How clinical decision tasks modulate emotional related EEG responses in nursing students.

Healthcare professionals play a vital role in conveying sensitive information as patients undergo stressful, demanding situations. However, the underlying neurocognitive dynamics in routine clinical tasks remain underexplored, creating gaps in healthcare research and social cognition models. Here, we examined whether the type of clinical task may differentially affect the emotional processing of nursing students in response to the emotional reactions of patients. In a within-subjects design, 40 nursing students read clinical cases prompting them to make procedural decisions or to respond to a patient with a proper communicative decision. Afterward, participants read sentences about patients' emotional states; some semantically consistent and others inconsistent along with filler sentences. EEG recordings toward critical words (emotional stimuli) were used to capture ERP indices of emotional salience (EPN), attentional engagement (LPP) and semantic integration (N400). Results showed that the procedural decision task elicited larger EPN amplitudes, reflecting pre-attentive categorization of emotional stimuli. The communicative decision task elicited larger LPP components associated with later elaborative processing. Additionally, the classical N400 effect elicited by semantically inconsistent sentences was found. The psychophysiological measures were tied by self-report measures indexing the difficulty of the task. These results suggest that the requirements of clinical tasks modulate emotional-related EEG responses.

The return of natural dyes: the case of logwood tree (Haematoxylum campechianum L.).

In recent years, a worldwide reassessment of natural dyes has occurred, driven by the health and environmental issues associated with synthetic dyes. Haematoxylum campechianum L. is a tropical tree from which wood extracts were widely used in the textile industry during the 16th century. The logwood tree extract serves as a contemporary source of hematoxylin, a key dye in the globally prevalent hematoxylin-eosin staining method, a cornerstone in histopathological procedures. This paper will initially explore the re-emergence of natural dyes. Subsequently, it will focus on the historical, conventional, and innovative applications of logwood in the fields of medicine, histopathology, and nanotechnology, along with the status and alternative uses of the hematoxylin-eosin stain. Lastly, this paper will examine the current state of conservation and utilization of Haematoxylum campechianum in Campeche, Mexico, a leading global producer of hematoxylin.

Thyroid abnormalities in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma: The importance of close surveillance.

INTRODUCTION: Survival in paediatric patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) has increased over the last decades. However, these patients are at increased risk of developing late thyroid sequelae due to the treatment with irradiation and alkylating agents. METHODS: We conducted an observational and retrospective study in patients with a diagnosis of HL between 2007 and 2022, in a hospital that is a paediatric oncology reference centre, through the review of electronic health records. We collected data on demographic (age, sex), clinical, radiological and histopathological variables, the dosage of alkylating agents and radiotherapy (RT) and on thyroid disorders using Microsoft Excel. The data analysis was conducted with SPSS version 17, using the Fisher exact test for qualitative data, a nonparametric test for quantitative data and Kaplan-Meier curves. RESULTS: Sixty patients received a diagnosis of HL from 2007 to 2022. The median duration of follow-up was 78.5 months. There were 4 detected cases of hypothyroidism, 5 of thyroid nodules and 1 of subclinical hyperthyroidism. Treatment with RT was significantly associated with the development of hypothyroidism (P= .026), thyroid nodules (P= .01) and thyroid disease overall (P= .003). We estimated that the risk of thyroid disease increased 8-fold with each additional Grey received (hazard ratio, 1.081; 95% CI, 1.014-1.152; P= .017). CONCLUSION: Hodgkin lymphoma patients treated with RT are at increased risk of late thyroid disorders, mainly hypothyroidism and malignancy. This risk is greater the higher the RT dosage and the longer the follow-up. We did not find evidence of an association between the use of alkylating agents and an increase in the risk of thyroid disease.

Films properties of QPM corn starch with Delonix regia seed galactomannan as an edible coating material.

