Bacteriophages Phi 8 and Phi 12 host infection are inhibited by OMVs and LPS purified from strain: East River Isolate A.

Unlabelled: is a family of double stranded RNA (dsRNA) phage that infects various strains of , a Gram-negative soil bacteria known to infect various crops. Surrounding the icosahedral capsids of these phages is a bacterial derived phospholipid membrane. Embedded within this membrane is a multi-component protein complex, referred to as the spike complex.

Introducing a Real-Time Method for Identifying the Predictors of Noncompliance with Event-Based Reporting of Tobacco Use in Ecological Momentary Assessment.

Background: Little is known about the factors that bias event-based (i.e., self-initiated) reporting of health behaviors in ecological momentary assessment (EMA) due to the difficulty inherent to tracking failures to self-initiate reports.

Association between empathy and drinking among a community sample of heavy drinkers: Sex differences and neural correlates.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a major health problem, yet most individuals with AUD do not perceive a need for formal treatment and do not receive treatment. The lack of treatment seeking among individuals with AUD may suggest a lack of self-awareness and insight into the seriousness of AUD related problems, as well as lack of empathy for the impact of one's drinking on others. Recent work has suggested that empathy may be impaired among individuals seeking treatment for AUD.

The Indirect Relationship Between Interpersonal Trauma History and Alcohol Use via Negative Cognitions in a Multisite Alcohol Treatment Sample.

Although interpersonal trauma history (ITH) is frequently associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD), little is known about specific psychological constructs that may indirectly link these phenomena. This study hypothesized that one such construct may be negative cognitive schemas that often emerge in the aftermath of trauma. Secondary latent variable modeling was conducted using the Project MATCH sample of adults receiving treatment for AUD ( = 1726; 24.

Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) not detected in an intensive survey of wild North American amphibians.

The salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans [Bsal]) is causing massive mortality of salamanders in Europe. The potential for spread via international trade into North America and the high diversity of salamanders has catalyzed concern about Bsal in the U.S.

Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Identification of the Disorder and Management of Psychiatric Symptoms.

Background: The novelty of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, for which somatic treatments have only recently been developed, has led to a lack of information on assessment and treatment of its variable behavioral manifestations.

Method: In this article, we discuss 4 challenging cases of anti-NMDAR encephalitis, focusing on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to identification and management of the disorder and the necessity of close collaboration in the acute hospital setting for management of the behavioral symptoms.

Conclusion: The cases we discuss highlight some of the medication and nonpharmacologic treatment strategies that may facilitate management of psychiatric symptoms, both while the medical workup is ongoing and after the diagnosis has been confirmed.

Decreases in the Late Positive Potential to Alcohol Images Among Alcohol Treatment Seekers Following Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention.

Aim: Heightened craving among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been attributed to a hypersensitivity to alcohol cues in attentional brain networks. Active mindfulness training has been shown to help improve attentional control. Here, we examined alcohol cue-related hypersensitivity among individuals with AUD who received rolling group mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) in combination with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), over right inferior frontal gyrus.

Dose-Dependent Effects of Closed-Loop tACS Delivered During Slow-Wave Oscillations on Memory Consolidation.

Sleep is critically important to consolidate information learned throughout the day. Slow-wave sleep (SWS) serves to consolidate declarative memories, a process previously modulated with open-loop non-invasive electrical stimulation, though not always effectively. These failures to replicate could be explained by the fact that stimulation has only been performed in open-loop, as opposed to closed-loop where phase and frequency of the endogenous slow-wave oscillations (SWOs) are matched for optimal timing.

The Benefits of Closed-Loop Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Subjective Sleep Quality.

Background: Poor sleep quality is a common complaint, affecting over one third of people in the United States. While sleep quality is thought to be related to slow-wave sleep (SWS), there has been little investigation to address whether modulating slow-wave oscillations (SWOs) that characterize SWS could impact sleep quality. Here we examined whether closed-loop transcranial alternating current stimulation (CL-tACS) applied during sleep impacts sleep quality and efficiency.

Emergence of Lissajous Patterns as a Function of a Perturbation Frequency in Postural Responses to the Short Sinusoidal Translations of Varying Frequencies.

The existence of in-phase and anti-phase postural responses to sinusoidal perturbations to the base of support is well known. In this study, we investigate if such coordinated postural responses exist at 'near-sway' perturbations where the perturbation amplitudes are kept within the range of normal sway lengths in healthy adults (n=10). The postural responses are analyzed via bursts of anterior-posterior (AP) 2.

Mindfulness-based training with transcranial direct current stimulation modulates neuronal resource allocation in working memory: A randomized pilot study with a nonequivalent control group.

Mindfulness-based training (MBT) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) methods such as direct current stimulation (tDCS) have demonstrated promise for the augmentation of cognitive abilities. The current study investigated the potential compatibility of concurrent "electrical" MBT and tDCS (or eMBT) by testing its combined effects on behavioral and neurophysiological indices of working memory (WM) and attentional resource allocation. Thirty-four healthy participants were randomly assigned to either a MBT task with tDCS group (eMBT) or an active control training task with sham tDCS (Control) group.

Mental State Assessment and Validation Using Personalized Physiological Biometrics.

Mental state monitoring is a critical component of current and future human-machine interfaces, including semi-autonomous driving and flying, air traffic control, decision aids, training systems, and will soon be integrated into ubiquitous products like cell phones and laptops. Current mental state assessment approaches supply quantitative measures, but their only frame of reference is generic population-level ranges. What is needed are physiological biometrics that are validated in the context of task performance of individuals.

