The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on excess mortality from all causes in 2020 varied across and within European countries. Using data for 2015-2019, we applied Bayesian spatio-temporal models to ...quantify the expected weekly deaths at the regional level had the pandemic not occurred in England, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. With around 30%, Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, Castile-Leon (Spain) and Lombardia (Italy) were the regions with the highest excess mortality. In England, Greece and Switzerland, the regions most affected were Outer London and the West Midlands (England), Eastern, Western and Central Macedonia (Greece), and Ticino (Switzerland), with 15-20% excess mortality in 2020. Our study highlights the importance of the large transportation hubs for establishing community transmission in the first stages of the pandemic. Here, we show that acting promptly to limit transmission around these hubs is essential to prevent spread to other regions and countries.
Situated models suggest that social concepts are grounded in interpersonal experience. However, few studies have tested this notion experimentally, and none has targeted individuals with reduced ...social interaction. Here, we assessed comprehension of text-level social and non-social concepts in persons with and without autistic-like traits. Participants read a social and a non-social text and answered questionnaires targeting social and non-social concepts, respectively. We compared behavioral outcomes, gauged their contribution to subject-level classification, and examined their association with validated measures of autism. Persons with autistic-like traits showed selective deficits in grasping text-level social concepts, even adjusting for intelligence, memory, and vocabulary. Also, social concept comprehension was the only variable that significantly classified between groups. Finally, social concept outcomes correlated negatively with measures of autism, including social interaction. Our results suggest that reduced interpersonal experience selectively compromises text-level social concept processing, offering empirical constraints for situated models of social semantics.
Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF) is a zoonotic disease caused by Rickettsia conorii. In Spain, deficiencies in the official reporting result in misreporting of this disease. This study aims to ...describe the clinical and temporal-spatial characteristics of MSF hospitalizations between 1997 and 2014.
We performed a retrospective descriptive study using the Hospitalization Minimum Data Set (CMBD). All CMBD's hospital discharges with ICD-9 CM code 082.1 were analyzed. Hospitalization rates were calculated and clinical characteristics were described. Spatial distribution of cases and their temporal behavior were also assessed.
A total of 4,735 hospitalizations with MSF diagnosis were recorded during the study period, out of which 62.2% were male, mean age of 48. Diabetes mellitus, alcohol dependence syndrome, and chronic liver disease occurred in 10.8%, 2.4% and 2.8% hospitalizations, respectively. The median annual hospitalization rate showed a decreasing trend from a maximum of 12.9 in 1997 to a minimum rate of 3.1 in 2014. Most admissions occurred during the summer, showing a significant annual seasonal behavior. Important regional differences were found.
Although MSF hospitalization rates have decreased considerably, it remains a public health problem due to its severity and economic impact. Therefore, it would be desirable to improve its oversight and surveillance.
Studies of DNA methylation have revealed the biological mechanisms by which life adversity confers risk for later physical and mental health problems. What remains unknown is the “biologically ...embedding” of maternal adverse experiences resulting in maladaptive parenting and whether these epigenetic effects are transmitted to the next generation. This study focuses on neglectful mothering indexed by a severe disregard for the basic and psychological needs of the child. Using the Illumina Human Methylation EPIC BeadChip in saliva samples, we identified genes with differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in those mothers with (
n
= 51), versus those without (
n
= 87), neglectful behavior that present similar DMRs patterns in their children being neglected versus non-neglected (
n
= 40 vs. 75). Mothers reported the emotional intensity of adverse life events. After covariate adjustment and multiple testing corrections, we identified 69 DMRs in the mother epigenome and 42 DMRs in the child epigenome that were simultaneously above the α = 0.01 threshold. The common set of nine DMRs contained genes related to childhood adversity, neonatal and infant diabetes, child neurobehavioral development and other health problems such as obesity, hypertension, cancer, posttraumatic stress, and the Alzheimer’s disease; four of the genes were associated with maternal life adversity. Identifying a shared epigenetic signature of neglect linked to maternal life adversity is an essential step in breaking the intergenerational transmission of one of the most common forms of childhood maltreatment.
