Mastering the game of Stratego with model-free multiagent reinforcement learning.

We introduce DeepNash, an autonomous agent that plays the imperfect information game Stratego at a human expert level. Stratego is one of the few iconic board games that artificial intelligence (AI) has not yet mastered. It is a game characterized by a twin challenge: It requires long-term strategic thinking as in chess, but it also requires dealing with imperfect information as in poker.

Multiagent off-screen behavior prediction in football.

In multiagent worlds, several decision-making individuals interact while adhering to the dynamics constraints imposed by the environment. These interactions, combined with the potential stochasticity of the agents' dynamic behaviors, make such systems complex and interesting to study from a decision-making perspective. Significant research has been conducted on learning models for forward-direction estimation of agent behaviors, for example, pedestrian predictions used for collision-avoidance in self-driving cars.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) add-on therapy for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia: a meta-analysis.

Background: Negative symptoms are among the most chronic symptoms of schizophrenia. Even with the advent of atypical antipsychotic drugs, negative symptoms remain mostly refractory to treatment. It has been proposed that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) augmentation therapy in schizophrenia could provide a greater relief of these symptoms.

Quetiapine augmentation of treatment-resistant depression: a comparison with lithium.

Objective: The prevalence of and morbidity associated with treatment-resistant depression has motivated the exploration of treatment alternatives. In this study, quetiapine was compared with lithium in the augmentation of treatment-resistant depression.

Research Design And Methods: Open-label, comparative study in 20 patients with major depression who had failed to respond after 4 weeks of treatment with an antidepressant at the maximal recommended dose.

Quetiapine in patients with comorbid schizophrenia-spectrum and substance use disorders: an open-label trial.

Background: Preliminary evidence suggests that clozapine relieves the craving for psychoactive substances in schizophrenia patients. Quetiapine shares crucial pharmacological properties with clozapine. Promising results have been described with quetiapine therapy in patients with psychosis and substance use disorder.

Impact of a unilateral brain lesion on cortisol secretion and emotional state: anterior/posterior dissociation in humans.

The main goal of this study was to evaluate whether a unilateral brain lesion in a human population is associated with a modification of the circadian cortisol secretion profile, and/or patient's emotional state. The second goal of this study was to assess whether there would be differences in both the pattern of cortisol secretion and emotional state in brain-damaged patients as a function of side of lesion, and localization (anterior vs posterior) of lesion. Eight patients with a left cortical lesion, six patients with a right cortical lesion, four patients with basal ganglia lesions (2 left and 2 right) and ten healthy volunteers were evaluated daily on measures of salivary cortisol levels and subjective feelings of joy and sadness at 0700, 1200, 1600 and 1900 hours over a 15-day period.

Strategies of collaboration between general practitioners and psychiatrists: a survey of practitioners' opinions and characteristics.

Background: The description of collaboration models and the key underlying principles provide important information for designing services. However, to apply this broad corpus of information to clinical services and policymaking, we need to know which key principles (or strategies) of collaboration are the most accepted by local physicians.

Method: In this context, we designed a survey that included 2 objectives: 1) to collect the opinions of practising general practitioners (GPs) and psychiatrists in Montreal with respect to strategies for improving collaboration between these 2 groups and 2) to identify demographic and practice characteristics of those physicians associated with the acceptance of such strategies.

Effect of antidepressants on ATP-dependent calcium uptake by neuronal endoplasmic reticulum.

This study investigated the effect of tricyclic and atypical antidepressants on adenosine triphosphate (ATP) dependent calcium uptake by the endoplasmic reticulum of lysed synaptosomes from rat brain cortex. Tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine, desipramine, clomipramine, amitriptyline) exhibited no effect in the lower range (0.06 to 2 microM) of drug concentrations, and a concentration-dependent inhibition of calcium uptake in the upper range (6 to 200 microM).

Accuracy of the Pepin method to determine appropriate lithium dosages in healthy volunteers.

Objective: To assess if the lithium dosage prescribed according to the Pepin method leads to therapeutic serum concentrations of lithium.

Methods: For 13 healthy volunteers, the initial daily doses of lithium were calculated according to the Pepin formula with a view to obtaining a serum lithium level of 0.8 mmol/L.

Effects of chronic antidepressant treatments on 5-HT and NA transporters in rat brain: an autoradiographic study.

Tricyclic antidepressants and serotonin (5-HT) uptake inhibitors rapidly block uptake sites, or transporters; however, their therapeutic effects are only seen after 2-3 weeks of treatment. Thus, direct blockade of 5-HT and noradrenaline (NA) transporters cannot account entirely for their clinical efficacy, and other long-term changes may be involved. Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were treated for 21 days with daily injections of either desipramine, trimipramine, fluoxetine, or venlafaxine; a fifth group that was used as a control, received daily saline injections.

Interaction between dopamine and glutamate receptors following treatment with NMDA receptor antagonists.

Interactions between dopamine and glutamate neurotransmission have been reported to play an important role in a number of different systems. We were interested in examining the effects of sub-chronic treatment with NMDA receptor antagonists (dizocilpine [MK-801], and 3-carboxy-piperazin-propyl phosphonic acid [CPP]) on dopamine D(1)-like, dopamine D(2)-like, as well as glutamate receptors of the NMDA and AMPA receptor subtypes in the neostriatum and substantia nigra of rats that had received a massive dopamine denervation at 3 days of age. Using quantitative ligand binding autoradiography, we demonstrated that the two NMDA receptor antagonists did not have different profiles of action.

Sleep latency is shortened during 4 weeks of treatment with zaleplon, a novel nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic. Zaleplon Clinical Study Group.

