Effect of SARS-CoV-2 antibody screening on participants' attitudes and behaviour: a study of industry workers in Split, Croatia.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the changes in personal attitudes and behaviour before and after negative serological test results for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. METHODS: A survey questionnaire was conducted with 200 industry workers (68% males and 32% females) who had previously tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The survey examined participants' self-reported general attitudes towards coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), their sense of fear, as well as their behaviour towards protective measures before and after the testing. RESULTS: Participants perceived the disease as a severe health threat and acknowledged that the protective measures were appropriate. Respondents reported a high level of adherence to measures and low level of fear, both before and after the testing. Although these indicators were statistically significantly reduced after the test (P < 0.004), they did not result in irresponsible non-adherence behaviours. Almost all respondents attributed their application of personal protection measures to factors other than the results of serological screening. CONCLUSIONS: Serological tests do not contribute to irresponsible non-adherence behaviours in an environment where protective measures are efficient. However, they may help reduce fear within society and working environments.

Experimental Demonstration of Hadron Beam Cooling Using Radio-Frequency Accelerated Electron Bunches.

Cooling of beams of gold ions using electron bunches accelerated with radio-frequency systems was recently experimentally demonstrated in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Such an approach is new and opens the possibility of using this technique at higher energies than possible with electrostatic acceleration of electron beams. The challenges of this approach include generation of electron beams suitable for cooling, delivery of electron bunches of the required quality to the cooling sections without degradation of beam angular divergence and energy spread, achieving the required small angles between electron and ion trajectories in the cooling sections, precise velocity matching between the two beams, high-current operation of the electron accelerator, as well as several physics effects related to bunched-beam cooling. Here we report on the first demonstration of cooling hadron beams using this new approach.

Measurement of the Spin Tune Using the Coherent Spin Motion of Polarized Protons in a Storage Ring.

This Letter reports the first spin tune measurement at high energies (24 and 255 GeV) with a driven coherent spin motion. To maintain polarization in a polarized proton collider, it is important to know the spin tune of the polarized proton beam, which is defined as the number of full spin precessions per revolution. A nine-magnet spin flipper has demonstrated high spin-flip efficiency in the presence of two Siberian snakes [H. Huang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 264804 (2018).10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.264804]. The spin flipper drives a spin resonance with a given frequency (or tune) and strength. When the drive tune is close to the spin tune, the proton spin direction is not vertical anymore, but precesses around the vertical direction. By measuring the precession frequency of the horizontal component, the spin tune can be precisely measured. A driven coherent spin motion and fast turn-by-turn polarization measurement are keys to the measurement. The vertical spin direction is restored after turning the spin flipper off and the polarization value is not affected by the measurement. The fact that this manipulation preserves the polarization makes it possible to measure the spin tune during the operation of a high energy accelerator.

Potential predatory journals are colonizing the ICMJE recommendations list of followers.

BACKGROUND: The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has expressed its concerns about predatory journals using the list of ICMJE Recommendations (ICMJE-R) followers to "gain the appearance of legitimacy." We assessed the presence of potential predatory journals on the ICMJE-R list and their adherence to ICMJE recommendations. METHODS: A random sample of 350 journals from the estimated 3,100-3,200 biomedical journals listed as ICMJE-R followers was chosen. Data collected from the ICMJE and journal webpages in English were: adherence to six ICMJE-R policies/requirements, year of journal's listing as ICMJE-R follower, discipline covered, publisher and its country of origin and existence of article processing charge. Potential predatory journal was considered as one open access journal not being a member of a recognized listing in COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, AJOL and/or INASP. RESULTS: Thirty-one percent of journals were considered to be potentially predatory; 94% of them were included in the ICMJE-R list in 2014-2018. Half were published in the United States and 62% were devoted to medicine. Adherence to five of the six policies/requirements was infrequent, ranging from 51% (plagiarism) to 7% (trial registration). Seventy-two percent of journals mentioned a policy on authors' conflicts of interest. Information on article processing charge was available for 76% journals and could not be found for 22%. Authorship policy/ instructions were significantly more present in journals with publishers from India than from the USA (53% vs 30%; p = 0.047), with no differences in the other five policies. CONCLUSION: Predatory journals should be deleted from the ICMJE-R list of followers to prevent misleading authors. ICMJE-R following journals need to be reevaluated with pre-defined published criteria.

