The intelligent diabetes telemonitoring using decision support to treat patients on insulin therapy (DiaTRUST) trial: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Diabetes affects 10.5% of adults globally, with type 2 diabetes accounting for 90-95% of cases. Achieving optimal glycemic control is crucial yet challenging, particularly with insulin therapy, where 30-50% of patients fail to meet treatment targets.

Corticotropin releasing factor in the nucleus basalis of Meynert impairs attentional performance and reduces levels of glutamate and taurine in male and female rats.

Psychiatric disorders that are characterized by impairments in sustained attention, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and major depression are also sensitive to exacerbation by stress. Sustained attention relies on cholinergic and non-cholinergic projections from the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) in the basal forebrain to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We have previously shown that central administration of the stress neuropeptide corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) impairs performance on the sustained attention task (SAT) in adult male and female rats.

Sex differences in corticotropin releasing factor-evoked behavior and activated networks.

Hypersecretion of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) is linked to the pathophysiology of major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, disorders that are more common in women than men. Notably, preclinical studies have identified sex differences in CRF receptors that can increase neuronal sensitivity to CRF in female compared to male rodents. These cellular sex differences suggest that CRF may regulate brain circuits and behavior differently in males and females.

Searching the animal psyche with Charles Le Brun.

Around 1670 the French court painter and Academician Charles Le Brun produced a series of drawings featuring naturalistic animal heads, as well as imaginary heads in which he refashioned various nonhuman animal species to make humanoid physiognomies. What were the purpose and significance of these unusual works? I argue that they show Le Brun's interest in what we today would call animal psychology: focusing upon the sensory organs and their connections with the animal's brain, Le Brun studied his animals as conscious protagonists of the natural realm. One source that may have served him in this project was Marin Cureau de La Chambre's De la Connoissance des bestes of 1645, in which the physician argued that animals possess a conscious soul grounded in the senses.