Background: Zaleplon is a short-acting pyrazolopyrimidine hypnotic with a rapid onset of action. This multicenter study compared the efficacy and safety of 3 doses of zaleplon with those of placebo in outpatients with DSM-III-R insomnia. Zolpidem, 10 mg, was used as an active comparator.

Psychological distress and adaptational problems associated with discontinuation of benzodiazepines.

This study compared subjects who had received standard tapered withdrawal of benzodiazepine (BZD) (group 1) with a group with comparable diagnosis still receiving BZD (group 2) and a control group of comparable diagnosis not yet receiving treatment (group 3). Sixty subjects aged 21-65 years with a diagnosis of nonpsychotic anxiety or insomnia were included. The assessment of psychological distress and quality of life was timed to coincide with the maximum immediate effect of BZD discontinuation, as calculated according to drug half-life.

Occupational asthma caused by isocyanates: patterns of asthmatic reactions to increasing day-to-day doses.

Inhalation challenges to isocyanates are conducted in specialized centers to confirm occupational asthma. The pattern of asthmatic reactions due to consecutively increasing daily doses of isocyanates is unknown. We conducted a study involving 24 subjects who had undergone specific inhalation challenges to isocyanates (toluene diisocyanate [TDI], n = 8; hexamethylene diisocyanate [HDI], n = 10; and methylene diisocyanate [MDI], n = 6) on three or more consecutive days.

Amantadine hydrochloride treatment in olivopontocerebellar atrophy: a long-term follow-up study.

The efficacy of amantadine, a dopamine-releasing agent and antagonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor, was evaluated in patients with olivopontocerebellar atrophy. By contrast to an untreated control group whose terminal performance deteriorated on 8 of 8 measurements of reaction time and movement time, patients treated with amantadine for a mean duration of over 40 months had improved performances in 1 of 4 reaction time measurements and in 3 of 4 movement time measurements and remained stable on the others. These results demonstrate long-term benefits of amantadine in olivopontocerebellar atrophy-induced deficits of movement initiation and movement completion.

Inhibition of K+-induced Ca2+ uptake in rat hippocampus synaptosomes by mianserin enantiomers.

In order to test potential links with other stereospecific neurobiological effects of mianserin, the present study explored the stereospecificity for inhibition of depolarization-induced Ca2+ uptake by mianserin. Synaptosomes from rat hippocampus were incubated with 45Ca2+ in either resting or depolarizing (60 mM K+) choline medium, in the absence or presence (0.6-200 microM) of a mianserin enantiomer.

Isolation and characterization of Ehrlichia chaffeensis strains from patients with fatal ehrlichiosis.

Two new isolates of Ehrlichia chaffeensis (designated Jax and St. Vincent) were obtained from patients with fatal ehrlichial infections. Patients developed characteristic manifestations of severe disease due to E.

Atypical antidepressants inhibit depolarization-induced calcium uptake in rat hippocampus synaptosomes.

The effect of the atypical antidepressants mianserin, iprindole, and fluoxetine on synaptosomal calcium uptake was tested under conditions where a selective action on voltage-dependent calcium channels can be documented. Synaptosomes from rat hippocampus were incubated with 45calcium either in choline-rich medium or in depolarizing (60 mM K+) choline-rich medium, and drug effects on calcium uptake in these two conditions, as well as on the net depolarization-induced calcium uptake, were studied in the range of concentrations 0.6-200 microM.

Amantadine hydrochloride treatment in heredodegenerative ataxias: a double blind study.

Objective: A group of 27 patients with Friedreich's ataxia and another group of 30 patients with olivopontocerebellar atrophies were each randomly divided into two subgroups, one receiving placebo and the other amantadine hydrochloride (AH; 200 mg daily) for three to four months.

Methods: The effect of double blind treatment was evaluated by simple visual and auditory reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) for both right and left hands.

Results: The subgroup with olivopontocerebellar atrophies receiving AH showed significant improvement on seven out of eight variables studied by analysis of covariance.

Involvement of the 12-lipoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism in homosynaptic long-term depression of the rat hippocampus.

Low-frequency stimulation is associated with long-term depression (LTD) of synaptic efficacy in various brain structures. Like long-term potentiation (LTP), homosynaptic LTD in area CA1 of the hippocampus appears to require NMDA receptor activation, changes in postsynaptic calcium concentration and phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activation. Arachidonic acid (AA) is released after the activation of calcium-dependent phospholipases and free AA is rapidly metabolized to a family of bioactive products (the eicosanoids) which are thought to be both intracellular and extracellular messengers.

Differential effect of desipramine and 2-hydroxydesipramine on depolarization-induced calcium uptake in synaptosomes from rat limbic sites.

This study was conducted to investigate the inhibition of synaptosomal 45Ca uptake by desipramine and its major metabolite 2-hydroxydesipramine in the rat hippocampus and cingulate cortex, areas associated with emotional control. A concentration-dependent inhibition of net depolarization-induced 45Ca uptake was observed for desipramine (20-200 microM) in synaptosomes from both sites. However, 20 microM 2-hydroxydesipramine failed to inhibit calcium channel function in either of the two limbic sites; higher concentrations (60 or 200 microM) did produce a minor degree of inhibition in hippocampus synaptosomes.

The treatment of avoidant personality disorder by social skills training in the clinic or in real-life settings.

Twenty-eight outpatients who met DSM-III diagnostic criteria for avoidant personality disorder completed 14 one and a half hour sessions of social skills training in the clinic only or a combination of four sessions in the clinic, four sessions in real-life and six follow-up sessions in the clinic. Subjects were assessed before treatment began, after four sessions, at the end of treatment and at three month follow-up points. Training in real-life did not enhance social skills training; no significant difference between the groups at any assessment points was found.