bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Erratum to: Evolutionary Transformations of Albumin Using the Example of Model Species of Jawless Agnatha and Bony Jawed Fish (Review)
Authors: Andreeva A. M.
Published: December 2022

An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995082922090012
Extradigital glomus tumour of the thigh causing 8 years of undiagnosed debilitating pain
Authors: Avery Emma Claire , Augustine Haley , Sade Shachar , Dengler Jana
Published: December 2022

A woman in her mid-50s was referred to a plastic surgeon with an 8-year history of undiagnosed, localised severe, reproducible pain of the right thigh. Treatment with oral and topical analgesics, corticosteroids, acupuncture and physiotherapy did not provide symptom relief. She was referred to multiple specialists over the preceding 8 years including chronic pain physicians, physiatry, orthopaedic surgery and plastic surgery. Investigations including sonographic and MRI eventually revealed a non-specific soft tissue abnormality in the area of tenderness, which was excised en bloc. Histopathology revealed an extradigital glomus tumour. The patient’s symptoms immediately and permanently resolved postexcision.

Physicians seeing patients suffering from undiagnosed focal, reproducible pain should consider extradigital glomus tumours in their differential diagnosis. Workup for extradigital glomus tumour includes focused sonographic or MRI over the area of pain. Additionally, local injection of an anaesthetic agent can be used to assist with diagnosis.
Intravitreal chemotherapy-induced cataract in retinoblastoma: challenges and outcome
Authors: Warkad Vivekanand , Tripathy Devjyoti
Published: December 2022

A toddler with bilateral retinoblastoma (Rb) received intravenous chemotherapy for advanced tumours in both eyes. The right eye required enucleation due to a poor response, but the left eye was salvaged by additional treatment with intravitreal chemotherapy for tumour vitreous seeds. Though the vitreous seeds regressed, a gradually progressive cataract developed likely due to drug toxicity. On ensuring continued regression of tumour within the eye, cataract extraction was performed. Surgery was uneventful and the child recovered good functional vision in the left eye. Salvaging the eyeball followed by vision restoration through cataract surgery in the only remaining eye of the child necessitated a multidisciplinary approach involving the ocular oncologist, the paediatric medical oncologist and the paediatric ophthalmologist. Ensuring tumour quiescence within the eye clinically before cataract surgery was the most crucial element of management. Additionally, close monitoring of the progress of the cataract to decide when to intervene was also necessary to keep the risk of amblyopia at bay. The patient recovered good functional vision in the left eye after the surgery and remained free of any tumour recurrence or systemic metastasis at 10 months of follow-up.
Ruptured ovarian ectopic pregnancy presenting with an acute abdomen
Authors: Dunphy Louise , Wood Frances , Hallchurch Joanne , Douce Gill , Pinto Shanthi
Published: December 2022

An ectopic pregnancy occurs in 2% of all pregnancies. A primary ovarian ectopic (OP) is a rare entity and occurs in <2% of all ectopic gestations. It may present in those individuals who take ovulatory drugs, use an intrauterine device or have undergone in vitro fertilisation or embryo transfer. Multiparity and a younger age are other recognised risk factors. Diagnosing an OP pregnancy remains a challenge and it may be misdiagnosed as a bleeding luteal cyst, a haemorrhagic ovarian cyst or a tubal pregnancy by ultrasound scan. The diagnosis is often only established at laparoscopy following histopathological examination. A ruptured OP is a potentially life-threatening condition due to its potential for haemorrhage and hemodynamic collapse. Hence, early diagnosis is crucial to prevent serious morbidity and mortality. The authors present the case of a multiparous woman in her late 30s presenting with a seizure and lower abdominal pain at 6 weeks gestation. Her beta human chorionic gonadotropin was >9000 Miu/mL. A transvaginal ultrasound scan showed no evidence of an intrauterine pregnancy. There was free fluid in the pelvis. She was hemodynamically stable. She underwent a diagnostic laparoscopy, which showed hemoperitoneum and a ruptured left OP pregnancy. She underwent a left oophorectomy. Histology confirmed chorionic villi within the ovarian stroma. This case demonstrates the challenges in preoperative diagnosis of a ruptured OP pregnancy and acts as a cautionary reminder that individuals can present with hemodynamic stability. Rarely, as in this case, an OP pregnancy can occur without the presence of risk factors. Despite its rarity, a ruptured OP pregnancy should be considered in the differential diagnosis of women of reproductive age presenting to the emergency department with acute abdominal pain and a positive pregnancy test.
13 Circuit-based neuromodulation across symptoms and disorders
Authors: Siddiqi Shan
Published: December 2022

Shan Siddiqi is an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Psychiatric Neuromodulation Research at the new Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He completed his general psychiatry residency at Washington University in St. Louis, a neuropsychiatry fellowship at McLean/Massachusetts General Hospital, and a research fellowship at the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation. His research is focused on personalizing TMS targets using brain circuit mapping and clinical phenomenology.

