Socially-mediated activation in the snake social-decision-making network.

Brain areas important for social perception, social reward, and social behavior - collectively referred to as the social-decision-making network (SDN) - appear to be highly conserved across taxa. These brain areas facilitate a variety of social behaviors such as conspecific approach/avoidance, aggression, mating, parental care, and recognition. Although the SDN has been investigated across taxa, little is known about its functioning in reptiles.

Atomic-Layer Controlled Transition from Inverse Rashba-Edelstein Effect to Inverse Spin Hall Effect in 2D PtSe Probed by THz Spintronic Emission.

2D materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides, are ideal platforms for spin-to-charge conversion (SCC) as they possess strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC), reduced dimensionality and crystal symmetries as well as tuneable band structure, compared to metallic structures. Moreover, SCC can be tuned with the number of layers, electric field, or strain. Here, SCC in epitaxially grown 2D PtSe by THz spintronic emission is studied since its 1T crystal symmetry and strong SOC favor SCC.

Shaping Graphene Superconductivity with Nanometer Precision.

Graphene holds great potential for superconductivity due to its pure 2D nature, the ability to tune its carrier density through electrostatic gating, and its unique, relativistic-like electronic properties. At present, still far from controlling and understanding graphene superconductivity, mainly because the selective introduction of superconducting properties to graphene is experimentally very challenging. Here, a method is developed that enables shaping at will graphene superconductivity through a precise control of graphene-superconductor junctions.

Development and validation of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay to quantify plasma 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol and 27-hydroxycholesterol: A new approach integrating the concept of ion ratio.

Accurate quantification of 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol and 27-hydroxycholesterol holds substantial biological significance due to their involvement in pivotal cellular processes, encompassing cholesterol homeostasis, inflammatory responses, neuronal signaling, and their potential as disease biomarkers. The plasma determination of these oxysterols is challenging considering their low concentrations and similarities in terms of empirical formulae, molecular structure, and physicochemical properties across all human endogenous plasma oxysterols. To overcome these sensitivity and specificity issues, we developed and validated a quantification method using liquid chromatography coupled to a tandem mass spectrometry instrument.

Behavioral evidence for two distinct memory systems in rats.

Serial reaction time tasks, in which subjects have to match a target to a cue, are used to explore whether non-human animals have multiple memory systems. Predictable sub-sequences embedded in the sequence of cues are responded to faster, demonstrating incidental learning, often considered implicit. Here, we used the serial implicit learning task (SILT) to determine whether rats' memory shows similar effects.

Observation of Yu-Shiba-Rusinov States in Superconducting Graphene.

When magnetic atoms are inserted inside a superconductor, the superconducting order is locally depleted as a result of the antagonistic nature of magnetism and superconductivity. Thereby, distinctive spectral features, known as Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states, appear inside the superconducting gap. The search for Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in different materials is intense, as they can be used as building blocks to promote Majorana modes suitable for topological quantum computing.

Bound Hole States Associated to Individual Vanadium Atoms Incorporated into Monolayer WSe_{2}.

Doping a two-dimensional semiconductor with magnetic atoms is a possible route to induce magnetism in the material. We report on the atomic structure and electronic properties of monolayer WSe_{2} intentionally doped with vanadium atoms by means of scanning transmission electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Most of the V atoms incorporate at W sites.

Quantum Confinement of Dirac Quasiparticles in Graphene Patterned with Sub-Nanometer Precision.

Quantum confinement of graphene Dirac-like electrons in artificially crafted nanometer structures is a long sought goal that would provide a strategy to selectively tune the electronic properties of graphene, including bandgap opening or quantization of energy levels. However, creating confining structures with nanometer precision in shape, size, and location remains an experimental challenge, both for top-down and bottom-up approaches. Moreover, Klein tunneling, offering an escape route to graphene electrons, limits the efficiency of electrostatic confinement.

Effects of chronic nicotine exposure on Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol-induced locomotor activity and neural activation in male and female adolescent and adult rats.

