Recent Articles

This narrative review includes summaries of research on touch for social engagement and for therapy. Touch for social engagement includes greeting touch, affectionate touch and buffers for touch deprivation. Typical greeting behaviors including shaking hands and hugging were superseded by fist and elbow bumping following safety concerns during COVID-19 lockdowns. Affectionate touch as in handholding, cuddling, caressing and kissing have received less recent research attention likely because of the difficulty recruiting participants for affectionate touch during COVID. Instead, touch deprivation has been common including data suggesting that 60% reported being touch deprived during COVID lockdowns, only 21 % of children were being touched a lot and only 38% of partners were being touched a lot. This level of touch deprivation may have preceded COVID based on an airport gate study showing that people were only touching 4% of their waiting time as they were spending most of their time on cell phones scrolling and texting. Although natural activities have been noted to compensate for touch deprivation such as exercise, several studies have attempted to simulate social touch in robots. Touch as therapy has included several different types of touch including cuddling and handholding during painful procedures and massage therapy for innumerable medical and psychiatric conditions. The underlying mechanism for the positive effects of touch involves the stimulation of pressure receptors, as in moving the skin, resulting in a slowing of the nervous system including decreased heart rate, increased heart rate variability, less stress hormone (cortisol), and the increased production of healthy neurotransmitters and natural killer cells to ward off bacterial, viral and cancer cells.

Various court systems often mandate treatment for individuals convicted of sexual offenses (ICSO). Legal parameters often limit how clinicians provide services, and information is shared to protect the community and the ICSO. Ethical challenges often present as clinicians serve ICSO, especially concerning privacy, confidentiality, and the duty to warn. Research shows that not all approaches to clinical treatment with ICSO are effective, especially when examining client treatment engagement and the therapeutic alliance. Issues of diversity and culture further complicate inherently complex and precarious situations involved in treatment with ICSO. This narrative review highlights the need for clinicians to stay well-informed, remain diligently transparent, and practice cultural sensitivity in approaches to therapy with ICSO.

Sjögren’s Syndrome (SS) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by exocrinopathy, with xerophthalmia and xerostomia. Patients with SS may exhibit extra-glandular features such as neurologic symptoms. Peripheral neuropathy is the most common neurological complication of primary SS (pSS). We report a case of a 71-year-old female with pSS admitted to the Internal Medicine ward due to sensorimotor symptoms and petechiae. From the extensive study carried out, emphasis is given to elevation of inflammatory markers and to nerve conduction study compatible with mononeuritis of multiple nerves. The diagnosis of mononeuropathy multiplex (MM) secondary to pSS was made. She was started on corticosteroid therapy, which allowed complete regression of the petechiae as well as symptomatic and functional improvement. However, new sensorimotor deficits were noted a few days later. The decision was made to start cycles of cyclophosphamide in association with corticosteroid and physical therapies, leading to deficit improvement. Currently, the patient is in remission with low-dose corticosteroid therapy.

Since the reform and opening up, China’s economy has developed by leaps and bounds, attracting foreign capital has become an important part of China’s opening up to the outside world, and it plays an important role in promoting the rapid economic development of China. However, the inflow of foreign capital is also a “double-edged sword” for China. While promoting China’s economic progress, it also brings serious environmental problems and aggravates the difficulty of China’s environmental governance work. This paper mainly expounds the impact of environmental regulation on China’s foreign direct investment under the “dual carbon” target, then elaborates the role of environmental regulation on FDI and economic development, and then discusses the impact of the intensity of China’s environmental regulation on China’s foreign direct investment through empirical analysis. In this paper, the comprehensive index of environmental regulation, economic development level, labor cost and infrastructure construction of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2020 are included in the theoretical model. Empirical tests on the impact of environmental regulation on attracting foreign direct investment and endogenous tests, robustness tests and regional heterogeneity tests ensure the effectiveness of this study.The conclusion is that the improvement of the comprehensive index of environmental regulation has a certain negative effect on FDI. The smaller the comprehensive index of environmental regulation, the stronger the intensity of environmental regulation,which means that China’s high standards of environmental regulation will increase the inflow of foreign direct investment. This proves that the “pollution paradise” hypothesis does not exist in China, and the “Porter hypothesis” has been verified in this paper.