This session will cover three approaches to circuit-based targeting of brain stimulation treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS):

Symptom-specific:In two datasets of TMS for depression (n=111), dysphoric symptoms (e.g. sadness) responded best to stimulation of one circuit, while anxious/somatic symptoms responded to a different circuit.

Cross-modality:Across 14 datasets, similar ‘depression circuits’ were connected to TMS sites that relieve depression (n=151), DBS sites that modulate depression (n=101), and lesions that cause depression (n=461).

Diagnosis-specific:Lesions protective against PTSD (n=189) were connected to a common circuit (split-half cross-validation p<0.05). Lesions protective against nicotine use disorder (n=103) and those that reduce alcoholism risk (n=186) were also connected to a common circuit (p<0.05).

This illustrates a framework for circuit-targeted neuromodulation studies – neuromodulation can target different circuits for different symptoms; a common circuit can be modulated by TMS, DBS, and lesions; and lesions can reveal targets for other disorders.
14 Saving Adam from the apple: using transcranial magnetic stimulation as a transdiagnostically relevant tool to decrease cue-reactivity
Authors: Hanlon Colleen A
Published: December 2022

Professor Hanlon’s scientific research has been to map neural circuit irregularities in substance dependent populations and then modulate these circuits using brain stimulation techniques or neurofeedback. She is leading NIH-funded research directed at longitudinal investigations of neural connectivity in cocaine & alcohol dependent individuals undergoing substance abuse treatment, & developing patient-tailored brain stimulation protocols which may either enhance cognitive control or attenuate craving in treatment seeking individuals. Her trainees & collaborators are pioneering non-invasive neuromodulatory strategies for treating addiction including continuous Theta Burst Stimulation to the medial prefrontal cortex, & real-time fMRI biofeedback. She has also received independent funding to pursue research in PTSD, Tourette Syndrome, & Stroke rehabilitation.

The struggle between internal self-control and external temptation from environmental cues is a tale as old as written history, yet as relevant today as any time in the past. For most individuals, the occasional surrender to a tempting cue will not impair their ability to fulfill daily and longer term responsibilities. For other individuals, including those with substance use disorders, elevated reactivity to positive or negative cues causes a disabling cascade of events ultimately impeding long-term goals. In these populations, salient cues evoke elevated activity in a consistent network of neural regions. This network contains the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and insula.

Our laboratory has spent the last 7 years systematically and empirically developing a non-invasive, neural circuit based intervention to dampen cue-reactivity in various drug and alcohol dependent populations. This talk will briefly review the data that motivated our selection of a candidate neural circuit, and will then summarize the results of 7 studies, culminating in the first 2 double-blinded, sham controlled clinical trials of MPFC TMS as a behavioral treatment adjuvant among treatment-engaged cocaine users and alcohol users.

The intent of this talk is to highlight one example of a systematic path for TMS treatment development in patients. This path is not necessarily optimal, exclusive, or appropriate for every neurologic or psychiatric disease. Rather, it is one example of a reasoned, empirically-derived pathway which we hope will serve as scaffolding for future investigators seeking to develop TMS treatment protocols.
18 What can human lesion studies tell us about the function of the claustrum?
Authors: Atilgan Huriye , Doody Max , Oliver David K , McGrath Thomas M , Shelton Andrew M , Echeverria-Altuna Irene , Tracey Irene , Vyazovskiy Vladyslav V , Manohar Sanjay G , Packer Adam M
Published: December 2022

Objectives/Aims

The claustrum is a sheet-like bilateral brain region whose function remains unknown. We comprehensively examined cases of human claustrum lesions to assess their support for various hypotheses of function. To do so we searched the following terms on PubMed and Scopus: ‘claustrum AND (lesion OR contusion OR in- jury OR trauma)’.

Results

In total our search uncovered 103 cases, which were then screened for confirmed damage to the claustrum by neuroimaging. Thirty-eight individual cases and 14 cohort studies were included. Our results suggest human claustral lesions do not selectively impair a singular domain. Instead, they argue that human claustrum may have a more general function. The high incidence of seizures following claustral lesions suggests this may involve maintenance of excitation-inhibition balance.

Conclusions

The wide range of symptoms observed following claustral lesions do not provide compelling evidence to support prominent current theories of claustrum function such as spatial navigation, attentional allocation, cognition, multisensory integration, and salience computation. Conversely, the lesions studies support the hypothesis that the claustrum regulates cortical excitability.
22 Pharmacological treatment of agitation in acute traumatic brain injury: a service evaluation of prescribing at the walton centre
Authors: Black Lori , Costa Antonio Da , Smith Jon , Cleary Lindsay , Sahitya Vijay
Published: December 2022

Objectives

A diverse range of medications are used to treat agitation in patients presenting with acute Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). A service evaluation was conducted at The Walton Centre, a regional neuroscience centre to establish which psychopharmacological agents were being used most frequently in patients admitted with acute TBI.