Rationale: High rates of comorbid tobacco and cannabis use in adolescents and young adults may be related to functional interactions between the nicotinic cholinergic and cannabinoid systems in the brain during development. This study examined the effects of chronic exposure to nicotine (the psychoactive component in tobacco) on acute exposure to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (the psychoactive component of cannabis).

Methods: Male and female adolescent and adult Sprague-Dawley rats (N = 112) were injected daily with nicotine (1 mg/kg, i.

Chronic nicotine exposure attenuates the effects of Δ -tetrahydrocannabinol on anxiety-related behavior and social interaction in adult male and female rats.

Introduction: Anxiogenic and anxiolytic effects of cannabinoids are mediated by different mechanisms, including neural signaling via cannabinoid receptors (CBRs) and nicotinic cholinergic receptors (nAChRs). This study examined the effects of prior nicotine (the psychoactive component in tobacco) exposure on behavioral sensitivity to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the psychoactive component of cannabis) challenge in animals.

Methods: Male and female adult Sprague-Dawley rats (N = 96) were injected daily with nicotine (1 mg/kg, i.

Motor resonance during linguistic processing as shown by EEG in a naturalistic VR environment.

Embodied cognition studies have shown motor resonance during action language processing, indicating that linguistic representations are at least partially multimodal. However, constraints of this activation linked to linguistic and extra-linguistic context, function and timing have not yet been fully explored. Importantly, embodied cognition binds social and physical contexts to cognition, suggesting that more ecologically valid contexts will yield more valid measures of cognitive processing.

Brain metabolism and related connectivity in patients with acrophobia treated by virtual reality therapy: an F-FDG PET pilot study sensitized by virtual exposure.

Background: The aim of this pilot study is to investigate the impact of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) on brain metabolism and connectivity. Eighteen patients with acrophobia were assessed by an F-FDG PET scan sensitized by virtual exposure before treatment, and nine of them were assessed again after eight sessions of VRET. Statistical Parametric Mapping was used to study the correlations between metabolism and pretherapeutic clinical scores and to compare metabolism before and after VRET (p voxel < 0.

Establishment of reference intervals for the salivary cortisol circadian cycle, by electrochemiluminescence (ECLIA), in healthy adults.

Objectives: To determine salivary cortisol reference intervals in a healthy adult population, at 6 different time points during a 24-hour (h) period.

Methods: In a prospective study, salivary cortisol concentrations were measured upon waking, one-hour post-waking and at specific times of the day: at 12 h00, 16 h00, 20 h00 and midnight. Samples were analyzed by the first and second-generation electrochemiluminescence assays (ECLIA) from Roche Cobas Cortisol®.

Beyond van der Waals Interaction: The Case of MoSe Epitaxially Grown on Few-Layer Graphene.

Van der Waals heterojunctions composed of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides have gain much attention because of the possibility to control and tailor band structure, promising applications in two-dimensional optoelectronics and electronics. In this report, we characterized the van der Waals heterojunction MoSe/few-layer graphene with a high-quality interface using cutting-edge surface techniques scaling from atomic to microscopic range. These surface analyses gave us a complete picture of the atomic structure and electronic properties of the heterojunction.

Weakly Trapped, Charged, and Free Excitons in Single-Layer MoS in the Presence of Defects, Strain, and Charged Impurities.

Few- and single-layer MoS host substantial densities of defects. They are thought to influence the doping level, the crystal structure, and the binding of electron-hole pairs. We disentangle the concomitant spectroscopic expression of all three effects and identify to what extent they are intrinsic to the material or extrinsic to it, i.

Multiple Transcriptional and Post-transcriptional Pathways Collaborate to Control Sense and Antisense RNAs of Tf2 Retroelements in Fission Yeast.