Introducción: la salmonelosis es la segunda enfermedad gastrointestinal más notificada y la primera causa de brote alimentario en España y en la UE. El objetivo de este estudio es describir la ...distribución temporal y las características epidemiológicas de la salmonelosis en España durante el periodo prepandémico 2013-2019, utilizando tres fuentes de información diferentes.
Metodología: Se realizó un estudio observacional descriptivo retrospectivo en el que se estudiaron los casos individualizados y los brotes de salmonelosis notificados a la Red Nacional de Vigilancia Epidemiológica, y los datos registrados en el Conjunto Mínimo Básico de Datos de Altas Hospitalarias entre 2013 y 2019.
Resultados: Se notificaron 60.771 casos de forma individualizada, 2.233 brotes y 24.096 altas hospitalarias de salmonelosis. La Incidencia Acumulada (IA) de los casos individualizados aumentó hasta 2016, aunque 2018 fue el año de mayor IA. La Incidencia acumulada de periodo (IAp) fue más elevada en hombres que en mujeres, tanto para los casos individualizados (27,76 y 25,05, respectivamente) como para las altas hospitalarias (8,32 y 6,50, respectivamente). En los casos individualizados la mayor incidencia se dio en el grupo de 1 a 4 años y en las altas hospitalarias en los menores de un año. El número de casos individualizados, de brotes y de altas hospitalarias fue mayor en los meses cálidos. El alimento notificado con mayor frecuencia en los brotes fue el huevo y el ámbito de ocurrencia el hogar.
Conclusiones: La incidencia de la salmonelosis a nivel nacional e internacional sigue siendo elevada. El huevo y sus derivados son los alimentos que se asocian en más ocasiones a brotes alimentarios. El análisis conjunto de varias fuentes de datos mejora la vigilancia epidemiológica al aportar información complementaria relevante para la toma de decisiones.
The effects of adverse life events on physical and psychological health, with DNA methylation (DNAm) as a critical underlying mechanism, have been extensively studied. However, the epigenetic ...resemblance between mother and child in the context of neglectful caregiving, and whether it may be shaped by the emotional impact of maternal stressful events and the duration of co-residence (indexed by child age), remains unknown. The present study examined mother-child similarity in methylation profiles, considering the potential effect of mother adversity, mother empathy, neglect-control group, child age (an index of years of mother-child co-residence), and mother age. Using Illumina Epic arrays, we quantified DNAm in 115 mother-child saliva samples. We obtained a methylation similarity index by computing correlation coefficients between methylation profiles within dyads, for the entire epigenome, and five specific genes related to stress and empathy: NR3C1, FKPB5, OXTR, SCL6A4, and BDNF.
The methylation profiles of the mother-child familial pairs significantly correlated as compared to mother-child random pairs for the entire epigenome and NR3C1, FKBP5, OXTR and BDNF genes. Next, multiple linear regression models observed associations of mother adversity, child age, and neglect-control group on mother-child methylation similarity, only significant in mother-child familial pairs, after correcting for multiple comparisons. Higher mother adversity was associated with lower mother-child methylation similarity for the epigenome-wide analysis, for the BDNF gene, and in the neglect-control group for the OXTR gene. In turn, being an older child (longer co-residence) was associated with higher mother-child methylation similarity.
Mother adversity and co-residence time are modulating factors in the intergenerational methylation process that offer a window into development-dependent adaptations that can be affected by both hereditary and environmental factors, significantly observed only in biological dyads. A twofold implication for child well-being emerges, one is positive in that children of mothers exposed to life adversity or neglect did not necessarily inherit their methylation patterns. The other is concerning due to the influence of time spent living together, which affects similarity with the mother and potentially increases the risk of inheriting an epigenetic profile associated with future dysfunctional parenting patterns. This underscores the importance of the 'the earlier, the better' recommendation by the Child Protection System, which is not always followed.
