Publications by authors named "K Spry"
Cyclic arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid peptide (cRGD) peptides show a high affinity towards αVβ3 integrin, a receptor overexpressed in many cancers. We aimed to combine the versatility of ultrasmall gold nanoparticles (usGNP) with the target selectivity of cRGD peptide for the directed delivery of a cytotoxic payload in a novel design. usGNPs were synthesized with a modified Brust-Schiffrin method and functionalized via amide coupling and ligand exchange and their uptake, intracellular trafficking, and toxicity were characterized.
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- Psychiatric diagnoses in the DSM-5 rely on self-reported symptoms and clinician assessments, but this approach may hinder deeper scientific investigations into the root causes of mental health issues.
- The reward prediction error (RPE) hypothesis of dopamine neuron function suggests that dopamine signals reflect the difference between what people expect to receive as a reward and what they actually experience, but current models mainly emphasize reward processing and overlook the role of punishment learning.
- This review focuses on four psychiatric disorders—addiction, schizophrenia, depression, and PTSD—examining how insights from reinforcement learning theory can improve understanding of dopaminergic mechanisms linked to these disorders, stressing the need for more research on punishment learning in psychiatric contexts.
Object recognition tasks are widely used assays for studying learning and memory in rodents. Object recognition typically involves familiarizing mice with a set of objects and then presenting a novel object or displacing an object to a novel location or context. Learning and memory are inferred by a relative increase in time investigating the novel/displaced object.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Medication reconciliation is an essential, but resource-intensive process without a "gold standard" to measure medication adherence. Medication reconciliation applications that focus on facilitating clinicians' decision-making are needed. Since no single available source of medication information is adequate, combining data sources may improve usefulness and outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study analyzed the use of mechanical restraints and psychotropic medication in Alzheimer special care units (SCUs) in nursing homes.
Methods: We analyzed 1993 data for more than 71,000 nursing home residents in 4 states, including more than 1,100 residents in 48 SCUs. The dependent variable in multinomial logistic regression was use of physical restraints or psychotropic medication.