Plant-based polysaccharides are considered a good alternative for obtaining edible films and coatings. In this research the objective was to determine the physicochemical characteristics of corn starch obtained from QPM Sac-Beh (SBCS) and Delonix regia galactomannan (DRG) and use them to produce films. Films were elaborated from 1 %(w/v) film-forming solutions (FFS) with SBCS:DRG 1:0, 1:1, and 0:1 ratio. Some films were prepared with glycerol 0.4 %(w/v) and vanillin 0.1 %(w/v). SBCS and DRG were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. SBCS presented low crystallinity which agrees with a low gelatinization ΔH observed. The SBCS:DRG 1:0 FFS without glycerol did not form films; however, DRG addition allows film formation. It was also found that glycerol addition reduced tensile strength to 10.3 MPa, from 41.3 MPa. The lowest water vapor permeability was found in films with 1:1 SBCS:DRG and 0.1 %(w/v) vanillin. This formulation was used to coat D'Anjou pears. This coating conserved the pears' color for 24 days while the control ones started to get a brown color on day 6. Based on the results obtained, FFS elaborated with 1:1 SBCS:DRG and 0.1 %(w/v) vanillin had potential use as edible film material for coating on climacteric fruits preservation.

Task-related modulation of motor response to emotional bodies: A TMS motor-evoked potential study.

Exposure to emotional body postures during perceptual decision-making tasks has been linked to transient suppression of motor reactivity, supporting the monitoring of emotionally relevant information. However, it remains unclear whether this effect occurs implicitly, i.e., when emotional information is irrelevant to the task. To investigate this issue, we used single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to assess motor excitability while healthy participants were asked to categorize pictures of body expressions as emotional or neutral (emotion recognition task) or as belonging to a male or a female actor (gender recognition task) while receiving TMS over the motor cortex at 100 and 125 ms after picture onset. Results demonstrated that motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were reduced for emotional body postures relative to neutral postures during the emotion recognition task. Conversely, MEPs increased for emotional body postures relative to neutral postures during the gender recognition task. These findings indicate that motor inhibition, contingent upon observing emotional body postures, is selectively associated with actively monitoring emotional features. In contrast, observing emotional body postures prompts motor facilitation when task-relevant features are non-emotional. These findings contribute to embodied cognition models that link emotion perception and action tendencies.

Generation of an induced pluripotent stem cell line (ESi107-A) from a transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) patient carrying a p.Ser43Asn mutation in the TTR gene.

Transthyretin (TTR) amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is a life-threatening disease caused by the abnormal production of misfolded TTR protein by liver cells, which is then released systemically. Its amyloid deposition in the heart is linked to cardiac toxicity and progression toward heart failure. A human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line was generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a patient suffering familial transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy carrying a c.128G>A (p.Ser43Asn) mutation in the TTR gene. This iPSC line offers a useful resource to study the disease pathophysiology and a cell-based model for therapeutic discovery.

Manejo racional de las neuropatías diabéticas: consenso multidisciplinario de expertos / Rational management of the diabetic neuropathies: a multidisciplinary expert group consensus

Resumen: La diabetes mellitus, un padecimiento crónico y progresivo, ocupó el tercer lugar en defunciones durante el período comprendido de enero a junio de 2021 en México. Su complicación crónica más frecuente es la neuropatía diabética que tiene un impacto importante en el sistema nervioso. En la Ciudad de México se reunió un grupo multidisciplinario de expertos para establecer un algoritmo de tratamiento que considere los aspectos sintomáticos y etiopatogénicos de la neuropatía diabética. Se utilizó un método Delphi en tiempo real con dos rondas de preguntas interactivas. La implementación del algoritmo propuesto permitirá abordar de manera integral al paciente diabético con neuropatía dolorosa y no dolorosa, tanto en el terreno de los síntomas como en la etiopatogenia. Este abordaje brinda la oportunidad de mejorar la calidad de vida y lograr la reinserción a la vida familiar y laboral. El panel de expertos recomienda al ácido tióctico como tratamiento etiopatogénico de primera línea en la neuropatía diabética.