Retrotransposons are mobile genetic elements that colonize eukaryotic genomes by replicating through an RNA intermediate. As retrotransposons can move within the host genome, defense mechanisms have evolved to repress their potential mutagenic activities. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the mRNA of Tf2 long terminal repeat retrotransposons is targeted for degradation by the 3'-5' exonucleolytic activity of the exosome-associated protein Rrp6.

Comparison of two methods for measuring 25-OH vitamin D in the follow-up of patients after bilio-pancreatic diversion bariatric surgery.

Objective: Our objective was to compare the ECLIA from Roche versus the LC-MS/MS method for quantitation of serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D in patients who have undergone bariatric surgery.

Design And Methods: Cross-sectional and correlational studies were performed on three different groups for the 25-OH-D levels quantitated by both methods. The control group of apparently healthy subjects was randomly selected in a clinical chemistry laboratory.

Atomic-scale control of graphene magnetism by using hydrogen atoms.

Isolated hydrogen atoms absorbed on graphene are predicted to induce magnetic moments. Here we demonstrate that the adsorption of a single hydrogen atom on graphene induces a magnetic moment characterized by a ~20-millielectron volt spin-split state at the Fermi energy. Our scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments, complemented by first-principles calculations, show that such a spin-polarized state is essentially localized on the carbon sublattice opposite to the one where the hydrogen atom is chemisorbed.

Being Present In Space: The Role Of Allocentric And Egocentric Reference Frames.

The general aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of an interactive aerial view of the experienced environment during the encoding and retrieving of spatial information on the feeling of presence. Our findings showed that this real-time interactive aerial view (both small and large) during the encoding and retrieval of spatial information seems to led to a greater sense of presence. It is argued that the use of this aerial view, which provides a real-time allocentric viewpoint-dependent spatial representation, would ease the translation of a stored allocentric representation into an egocentric one, and this process, consequently, would help individuals to feel present in space.

[NUTRITIONAL STATUS ASSESSMENT IN PATIENTS WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS].

Prognosis of cystic fibrosis has been largely modified over the past 30 years. Optimization of nutrition is one of the most important contributing factors of this improvement. Nutritional defect result from the conjunction of loss of calories, maldigestion, hypercatabolism and insufficient intake.

Do not get lost in translation: The role of egocentric heading in spatial orientation.

Much is known about how different spatial reference frames continually interact to support spatial navigation, but less explored is whether it is more crucial to process object-to-object information or egocentric heading information for effective orientation in a cluttered environment. To address this question, we evaluated the possible influence on spatial performance of an interactive aerial view of different scale (small vs. large) comprising an arrow indicating participants' egocentric heading.

Single photon emitters in exfoliated WSe2 structures.

Crystal structure imperfections in solids often act as efficient carrier trapping centres, which, when suitably isolated, act as sources of single photon emission. The best known examples of such attractive imperfections are well-width or composition fluctuations in semiconductor heterostructures (resulting in the formation of quantum dots) and coloured centres in wide-bandgap materials such as diamond. In the recently investigated thin films of layered compounds, the crystal imperfections may logically be expected to appear at the edges of commonly investigated few-layer flakes of these materials exfoliated on alien substrates.

Comparative effects of pulmonary and parenteral Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol exposure on extinction of opiate-induced conditioned aversion in rats.

Rationale: Evidence suggesting that the endogenous cannabinoid (eCB) system can be manipulated to facilitate or impair extinction of learned behaviours has important consequences for opiate withdrawal and abstinence. We demonstrated that the fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor URB597, which increases eCB levels, facilitates extinction of a naloxone-precipitated morphine withdrawal-induced conditioned place aversion (CPA).

Objectives: The potential of the exogenous CB1 ligand, Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC), to facilitate extinction of this CPA was tested.

A vapourized Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC) delivery system part I: development and validation of a pulmonary cannabinoid route of exposure for experimental pharmacology studies in rodents.

Introduction: Most studies evaluating the effects of Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC) in animal models administer it via a parenteral route (e.g., intraperitoneal (IP) or intravenous injection (IV)), however, the common route of administration for human users is pulmonary (e.