Behavioral mirroring in Wistar rats investigated through temporal pattern analysis.

The study of social interactions lies at the core of several disciplines such as psychiatry, psychology and ethology, just to name a few. In this context, understanding the temporal patterns underlying interactive behaviors is of crucial importance. Here, we employed T-pattern detection and analysis to study social interactions in ten pairs of Wistar rats tested in an Open-Field environment.

Sex-dependent behavioral effects of chronic nicotine during adolescence evaluated in young adult rats tested in Hole-Board.

As one of the leading causes of death and serious illnesses, tobacco smoking remains a significant issue in modern societies. Many individuals smoke during adolescence, a trend that has been exacerbated by the prevalence of vaping among young people. In this context, studying the behavioral effects induced by nicotine administration in male and female rats, during the adolescent period, assumes great importance because it can help to better understand the dynamics underlying tobacco use in the two sexes.

The hole-board apparatus in the study of anxiety.

Anxiety disorders pose a significant challenge in contemporary society, and their impact in terms of social and economic burden is overwhelming. Behavioral research conducted on animal subjects is crucial for comprehending these disorders and, from a translational standpoint, for introducing innovative therapeutic approaches. In this context, the Hole-Board apparatus has emerged as a widely utilized test for studying anxiety-related behaviors in rodents.

A quantitative and T-pattern analysis of anxiety-like behavior in male GAERS, NEC, and Wistar rats bred under the same conditions, against a commercially available Wistar control group in the hole board and elevated plus maze tests.

Aim: The Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) are an inbred polygenic model of childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), which, as their non-epileptic control (NEC) rats, are derived from Wistar rats. While the validity of GAERS in reproducing absence seizures is well established, its use as a model for CAE psychiatric comorbidities has been subject to conflicting findings. Differences in colonies, experimental procedures, and the use of diverse controls from different breeders may account for these disparities.

Structural analyses in the study of behavior: From rodents to non-human primates.

The term "" indicates a set of components that, in relation to each other, shape an organic complex. Such a complex takes on essential connotations of functionally unitary entity resulting from the mutual relationships of its constituent elements. In a broader sense, we can use the word "" to define the set of relationships among the elements of an emergent system that is not determined by the mere algebraic sum of these elements, but by the interdependence relationships of these components from which the function of the entire structure itself derives.

Video-Feedback Approach Improves Parental Compliance to Early Behavioral Interventions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Investigation.

In the field of autism intervention, a large amount of evidence has demonstrated that parent-mediated interventions are effective in promoting a child's learning and parent caring skills. Furthermore, remote delivery treatments are feasible and can represent a promising opportunity to reach families at distance with positive results. Recently, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 dramatically disrupted intervention services for autism and forced an immediate reorganization of the territory services toward tele-assisted intervention programs, according to professional and local resources.

Soil Biological Responses under Different Vegetation Types in Mediterranean Area.

The knowledge of the effects of fire on soil properties is of particular concern in Mediterranean areas, where the effects of vegetation type are still scarce also. This research aimed: to assess the properties of burnt soils under different vegetation types; to highlight the soil abiotic properties driving the soil microbial biomass and activity under each vegetation type; to compare the biological response in unburnt and burnt soils under the same vegetation type, and between unburnt and burnt soils under different vegetation types. The soils were collected at a Mediterranean area where a large wildfire caused a 50% loss of the previous vegetation types (holm oak: HO, pine: P, black locust: BL, and herbs: H), and were characterized by abiotic (pH, water, and organic matter contents; N concentrations; and C/N ratios) and biotic (microbial and fungal biomasses, microbial respiration, soil metabolic quotient, and hydrolase and dehydrogenase activities) properties.

Autistic Traits and Empathy in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-occurring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are two of the most represented neurodevelopmental conditions in childhood. The diagnostic shift introduced by the DSM-5, allowing a combined diagnosis of ADHD and ASD, poses different clinical challenges related to diagnostic overshadowing, accuracy of clinical judgment and potential delay in an ASD diagnosis in children presenting with ADHD. Here we tried to disentangle the clinical phenotype and specificity of the two co-occurring conditions in relation to autism traits and empathy, by comparing children with ASD with and without comorbid ADHD with children presenting ADHD only and children with typical development.