Abstract: Diabetes mellitus, a chronic and progressive condition, was the third most common cause of death in Mexico between January and June 2021. Its most frequent chronic complication is diabetic neuropathy, which has a major impact on the nervous system. A multidisciplinary group of experts met in Mexico City to establish a treatment algorithm considering the symptomatic and etiopathogenic aspects of diabetic neuropathy. A real-time Delphi method with two rounds of interative questions was used. The implementation of the proposed algorithm will allow a comprehensive approach to the diabetic patient with painful and non-painful neuropathy, both in terms of symptoms and etiopathogenesis. This approach provides the opportunity to improve quality of life and achieve reintegration into family and work life. The expert panel recommends thioctic acid as the first line etiopathogenic treatment for diabetic neuropathy.

The embodied typist: Bimanual actions are modulated by words' implied motility and number of evoked limbs.

The planning and execution of manual actions can be influenced by concomitant processing of manual action verbs. However, this phenomenon manifests in varied ways throughout the literature, ranging from facilitation to interference effects. Suggestively, stimuli across studies vary randomly in two potentially relevant variables: verb motility and effector quantity (i.e., the amount of movement and the number of hands implied by the word, respectively). Here we examine the role of these factors during keyboard typing, a strategic bimanual task validated in previous works. Forty-one participants read and typed high and low motility items from four categories: bimanual, unimanual, and non-manual action verbs, as well as minimally motoric verbs. Motor planning and execution were captured by first-letter lag (the lapse between word presentation and first keystroke) and whole-word lag (the lapse between the first and last keystroke). We found that verb motility modulated action planning and execution, both stages being delayed by high (relative to low) motility verbs. Effector quantity also influenced both stages, which were facilitated by bimanual verbs relative to unimanual verbs and non-manual verbs (this effect being confined to high motility items during action execution). Accordingly, motor-language coupling effects seem sensitive to words' implied motility and number of evoked limbs. These findings refine our understanding of how semantics influences bodily movement.

Disturbing the activity of the primary motor cortex by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation affects long term memory of sentences referred to manipulable objects.

Introduction: Previous studies on embodied meaning suggest that simulations in the motor cortex play a crucial role in the processing of action sentences. However, there is little evidence that embodied meaning have functional impact beyond working memory. This study examines how the neuromodulation of the motor cortex (M1) could affect the processing of action-related language, measuring participants' performance in a long-term memory task. Method: Participants were submitted to two sessions in separate days, one with low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and the other with sham rTMS. The pulses were delivered for 15 minutes over M1 or over V1, used as a control area. After each stimulation or sham period, the participants were asked to memorize a list of simple sentences, with a manual action verb or an attentional verb, followed in both cases by a noun referred to a manipulable object (e.g., to hang a cane vs. to observe a cane). Finally, they received the verbs as cues with instructions to recall the nouns. Results: The results showed that low frequency rTMS on M1, compared to sham stimulation, significantly improved the performance in the memory task, for both types of sentences. No change in performance was found after the rTMS stimulation of V1. Discussion: These results confirm that the perturbation on the motor system, affect the memory of manipulable object names in the context of sentences, providing further evidence of the role played by the sensorimotor system in the encoding and recall of concrete sentences of action.

Evaluation of Organofunctionalized Polydimethylsiloxane Films for the Extraction of Furanic Compounds.

Hybrid membranes with three different thicknesses, PMDS_C1, PMDS_C2, and PMDS_C3 (0.21 ± 0.03 mm, 0.31 ± 0.05 mm, and 0.48 ± 0.07 mm), were synthesized by the sol-gel method using polydimethylsiloxane, hydroxy-terminated, and cyanopropyltriethoxysilane. The presence of cyano, methyl, and silicon-methyl groups was confirmed by FTIR analysis. Contact angle analysis revealed the membranes' hydrophilic nature. Solvent resistance tests conducted under vortex and ultrasonic treatments (45 and 60 min) demonstrated a preference order of acetonitrile > methanol > water. Furthermore, the membranes exhibited stability over 48 h when exposed to different pH conditions (1, 3, 6, and 9), with negligible mass losses below 1%. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that the material was stable until 400 °C. Finally, the sorption analysis showed its capacity to detect furfural, 2-furylmethylketone, 5-methylfurfural, and 2-methyl 2-furoate. The thicker membrane was able to adsorb and slightly desorb a higher concentration of furanic compounds due to its high polarity provided by the addition of the cyano groups. The results indicated that the membranes may be suitable for sorbent materials in extracting and enriching organic compounds.

