, respectively, p < 0.050). BADL and IADL indexes lowered on average less than 1 point/year, independently of COVID-19 occurrence. Patients who had COVID-19 had a higher incidence of new institutionalization than those who did not have the disease (45% versus 20%, p = 0.016, respectively). Conclusions: COVID-19 had a significant impact on cognitive decline and accelerated MMSE reduction in elderly patients with dementia

Juvenile moyamoya and craniosynostosis in a child with deletion 1p32p31: Expanding the clinical spectrum of 1p32p31 deletion syndrome and a review of the literature

Moyamoya angiopathy (MA) is a rare cerebrovascular disorder characterised by the progressive occlusion of the internal carotid artery. Its aetiology is uncertain, but a genetic background seems likely, given the high MA familial rate. To investigate the aetiology of craniosynostosis and juvenile moyamoya in a 14-year-old male patient, we performed an array-comparative genomic hybridisation revealing a de novo interstitial deletion of 8.5 Mb in chromosome region 1p32p31. The deletion involved 34 protein coding genes, including NF1A, whose haploinsufficiency is indicated as being mainly responsible for the 1p32-p31 chromosome deletion syndrome phenotype (OMIM 613735). Our patient also has a deleted FOXD3 of the FOX gene family of transcription factors, which plays an important role in neural crest cell growth and differentiation. As the murine FOXD3-/- model shows craniofacial anomalies and abnormal common carotid artery morphology, it can be hypothesised that FOXD3 is involved in the pathogenesis of the craniofacial and vascular defects observed in our patient. In support of our assumption, we found in the literature another patient with a syndromic form of MA who had a deletion involving another FOX gene (FOXC1). In addition to describing the clinical history of our patient, we have reviewed all of the available literature concerning other patients with a 1p32p31 deletion, including cases from the Decipher database, and we have also reviewed the genetic disorders associated with MA, which is a useful guide for the diagnosis of syndromic form of MA

HDAC6 mediates the acetylation of TRIM50

The E3 Ubiquitin ligase TRIM50 promotes the formation and clearance of aggresome-associated polyubiquitinated proteins through HDAC6 interaction, a tubulin specific deacetylase that regulates microtubule-dependent aggresome formation. In this report we showed that TRIM50 is a target of HDAC6 with Lys-372 as a critical residue for acetylation. We identified p300 and PCAF as two TRIM50 acetyltransferases and we further showed that a balance between ubiquitination and acetylation regulates TRIM50 degradatio

TRIM50 regulates Beclin 1 proautophagic activity

Autophagy is a catabolic process needed for maintaining cell viability and homeostasis in response to numerous stress conditions. Emerging evidence indicates that the ubiquitin system has a major role in this process. TRIMs, an E3 ligase protein family, contribute to selective autophagy acting as receptors and regulators of the autophagy proteins recognizing endogenous or exogenous targets through intermediary autophagic tags, such as ubiquitin. Here we report that TRIM50 fosters the initiation phase of starvation-induced autophagy and associates with Beclin1, a central component of autophagy initiation complex. We show that TRIM50, via the RING domain, ubiquitinates Beclin 1 in a K63-dependent manner enhancing its binding with ULK1 and autophagy activity. Finally, we found that the Lys-372 residue of TRIM50, critical for its own acetylation, is necessary for its E3 ligase activity that governs Beclin1 ubiquitination. Our study expands the roles of TRIMs in regulating selective autophagy, revealing an acetylation-ubiquitination dependent control for autophagy modulation. © 2018 Elsevier B.V

Thermographic imaging in sports and exercise medicine: A Delphi study and consensus statement on the measurement of human skin temperature

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Journal of Thermal Biology on 18/07/2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2017.07.006 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.© 2017 Elsevier Ltd The importance of using infrared thermography (IRT) to assess skin temperature (tsk) is increasing in clinical settings. Recently, its use has been increasing in sports and exercise medicine; however, no consensus guideline exists to address the methods for collecting data in such situations. The aim of this study was to develop a checklist for the collection of tsk using IRT in sports and exercise medicine. We carried out a Delphi study to set a checklist based on consensus agreement from leading experts in the field. Panelists (n  =  24) representing the areas of sport science (n = 8; 33%), physiology (n = 7; 29%), physiotherapy (n = 3; 13%) and medicine (n = 6; 25%), from 13 different countries completed the Delphi process. An initial list of 16 points was proposed which was rated and commented on by panelists in three rounds of anonymous surveys following a standard Delphi procedure. The panel reached consensus on 15 items which encompassed the participants’ demographic information, camera/room or environment setup and recording/analysis of tsk using IRT. The results of the Delphi produced the checklist entitled “Thermographic Imaging in Sports and Exercise Medicine (TISEM)” which is a proposal to standardize the collection and analysis of tsk data using IRT. It is intended that the TISEM can also be applied to evaluate bias in thermographic studies and to guide practitioners in the use of this technique.Published versio

Finger Thermoregulatory Model Assessing Functional Impairment in Raynaud's Phenomenon

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