Methods

187 patients were admitted with an acute TBI between April 2020 and July 2021. The notes of these patients were audited to find out their demographic details, the nature of their injuries, the surgical interventions they received and pre-morbid medical and mental health diagnoses. We then collated information on medications they were prescribed during their acute admission with a focus on analgesia, antiepileptics, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood-stabilisers and melatonin. The data was then analysed.

Results

187 patients were admitted to the Walton Centre with an acute traumatic brain injury between April 2020 and June 2021. 127 (68%) of these patients were male and 60 (32%) female. 17 patients died as a result of their injuries, 99 were discharged home and the remainder were transferred to other hospitals for ongoing rehabilitation following their acute admission.

24.6% (n=46) of patients had a premorbid diagnosis of a mental disorder. Of these, 25 (54%) had a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and 23 (50%) an anxiety disorder. 11 patients had premorbid psychotic disorders, including 5 patients with schizophrenia, 2 with Bipolar Affective Disorder and 4 with other psychotic disorders with an unspecified diagnosis. 39 (20.9%) patients had a history of substance misuse. 87.1% (n=34) of these patients consumed alcohol to excess.

29.9% (n=56) of patients were prescribed an antidepressant. Of these, trazadone was used most frequently accounting for 35.7% (n=20) of antidepressant prescriptions. Mirtazapine was used in 10 patients and sertraline in 13. 30 patients (16%) were treated with an antipsychotic. Of these, 80% (n=24) of patients were given atypical antipsychotics whilst 26.7% (n=8) were prescribed typical antipsychotics. Olanzapine accounted for 56.6% (n=17) of antipsychotic prescriptions. 13.9% (n=26) of patients were prescribed melatonin, which was the most frequently used medication for sleep regulation.

Conclusions

Patients admitted with TBI commonly had premorbid mental health diagnoses. Around 30% required pharmacological treatment for neuropsychiatric symptoms, with antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood-stabilising anti-epileptics being commonly used.
23 An evidence based screening protocol for chronic traumatic encephalopathy
Authors: Sharma Kanch
Published: December 2022

Introduction

Repeated head injury is unequivocally associated with brain damage, and an increased risk of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) dementia. From 1928 until 2005 CTE was a diagnosis exclusively associated with pugilism but is now postulated to be associated with other sports such as rugby and football. For over twenty years the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC) has run a neurological screening programme. There are approximately 1000 licenced boxers who undergo a MRI cerebral angiogram on initially licencing with a MRI brain which is repeated annually. This was devised to screen for abnormalities, such as arterio-venous malformations which might predispose to catastrophic bleeding following occupational trauma. A ‘neuro panel’ consisting of one neurologist and three neurosurgeons, was setup to manage abnormal scan findings.

Rationale

The BBBoC puts boxer safety as the top priority. Using the latest, best available evidence we have modified the neurological screening programme to proactively assess for CTE in evolution. The clinical presentations of CTE are not well understood and may include a broad range of cognitive, neurobehavioural and motor abnormalities. It is therefore rational to align a CTE screening programme to evaluate for neurodegenerative diseases broadly rather than narrow the focus to features highlighted in retrospective studies.

Protocol

Abstract 23 Figure 1

Conclusion

Professional boxers are a self-selecting group of individuals and many of these athletes will fall outside of normative data e.g. in neuropsychology but be normal within themselves. The screening programme is designed to look for serial change within an individual rather than compare their results to the general population, which replicates best clinical practice.

Our recommendations are based on our cumulative experience both in professional boxing and clinical practice. The screening protocol is devised to balance the cost of an effective test battery against management of incidental findings and false positive errors. If this protocol is proven effective it can be adapted and extended to amateur and professional athletes of any sport where there is the potential for CTE.
25 ‘In a mist?’ – What is ‘brain fog’?
Authors: Smyth Heather , Hoeritzauer Ingrid , Couturier Anna , Stone Jon , Carson Alan , McWhirter Laura
Published: December 2022

Objectives

The term ‘brain fog’ is increasingly used in social and other media. But what is brain fog? What sort of experiences do people talk about when they talk about brain fog? And, in turn, what might this tell us about potential underlying pathophysiological mechanisms? In this study we examined first-person descriptions of brain fog in order to better understand a) the phenomenology of brain fog, and b) the causal attributions of those describing brain fog. We use this information to consider implications for clinical research.

Methods

Data were scraped from the social media platform Reddit using Python. Posts containing ‘brain fog’ were identified between 27thOctober 2021 and 3rd November 2021. Those not describing or discussing brain fog as a symptom or experience were excluded. Potentially identifying information was removed prior to analysis. We undertook thematic analysis of containing subreddits (topic-specific discussion forums), causal attributions, and discrete brain fog experiences.

