Application of Three-dimensional Visualization Fused with Ultrasound for Percutaneous Renal Puncture

We present here the three-dimensional (3D) visualization fused with ultrasound and to evaluate its clinical application effect preliminarily. One hundred and eighteen patients with renal calculi in our hospital from September 2017 to December 2019 were prospectively randomized into two groups. The experimental group was treated with percutaneous renal puncture guided by the 3D visualization fused with ultrasound. The control group was treated with percutaneous renal puncture guided by B-ultrasonography (B-US). The puncture time in the experimental versus control group was 4.36 ± 1.28 min versus 10.72 ± 2.94 min (P = 0.000), operation time was 65.85 ± 10.63 min versus 81.34 ± 12.52 min (P = 0.000), and the loss of hemoglobin was 8.55 ± 3.76 g/L min versus 13.33 ± 5.81 g/L(P = 0.000), and the success rate of establishing the channel at one time was 98.41% versus 81.82% (P = 0.002), and the coincidence rate between the channel and the longitudinal axis of the target renal calyx was 88.89% versus 60.00% (P = 0.000). The 3D visualization fused with ultrasound could guide precise puncture to target calyces, reduce operation time, bleeding, and difficulty of puncture.

Modulación del estado de ánimo a través de estímulos musicales activantes

La música provoca respuestas emocionales que se ven reflejadas en los cambios fisiológicos y cognitivos de los oyentes. Es una temática de estudio en común entre distintas disciplinas como la psicología de la música, la musicoterapia, la antropología de la música y la la neuropsicología, entre otras. Entender de qué manera la música puede incidir en el estado de ánimo de las personas permite contribuir al conocimiento sobre el efecto comportamental y a la creación de nuevas técnicas orientadas para regular las emociones mediante la música. Teniendo en cuenta estos antecedentes, se realizó un estudio con el propósito de evaluar el efecto de la percepción de una pieza musical con características activantes (grupo experimental) versus ruido blanco (grupo control) como modulador del estado de ánimo, desde la perspectiva de las neurociencias, contando con la participación de adultos de entre 18 a 40 años. La inducción emocional de los participantes se realizó a través de la observación de imágenes con valencia emocional negativa. Posteriormente, y bajo una distribución al azar, un grupo de voluntarios escuchó la pieza musical activante y otro grupo escuchó el ruido blanco; ambos estímulos auditivos duraron 3 minutos. Se evaluó el estado emocional antes y después de la percepción auditiva. Los resultados analizados a través de pruebas no paramétricas (test de Wilcoxon) indicaron que la música con características activantes moduló emociones de tristeza y ansiedad, disminuyéndolas significativamente. Estos hallazgos sugieren que la percepción musical presenta potencialidades para la reducción del estrés, así como la ansiedad, brindando evidencia desde un enfoque neurocognitivo.

Morphosyntactic adaptation in adult L2 processing: Exposure and the processing of case and tense violations

This paper investigates morphosyntactic adaptation in second language (L2) sentence processing. In a pre-/posttest control group design, two experiments with intermediate to advanced German–English learners examine whether massed exposure to informative input leads to adaptation in L2 processing in that L2 readers come to integrate inflection in real-time comprehension. Experiment 1 on case marking shows that input causing prediction error and flagging the target parse leads to nativelike integration of case in the reanalysis of garden-path sentences. Experiment 2 shows partially nativelike processing of adverbial–verb tense mismatches after exposure to target input. Adaptation was selective to the experimental versus the control group in processing, yet it did not generalize to offline, explicit performance. We conclude that morphosyntactic adaptation constitutes an implicit learning mechanism in L2 processing, and we discuss its implications for models of L2 processing and acquisition.

Gastrointestinal Tolerance, Growth and Safety of a Partly Fermented Formula with Specific Prebiotics in Healthy Infants: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Controlled Trial

This study evaluated the effect of a partly fermented infant formula (using the bacterial strains Bifidobacterium breve C50 and Streptococcus thermophilus 065) with a specific prebiotic mixture (short-chain galacto-oligosaccharides (scGOS) and long-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (lcFOS; 9:1)) on the incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms, stool characteristics, sleeping and crying behaviour, growth adequacy and safety. Two-hundred infants ≤28 days of age were assigned either to experimental infant formula containing 30% fermented formula and 0.8 g/100 mL scGOS/lcFOS or to non-fermented control infant formula without scGOS/lcFOS. A group of breastfed infants served as a reference. No relevant differences in parent-reported gastrointestinal symptoms were observed. Stool consistency was softer in the experimental versus control group with values closer to the breastfed reference group. Daily weight gain was equivalent for both formula groups (0.5 SD margins) with growth outcomes close to breastfed infants. No clinically relevant differences in adverse events were observed, apart from a lower investigator-reported prevalence of infantile colic in the experimental versus control group (1.1% vs. 8.7%; p < 0.02). Both study formulae are well-tolerated, support an adequate infant growth and are safe for use in healthy term infants. Compared to the control formula, the partly fermented formula with prebiotics induces stool consistencies closer to breastfed infants.