High Spin-Flip Efficiency at 255 GeV for Polarized Protons in a Ring With Two Full Siberian Snakes.

In polarized proton collision experiments, it is highly advantageous to flip the spin of each bunch of protons during the stores to reduce the systematic errors. Experiments done at energies less than 2 GeV have demonstrated a spin-flip efficiency over 99%. At high energy colliders with Siberian snakes, a single magnet spin flipper does not work because of the large spin tune spread and the generation of multiple, overlapping resonances. A more sophisticated spin flipper, constructed of nine-dipole magnets, was used to flip the spin in the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. A special optics choice was also used to make the spin tune spread very small. A 97% spin-flip efficiency was measured at both 24 and 255 GeV. These results show that efficient spin flipping can be achieved at high energies using a nine-magnet spin flipper.

Increased chemotaxis and activity of circulatory myeloid progenitor cells may contribute to enhanced osteoclastogenesis and bone loss in the C57BL/6 mouse model of collagen-induced arthritis.

Our study aimed to determine the functional activity of different osteoclast progenitor (OCP) subpopulations and signals important for their migration to bone lesions, causing local and systemic bone resorption during the course of collagen-induced arthritis in C57BL/6 mice. Arthritis was induced with chicken type II collagen (CII), and assessed by clinical scoring and detection of anti-CII antibodies. We observed decreased trabecular bone volume of axial and appendicular skeleton by histomorphometry and micro-computed tomography as well as decreased bone formation and increased bone resorption rate in arthritic mice in vivo. In the affected joints, bone loss was accompanied with severe osteitis and bone marrow hypercellularity, coinciding with the areas of active osteoclasts and bone erosions. Flow cytometry analysis showed increased frequency of putative OCP cells (CD3- B220- NK1.1- CD11b-/lo CD117+ CD115+ for bone marrow and CD3- B220- NK1.1- CD11b+ CD115+ Gr-1+ for peripheral haematopoietic tissues), which exhibited enhanced differentiation potential in vitro. Moreover, the total CD11b+ population was expanded in arthritic mice as well as CD11b+ F4/80+ macrophage, CD11b+ NK1.1+ natural killer cell and CD11b+ CD11c+ myeloid dendritic cell populations in both bone marrow and peripheral blood. In addition, arthritic mice had increased expression of tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, CC chemokine ligand-2 (Ccl2) and Ccl5, with increased migration and differentiation of circulatory OCPs in response to CCL2 and, particularly, CCL5 signals. Our study characterized the frequency and functional properties of OCPs under inflammatory conditions associated with arthritis, which may help to clarify crucial molecular signals provided by immune cells to mediate systemically enhanced osteoresorption.

Operational Head-on Beam-Beam Compensation with Electron Lenses in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

Head-on beam-beam compensation has been implemented in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in order to increase the luminosity delivered to the experiments. We discuss the principle of combining a lattice for resonance driving term compensation and an electron lens for tune spread compensation. We describe the electron lens technology and its operational use. To date, the implemented compensation scheme approximately doubled the peak and average luminosities.

Geographical distribution and clinical relevance of non-tuberculous mycobacteria in Croatia.

SETTING: The clinical relevance of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in Croatia is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the isolation rate of NTM, record geographical differences and assess the burden of pulmonary NTM disease in Croatia. DESIGN: Nationwide retrospective cohort study of all Croatian residents with NTM isolated by culture in the period from 2006 to 2010. Microbiological criteria of the American Thoracic Society were used to establish a laboratory-based case definition of possible and probable NTM disease. RESULTS: Of 1187 individuals with pulmonary NTM isolates, 8.6% met the possible and 5.5% met the probable disease criteria. We estimated an annual incidence of probable pulmonary NTM disease of 0.23 per 100,000 population. This estimated annual incidence was 0.35/100,000 in the coastal region and 0.17/100,000 in the continental region. Species distribution differed between coastal and continental Croatia. NTM isolation frequency increased over the study period. CONCLUSION: Geography plays an important role in NTM species distribution and possible disease. The overall burden of NTM pulmonary disease in Croatia is still low compared to that of tuberculosis, but it is higher in the coastal region compared to the continental region.

