Action prediction in psychosis.

Aberrant motor-sensory predictive functions have been linked to symptoms of psychosis, particularly reduced attenuation of self-generated sensations and misattribution of self-generated actions. Building on the parallels between prediction of self- and other-generated actions, this study aims to investigate whether individuals with psychosis also demonstrate abnormal perceptions and predictions of others' actions. Patients with psychosis and matched controls completed a two-alternative object size discrimination task.

Blind people can actively manipulate virtual objects with a novel tactile device.

Frequently in rehabilitation, visually impaired persons are passive agents of exercises with fixed environmental constraints. In fact, a printed tactile map, i.e.

Enabling visually impaired people to learn three-dimensional tactile graphics with a 3DOF haptic mouse.

Background: In this work, we present a novel sensory substitution system that enables to learn three dimensional digital information via touch when vision is unavailable. The system is based on a mouse-shaped device, designed to jointly perceive, with one finger only, local tactile height and inclination cues of arbitrary scalar fields. The device hosts a tactile actuator with three degrees of freedom: elevation, roll and pitch.

Stapled Peptides-A Useful Improvement for Peptide-Based Drugs.

Peptide-based drugs, despite being relegated as niche pharmaceuticals for years, are now capturing more and more attention from the scientific community. The main problem for these kinds of pharmacological compounds was the low degree of cellular uptake, which relegates the application of peptide-drugs to extracellular targets. In recent years, many new techniques have been developed in order to bypass the intrinsic problem of this kind of pharmaceuticals.

Electrocyclic Ring-Opening of 1,2,4-Oxadiazole[4,5-]piridinium Chloride: a New Route to 1,2,4-Oxadiazole Dienamino Compounds.

1,2,4-Oxadiazole[4,5-]piridinium chloride adds nucleophiles to undergo electrocyclic ring opening affording 1,2,4-oxadiazole dienamino derivatives. These pyridinium salts represent a special class of Zincke salts that are prone to rearrange when treated with primary amines or in the presence of bicarbonate to give the pyridones. The pivotal tuning of the experimental conditions leads to a straightforward synthesis of valuable 1,2,4-oxadiazole dienamine derivatives.