Behavioral mechanisms of oxycodone's effects in female and male rats: II. Reinforcement magnitude and implications for impulsive/risky choice.

Rats responded under a concurrent-chains procedure wherein reinforcement magnitude was varied within sessions and oxycodone's effects on sensitivity to magnitude were evaluated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, the alternative providing the larger magnitude was signaled and effects of acute (0.1-1.

Transcriptomic balance and optimal growth are determined by cell size.

Cell size and growth are intimately related across the evolutionary scale, but whether cell size is important to attain maximal growth or fitness is still an open question. We show that growth rate is a non-monotonic function of cell volume, with maximal values around the critical size of wild-type yeast cells. The transcriptome of yeast and mouse cells undergoes a relative inversion in response to cell size, which we associate theoretically and experimentally with the necessary genome-wide diversity in RNA polymerase II affinity for promoters.

Healthy ageing in a multi-ethnic population: A descriptive cross-sectional analysis from the HELIUS study.

Objective: We investigated ethnic health disparities in the Healthy Life in an Urban Setting multi-ethnic cohort using the multidimensional Healthy Ageing Score.

Study Design: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the study baseline data (2011-2015) collected through questionnaires/physical examinations for 17,091 participants (54.8 % women, mean (SD) age = 44.

Development and External Validation of a Home-based Risk Prediction Model of Natural Onset of Menopause-Teuta.

Objective: To develop and externally validate a 10-year risk prediction model of natural onset of menopause using ready-to-use predictors.

Design: Population-based prospective cohort study.

Participants: Community-dwelling, premenopausal women aged 28 years and older enrolled in the Swiss (CoLaus) and Dutch (PREVEND) study.

Activity-based anorexia alters hypothalamic POMC and orexin populations in male rats.

The objective of this study was to investigate the orexin and POMC populations in the hypothalamic nuclei of male Wistar rats after the activity-based anorexia (ABA) procedure. Four groups were established based on food restriction and activity: activity (A), ABA, diet (D) and control (C). The ABA protocol consisted of free access to a running wheel for a period of 22 h and access to food for 1 h.

Stimulus control of actions and habits: A role for reinforcer predictability and attention in the development of habitual behavior.

Goal-directed actions are instrumental behaviors whose performance depends on the organism's knowledge of the reinforcing outcome's value. In contrast, habits are instrumental behaviors that are insensitive to the outcome's current value. Although habits in everyday life are typically controlled by stimuli that occasion them, most research has studied habits using free-operant procedures in which no discrete stimuli are present to occasion the response.

Exercise, diet, and the reinforcing value of food in an animal model of anorexia nervosa.

Activity-based anorexia (ABA) develops when laboratory rats are subjected to a single meal per day and have access to an activity wheel for the remaining time. Here, we studied the contribution of exercise and diet to the reinforcing value of food during ABA development. Three groups of eight adult male Wistar rats were used: an ABA group with 21.

Managing Complications in Abdominoplasty: A Literature Review.

Background: Abdominoplasty, with or without liposuction, is among the most frequently performed aesthetic procedures. Its main objective is to improve the body contour by means of excising redundant skin and fat tissue. Although abdominoplasty is considered a safe procedure with high satisfaction rates, intraoperative and postoperative complications can become a challenge for the surgical team.

Personality, Cortisol, and Cognition in Non-demented Elderly Subjects: Results from a Population-Based Study.

Certain personality traits, in particular higher neuroticism, have been associated, on one hand, with elevated cortisol levels, and on the other hand, with poorer cognitive performance. At the same time, several studies highlighted the association between high cortisol and poor cognitive functioning. Here, we hypothesized that increased cortisol may be associated with poorer cognition and with certain personality traits (mainly high neuroticism), and that personality might explain the association between cortisol and cognition.

[Use of hyperbaric oxygenation for wound management].

Hyperbaric oxygenation consists in exposing patients to increased gas pressures while inhaling pure oxygen. It involves the use of hyperbaric chambers that can double or triple gas pressure inside them. Hyperbaric oxygenation may be useful in different clinical situations, but mostly for the treatment of decompression syndrome.

Inactivation of lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase by natural betalains and semi-synthetic analogues.

Betalains are natural pigments characteristic of plants of the order Caryophyllales. In this work, the role of betalains in the anti-inflammatory activity described for plant extracts is analysed in terms of the inactivation of the enzymes involved in the biochemical response (lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase). Pure natural betalains and semi-synthetic analogues are demonstrated to promote a significant reduction of the enzymes activity.

Descended mouth corner: an ignored but needed feature of facial rejuvenation.

For years, the gold standard in facial rejuvenation has been the face lift. However, exploring new, less complex procedures for achieving the same goal is currently drawing interest. Rejuvenation of the perioral area is a difficult task for plastic surgeons because of the minimal effect that face lift procedures have over this region and the lack of published material on the subject.

Integrability of zero-dimensional replica field theories at β=1.

Building on insights from the theory of integrable lattices, the integrability is claimed for nonlinear replica σ models derived in the context of real symmetric random matrices. Specifically, the fermionic and the bosonic replica partition functions are proven to form a single (supersymmetric) Pfaff-KP hierarchy whose replica limit is shown to reproduce the celebrated nonperturbative formula for the density-density eigenvalue correlation function in the infinite-dimensional Gaussian orthogonal ensemble. Implications of the formalism outlined are briefly discussed.

GWAS of 126,559 individuals identifies genetic variants associated with educational attainment.

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment was conducted in a discovery sample of 101,069 individuals and a replication sample of 25,490. Three independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are genome-wide significant (rs9320913, rs11584700, rs4851266), and all three replicate. Estimated effects sizes are small (coefficient of determination R(2) ≈ 0.

Rapid development of semistarvation-induced hyperactivity in Dark Agouti rats. Excessive wheel running and effect of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).

Clinical studies have found that patients with anorexia develop high activity levels. These data suggest a possible implication of activity in the aetiology of anorexia and are in line with findings obtained in animals during experimental procedures to model interactions between activity and weight loss. Activity-based anorexia (ABA) and semistarvation-induced hyperactivity (SIH) develop when laboratory rats have food access restricted to a single period in the day and are given free access to an activity wheel.

Statistics of reflection eigenvalues in chaotic cavities with nonideal leads.

The scattering matrix approach is employed to determine a joint probability density function of reflection eigenvalues for chaotic cavities coupled to the outside world through both ballistic and tunnel point contacts. Derived under assumption of broken time-reversal symmetry, this result is further utilized to (i) calculate the density and correlation functions of reflection eigenvalues, and (ii) analyze fluctuations properties of the Landauer conductance for the illustrative example of asymmetric chaotic cavity. Further extensions of the theory are pinpointed.

Genome-wide association study identifies loci influencing concentrations of liver enzymes in plasma.

Concentrations of liver enzymes in plasma are widely used as indicators of liver disease. We carried out a genome-wide association study in 61,089 individuals, identifying 42 loci associated with concentrations of liver enzymes in plasma, of which 32 are new associations (P = 10(-8) to P = 10(-190)). We used functional genomic approaches including metabonomic profiling and gene expression analyses to identify probable candidate genes at these regions.

Psychiatric co-morbidities and cardiovascular risk factors in people with lifetime history of epilepsy of an urban community.

Objectives: Depression has been consistently reported in people with epilepsy. Several studies also suggest a higher burden of cardiovascular diseases. We therefore analysed psychosocial co-morbidity and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with a lifetime history of epilepsy in the PsyCoLaus study, a Swiss urban population-based assessment of mental health and cardiovascular risk factors in adults aged between 35 and 66 years.