You are fired! Exclusion words induce corticospinal modulations associated with vicarious pain.

Self- and vicarious experience of physical pain induces inhibition of the motor cortex (M1). Experience of social rejections recruits the same neural network as physical pain; however, whether social pain modulates M1 corticospinal excitability remains unclear. This study examines for the first time whether social exclusion words, rather than simulated social exclusion tasks, modulate embodied sensorimotor networks during the vicarious experience of others' pain. Participants observed visual sequences of painful and functional events ending with a superimposed word with social exclusion, social inclusion or non-social meaning. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) to single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation of the left M1 were recorded at 400 or 550 ms from word onset. MEPs tended to inhibit during the observation of pain, relative to functional events. Moreover, MEPs recorded at 400 ms from word onset, during pain movies, decreased following the presentation of exclusion, relative to inclusion/neutral words. The magnitude of these two modulations marginally correlated with participants' interindividual differences in personal distress and self-esteem. These findings provide evidence of vicarious responses to others' pain in the M1 corticospinal system and enhancement of such vicarious response in the earlier phases of semantic processing of exclusion words-supporting activation of social pain-embodied representations.

ERP evidence for emotion-specific congruency effects between sentences and new words with disgust and sadness connotations.

Introduction: The present study investigated how new words with acquired connotations of disgust and sadness, both negatively valenced but distinctive emotions, modulate the brain dynamics in the context of emotional sentences. Methods: Participants completed a learning session in which pseudowords were repeatedly paired with faces expressing disgust and sadness. An event-related potential (ERP) session followed the next day, in which participants received the learned pseudowords (herein, new words) combined with sentences and were asked to make emotional congruency judgment. Results: Sad new words elicited larger negative waveform than disgusting new words in the 146-228 ms time window, and emotionally congruent trials showed larger positive waveform than emotionally incongruent trials in the 304-462 ms time window. Moreover, the source localization in the latter suggested that congruent trials elicited larger current densities than incongruent trials in a number of emotion-related brain structures (e.g., the orbitofrontal cortex and cingulate gyrus) and language-related brain structures (e.g., the temporal lobe and the lingual gyrus). Discussion: These results suggested that faces are an effective source for the acquisition of words' emotional connotations, and such acquired connotations can generate semantic and emotional congruency effects in sentential contexts.

A Latin American consensus meeting on the essentials of mixed pain.

OBJECTIVES: The term "mixed pain" has been established when a mixture of different pain components (e.g. nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociplastic) are present. It has gained more and more acceptance amongst pain experts worldwide, but many questions around the concept of mixed pain are still unsolved. The sensation of pain is very personal. Cultural, social, personal experiences, idiomatic, and taxonomic differences should be taken into account during pain assessment. Therefore, a Latin American consensus committee was formed to further elaborate the essentials of mixed pain, focusing on the specific characteristics of the Latin American population. METHODS: The current approach was based on a systematic literature search and review carried out in Medline. Eight topics about the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of mixed pain were discussed and voted for by a Latin American consensus committee and recommendations were expressed. RESULTS: At the end of the meeting a total of 14 voting sheets were collected. The full consensus was obtained for 21 of 25 recommendations (15 strong agreement and 6 unanimous agreement) formulated for the above described 8 topics (7 of the 8 topics had for all questions at least a strong agreement - 1 topic had no agreement for all 4 questions). CONCLUSION: In a subject as complex as mixed pain, a consensus has been reached among Latin American specialists on points related to the definition and essence of this pain, its diagnosis and treatment. Recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of mixed pain in Latin America were raised.

The negation-induced forgetting effect remains even after reducing associative interference.