Suicide methods in Europe: a gender-specific analysis of countries participating in the "European Alliance Against Depression".

OBJECTIVE: To identify the most frequent gender-specific suicide methods in Europe. DESIGN: Proportions of seven predominant suicide methods utilised in 16 countries participating in the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD) were reported in total and cross-nationally. Relative risk (RR) relating to suicide methods and gender was calculated. To group countries by pattern of suicide methods, hierarchical clustering was applied. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Data on suicide methods for 119,122 male and 41,338 female cases in 2000-4/5 from 16 EAAD countries, covering 52% of European population were obtained. RESULTS: Hanging was the most prevalent suicide method among both males (54.3%) and females (35.6%). For males, hanging was followed by firearms (9.7%) and poisoning by drugs (8.6%); for females, by poisoning by drugs (24.7%) and jumping from a high place (14.5%). Only in Switzerland did hanging rank as second for males after firearms. Hanging ranked first among females in eight countries, poisoning by drugs in five and jumping from a high place in three. In all countries, males had a higher risk than females of using firearms and hanging and a lower risk of poisoning by drugs, drowning and jumping. Grouping showed that countries might be divided into five main groups among males; for females, grouping did not yield clear results. CONCLUSIONS: Research on suicide methods could lead to the development of gender-specific intervention strategies. Nevertheless, other approaches, such as better identification and treatment of mental disorders and the improvement of toxicological aid should be put in place.

Measuring depression: comparison and integration of three scales in the GENDEP study.

BACKGROUND: A number of scales are used to estimate the severity of depression. However, differences between self-report and clinician rating, multi-dimensionality and different weighting of individual symptoms in summed scores may affect the validity of measurement. In this study we examined and integrated the psychometric properties of three commonly used rating scales. METHOD: The 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to 660 adult patients with unipolar depression in a multi-centre pharmacogenetic study. Item response theory (IRT) and factor analysis were used to evaluate their psychometric properties and estimate true depression severity, as well as to group items and derive factor scores. RESULTS: The MADRS and the BDI provide internally consistent but mutually distinct estimates of depression severity. The HAMD-17 is not internally consistent and contains several items less suitable for out-patients. Factor analyses indicated a dominant depression factor. A model comprising three dimensions, namely 'observed mood and anxiety', 'cognitive' and 'neurovegetative', provided a more detailed description of depression severity. CONCLUSIONS: The MADRS and the BDI can be recommended as complementary measures of depression severity. The three factor scores are proposed for external validation.

Activated T lymphocytes suppress osteoclastogenesis by diverting early monocyte/macrophage progenitor lineage commitment towards dendritic cell differentiation through down-regulation of receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB and c-Fos.

Activated T lymphocytes either stimulate or inhibit osteoclastogenesis from haematopoietic progenitors in different experimental models. To address this controversy, we used several modes of T lymphocyte activation in osteoclast differentiation--mitogen-pulse, anti-CD3/CD28 stimulation and in vivo and in vitro alloactivation. Osteoclast-like cells were generated from non-adherent immature haematopoietic monocyte/macrophage progenitors in murine bone-marrow in the presence of receptor activator of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB ligand (RANKL) and monocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF). All modes of in vivo and in vitro T lymphocyte activation and both CD4(+) and CD8(+) subpopulations produced similar inhibitory effects on osteoclastogenesis paralleled by enhanced dendritic cell (DC) differentiation. Osteoclast-inhibitory effect was associated with T lymphocyte activation and not proliferation, and could be replaced by their culture supernatants. The stage of osteoclast differentiation was crucial for the inhibitory action of activated T lymphocytes on osteoclastogenesis, because the suppressive effect was visible only on early osteoclast progenitors but not on committed osteoclasts. Inhibition was associated specifically with increased granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) expression by the mechanism of progenitor commitment toward lineages other than osteoclast because activated T lymphocytes down-regulated RANK, CD115, c-Fos and calcitonin receptor expression, and increased differentiation towards CD11c-positive DC. An activated T lymphocyte inhibitory role in osteoclastogenesis, confirmed in vitro and in vivo, mediated through GM-CSF release, may be used to counteract activated bone resorption mediated by T lymphocyte-derived cytokines in inflammatory and immune disorders. We also demonstrated the importance of alloactivation in osteoclast differentiation and the ability of cyclosporin A to abrogate T lymphocyte inhibition of osteoclastogenesis, thereby confirming the functional link between alloreaction and bone metabolism.

