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Using as an input the data obtained by the L3 and OPAL Collaborations for the reaction e+e- ⇶ t+t- ? at the Z-pole, we obtained bounds on the electromagnetic and weak dipole moments of the tau-lepton in the context of a 331 model. Our bounds on the electromagnetic moments are consistent with the bounds obtained by the L3 and OPAL Collaborations for the reaction e+e- ⇶ t+t- ? . We also obtained bounds on the tau weak dipole moments which are consistent with the bounds obtained recently by the DELPHI, ALEPH and BELLE Collaborations from the reaction e+e- ⇶ t+t-. In addition, we obtained a limit on the Z-Z' mixing angle of the 331 model: -3.92 × 10-3 = f = 1.30 × 10-4, which is competitive with those reported in the literature. Our work complements other studies on the electromagnetic and weak dipole moments of the tau-lepton and on the Z-Z' mixing angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cocaine use disorder (CUD) is a global health problem with severe consequences, leading to behavioral, cognitive, and neurobiological disturbances. While consensus on treatments is still ongoing, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has emerged as a promising approach for medication-resistant disorders, including substance use disorders. In this context, here we present the SUDMEX-TMS, a Mexican dataset from an rTMS clinical trial involving CUD patients. This longitudinal dataset comprises 54 CUD patients (including 8 females) with data collected at five time points: baseline (T0), two weeks (T1), three months (T2), six months (T3) follow-up, and twelve months (T4) follow-up. The clinical rTMS treatment followed a double-blinded randomized clinical trial design (n = 24 sham/30 active) for 2 weeks, followed by an open-label phase. The dataset includes demographic, clinical, and cognitive measures, as well as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data collected at all time points, encompassing structural (T1-weighted), functional (resting-state fMRI), and multishell diffusion-weighted (DWI-HARDI) sequences. This dataset offers the opportunity to investigate the impact of rTMS on CUD participants, considering clinical, cognitive, and multimodal MRI metrics in a longitudinal framework., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, entailing widespread school closures as well as acute disruptions to household livelihoods, had substantial consequences for adolescent well-being in low-income countries. We present novel evidence about the prevalence of mental health challenges among adolescent students in rural Mozambique using data from an in-person survey conducted in 105 schools in 2021, immediately following the post-pandemic school reopening. In our sample, 31% of students reported low levels of well-being (though only 10% suffer from high anxiety): students enrolled in schools that used a wider variety of distance learning measures and who had more robust social networks reported lower anxiety, while students who experienced household-level disruptions linked to the pandemic reported higher anxiety and lower well-being., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Background: Domestic violence is a major public health issue worldwide with detrimental consequences not only for its victims but also for the next generations. Despite an extensive literature documenting the persistent intergenerational transmission of domestic violence, few studies explore the mechanisms underlying this transmission., Methods: We use data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey implemented between 1984 and 2009 in the Philippines. These longitudinal data allow us to measure how much the association between witnessing parental violence during childhood and the experience of intimate partner violence in young adulthood is explained by different measures of human capital that occur up to young adulthood, including education and health outcomes, cognitive skills, and psychosocial traits., Results: We find that these human capital measures explain 22 percent of the transmission of domestic violence. Our results indicate that depression at age 18 and cognitive ability at age 11 are the primary human capital channels., Conclusions: Our findings suggest a potential role of interventions targeting these human capital investments in reducing the cycle of violence across generations, as such, it could expand the window of opportunity for effective interventions in developing countries., Competing Interests: We confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest or competing interests associated with this publication., (© 2021 The Authors.)

Distance to health centers can represent a significant healthcare cost for poor households. Community-based health interventions and community health workers can be an alternative to deficient formal health care provision among remote populations. We analyze the effects on fertility outcomes of a large-scale community-based health worker program that aims to reach remote areas distant from health facilities in Madagascar. We use a triple difference model that exploits time and geographic variation in the program rollout and the geocoded household distance to the closest health facility. Our findings indicate that the program decreased the probability of conception among women in treated areas but did not have a differential effect among women living in remote areas. A potential mechanism underlying this fertility reduction is that the program increased women's modern contraceptive use., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Although Giardia, the aetiological agent of giardiasis, is one of the most prevalent intestinal parasitic infections world-wide, for industrialised countries, it is mainly appreciated as an imported disease with the minimal local transmission. However, the current evidence challenges this perception; Giardia has relevance beyond the high prevalence areas. This infection may be asymptomatic or cause gastrointestinal complains and long-term sequelae, including irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue and impaired child growth and cognitive development. Its detection and diagnosis present a challenge to physicians who may not be familiar with this infection. To improve interventions to control this parasitosis, it is necessary to maintain a high index of suspicion and remain vigilant in finding cases at risk for infection. A better understanding of the characteristics of populations importing infections alongside improved methods to reliably classify infections as imported or acquired locally will help to ensure early and accurate diagnosis. The evidence shows that public health problems like giardiasis are global issues that need to be addressed collectively by both high and low prevalence countries.

Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in sub-Saharan Africa, and so has the risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. We analyze the impact of teenage pregnancy on young women's human capital using longitudinal data in Madagascar that capture the transition from adolescence to adulthood for a cohort aged 21-24 in 2012, first interviewed in 2004. We find that early childbearing increases the likelihood of dropping out of school and decreases the chances of completing secondary school. This pregnancy-related school dropout also has a detrimental impact on standardized test scores in math and French. We instrument early pregnancy with the young woman's community-level access and her exposure to condoms since age 15 after controlling for pre-fertility socioeconomic conditions. Our results are robust to different specifications that address potential endogeneity of program placement and instrument validity.

Introduction: The objective was to evaluate a dose-dense schedule of docetaxel followed by doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (AC) as neoadjuvant treatment for patients with locally advanced breast cancer., Patients and Methods: Ninety-nine patients were included and received 100 mg/m(2) of docetaxel every two weeks for four cycles followed by 60 mg/m(2) of doxorubicin and 600 mg/m(2) of cyclophosphamide every two weeks for four cycles. Primary prophylaxis with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) was administered systematically to all patients., Results: Efficacy and toxicity analyses were carried out on an intention-to-treat basis. After treatment, complete pathological response in the breast and lymph nodes was confirmed in 15 patients (15%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.4-22.9). Clinical response rate was 74% (95% CI: 65-82), of which 19% were complete responses. Breast-conserving surgery could be performed in 41% of patients. The dose-dense schedule was generally well tolerated. The most important grade 3/4 toxicities per patient were cutaneous toxicity (12.1%) and hepatic dysfunction (9.1%) during docetaxel administration, and neutropenia (28.1%) and leucopenia (8.3%) with AC., Conclusion: A dose-dense schedule of docetaxel followed by AC as neoadjuvant treatment is an effective and safe treatment for locally advanced breast cancer. Primary prophylaxis with G-CSF, and possibly the change in the sequence of drug administration, appears to play a major role in avoiding the excessive toxicity of dose-dense schedules.

Invasion and metastasis of aggressive breast cancer cells are the final and fatal steps during cancer progression. Clinically, there are still limited therapeutic interventions for aggressive and metastatic breast cancers available. Therefore, effective, targeted, and non-toxic therapies are urgently required. Id-1, an inhibitor of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, has recently been shown to be a key regulator of the metastatic potential of breast and additional cancers. We previously reported that cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabinoid with a low toxicity profile, down-regulated Id-1 gene expression in aggressive human breast cancer cells in culture. Using cell proliferation and invasion assays, cell flow cytometry to examine cell cycle and the formation of reactive oxygen species, and Western analysis, we determined pathways leading to the down-regulation of Id-1 expression by CBD and consequently to the inhibition of the proliferative and invasive phenotype of human breast cancer cells. Then, using the mouse 4T1 mammary tumor cell line and the ranksum test, two different syngeneic models of tumor metastasis to the lungs were chosen to determine whether treatment with CBD would reduce metastasis in vivo. We show that CBD inhibits human breast cancer cell proliferation and invasion through differential modulation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) pathways, and that both pathways lead to down-regulation of Id-1 expression. Moreover, we demonstrate that CBD up-regulates the pro-differentiation factor, Id-2. Using immune competent mice, we then show that treatment with CBD significantly reduces primary tumor mass as well as the size and number of lung metastatic foci in two models of metastasis. Our data demonstrate the efficacy of CBD in pre-clinical models of breast cancer. The results have the potential to lead to the development of novel non-toxic compounds for the treatment of breast cancer metastasis, and the information gained from these experiments broaden our knowledge of both Id-1 and cannabinoid biology as it pertains to cancer progression.

Purpose: In this multicentre phase II study, the efficacy and safety profile of the combination of docetaxel and epirubicin as first-line chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) were evaluated., Methods: Epirubicin (75 mg/m(2)) and docetaxel (75 mg/m(2)) were given intravenously once every 3 weeks for six cycles to 133 patients with MBC., Results: The overall clinical response rate was 67% (complete and partial responses were 23% and 44%, respectively). The median time to progression was 10.8 months (95% CI 9.7-12.6) and the median overall survival was 19.5 months. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor support was administered to 32% of patients and in 22% of cycles. Grade 3/4 neutropenia occurred in 35% of patients and febrile neutropenia in 19%. The most frequent grade 3/4 non-haematological toxicities (as percent of patients) were asthenia (6%), vomiting (5%) and nausea (5%). No patients developed congestive heart failure., Conclusions: The combination of docetaxel and epirubicin was highly active as first-line treatment for MBC and showed a manageable toxicity profile.