This investigation examined the neural and personality correlates of processing infant facial expressions in mothers with substantiated neglect of a child under 5 years old. Event-related potentials ...(ERPs) were recorded from 14 neglectful and 14 control mothers as they viewed and categorized pictures of infant cries, laughs, and neutral faces. Maternal self-reports of anhedonia and empathy were also completed. Early (negative occipitotemporal component peaking at around 170 ms on the scalp N170 and positive electrical potential peaking at about 200 ms P200) and late positive potential (LPP) components were selected. Both groups of mothers showed behavioral discrimination between the different facial expressions via reaction time and accuracy measures. Neglectful mothers did not exhibit increased N170 amplitude at temporal leads in response to viewing crying versus laughing and neutral expressions compared to control mothers. Both groups had greater P200 and LPP amplitudes at centroparietal leads in response to viewing crying versus neutral facial expressions. However, neglectful mothers displayed an overall attenuated brain response in LPP that was related to their higher scores in social anhedonia but not to their empathy scores. The ERP data suggest that the brain's failures in the early differentiation of cry stimuli and in the sustained processing of infant expressions related to social anhedonia may underlie the insensitive responding in neglectful mothers. The implications of these results for the design and evaluation of preventive interventions are discussed.
Early diagnosis of child neglect is an ongoing challenge with consequences of the child’s safety, health, and effective referral for intervention. This study aims to obtain a selected set of family, ...maternal, and dyadic variables of the immediate caregiving environment for diagnosis, preventive, and intervention responses in healthcare settings. Mothers and their children under five years old: 51 in the neglected group (NG) and 89 in the non-neglected control group (CG), were recruited through pediatric primary care services and social services in Spain. Family demographics, adverse events, childhood maltreatment, maternal psychopathologies, personality variables, and observed mother–child interactions were assessed. Gradient boosting analyses were applied for the contributor’s relative importance (RI), followed by logistic regression and discriminant analyses for those with higher RI. Parametric analyses showed high diagnostic accuracy (80–82% of NG and 92% of CG) for risky factors of child neglect: having a physically neglected and depressed mother, living in families in need of financial assistance, and large families; and for protective factors: having an older mother and showing higher mother–child emotional availability. Identifying a select group of features makes early diagnosis and preventive intervention more effective for mitigating the impact of child neglect and building mother–child resilience.
This study aims to extend the embodied cognition approach to syntactic processing. The hypothesis is that the brain resources to plan and perform motor sequences are also involved in syntactic ...processing. To test this hypothesis, Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read sentences with embedded relative clauses, judging for their acceptability (half of the sentences contained a subject-verb morphosyntactic disagreement). The sentences, previously divided into three segments, were self-administered segment-by-segment in two different sequential manners: linear or non-linear. Linear self-administration consisted of successively pressing three buttons with three consecutive fingers in the right hand, while non-linear self-administration implied the substitution of the finger in the middle position by the right foot. Our aim was to test whether syntactic processing could be affected by the manner the sentences were self-administered. Main results revealed that the ERPs LAN component vanished whereas the P600 component increased in response to incorrect verbs, for non-linear relative to linear self-administration. The LAN and P600 components reflect early and late syntactic processing, respectively. Our results convey evidence that language syntactic processing and performing non-linguistic motor sequences may share resources in the human brain.
Persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired mentalizing skills. In this study, a group of persons with ASD traits (high-AQ scores) initially received sham tDCS before completing a ...pre-test in two mentalizing tasks: false belief and self-other judgments. Over the next week, on four consecutive days, they received sessions of anodal electrical stimulation (a-tDCS) over the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ), a region frequently associated with the theory of mind. On the last day, after the stimulation session, they completed a new set of mentalizing tasks. A control group (with low-AQ scores) matched in age, education and intelligence received just sham stimulation and completed the same pre-test and post-test. The results showed that the high-AQ group improved their performance (faster responses), after a-tDCS, in the false belief and in the self-other judgments of mental features, whereas they did not change performance in the false photographs or the self-other judgments of physical features. These selective improvements cannot be attributed to increased familiarity with the tasks, because the performance of the low-AQ control group remained stable about one week later. Therefore, our study provides initial proof that tDCS could be used to improve mentalizing skills in persons with ASD traits.
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