Evaluation of Polyphenolic Composition and Antimicrobial Properties of L. and Scop.

The most widespread species are L. and Scop. which are also found in the Romanian flora and classified as medicinal plants because of hemostatic, antibacterial, antitumor, antioxidant and antiviral activities.

The dynamic changes in the pattern of liver function tests in pregnant obese women.

Obesity is an important problem in healthcare regarding gestating women. The objective of the present study was to highlight the impact that obesity has on the hepatic function in pregnant women by comparing the functional tests used in current practice. In addition, the aim was to identify possible predictors of liver damage by analyzing specific anthropometric data.

Obesity and pregnancy.

Obesity is the most frequent metabolic disturbance that can target women of reproductive age, among other population groups, and when obese pregnant women become patients, it represents a serious risk factor for both mother and fetus. The aim of this study is to offer an overview of the effects exerted by this disturbance on pregnancy. The study targets 157 pacients admitted to "Alessandrescu-Rusescu" National Institute for Mother and Child Health - Polizu (INSMC), Bucharest, Romania.

Evaluation of an action's effectiveness by the motor system in a dynamic environment.

An important model for explaining humans' feeling of agency-the Comparator model-draws on ideas used to explain effective motor control. The model describes how our brain estimates the degree of control over the environment offered by a specific motor program (in short, an action's effectiveness). However, given its current level of specification, the model is at best vague on how (or even whether) the prediction of effectiveness of an action is dynamically updated.

Working Memory Has Better Fidelity Than Long-Term Memory: The Fidelity Constraint Is Not a General Property of Memory After All.

How detailed are long-term-memory representations compared with working memory representations? Recent research has found an equal fidelity bound for both memory systems, suggesting a novel general constraint on memory. Here, we assessed the replicability of this discovery. Participants (total N = 72) were presented with colored real-life objects and were asked to recall the colors using a continuous color wheel.

Formation of abstract task representations: Exploring dosage and mechanisms of working memory training effects.

Working memory is strongly involved in human reasoning, abstract thinking and decision making. Past studies have shown that working memory training generalizes to untrained working memory tasks with similar structure (near-transfer effect). Here, we focused on two questions: First, we ask how much training might be required in order to find a reliable near-transfer effect? Second, we ask which choice- mechanism might underlie training benefits? Participants were allocated to one of three groups: working-memory training (combined set-shifting and N-back task), active-control (visual search) and no-contact control.

Modeling 2-alternative forced-choice tasks: Accounting for both magnitude and difference effects.

We present a model-based analysis of two-alternative forced-choice tasks in which two stimuli are presented side by side and subjects must make a comparative judgment (e.g., which stimulus is brighter).

Examining procedural working memory processing in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Previous research has suggested that a deficit in working memory might underlie the difficulty of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients to control their thoughts and actions. However, a recent meta-analyses found only small effect sizes for working memory deficits in OCD. Recently, a distinction has been made between declarative and procedural working memory.

Memory for Action Rules and Reaction Time Variability in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Background: Patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit increased reaction time (RT) variability. This finding is consistent across various choice RT tasks and is considered a core ADHD phenotype, often interpreted as expressing occasional attention lapses. This study explores the selective contribution of perceptual and working memory (WM) processes to increased RT variability in ADHD.

Absolutely relative or relatively absolute: violations of value invariance in human decision making.

Making decisions based on relative rather than absolute information processing is tied to choice optimality via the accumulation of evidence differences and to canonical neural processing via accumulation of evidence ratios. These theoretical frameworks predict invariance of decision latencies to absolute intensities that maintain differences and ratios, respectively. While information about the absolute values of the choice alternatives is not necessary for choosing the best alternative, it may nevertheless hold valuable information about the context of the decision.

Post choice information integration as a causal determinant of confidence: Novel data and a computational account.

Confidence judgments are pivotal in the performance of daily tasks and in many domains of scientific research including the behavioral sciences, psychology and neuroscience. Positive resolution i.e.

Selective influence of working memory load on exceptionally slow reaction times.

The rate of exceptionally slow reaction times (RTs), described by the long tail of the RT distribution, was found to be amplified in a variety of special populations with cognitive deficits (e.g., early-stage Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, low intelligence, elderly).

Synthesis and characterization of a novel controlled release zinc oxide/gentamicin-chitosan composite with potential applications in wounds care.

Freshly prepared ZnO nanoparticles were incorporated into a chitosan solution in weight ratios ranging from 1:1 to 12:1. Starting from the ratio of 3:1 the chitosan solution was transformed into a gel with a high consistency, which incorporates 15mL water for only 0.1g solid substance.

Disentangling decision models: from independence to competition.

A multitude of models have been proposed to account for the neural mechanism of value integration and decision making in speeded decision tasks. While most of these models account for existing data, they largely disagree on a fundamental characteristic of the choice mechanism: independent versus different types of competitive processing. Five models, an independent race model, 2 types of input competition models (normalized race and feed-forward inhibition [FFI]) and 2 types of response competition models (max-minus-next [MMN] diffusion and leaky competing accumulators [LCA]) were compared in 3 combined computational and experimental studies.