Results

1663 posts including the term ‘brain fog’ were identified, of which 717 met inclusion criteria.

44% (315/717) posts originated from subreddits concerned with illness and disease: including COVID-19 (87 posts), autoimmune, functional, neurodevelopmental, major psychiatric, and endocrine disorders. Brain fog was also discussed in subreddits about prescribed and non-prescribed drug use, and subreddits concerned with intentional restriction of masturbation (‘nofap’).

141 first person descriptions of brain fog described overlapping concepts including: forgetfulness (51), difficulty concentrating (43), dissociative phenomena (34), perceived cognitive ‘slowness’ and excessive effort (26), communication difficulties (22), a feeling of ‘fuzziness’ or pressure in the head (10), and fatigue (9).

570 posts described a perceived cause of brain fog, of which half attributed brain fog to illness or disease (282/570) (the most common single attribution being ‘long COVID’ in 59/570 (10%)), followed by psychiatric conditions in 38/570 (7%). The second most common single attribution of brain fog, in 24/570 (24%), was restriction or excessive masturbation.

Conclusions

Brain fog is discussed on the Reddit social media platform in association with a wide range of illnesses, diseases, drugs, and activities. The term is used to describe heterogeneous experiences, which do not map in a straightforward way to the domains enquired about during a ‘cognitive’ clinical examination, but include experiences of dissociation, fatigue, and excessive cognitive effort. Encouraging detailed description of subjective experiences – moving away from a psychometric testing approach and towards a phenomenological approach – might open new routes into understanding cognitive difficulties in health and disease.
28 Functional neurological disorder in the chronic pain clinic; a retrospective study of comorbidity
Authors: Mason Isabel , McWhirter Laura , Carson Alan , Stone Jon , Hoeritzauer Ingrid
Published: December 2022

Objectives/Aims

Chronic pain is commonly reported as a comorbidity in patients with functional neurological disorder (FND) however the prevalence of FND in those presenting with chronic pain is unknown. We aimed to estimate 1) the prevalence of FND in patients seen at a chronic pain clinic and 2) how patients with chronic pain and comorbid FND differ from those without FND in terms of pain characteristics, psychiatric comorbidity, pain management and pain outcome.

Methods

Retrospective electronic records review of consecutive new patients attending chronic pain clinics of 8 pain specialists in Lothian from the 1st of August 2019 to the 19thSeptember of 2019. Mean duration of follow up was 25 months. We recorded the clinical features, medication, management and outcome of chronic pain, any lifetime (up to November 2021) diagnoses of functional, FND and psychiatric disorders and undiagnosed neurological symptoms (where it was unclear if symptoms related to FND or another condition).

Results

Of 190 patients attending a chronic pain clinic, 32 (17%) had at least one lifetime diagnosis of FND and an additional 8 (4%) had undiagnosed neurological symptoms. FND diagnoses were functional limb weakness (8%), functional sensory disorder (8%), dissociative seizures (6%), functional cognitive disorder (5%), functional movement disorder (4%) and others (2%). Chronic primary pain (p<0.001), widespread chronic primary pain (p<0.00001) and pain with no precipitating trigger (p<0.01) were more common in pain patients with comorbid FND. A history of depression (p<0.001), anxiety (p<0.05) and suicide attempt (p<0.05) were also more common in these patients. However, patients with chronic pain and comorbid FND did not differ significantly from patients without FND in age, gender, prescribed analgesia (opiates and benzodiazepines) or pain outcome (25% vs 34% pain improved).

Conclusions

FND was found in a surprisingly high 17% of new patients at a chronic pain clinic. This may be an underestimate based on an additional 4% of patients with undiagnosed neurological symptoms. Patients with chronic pain and FND are significantly more likely to have chronic primary pain compared to other pain patients but do not experience different pain management or outcome. These results provide further evidence of the important overlap between FND and chronic pain conditions.
29 Mental health patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for children and young people with epilepsy: a systematic review
Authors: Pick Susannah , Aveiro Bianca De , Winsor Alice , Simpson Anna , Nicholson Timothy , Pal Deb , Richardson Mark
Published: December 2022

Objectives/Aims

Children with epilepsy (cwE) are at a higher risk of mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared to the general population. Psychiatric comorbidities can negatively impact cwE as they can be associated with reduced response to treatment, reduced quality of life, as well as increased mortality. Despite the high prevalence and negative impact on cwE, psychiatric comorbidities often go undetected and as a result are not treated. Therefore, it is essential to detect psychiatric comorbidities early in cwE, to facilitate provision of appropriate interventions and improve long-term neuropsychological outcomes. We sought to identify and evaluate child mental health Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) that have been validated specifically in children and/or young people with epilepsy, to inform selection of high quality mental health PROMs in paediatric epilepsy settings.

