Postural balance, mobility, and handgrip strength one year after hospitalization due to COVID-19.

Background: Symptoms such as impairment of postural balance, mobility and muscle strength can last up to 12 months post COVID-19 hospitalization, need to be better understood, as they can have repercussions in activities of daily living.

Research Question: What happens to postural balance, mobility, and handgrip strength of COVID-19 patients after hospitalization?

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted with patients of both sexes, aged ≥18, admitted to hospital diagnosed with COVID-19. Outcomes were assessed at 1, 4, 6, and 12 months post-discharge, including: postural balance - Brief-Balance Evaluation Systems Test, mobility - Timed "Up & Go" Test, and handgrip strength - dynamometry.

How and Why People Synchronize: An Integrated Perspective.

Academic AbstractInterpersonal synchrony, the alignment of behavior and/or physiology during interactions, is a pervasive phenomenon observed in diverse social contexts. Here we synthesize across contexts and behaviors to classify the different forms and functions of synchrony. We provide a concise framework for classifying the manifold forms of synchrony along six dimensions: periodicity, discreteness, spatial similarity, directionality, leader-follower dynamics, and observability.

Nigrostriatal Inflammation Is Associated with Nonmotor Symptoms in an Experimental Model of Prodromal Parkinson's Disease.

Recent evidence has supported a pathogenic role for neuroinflammation in Parkinson's disease (PD). Inflammatory response has been associated with symptoms and subtypes of PD. However, it is unclear whether immune changes are involved in the initial pathogenesis of PD, leading to the non-motor symptoms (NMS) observed in its prodromal stage.

Level of autistic traits in neurotypical adults predicts kinematic idiosyncrasies in their biological movements.

Introduction: Over the last decade of research, a notable connection between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and unique motor system characteristics has been identified, which may influence social communication through distinct movement patterns. In this study, we investigated the potential for features of the broader autism phenotype to account for kinematic idiosyncrasies in social movements expressed by neurotypical individuals.

Methods: Fifty-eight participants provided recordings of point-light displays expressing three basic emotions and completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ).

More than fear: Contributions of biobehavioral synchrony and infants' reactivity to cooperative care.

We present two challenges to the : (1) biobehavioral synchrony precedes and moderates the effects of fear on cooperative care, and (2) cooperative care emerges in a more bidirectional manner than Grossmann acknowledges. We present evidence demonstrating how dyadic differences in co-regulation and individual differences in infants' reactivity shape caregivers' responses to infant affect.

Functional impact on adults and older people after hospitalization by Covid-19.

Background And Objectives: Hospitalization by Covid-19 can cause persistent functional consequences after hospital discharge due to direct and indirect effects of SARS-COV-2 in several organs and systems of the body added to post-intensive care syndrome and prolonged bed rest. These impacts can lead to dependency in activities of daily living, mainly in older people due to aging process and functional decline. This study aimed to compare the effects of hospitalization by Covid-19 on functional capacity of adults and older people and to identify its associated factors.

Associations between acoustic features of maternal speech and infants' emotion regulation following a social stressor.

Caregiver voices may provide cues to mobilize or calm infants. This study examined whether maternal prosody predicted changes in infants' biobehavioral state after the still face, a stressor in which the mother withdraws and reinstates social engagement. Ninety-four dyads participated in the study (infant age 4-8 months).

The cyclin-like protein SPY1 overrides reprogramming induced senescence through EZH2 mediated H3K27me3.

Fully differentiated cells can be reprogrammed through ectopic expression of key transcription factors to create induced pluripotent stem cells. These cells share many characteristics of normal embryonic stem cells and have great promise in disease modeling and regenerative medicine. The process of remodeling has its limitations, including a very low efficiency due to the upregulation of many antiproliferative genes, including cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors CDKN1A and CDKN2A, which serve to protect the cell by inducing apoptotic and senescent programs.

Associations between infant-mother physiological synchrony and 4- and 6-month-old infants' emotion regulation.

In this study we assessed whether physiological synchrony between infants and mothers contributes to infants' emotion regulation following a mild social stressor. Infants between 4 and 6 months of age and their mothers were tested in the face-to-face-still-face paradigm and were assessed for behavioral and physiological self-regulation during and following the stressor. Physiological synchrony was calculated from a continuous measure of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) enabling us to cross-correlate the infants' and mothers' RSA responses.

A method for measuring dynamic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in infants and mothers.

The measurement of respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA) in infants, children and adults is critical to the study of physiological regulation, and more recently, interpersonal physiological covariation, but it has been impeded by methods that limit its resolution to 30 s or longer. Recent analytical developments have suggested methods for studying dynamic RSA in adults, and we have extended this work to the study of infants and mothers. In the current paper, we describe a new analytical strategy for estimating RSA time series for infants and adults.

Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial With N-acetylcysteine for Treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Caused by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Background: A local increase in angiotensin 2 after inactivation of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may induce a redox imbalance in alveolar epithelium cells, causing apoptosis, increased inflammation and, consequently, impaired gas exchange. We hypothesized that N-acetylcysteine (NAC) administration could restore this redox homeostasis and suppress unfavorable evolution in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods: This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-center trial conducted at the Emergency Department of Hospital das Clínicas, São Paulo, Brazil, to determine whether NAC in high doses can avoid respiratory failure in patients with COVID-19.

Gain-of-function mutation causes human combined immune deficiency.

Genetic mutations account for many devastating early onset immune deficiencies. In contrast, less severe and later onset immune diseases, including in patients with no prior family history, remain poorly understood. Whole exome sequencing in two cohorts of such patients identified a novel heterozygous de novo missense mutation (c.

