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Electroconvulsive therapy is a type of therapy frequently used in psychiatric clinical practice. Although it is generally used for the treatment of affective disorders or severe and/or resistant psychotic disorders, it has also demonstrated its usefulness in many other neuropsychiatric conditions. We present the case of a 26-year-old woman, previously diagnosed with a functional neurological disorder-with fixed dystonia phenotype in the right upper limb-, admitted to our hospital for a severe depressive episode. After noting the absence of clinical improvement with psychopharmacological treatment, it was decided to give electroconvulsive therapy, receiving a total of 11 sessions, 9 of which were effective, with bifrontotemporal application, three times a week. The patient experienced a significant improvement, not only at an affective and behavioral level, but also in the dystonia, recovering most of the mobility in the right hand and completely relinquishing the pain. Although scientific evidence is scarce regarding the use of electroconvulsive therapy in functional neurological disorders, this clinical case supports the existing literature and raises this therapy as a possibility in resistant and comorbid conditions with severe affective disorders.

Microplastics are globally ubiquitous in marine environments, and their concentration is expected to continue rising at significant rates as a result of human activity. They present a major ecological problem with well-documented environmental harm. Sea spray from bubble bursting can transport salt and biological material from the ocean into the atmosphere, and there is a need to quantify the amount of microplastic that can be emitted from the ocean by this mechanism. We present a mechanistic study of bursting bubbles transporting microplastics. We demonstrate and quantify that jet drops are efficient at emitting microplastics up to 280 μ m in diameter and are thus expected to dominate the emitted mass of microplastic. The results are integrated to provide a global microplastic emission model which depends on bubble scavenging and bursting physics; local wind and sea state; and oceanic microplastic concentration. We test multiple possible microplastic concentration maps to find annual emissions ranging from 0.02 to 7.4-with a best guess of 0.1-mega metric tons per year and demonstrate that while we significantly reduce the uncertainty associated with the bursting physics, the limited knowledge and measurements on the mass concentration and size distribution of microplastic at the ocean surface leaves large uncertainties on the amount of microplastic ejected., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.)

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an intervention related to social isolation and loneliness among hospitalized patients by improving: 1) social connectedness; 2) anxiety; and 3) loneliness and to evaluate experiences of the connection intervention., Background: Social isolation and loneliness can lead to detrimental effects on morbidity/mortality and health indices. A connection intervention was developed by investigators using key strategies to promote connectedness, providing in-person contact for hospitalized patients to meet individual and self-care needs., Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in a Midwest adult academic health center. Social connectedness, anxiety, and loneliness were evaluated at baseline and postintervention using a paired-sample t test. Experience responses were analyzed using content analysis., Results: There were no significant differences in social connectedness, anxiety, or loneliness when comparing baseline with postintervention. Experience themes included sharing personal stories back and forth, treating me as a person, mitigating loneliness, and finding benefit., Conclusion: Despite nonsignificant findings, participants found benefit in filling the social void of being an inpatient. Clinicians should ensure that holistic care is delivered to hospitalized inpatients. Inclusive patient-centered strategies targeted to decrease social isolation and loneliness among acute care inpatients should continue to be developed and tested., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ocean spray aerosol formed by bubble bursting are at the core of a broad range of atmospheric processes: they are efficient cloud condensation nuclei and carry a variety of chemical, biological, and biomass material from the surface of the ocean to the atmosphere. The origin and composition of these aerosols is sensibly controlled by the detailed fluid mechanics of bubble bursting. This perspective summarizes our present-day knowledge on how bursting bubbles at the surface of a liquid pool contribute to its fragmentation, namely to the formation of droplets stripped from the pool, and associated mechanisms. In particular, we describe bounds and yields for each distinct mechanism, and the way they are sensitive to the bubble production and environmental conditions. We also underline the consequences of each mechanism on some of the many air-sea interactions phenomena identified to date. Attention is specifically payed at delimiting the known from the unknown and the certitudes from the speculations., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences.)