Recent research has provided evidence that negation processing recruits the neural network of response inhibition (de Vega et al., 2016). Furthermore, inhibition mechanisms also play a role in human memory. In two experiments, we aimed to assess how producing a negation in a verification task may impact long-term memory. Experiment 1 used the same memory paradigm as Mayo et al. (2014), consisting of several phases: first, reading a story describing the activity of a protagonist, immediately followed by a "yes-no" verification task, then a distractive task, and finally an incidental free recall test. Consistent with the previous results, negated sentences were recalled worse than affirmed sentences. Yet, there is a possible confounding between the effect of negation itself and the associative interference of two conflicting predicates - the original and the modified one - in negative trials. To avoid this, Experiment 2 modified the paradigm by including a story describing the activities of two protagonists in such a way that the affirmed and denied verification sentences had the same content, and only differed in the attribution of a specific event to the correct or wrong protagonist. The negation-induced forgetting effect was still powerful, while controlling for potential contaminating variables. Our finding would support that the impaired long-term memory could be ascribed to reusing the inhibitory mechanism of negation.

Priorities in Cardio-Oncology Basic and Translational Science: GCOS 2023 Symposium Proceedings: JACC: CardioOncology State-of-the-Art Review.

Despite improvements in cancer survival, cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity has risen to become a prominent clinical challenge. This has led to the growth of the burgeoning field of cardio-oncology, which aims to advance the cardiovascular health of cancer patients and survivors, through actionable and translatable science. In these Global Cardio-Oncology Symposium 2023 scientific symposium proceedings, we present a focused review on the mechanisms that contribute to common cardiovascular toxicities discussed at this meeting, the ongoing international collaborative efforts to improve patient outcomes, and the bidirectional challenges of translating basic research to clinical care. We acknowledge that there are many additional therapies that are of significance but were not topics of discussion at this symposium. We hope that through this symposium-based review we can highlight the knowledge gaps and clinical priorities to inform the design of future studies that aim to prevent and mitigate cardiovascular disease in cancer patients and survivors.

Applying Deep Learning on a Few EEG Electrodes during Resting State Reveals Depressive States. A Data Driven Study.

The growing number of depressive people and the overload in primary care services make it necessary to identify depressive states with easily accessible biomarkers such as mobile electroencephalography (EEG). Some studies have addressed this issue by collecting and analyzing EEG resting state in a search of appropriate features and classification methods. Traditionally, EEG resting state classification methods for depression were mainly based on linear or a combination of linear and non-linear features. We hypothesize that participants with ongoing depressive states differ from controls in complex patterns of brain dynamics that can be captured in EEG resting state data, using only nonlinear measures on a few electrodes, making it possible to develop cheap and wearable devices that could be even monitored through smartphones. To validate such a perspective, a resting-state EEG study was conducted with 50 participants, half with depressive state (DEP) and half controls (CTL). A data-driven approach was applied to select the most appropriate time window and electrodes for the EEG analyses, as suggested by Giacometti⁠, as well as the most efficient nonlinear features and classifiers, to distinguish between CTL and DEP participants. Nonlinear features showing temporo-spatial and spectral complexity were selected. The results confirmed that computing nonlinear features from a few selected electrodes in a 15 s time window are sufficient to classify DEP and CTL participants accurately. Finally, after training and testing internally the classifier, the trained machine was applied to EEG resting state data (CTL and DEP) from a publicly available database, validating the capacity of generalization of the classifier with data from different equipment, population, and environment obtaining an accuracy near 100%.

Language switching may facilitate the processing of negative responses.