Mindfulness-based interventions for addictive behaviors: Implementation issues on the road ahead.

Over the past 35 years, mindfulness meditation practices have increasingly been integrated into Western medical settings. Research into the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) continues to expand, such that there are currently more than a dozen different protocolled MBIs for patients suffering from a variety of physical and psychological disorders. In the last decade, a number of MBIs specifically designed to treat addictive behaviors have been developed and tested.

Modulating affective experience and emotional intelligence with loving kindness meditation and transcranial direct current stimulation: A pilot study.

Positive emotional perceptions and healthy emotional intelligence (EI) are important for social functioning. In this study, we investigated whether loving kindness meditation (LKM) combined with anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would facilitate improvements in EI and changes in affective experience of visual stimuli. LKM has been shown to increase positive emotional experiences and we hypothesized that tDCS could enhance these effects.

Relationship between empathic processing and drinking behavior in project MATCH.

Introduction: Family relationships, social connectedness and a greater network of supportive others each predict better drinking outcomes among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). The association between social factors and drinking may be related to the ability of individuals to take the perspectives of others' mental and emotional states, defined as empathic processing (EP). As such, it may be the case that EP is associated with social support (SS) and drinking behavior among individuals with AUD, yet few prior studies have attempted to define EP in an AUD sample.

Name that tune: Mitigation of driver fatigue via a song naming game.

Fatigued driving contributes to a substantial number of motor vehicle accidents each year. Music listening is often employed as a countermeasure during driving in order to mitigate the effects of fatigue. Though music listening has been established as a distractor in the sense that it increases cognitive load during driving, it is possible that increased cognitive load is desirable under particular circumstances.

Using multiple placements of accelerometers to measure cardiovascular pulse transit times.

To measure pulse transit times (PTT) and calculate pulse wave velocities (PWV), tri-axial and uniaxial accelerometers were placed in groups of 2 to 4 over the manubrium, xiphoid process, forehead, wrist and ankle, and/or over the carotid, femoral, and posterior auricular arteries in 11 consented supine subjects. Signals were sampled at 1 kHz and filtered. Radial vectors were calculated from the tri-axial measurements.

How Much Is Too Much? Patterns of Drinking During Alcohol Treatment and Associations With Post-Treatment Outcomes Across Three Alcohol Clinical Trials.

Objective: This secondary data analysis examined patterns of drinking during alcohol treatment and associated drinking outcomes during the first year following treatment. The goal was to provide clinicians with guidance on which patients may be most at risk for negative long-term outcomes based on drinking patterns during treatment.

Method: This study was an analysis of existing data (N = 3,851) from three randomized clinical trials for alcohol use disorder: the COMBINE Study (n = 1,383), Project MATCH (n = 1,726), and the United Kingdom Alcohol Treatment Trial (n = 742).

Enhanced working memory performance via transcranial direct current stimulation: The possibility of near and far transfer.

Although working memory (WM) training programs consistently result in improvement on the trained task, benefit is typically short-lived and extends only to tasks very similar to the trained task (i.e., near transfer).

Program Success of Mental Health Clients in Day Reporting Centers.

Day-reporting centers (DRCs) provide programming for probationers with a history of non-compliant behavior related to substance abuse, who are overrepresented among justice-involved men and women. While evaluations of DRCs demonstrate some effectiveness, results are mixed and less is known about predictors of program success. This evaluation compared indicators of program success between adult offenders with a substance use disorder (n = 144) and those with co-morbid mental illness (n = 113) at three DRCs.

Using fuzzy logic in psychophysical experiments to separate hits, false positives and guesses in posturally perturbed standing subjects.

In a 2-Alternative Forced Choice Interval task (2AFCi), a standing subject is required to press a button once or twice to signal in which of two 4 s sequential intervals that (s)he thought that a short ≤ 16 mm postural perturbation had occurred. The perturbation might or might not result in transient changes of the subject's Anterior-Posterior Center of Pressure (APCOP) or in other measures. This paper used fuzzy inference to explore whether the correctness of a subject's stimulus detection can be gleaned from analyzing changes in one of more metrics related to changes in the APCOP.

Dependence of elbow joint stiffness measurements on speed, angle, and muscle contraction level.

Elbow joint stiffness is critical to positioning the hand. Abnormal elbow joint stiffness may affect a person's ability to participate in activities of daily living. In this work, elbow joint stiffness was measured in ten healthy young adults with a device adapted from one previously used to measure stiffness in other joints.

Telephone based cognitive behavioral therapy targeting major depression among urban dwelling, low income people living with HIV/AIDS: results of a randomized controlled trial.

Unlabelled: This pilot randomized controlled trial evaluated a previously developed manualized telephone based cognitive behavioral therapy (T-CBT) intervention compared to face-to-face (f2f) therapy among low-income, urban dwelling HIV infected depressed individuals. The primary outcome was the reduction of depressive symptoms as measured by the Hamliton rating scale for depression scale. The secondary outcome was adherence to HAART as measured by random telephone based pill counts.

Medical inpatients' adherence to outpatient psychiatric aftercare: a prospective study of patients evaluated by an inpatient consultation liaison psychiatry service.

Objective: This study sought to determine whether patients on psychiatric medication evaluated by inpatient consultation psychiatrists followed up with psychiatric aftercare and continued psychiatric medication 8 weeks post-discharge. Barriers to care and their effect on aftercare follow-up were assessed.

Method: This was a prospective study of a consecutive sample of adults who received a psychiatric consultation and were prescribed psychotropic medication during hospitalization on the general medical or surgical inpatient units at the University of Maryland Medical Center.