Methods

We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and Psych Info for studies that validated mental health PROMs in paediatric epilepsy samples and assessed methodological quality using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) guidance. Data on PROM development, structural validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity and responsiveness were extracted and used to assess the measurement properties with reference to standardised criteria.

Results

A total of nine papers were identified that validated 10 mental health PROMs (two epilepsy-specific, eight generic). The overall appraisal of each questionnaire was limited by the availability of only one or two published articles for each PROM. Internal consistency and convergent validity were the more commonly assessed properties across studies, whereas there were very few evaluations of PROM development, structural validity, test-retest reliability, and criterion validity. The strongest performing tool demonstrating the most evidence was The Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory-Epilepsy for Youth (NDDI-Y-E). The ADHD Rating Scale-IV (ADHD-RS-IV) and The Paediatric Symptom Checklist -17 (PSC-17) demonstrated good evidence in favour of at least two measurement properties.

Conclusions

This systematic review identified only a small number of validated mental health PROMs for paediatric epilepsy, highlighting the need for further development, validation and evaluation of mental health PROMs in this population.
4 Medicolegal considerations in functional neurological disorders
Authors: Carson Alan
Published: December 2022

Dr Carson graduated in Medicine from Edinburgh University in 1991 and completed basic Psychiatry training at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Following six months as a Wellcome Research Fellow examining the cognitive effects of HIV infection in a Kenyan population, he was Lecturer and Honorary Senior Registrar in Psychiatry at University of Edinburgh.

During this time he developed his interest in neuropsychiatry and was trained by Professor Michael Sharpe, Professor David Owens and Professor Charles Warlow. He was subsequently appointed Consultant Neuropsychiatrist to Rehabilitation Medicine at the Astley Ainslie Hospital and to the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the Western General Hospital.

He was an original grant holder for the development of the Scottish Mental Health Research Network.

Functional neurologic disorder often occur in association with physical trauma or psychologically stressful events. This means they are commonly a complication of accidents and as recognition improves they are more commonly encountered ing the setting of personal injury. It is important to recognise that there is nothing new here, similar patients and presentations have been recognised in the Court over the past century.

In this talk I will describe my approach to assessment of such cases and how one might attempt to integrate current scientific understanding in a way that helps the Court decide what has happened and who was to blame.

We will cover diagnosis, exaggeration, onset, risk and triggers and treatment.
42 Inhibition of personal memory retrieval in dissociative amnesia: a study of two cases
Authors: Marsh Laura C , Apšvalka Dace , Abe Nobuhito , Kawaguchi Jun , Anderson Michael C
Published: December 2022

Objectives/Aims

Dissociative amnesia refers to loss of autobiographical memory with a presumed psychological, rather than neurological cause. The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the memory loss are not fully understood. One theory suggests that prefrontal control mechanisms ‘block’ access to autobiographical memories. A parallel body of experimental work has defined a prefrontally-mediated memory control network which can be engaged voluntarily to inhibit memory retrieval. We aimed to examine the possible role of this retrieval control system in dissociative amnesia.

Methods

We re-analysed fMRI data from two previously reported cases of dissociative amnesia (Kikuchi et al. 2009). Both patients had extensive focal retrograde amnesia covering several years, with preserved anterograde memory. In the scanner, they were presented with reminders of people from the forgotten period (current colleagues), as well as a period they could still remember (high school friends). Contrasting the forgotten with the remembered condition, we examined the extent to which the activated regions overlapped with regions involved in retrieval control, derived from a meta-analysis of retrieval inhibition tasks (the ‘think/no-think task’). We used dynamic causal modelling to examine the effective connectivity between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and hippocampus when patients were reminded of people they could not recognise. One patient later recovered their memories, whilst the other remained amnesic. Both were scanned a second time, and we repeated the same analyses on these data to examine changes associated with recovery.

Results

We observed increased DLPFC activation and decreased hippocampal activation in response to reminders of forgotten colleagues, relative to remembered high school friends. There was a high degree of overlap with the regions engaged during typical laboratory-based tasks of memory inhibition. Using dynamic causal modelling, we found clear evidence that the right DLPFC downregulated the right hippocampus when the patients were reminded of forgotten colleagues. This pattern persisted in the patient who remained amnesic at follow-up, but was no longer evident in the patient who recovered their memories.

Conclusions

These findings provide preliminary evidence that retrieval control systems may be maladaptively recruited to inhibit memory retrieval in dissociative amnesia. This is often temporary, and may occur on a semi- or sub-conscious level. These findings may provide a mechanistic target for current and future treatment approaches.
5 Medicolegal considerations in head injury – challenging dogma in TBI
Authors: Newcombe Virginia
Published: December 2022

Dr Virginia Newcombe is a consultant in Neurosciences and Trauma Critical Care Medicine, and Emergency Medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Originally from Australia she came to Cambridge to complete a MPhil in Epidemiology and stayed to undertake a PhD and clinical training. She is a Royal College of Emergency Medicine Associate Professor and holds an Academy of Medical Sciences and Health Foundation Clinician Scientist Fellowship.