It has been proposed that processing sentential negation recruits the neural network of inhibitory control (de Vega et al., 2016; Beltrán et al., 2021). In addition, inhibition mechanisms also play a role in switching languages for bilinguals (Kroll et al., 2015). Since both processes may share inhibitory resources, the current study explored for the first time whether and how language-switching influences the processing of negation. To this end, two groups of Spanish-English bilinguals participated in an encoding-verification memory task. They read short stories involving the same two protagonists (Montse and Jordi), referring to their activities in four different scenarios in Spanish or English. Following each story, the participants received verification questions requiring "yes" or "no" responses depending on whether a given fact was correctly referred to one of the protagonists. Some of the verification questions were in the story's original language (non-switch condition) and others in the alternate language (switch condition). Results revealed that language-switching facilitated negative responses compared to affirmative responses, exclusively for questions switching from dominant language (L1) to non-dominant language (L2). This effect might reflect that the domain-general mechanisms of inhibitory control are recruited at least partially for both language switch and negation process simultaneously, although this phenomenon is modulated by language dominance.

Preparation and Characterization of Strongly Sulfonated Acid Block and Random Copolymer Membranes for Acetic Acid Esterification with 2-Propanol.

In this paper, we report the synthesis of block and random copolymers of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) and methyl methacrylate (MMA), with different AMPS feed ratios. These solution-processable copolymers with strongly sulfonated acid groups resulted in membranes with tunable ion exchange (IEC) and water absorption capacities. AFM images confirmed the microphase separation of PAMPS-b-PMMA-1:1 block copolymer membrane, annealed under the appropriate conditions. The resulting copolymers from the random combination of a 1:1 molar ratio of AMPS and MMA monomers are effective at enhancing the esterification conversion of acetic acid, when compared with a reaction catalyzed by PAMPS-b-PMMA block copolymers and the previously studied catalytic membranes. With the PAMPS-co-PMMA-1:1 membrane, the esterification reaction using acetic acid achieved 85% isopropyl acetate. These results are closely correlated with the increase in IEC (2.63 mmol H+g-1) and the relationship between weight loss (20.3%) and swelling degree (68%) in 2-propanol.

Indirect organogenesis for high frequency shoot regeneration of two cultivars of Sansevieria trifasciata Prain differing in fiber production.

Sansevieria trifasciata is used as an indoor plant, in traditional medicine and as a fiber source. Here we characterized fibers of two of varieties of S. trifasciata, Lorentii and Hahnii, and report a protocol for their propagation based on indirect shoot organogenesis. Structural and ribbon fibers were scattered within leaf parenchyma when viewed with confocal laser scanning microscopy. Chemical analysis of the fibers by mass spectrometry and high-performance chromatography revealed higher contents of cellulose and xylose in Lorentii than in Hahnii and significant differences for total lignin between both. A protocol for de novo shoot production was then developed using leaf explants. Time-course histological analyses showed that the first events of transdifferentiation were triggered preferentially in cells surrounding fibers and vascular bundles. Callogenesis and shoot performances were quantified for both varieties, and 2,4-D at 2 and 3 mg·L-1 yielded the best results for primary calli induction and fresh calli mass. The length, number, and mass of shoots produced did not differ significantly between the two cultivars. The fast morphogenic response of S. trifasciata to in vitro culture may be useful for mass propagation or other biotechnological purposes such as metabolite production.

The Brain Dynamics of Syllable Duration and Semantic Predictability in Spanish.

This study examines the neural dynamics underlying the prosodic (duration) and the semantic dimensions in Spanish sentence perception. Specifically, we investigated whether adult listeners are aware of changes in the duration of a pretonic syllable of words that were either semantically predictable or unpredictable from the preceding sentential context. Participants listened to the sentences with instructions to make prosodic or semantic judgments, while their EEG was recorded. For both accuracy and RTs, the results revealed an interaction between duration and semantics. ERP analysis exposed an interactive effect between task, duration and semantic, showing that both processes share neural resources. There was an enhanced negativity on semantic process (N400) and an extended positivity associated with anomalous duration. Source estimation for the N400 component revealed activations in the frontal gyrus for the semantic contrast and in the parietal postcentral gyrus for duration contrast in the metric task, while activation in the sub-lobar insula was observed for the semantic task. The source of the late positive components was located on posterior cingulate. Hence, the ERP data support the idea that semantic and prosodic levels are processed by similar neural networks, and the two linguistic dimensions influence each other during the decision-making stage in the metric and semantic judgment tasks.