Genome-wide scan for genes involved in bipolar affective disorder in 70 European families ascertained through a bipolar type I early-onset proband: supportive evidence for linkage at 3p14.

Preliminary studies suggested that age at onset (AAO) may help to define homogeneous bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) subtypes. This candidate symptom approach might be useful to identify vulnerability genes. Thus, the probability of detecting major disease-causing genes might be increased by focusing on families with early-onset BPAD type I probands. This study was conducted as part of the European Collaborative Study of Early Onset BPAD (France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, England, Slovenia). We performed a genome-wide search with 384 microsatellite markers using non-parametric linkage analysis in 87 sib-pairs ascertained through an early-onset BPAD type I proband (AAO of 21 years or below). Non-parametric multipoint analysis suggested eight regions of linkage with P-values<0.01 (2p21, 2q14.3, 3p14, 5q33, 7q36, 10q23, 16q23 and 20p12). The 3p14 region showed the most significant linkage (genome-wide P-value estimated over 10 000 simulated replicates of 0.015 [0.01-0.02]). After genome-wide search analysis, we performed additional linkage analyses with increased marker density using markers in four regions suggestive for linkage and having an information contents lower than 75% (3p14, 10q23, 16q23 and 20p12). For these regions, the information content improved by about 10%. In chromosome 3, the non-parametric linkage score increased from 3.51 to 3.83. This study is the first to use early-onset bipolar type I probands in an attempt to increase sample homogeneity. These preliminary findings require confirmation in independent panels of families.

Test of charge conjugation invariance.

We report on the first determination of upper limits on the branching ratio (BR) of eta decay to pi0pi0gamma and to pi0pi0pi0gamma. Both decay modes are strictly forbidden by charge conjugation (C) invariance. Using the Crystal Ball multiphoton detector, we obtained BR(eta-->pi0pi0gamma)<5 x 10(-4) at the 90% confidence level, in support of C invariance of isoscalar electromagnetic interactions of the light quarks. We have also measured BR(eta-->pi0pi0pi0gamma)<6 x 10(-5) at the 90% confidence level, in support of C invariance of isovector electromagnetic interactions.

The completed suicide as interplay of genes and environment.

The review will tackle the interplay of genetic and environmental risk factors behind the completed suicide. First, individual differences in suicidal behaviour in relation to heritability are presented followed by a brief discussion of genetic methods currently used to investigate candidate genes for the completed suicide. Further along the polygenetic, multi-factorial model of genetic proneness to suicidal behaviour is presented as interplay of genes and environment. Finally, the future implications in this quickly blossoming field of research are discussed.

Alteration of newly induced endochondral bone formation in adult mice without tumour necrosis factor receptor 1.

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, a major proinflammatory cytokine, exerts its role on bone cells through two receptors (TNFR1 and TNFR2). TNFR1, but not TNFR2, is expressed by osteoblasts and its function in bone formation in vivo is not fully understood. We compared in vivo new bone formation in TNFR1-deficient (TNFR1(-/-)) mice and wild-type mice, using two models of bone formation: intramembranous ossification following tibial marrow ablation and endochondral ossification induced by bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2. Intramembranous osteogenesis in TNFR1(-/-) mice did not differ from the wild-type mice either in histomorphometric parameters or mRNA expression of bone-related markers and inflammatory cytokines. During endochondral osteogenesis, TNFR1(-/-) mice formed more cartilage (at post-implantation day 9), followed by more bone and bone marrow (at day 12). mRNAs for BMP-2, -4 and -7 were increased during the endochondral differentiation sequence in TNFR1(-/-) mice. The expression of receptor activator of NF-kappa B ligand (RANKL) and receptor activator of NF-kappa B (RANK), as assessed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), was also increased significantly during endochondral ossification in TNFR1(-/-) mice. In conclusion, signalling through the TNFR1 seems to be a negative regulator of new tissue formation during endochondral but not intramembranous osteogenesis in an adult organism. BMPs and RANKL and its receptor RANK may be involved in the change of local environment in the absence of TNFR1 signalling.