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What's new in the pediatric spine?
No full textIntroduction: The field of pediatric spine surgery has encountered major changes and evolutions lately, with new treatment options available and the development of enabling technologies. This article aims to summarize the most relevant recent literature.Materials and methods: The five most relevant topics were selected and assigned to one or two authors who performed a comprehensive Pubmed database search for articles published in the last 4 years (2021-2024). Only studies with a high level of evidence or clinical relevance were reported.Results: Thirty-nine articles were selected and analyzed, covering the following subjects: treatment options in tweeners, the impact of new medical treatments in pediatric spine practice, the emergence of new surgical techniques, the development of enabling technologies in scoliosis surgery, and recent relevant randomized controlled trials.Discussion: Many new surgical concepts and techniques have been developed lately, but their results need to be further assessed on specific subgroups of patients. Numerous significant medical improvements have been reported in the last 5 years, affecting positively the management of syndromic and neuromuscular patients.</p
Conscious and unconscious perception of pitch shifts in auditory feedback during vocalization: Behavioral functions and event-related potential correlates
No full textDuring vocalization, mismatches between expected and perceived auditory feedback are processed rapidly and automatically, suggesting that feedback control of vocalization operates unconsciously. However, whether consciousness modulates speech feedback control remains little studied. To address this question, we concurrently measured behavioral vocal responses and electroencephalography (EEG) in 30 participants while they vocalized and their auditory feedback was perturbed with individually calibrated perceptual threshold level pitch shifts. Following each vocalization trial, participants rated if they consciously detected a pitch shift in their auditory feedback. We analyzed the data on a trial-by-trial basis to test if vocal responses to pitch perturbations were modulated by conscious perception. Our results revealed that even on trials where the participants reported not noticing the pitch shift at all, a compensatory vocal response to the altered auditory feedback was generated. Conscious detection of a pitch shift was associated with an increased magnitude of vocal responses roughly 500–700 ms after the pitch shift compared to the unconscious trials. Conscious detection of the pitch shift correlated with early (Auditory awareness negativity, AAN) and late (Late positivity, LP) neural responses as indexed by the modulation of event-related potentials (ERPs). Source localization of the ERPs suggested that conscious pitch shift detection was associated with increased neural activity within the temporal, frontal and parietal cortical networks known to be involved in speech motor control. These findings emphasize the importance of investigating the role of consciousness in regulating speech feedback control, and their effect on the underlying neural and behavioral functions
The genomic evolutionary dynamics and global circulation patterns of respiratory syncytial virus
No full textRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection in young children and the second leading cause of infant death worldwide. While global circulation has been extensively studied for respiratory viruses such as seasonal influenza, and more recently also in great detail for SARS-CoV-2, a lack of global multi-annual sampling of complete RSV genomes limits our understanding of RSV molecular epidemiology. Here, we capitalise on the genomic surveillance by the INFORM-RSV study and apply phylodynamic approaches to uncover how selection and neutral epidemiological processes shape RSV diversity. Using complete viral genome sequences, we show similar patterns of site-specific diversifying selection among RSVA and RSVB and recover the imprint of non-neutral epidemic processes on their genealogies. Using a phylogeographic approach, we provide evidence for air travel governing the global patterns of RSVA and RSVB spread, which results in a considerable degree of phylogenetic mixing across countries. Our findings highlight the potential of systematic global RSV genomic surveillance for transforming our understanding of global RSV spread
Assessing engineering students' attitudes towards corporate social responsibility principles
No full textEthical and sustainable thinking is an important competence in the engineering education to support students' abilities to act and perform in a responsible manner in corporate contexts, and consequently contribute to a sustainable future. This paper investigates engineering students' attitudes towards ethical and sustainable thinking focusing on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles in the context of entrepreneurship courses as a part of larger research project. Engineering students from a Finnish and an Estonian university (N = 342) responded to a self-assessment survey. The students' attitudes towards CSR principles were assessed both on the enterprise level and the individual level as expectations of potential future employees. The findings indicate that engineering students acknowledge the need to take into account responsible thinking and that it is important for enterprises to be both socially and environmentally responsible in their activities. The self-assessment tool of ethical and sustainable thinking associated with the entrepreneurship competence model and CSR principles can be helpful in practice when university teachers wish to support and assess their students' attitudes towards CSR principles among other entrepreneurship competencies when creating new course content
Diet- and microbiota-related metabolite, 5-aminovaleric acid betaine (5-AVAB), in health and disease
Get PDF5-Aminovaleric acid betaine (5-AVAB) is a trimethylated compound associated with the gut microbiota, potentially produced endogenously, and related to the dietary intake of certain foods such as whole grains. 5-AVAB accumulates within the metabolically active tissues and has been typically found in higher concentrations in the heart, muscle, and brown adipose tissue. Furthermore, 5-AVAB has been associated with positive health effects such as fetal brain development, insulin secretion, and reduced cancer risk. However, it also has been linked with some negative health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and fatty liver disease. At the cellular level, 5-AVAB can influence cellular energy metabolism by reducing β-oxidation of fatty acids. This review will focus on the metabolic role of 5-AVAB with respect to both physiology and pathology. Moreover, the analytics and origin of 5-AVAB and related compounds will be reviewed. © 2022 The AuthorsAuthor keywords5-aminovaleric acid betaine (5-AVAB); aminovaleric acid betaine; N,N,N-trimethyl-5-aminovalerate (TMAV); N,N,N-trimethyl-5-aminovaleric acid (TMAVA); δ-valerobetaine (δVB)</p
How spending decisions shape happiness in everyday life
Get PDFThis study examines the emotional consequences of spending choices in everyday life across a diverse multinational sample. Based on a dataset of 200 participants across 7 countries who received $10,000 USD, we analyzed how happy they felt from different types of purchases made with that money. Participants derived high levels of happiness from some types of purchases that have been examined in past research (e.g., buying experiences), but also from other purchases (e.g., education) that have not been the focus of previous work. We found some evidence that the emotional benefits of spending choices varied depending on whether participants lived in higher vs. lower-income countries; specifically, we found differences in the benefits of spending on gifts, housing, debt, and time-saving services. Around the world, people who spent money in ways that made them happy experienced greater improvements in overall subjective well-being 3 and 6 months later