Objectives: Medication related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is a disorder characterized by loss of blood supply to the jaws and death to the bone. In our previous work, we created a rat model of MRONJ by multiple injections of 60ug/Kg zoledronic acid (ZA) via tail vein followed by extraction of a single first molar. We have previously shown in this model a decrease in the vasculature of the jaws and a delay in bone healing after 6 weeks. The current study was designed to look at mRNA expression and immunohistochemical localization of three endothelial cell markers (CDH5, CXCL1 and PECAM1) 6 weeks following ZA injection with and without molar extraction and in saline injected rats as controls. The objective of this study is to determine if the expression of these markers may serve to identify clinically significant changes in vascular endothelium barrier function associated with the onset of MRONJ. Methods: Using RT-PCR, we analyzed the expression of mRNA for angiogenic markers, six weeks after injection with either 60ug/Kg ZA or saline as a control and in ZA injected rats following first molar extraction. Routine immunohistochemical procedures with antibodies specific for rat marker proteins were used to study the immunohistochemical localization of proteins translated from the mRNA angiogenic markers with significant expression. All tissues were processed together under identical conditions. Results: We found a decrease in the mRNA expression of CDH5, and PECAM1 and an increase in CXCL1 expression six weeks after extraction and ZA injection in our rat model of MRONJ. Rat monoclonal antibodies specific for protein epitopes expressed by these genes (VE-cadherin, C-X-C motif ligand 1(CXCl1), and PECAM-1) were then used to localize proteins for these markers in tissues from ZA, saline-injected control rats, and MRONJ rats. The results show the absence of immunohistochemical localization of PECAM-1 and…

Externalizing behavior and psychopathy in early childhood are considered precursors to adolescent delinquency and criminal behavior. Psychopathic characteristics in adults consist of callousness, lack of empathy, shallowness, and impulsivity (Hare et al., 2000). A key trait associated with externalizing behaviors of children with a high callous-unemotional (CU) score is insensitivity to the sadness of others. CU characteristics are associated with a hypoactive amygdala, which has been found to modify the association between CU characteristics and externalizing tendencies (Saxbe et al., 2018). This paper analyses and synthesizes scholarly research articles and provides a critical review of the current state of this field of research.

Since Ge has a strong affinity for Fe, iron oxyhydroxide is assumed to be one of the potential “missing sinks” of Ge. Ferrihydrite is commonly found in soil and sediments and has a strong affinity for heavy metals. In this study, the first principle method based on density functional theory was used to optimize the geometry of Ge-containing ferrihydrites and H4GeO4 aqueous solution molecular clusters at B3LYP/6-311G(d) level. Solvation effects are treated by “water-droplet” method. Finally, at 298.15 K we obtained the Ge isotopic equilibrium fractionation between Ge-containing ferrihydrites and H4GeO4 aqueous solution, Δ74/70Geferrihydrite-aq= -1.97‰. It enriches the document of Ge isotopic fractionation and helps to assist the study of Ge global cycle.

Pulverized coal production is a common problem in the process of coalbed methane drainage and production, which is one of the key factors restricting the continuous stability drainage and production of coalbed methane. The reasons and characteristics of pulverized coal output are summarized. Through a detailed analysis of the migration and stress of pulverized coal in the borehole, the migration of pulverized coal is controlled by the stress conditions of pulverized coal, which causes the migration position of pulverized coal to change. Under the action of total pressure difference ΔF, pulverized coal particles can be divided into three situations: downward inclination, upward inclination and near horizontal migration. Finally, a solution to the control of pulverized coal is put forward from two aspects: the control of drainage and mining system and the selection of drainage and mining equipment. The research shows that continuous stability drainage and mining is the key of drainage and mining system, and controlling the hydrodynamic difference ΔF is the means to control the migration of pulverized coal. Choosing a pump with strong adaptability to pulverized coal is beneficial to coalbed methane drainage and production and increase productivity. Two horizontal wells in Shizhuang South Area 2 were replaced by membrane pumps, and the diaphragm pump system guide cover scheme was adopted. The coalbed methane production increased by about 1000m3/d, and the number of well repair was significantly reduced.

Ectopic prostate tissue (EPT) is an uncommon presentation and has been found mainly in the male urinary tract, such as the bladder, urethra, seminal vesicles, and testis. There have been extremely few cases of EPT observed out of the genitourinary tract. The present article describes one rare case of a 78-year-old male with an incidental finding of a rectal submucosal tumor, which was completely resected with a pathological diagnosis of EPT.

Cabin fever has been reported to have a deleterious impact on mental health in the COVID-19 literature. In this COVID-19 lockdown Survey Monkey study, as many as 75% of 260 respondents reported feeling cabin fever. Demographic correlations suggested that cabin fever occurred more frequently in non-Hispanic white participants. The significant correlations for the scales suggested that those experiencing feelings of cabin fever engaged in fewer health activities like self-care, feeling spiritual, and liking being at home; they spent more time on the internet including receiving and sending messages about the virus; they scored higher on the Stress Scale including worrying about the virus and their finances; they reported feeling more isolated, lonely, bored, and touch deprived; and they presented with higher scores on anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and PTSD scales. A regression analysis suggested that 44% of the variance in the cabin fever scores was explained by the stress and fatigue scale scores. The generalizability of these results is limited by the homogeneity of the sample (predominantly non-Hispanic white females). Nevertheless, they highlight the negative effects of feelings of cabin fever during a COVID-19 lockdown.