The Route of Stress in Parents of Young Children with and without Autism: A Path-Analysis Study.

We provide a conceptual model on the complex interaction between stress, psychological predisposition, and personality traits, accounting for gender, in parents of children with and without autism. We performed a path analysis using a structural equation modeling approach in a sample of parents including 60 ASD and 53 TD couples. In parents of typically developing children (TD), depression level and age are the main direct predictors of stress through the mediating effect of anxiety.

Use of Machine Learning to Investigate the Quantitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (Q-CHAT) towards Early Autism Screening.

In the past two decades, several screening instruments were developed to detect toddlers who may be autistic both in clinical and unselected samples. Among others, the Quantitative CHecklist for Autism in Toddlers (Q-CHAT) is a quantitative and normally distributed measure of autistic traits that demonstrates good psychometric properties in different settings and cultures. Recently, machine learning (ML) has been applied to behavioral science to improve the classification performance of autism screening and diagnostic tools, but mainly in children, adolescents, and adults.

The impact of chronic daily nicotine exposure and its overnight withdrawal on the structure of anxiety-related behaviors in rats: Role of the lateral habenula.

Tobacco smoking is a serious health problem worldwide and a leading cause of mortality. Nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco, affects a range of emotional responses, including anxiety-related behaviors. Although perceived by smokers to be anxiolytic, evidence suggests that smoking increases anxiety and that mood fluctuates with nicotine intake.

Recurring sequences of multimodal non-verbal and verbal communication during a human psycho-social stress test: A temporal pattern analysis.

Background: The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a widely used protocol to study human psycho-social stress responses. Quantitative reports of non-verbal behaviors have been carried out by means of the Ethological Coding System for Interviews (ECSI). However, no data have described whether and how non-verbal and verbal behaviors take part in the composition of multimodal sequences of communication during the test.

Early alterations of the behavioural structure of mice affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy and tested in open-field.

Present study has been carried out to assess whether early alterations of the behavioural structure may be detected in mice affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). To this purpose, both quantitative and T-pattern analysis (TPA) were used to analyse the behaviour of two groups of male, two months old mice, 18 MDX and 18 normal as control, tested in an open-field apparatus. T-pattern analysis is a multivariate technique able to reveal hidden structural features of behaviour and, in particular, its temporal characteristics.

Impulsivity and physical activity: A T-Pattern detection of motor behavior profiles.

The relation between impulsivity and physical activity has been scantly investigated. Actually, during physical activity, several goals are achieved on the basis of a certain dose of impulsiveness. This study detects motor and interactive behavior profiles from athletes with traits of impulsiveness, moderate impulsiveness and non-impulsiveness, performing open motor tasks concerning material, space and interaction behaviors.

T-patterns in the study of movement and behavioral disorders.

Aim of the present review is to offer an outline of the application of T-pattern analysis (TPA) in the study of neurological disorders characterized by anomalies of movement and, more in general, of behavior. TPA is a multivariate technique to detect real time patterns of behavior on the basis of statistically significant constraints among the events in sequence. TPA is particularly suitable to analyse the structure of behavior.

Different Representation Procedures Originated from Multivariate Temporal Pattern Analysis of the Behavioral Response to Pain in Wistar Rats Tested in a Hot-Plate under Morphine.

Temporal pattern analysis is an advanced multivariate technique able to investigate the structure of behavior by unveiling the existence of statistically significant constraints among the interval length separating events in sequence. If on the one hand, such an approach allows investigating the behavioral response to pain in its most intimate and inner features, on the other hand, due to the meaning of the studies on pain, it is of relevant importance that the results utilize intuitive and easily comprehensible ways of representation. The aim of this paper is to show various procedures useful to represent the results originating from the multivariate T-pattern analysis of the behavioral response to pain in Wistar rats tested in a hot-plate and IP injected morphine or saline as a control.

Effects of chronic nicotine on the temporal structure of anxiety-related behavior in rats tested in hole-board.

The present study aimed to assess the behavioral effects of chronic treatments of different doses of nicotine by using both quantitative and multivariate T-pattern analysis (TPA), which can reveal hidden behavioral structures, in Sprague-Dawley rats tested in the hole-board apparatus. To this purpose, nicotine ditartrate was administered at the doses of 0.1, 0.

Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Data in the Study of Feeding Behavior in Male Wistar Rats.

The first step in a behavioral study is represented by the organization of a suitable ethogram, that is, a formal description of individual components of the behavior. Then, each component of such a behavioral repertoire can be (e.g.

Effects of Substantia Nigra pars compacta lesion on the behavioral sequencing in the 6-OHDA model of Parkinson's disease.

The basal ganglia circuitry plays a crucial role in the sequential organization of behavior. Here we studied the behavioral structure of the animals after 21 days of 6-OHDA-induced lesion of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal system. Frequencies and durations of individual components of the behavioral repertoire were calculated; moreover, whether a temporal organization of the activity was present, it was investigated by using T-pattern analysis, a multivariate approach able to detect the real-time sequential organization of behavior.

Vitamin D in cancer chemoprevention.

Context: There is increasing evidence that Vitamin D (Vit D) and its metabolites, besides their well-known calcium-related functions, may also exert antiproliferative, pro-differentiating, and immune modulatory effects on tumor cells in vitro and may also delay tumor growth in vivo.

Objective: The aim of this review is to provide fresh insight into the most recent advances on the role of Vit D and its analogues as chemopreventive drugs in cancer therapy.

Methods: A systematic review of experimental and clinical studies on Vit D and cancer was undertaken by using the major electronic health database including ISI Web of Science, Medline, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar.

Modulation of Rack-1/PKCβII signalling by soluble AβPPα in SH-SY5Y cells.

The soluble amyloid β precursor protein α (sAβPPα) released after α-secretase cleavage of the amyloid β precursor protein (AβPP) has several functions including modulation of neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity; it has been suggested that some of these effects are mediated by activation of NF-κB via induction of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. We have recently described the presence of several consensus binding sites of c-Rel transcription factor in the promoter region of the GNB2L1 gene, coding for the Receptor for Activated C Kinase -1 (RACK-1). We investigated whether sAβPPα could influence the expression of RACK-1 through NF-κB involvement.

Irreversible inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor activity by 3-aminopropanamides.

Irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors contain a reactive warhead which covalently interacts with a conserved cysteine residue in the kinase domain. The acrylamide fragment, a commonly employed warhead, effectively alkylates Cys797 of EGFR, but its reactivity can cause rapid metabolic deactivation or nonspecific reactions with off-targets. We describe here a new series of irreversible inhibitors containing a 3-aminopropanamide linked in position 6 to 4-anilinoquinazoline or 4-anilinoquinoline-3-carbonitrile driving portions.

Synthesis and in vitro antimicrobial activities of new (cyano-NNO-azoxy)pyrazole derivatives.

The antibacterial and antifungal activity of a series of products, in which the 1,5-dimethyl-4-(cyano-NNO-azoxy)pyrazol-3-yl and 1,3-dimethyl-4-(cyano-NNO-azoxy)pyrazol-5-yl moieties were linked to pyridine, pyrazole, isoxazole, thiophene and the furan ring, were examined. No molecule displayed activity against the gram-negative bacteria tested. Conversely, some compounds displayed activity against two Staphylococcus aureus strains, including the methicillin resistant strain.

Synthesis and biological properties of benzothiazole, benzoxazole, and chromen-4-one analogues of the potent antitumor agent 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-5-fluorobenzothiazole (PMX 610, NSC 721648).

New fluorinated 2-aryl-benzothiazoles, -benzoxazoles, and -chromen-4-ones have been synthesized and their activity against MCF-7 and MDA 468 breast cancer cell lines compared with the potent antitumor benzothiazole 5. Analogues such as 9a, b and 12a, d yielded submicromolar GI50 values in both cell lines; however, none of the new compounds approached 5 in terms of antitumor potency. For 5, binding to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor appeared to be necessary but not sufficient for growth inhibition.

The synergistic apoptotic effects of thiophenfurin, an inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase inhibitor, in combination with retinoids in HL60 cells.

New effective cytotoxic agents and combinations are urgently needed in cancer treatment. The enzyme inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase is a potentially useful target for drug development, since its activity has been shown to be amplified in malignant cells. Thiophenfurin, an inhibitor of the enzyme synthesized by us, is endowed with a significant apoptotic activity in promyelocytic leukaemia HL60 cells.