Her main research interests focus on prognostication, neuroimaging and the use of biomarkers after traumatic brain injury as well as long-term outcomes after critical illness. Her work has been recognised with awards from European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, the International Society for Magnetic Resonance Medicine, National Neurotrauma Society (USA) and a Churchill Fellowship.

This talk will discuss how our understanding of some of common perceptions and beliefs about TBI are changing and/or can be challenged with new evidence. Discussion will range through controversies in TBI as well as specific examples in sports concussion and mild TBI.
6 Free will and criminal responsibility
Authors: Deeley Quinton
Published: December 2022

Dr Deeley MA, MRCPsych, PhD, is an honorary consultant psychiatrist in the National Autism Unit, Adult ADHD Service, and Behavioural Genetics and Autism Assessment Clinic. He is also senior lecturer in social behaviour and neurodevelopment at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. He is approved under section 12 (2) of the 1983 Mental Health Act. Dr Deeley has wide experience of general adult and developmental psychiatry, having worked with patients across a range of settings, including secure hospital care, ‘step down’ open rehabilitation wards, supported living, and outpatient services. Dr Deeley specialises in the assessment and management of autistic spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disability, and common mental health conditions. Dr Deeley holds a BA in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge. He went on to complete medical training at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospitals before training in psychiatry on the Maudsley Hospital training scheme. He has a PhD in the cognitive neuroscience of autism and psychopathy. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Notions of criminal responsibility presuppose that a person can be held morally and legally accountable for acts which are freely chosen. Philosophical accounts of free will – of intended actions under individual control – provide a framework for analysing the components of freely chosen actions. Philosophers have explored the notion of free will in light of causal determinism, examining whether or how a person ‘could have done otherwise’ in specific circumstances such that they can be considered truly responsible for their actions. In this talk we consider these philosophical analyses and their relevance for neuropsychiatric assessment of offenders. In so doing we will also explore how evolving neuropsychiatric insights into the control of behaviour, and its impairment in specific disorders, has implications both for philosophical accounts of free will and notions of criminal responsibility.
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) flavours and devices used by adults before and after the 2020 US FDA ENDS enforcement priority: findings from the 2018 and 2020 US ITC Smoking and Vaping Surveys
Authors: Gravely Shannon , Meng Gang , Hammond David , Reid Jessica L , Seo Young S , Hyland Andrew , Cummings K Michael , Rivard Cheryl , Fong Geoffrey T , Kasza Karin A
Published: December 2022

Background

In February 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prioritised enforcement efforts against flavoured prefilled cartridge/pod electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), with the exception of tobacco and menthol. This study examined changes between prepriority enforcement (2018) and early postenforcement (February–June 2020) among adults on: ENDS flavours and devices used most often; location of last purchase of fruit/other-flavoured cartridges (covered under the enforcement priority); and smoking and vaping.

Methods

Prevalence estimates came from 1608 adult frequent (≥weekly) ENDS users (current smokers (n=1072), ex-smokers (n=536)) who participated in the 2018 and/or 2020 US ITC Smoking and Vaping Surveys. Transitions between flavours/devices and changes in smoking/vaping were assessed among baseline respondents who were followed up in 2020 (n=360). Respondents self-reported the ENDS device (disposable, cartridge/pod or tank) and the flavor that they used most often: (1) tobacco flavors (tobacco/tobacco-menthol mix) or unflavored; (2) menthol/mint; (3) fruit/other flavors.

Results

Compared to 2018, in the first 5 months of the 2020 enforcement priority, there were significant increases in the prevalence of fruit/other-flavoured cartridges (7.9% to 12.4%,p=0.026) and menthol/mint cartridges (7.1% to 13.0%, p<0.01) and decreases in tobacco-flavoured tanks (15.5% to 10.0%,p=0.002) and fruit/other-flavoured tanks (38.7% to 33.6%,p=0.038). Fewer than 10% of adults used disposables in 2018 and 2020. Among the cohort sample, the most pronounced transitions between flavours/devices occurred among those who used flavoured cartridges covered under the enforcement priority (54.6% switched to a flavour and/or device excluded from enforcement). There was an increase in purchasing fruit/other-flavoured cartridges online and a decrease in retail locations except for vape shops. Overall, there were few changes in smoking and vaping behaviours.

Conclusions

Between 2018 and the early phase of the FDA’s 2020 enforcement priority, prevalence of menthol/mint and fruit/other-flavoured cartridges increased among adults. Half of vapers using cartridge flavours covered in the enforcement switched to other flavours and/or devices that were exempt, with the exception of disposables. The extent to which more comprehensive restrictions may be problematic for adults who prefer a range of ENDS flavours remains uncertain.
E-cigarette and tobacco product use among NYS youth before and after a state-wide vaping flavour restriction policy, 2020–2021
Authors: Schneller Liane M , Kasza Karin A , Hammond David , Bansal-Travers Maansi , O'Connor Richard , Hyland Andrew
Published: December 2022

Significance

Reducing youth e-cigarette use is a New York State (NYS) public health priority. In May 2020, a state-wide restriction on flavoured e-cigarettes, except tobacco flavour, was passed. This study examines changes in nicotine product use behaviour among youth around the time of the state-wide vaping flavour restriction.

Methods

NYS data from the US International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project Youth Tobacco and E-cigarette Tobacco and Vaping Survey were analysed cross-sectionally from February 2020 (n=955), August 2020 (n=946), February 2021 (n=1030) and August 2021 (n=753). Online surveys were conducted among youth 16–19 years. Weighted descriptive statistics and regression models were used to describe changes in nicotine product use behaviour. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity and perceived family socioeconomic status.

Results

Significant decreases in past 30-day e-cigarette use (20%–11%), cigarette (7%-4%), and dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes (5%–2%) were observed over the 2-year period in NYS. Over 95% of vapers still reported using a non-tobacco-flavoured e-cigarette following the restriction, with fruit-flavoured being the most popular at each time point.

Conclusions

Nearly all NYS youth continued to vape flavours that were restricted in NYS. While youth past 30-day vaping prevalence decreased significantly from 2020 to 2021, increased flavour restriction compliance could result in an even greater decrease. Continuous monitoring is important to better understand perceptions, use patterns and access at the individual level, retail level and population level to inform future enforcement and restrictions.
On isospin and flavour of leptons and quarks
Authors: Marsch Eckart , Narita Yasuhito
Published: December 2022

Isospin emerges naturally from the Lorentz transformation of spinors, if they are based on the vector representation of the Lorentz group. The resulting extended Dirac equation for a massive spin-one-half fermion has two new additional degrees of freedom associated with the up and down components of isospin. This doublet is interpreted as describing the electron and neutrino. It is adjoined with the SU(2) symmetry group. The extended Dirac equation appears in six versions which are connected by similarity transformations. It is argued that this trait may explain the occurrence of the three families of the leptons and suggested that flavour arises genuinely from the algebraic properties of the extended Dirac equation. Its solutions are discussed and the physical role of isospin is elucidated. Isospin symmetry can be gauged, which leads to a weak-interaction-type theory and is valid for finite initial mass. Breaking the isospin SU(2) symmetry yields the correct electric charges of the particles by means of the electroweak unification procedures of the standard model.
The Augmented Lagrangian Method for Mathematical Programs with Vertical Complementarity Constraints Based on Inexact Scholtes Regularization
Authors: Xu Na , Meng Fan-Yun , Pang Li-Ping
Published: December 2022

Mathematical program with vertical complementarity constraints (MPVCC) plays an important role in economics and engineering. Due to the vertical complementarity structure, most of the standard constraint qualifications fail to hold at a feasible point. Without constraint qualifications, the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions are not necessary optimality conditions. The classical methods for solving constrained optimization problems applied to MPVCC are likely to fail. It is necessary to establish efficient algorithms for solving MPVCC from both theoretical and numerical points of view. We present an algorithm to obtain stationarity of MPVCC by solving a sequence of Scholtes regularized problems. We consider the Scholtes regularization method with the sequence of approximate KKT points only. We prove that, under strictly weaker constraint qualifications, the accumulation point of the approximate KKT points is Clarke (C-) stationary point. In particular, we can get Mordukhovich (M-) or strongly (S-) stationary point under additional assumptions. From these results, we apply an augmented Lagrangian method to obtain a solution of MPVCC and give the convergence analysis. In particular, the accumulation point of the generated iterates is an S-stationary point if some boundedness conditions hold. The numerical results show that it is an effective way to solve MPVCC.
Chief Financial Officer Turnover, Sarbanes–Oxley, and Market Reactions
Authors: Parker Robert J. , Yan Yun-Chia , Dao Mai , Manry David
Published: December 2022

We argue that forced CFO turnover has a complex relation with SOX reports of internal control problems. Sometimes forced turnover precedes an adverse SOX report whereas, in other cases, forced turnover follows the unfavorable SOX opinion. Further, financial markets are aware of this complex relation. Using a large sample collected over eight years, we find evidence to support our arguments. Regarding market reactions, we find that upon the announcement of CFO turnover, cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) are negative and significant for forced resignations. This reaction is mitigated if an unfavorable SOX opinion had been issued for the prior year. We also find that negative market reactions to adverse SOX reports are attenuated, in part, by whether the company previously forced the CFO to leave.
A MULTIPLE AND ROBUST IMAGE WATERMARKING APPROACH BASED ON LWT AND FWHT FOR MEDICAL DATA SECURITY
Authors: ABDI HADJER , HACENE ISMAIL BOUKLI
Published: December 2022

In the last years, the internet and multimedia technologies are widely used to exchange medical images and practicing telemedicine; which exposes this data to various illegitimate attacks due to their sensitivity. For this reason, many researchers work to afford a proper security and an efficient protection during the transmission. In this context, we propose a blind multi-watermarking approach for medical images using Lifting Wavelet Transform and Fast Walsh–Hadamard Transform. This approach proves the ability to embed a binary image ([Formula: see text]), used for integrity purposes, in addition to the patient information (EPR) associated with the medical cover image. Moreover, an error correcting code was used to improve the security of the EPR. We tested the proposed approach on different imaging modalities, and the obtained results show a good imperceptibility and robustness against several common attacks.
Dynamic analysis of stiffened functionally graded composite plates reinforced by carbon nanotubes subjected to blast loads using a new four-variable refined plate theory
Authors: Chung Nguyen Thai , Thu Duong Thi Ngoc , Thuy Le Xuan
Published: December 2022

In this paper, a new four-variable refined plate theory for dynamic analysis of stiffened functionally graded composite plates reinforced by carbon nanotubes (SFG-CNTRC) subjected to blast loadings is developed. The governing equations of the system are obtained using the finite element method. The Newmark’s time integration is used to solve the vibration equations for determining the dynamic response of the plates. To check the validity of the present formulation, numerical results are compared with the previous data in the literature. The effects of volume fraction of carbon nanotubes, thickness of the plate, and boundary conditions of the plate on the dynamic response of the SFG-CNTRC are studied.
ITiCSE 2022 Recap
Authors: Becker Brett , Quille Keith
Published: December 2022

The first hybrid ITiCSE - and the first to have in-person attendees in three years - was held in Dublin, Ireland from July 11-13, 2022, and it didn't even rain! In total 376 attendees took part, including 240 in-person and 136 virtually.
Koli Calling 2022
Authors: Petersen Andrew , Jormanainen Ilkka
Published: December 2022

We warmly invite you to attend the 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling 2022), to be held 17-20 November 2022 in the beautiful Koli National Forest in Eastern Finland. Koli Calling is one of the leading international conferences dedicated to the scholarship of teaching and learning and to education research in the computing disciplines. This year, we had a record number of submissions (up 20% from last year!) and are anticipating a strong slate of presentations.
Member Spotlight
Authors: Smith Julie M. , Wallace Charles , Miller Jeffrey
Published: December 2022

In this feature of the Bulletin, we highlight members of the SIGCSE community. In this issue's spotlight we hear from Jeffrey Miller, who has just moved from the University of Southern California (USC) to Southern Utah University (SUU), where he is now serving as the Dean of Engineering and Computational Sciences. Jeffrey recently stepped down as Co-Editor of the Bulletin.
Exporting Ada Software to Python and Julia
Authors: Verschelde Jan
Published: December 2022

The objective is to demonstrate the making of Ada software available to Python and Julia programmers using GPRbuild. GPRbuild is the project manager of the GNAT toolchain. With GPRbuild the making of shared object files is fully automated and the software can be readily used in Python and Julia. The application is the build process of PHCpack, a free and open source software package to solve polynomial systems by homotopy continuation methods, written mainly in Ada, with components in C++, available at github at https://github.com/janverschelde/PHCpack.
Knowledge Tracing via Attention Enhanced Encoder-Decoder
Authors: Zhang Kai , Qin Zhengchu , Kuang Ying
Published: December 2022

The knowledge tracing model takes students’ learning behaviours data as input to determine their current knowledge status and predict their future answers. The learning behaviours data describes three main types of learning behaviours: learning process, learning end, and learning interval. The classical knowledge tracing models only use the data of the learning end, which contains limited information and the models cannot accurately describe constraint in the same learning behaviour in the time series. Subsequent models add other types of learning behaviours data but do not integrate different types of learning behaviours, and the models cannot accurately describe collaboration in different learning behaviours. To address these issues, knowledge tracing via attention-enhanced encoder-decoder is proposed to synthesize and analyse the three types of learning behaviours mentioned above and firstly adopts the multiheaded attention mechanism to describe constraint in the same learning behaviours; secondly adopts the channel attention mechanism modelling collaboration in the three types of learning behaviours. In the experiments, various comparisons are made with related models on several real data sets, and the results show that our model achieves certain advantages in terms of performance and knowledge state representation. In terms of practical application, an intelligent learning platform based on the model has been implemented, which predicts the future answer of students in the teaching process of two offline courses: computer and English and has achieved better performance than other knowledge tracing models.