A randomized trial of serological and cellular responses to hepatitis B vaccination in chronic kidney disease.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with an increased risk of hepatitis B infection and impaired seroconversion to hepatitis B vaccine (HBV). Studies examining augmented vaccine schedules to enhance seroconversion have so far been inconclusive. Furthermore, the defects responsible for impaired vaccine immunity in CKD have not yet been identified.

Lower frequency of antibodies to MOG in Brazilian patients with demyelinating diseases: An ethnicity influence?

Objective: Antibodies against Myelin Oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG-Ab) have been investigated as potential biological marker for neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and high-risk syndromes (HR) negative for AQP4-Ab in populations with different ethnic background. We tested AQP4 and MOG antibodies in a Brazilian population with high African ethnic background.

Method: The study population was composed of adult patients from Rio de Janeiro with inflammatory demyelinating diseases (new and old cases).

A 50-50% mixture of nitrous oxide-oxygen in transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy: A randomized and prospective clinical trial.

Introduction: Transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TUSPB) is the standard method of diagnosis for prostate cancer, and although it is well tolerated by some patients, it presents a discomfort rate of 65 to 90%, which may be associated with pain. For convenience, it is agreed that a method of analgesia and sedation is necessary. For this purpose, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of inhalation of a 50-50% N2O-O2 gas mixture on pain intensity in these patients.

Characterization of natural photonic crystals in iridescent wings of damselfly Chalcopteryx rutilans by FIB/SEM, TEM, and TOF-SIMS.

The iridescent wings of the Chalcopterix rutilans damselfly (Rambur) (Odonata, Polythoridae) are investigated with focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. The electron microscopy images reveal a natural photonic crystal as the source of the varying colors. The photonic crystal has a consistent number and thickness (∼195 nm) of the repeat units on the ventral side of the wing, which is consistent with the red color visible from the bottom side of the wing in all regions.

Physicochemical Characterization and Skin Permeation of Cationic Transfersomes Containing the Synthetic Peptide PnPP-19.

Background: PnPP-19 is a 19-amino-acid synthetic peptide previously described as a novel drug for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Objective: The aim of this work was to evaluate the physicochemical properties of cationic transfersomes containing PnPP-19 and the skin permeation of free PnPP-19 and PnPP-19-loaded transfersomes.

Methods: Three different liposomal preparation methods were evaluated.

Something to sink your teeth into: The presence of teeth augments ERPs to mouth expressions.

If the whites of the sclera can impact neural processing of eye expressions (Hardee, Thompson, & Puce, 2008; Whalen et al., 1998), do seen teeth affect neural responses to mouth expressions? Twenty participants (10 females; ages 22-31) viewed avatar mouth images depicting grimaces, smiles and open mouth expressions that were presented with and without teeth. A continuous 256 channel electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while subjects completed two tasks: an implicit task evaluating stimulus color and an explicit task evaluating mouth expression valence.

On dissociating the neural time course of the processing of positive emotions.

Providing evidence for categorical theories of emotion mandates the inclusion of discrete emotion categories beyond the typical six "basic" emotions. Traditional neurophysiological investigations of emotion typically feature the six basic emotions with happiness as the lone positive exemplar. Here we studied how event-related potentials (ERPs) might differentiate between two positive emotional expressions: happiness and pride, and if so, at what time interval.

Evidence for pollen limitation of a native plant in invaded communities.

Animal-pollinated invasive species have frequently been demonstrated to outcompete native species for pollinator attention, which can have detrimental effects on the reproductive success and population dynamics of native species. Many animal-pollinated invasive species exhibit showy flowers and provide substantial rewards, allowing them to act as pollinator 'magnets', which, at a large scale, can attract more pollinators to an area, but, at a smaller scale, may reduce compatible pollen flow to local native species, possibly explaining why most studies detect competition. By performing pollen limitation experiments of populations in both invaded and uninvaded sites, we demonstrate that the invasive plant Lythrum salicaria appears to facilitate, rather than hinder, the reproductive success of native confamilial Decodon verticillatus, even at a small scale, in a wetland habitat in southeastern Ontario.

Trait correlates and functional significance of heteranthery in flowering plants.

• Flowering plants display extraordinary diversity in the morphology of male sexual organs, yet the functional significance of this variation is not well understood. Here, we conducted a comparative analysis of floral correlates of heteranthery - the morphological and functional differentiation of anthers within flowers - among angiosperm families to identify traits associated with this condition. • We performed a phylogenetic analysis of correlated evolution between heteranthery and several floral traits commonly reported from heterantherous taxa.

Total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) in an infant with Werdnig-Hoffmann disease. Case report.

Background And Objectives: Werdnig-Hoffmann disease is the most common cause of hypotonia in infants and its prognosis is worse if it is present shortly after delivery. Symmetrical muscular weakness, areflexia, and fasciculations of the tongue are characteristic. The majority of the infants die before two years of age as a consequence of respiratory failure.

The impact of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder on the treatment response of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Few case series studies have addressed the issue of treatment response in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and there are no prospective studies addressing response to conventional treatment in OCD patients with a history of trauma (HT). The present study aimed to investigate, prospectively, the impact of HT or PTSD on two systematic, first-line treatments for OCD. Two hundred and nineteen non-treatment-resistant OCD outpatients were treated with either group cognitive-behavioral therapy (GCBT n = 147) or monotherapy with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI n = 72).

[Crania, bodies, and measurements: formation of the collection of anthropometric instruments at the Museu Nacional in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century].

Analyzes the formation of the collection of scientific instruments at the Museu Nacional's Biological Anthropology Sector (previously known as the Physical Anthropology Division), Brazil. It focuses on the instruments used for anthropometric measurements. By drawing relations between this collection and other of the institution's biological anthropology collections, as well as the activities of Museu Nacional researchers within their sociopolitical and academic contexts, we arrive at a privileged view of the scientific methods and theories in use in the final decades of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth.