Revisiting neural information, computing and linking capacity.

Neural information theory represents a fundamental method to model dynamic relations in biological systems. However, the notion of information, its representation, its content and how it is processed are the subject of fierce debates. Since the limiting capacity of neuronal links strongly depends on how neurons are hypothesized to work, their operating modes are revisited by analyzing the differences between the results of the communication models published during the past seven decades and those of the recently developed generalization of the classical information theory.

The effects of expected and unexpected stress on inappropriate aggression in simulated police interventions.

Here we performed a before-after ABA-design study in police cadets (N = 82) to compare the effects of unexpected (event-triggered) and expected (anticipatory) stressors on aggression. On the first day of the study, participants filled in the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and were fitted with heart rate (HR) monitors, which remained attached till the end of the study. On day 2, they were instructed to perform a police intervention in a realistic training environment.

On the Role of Speed in Technological and Biological Information Transfer for Computations.

In all kinds of implementations of computing, whether technological or biological, some material carrier for the information exists, so in real-world implementations, the propagation speed of information cannot exceed the speed of its carrier. Because of this limitation, one must also consider the transfer time between computing units for any implementation. We need a different mathematical method to consider this limitation: classic mathematics can only describe infinitely fast and small computing system implementations.

Towards Generalizing the Information Theory for Neural Communication.

Neuroscience extensively uses the information theory to describe neural communication, among others, to calculate the amount of information transferred in neural communication and to attempt the cracking of its coding. There are fierce debates on how information is represented in the brain and during transmission inside the brain. The neural information theory attempts to use the assumptions of electronic communication; despite the experimental evidence that the neural spikes carry information on non-discrete states, they have shallow communication speed, and the spikes' timing precision matters.

Analog of kynurenic acid decreases tau pathology by modulating astrogliosis in rat model for tauopathy.

Kynurenines have immunomodulatory and neuroactive properties and can influence the central nervous system. Previous studies showed the involvement of the kynurenines in the pathogenesis and progression of neurodegenerative disease. In neurodegenerative disorders, including tauopathies, the tryptophan metabolism is shifted toward neurotoxic agents and the reduction of neuroprotectant products.

Comparison of the Cardiovascular Effects of Extreme Psychological and Physical Stress Tests in Male Soccer Players.

Background: The purpose of our study was to compare the physiological effects of extreme physical and psychological stress tests in male soccer players, since these two types of stress apply to athletes with high performance requirements.

Methods: A total of 63 healthy male soccer players participated in this study, all of whom underwent both of the tests. A physical stress test was carried out in an exercise physiology laboratory, where subjects completed an incremental treadmill running test to full exhaustion, and a psychological test was performed in a military tactical room, where subjects met a street offence situation.

Trafficking of immune cells across the blood-brain barrier is modulated by neurofibrillary pathology in tauopathies.

Tauopathies represent a heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by abnormal deposition of the hyperphosphorylated microtubule-associated protein tau. Chronic neuroinflammation in tauopathies is driven by glial cells that potentially trigger the disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Pro-inflammatory signaling molecules such as cytokines, chemokines and adhesion molecules produced by glial cells, neurons and endothelial cells, in general, cooperate to determine the integrity of BBB by influencing vascular permeability, enhancing migration of immune cells and altering transport systems.

How Amdahl's Law limits the performance of large artificial neural networks : why the functionality of full-scale brain simulation on processor-based simulators is limited.

With both knowing more and more details about how neurons and complex neural networks work and having serious demand for making performable huge artificial networks, more and more efforts are devoted to build both hardware and/or software simulators and supercomputers targeting artificial intelligence applications, demanding an exponentially increasing amount of computing capacity. However, the inherently parallel operation of the neural networks is mostly simulated deploying inherently sequential (or in the best case: sequential-parallel) computing elements. The paper shows that neural network simulators, (both software and hardware ones), akin to all other sequential-parallel computing systems, have computing performance limitation due to deploying clock-driven electronic circuits, the 70-year old computing paradigm and Amdahl's Law about parallelized computing systems.

Subclinical cardiovascular disease and it's improvement after long-term TNF-α inhibitor therapy in severe psoriatic patients.

Background: There are conflicting data on the occurrence of subclinical myocardial dysfunction in psoriatic patients and on the impact of long-term tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) inhibitor therapy on cardiac function.

Objective: In this study, we explored whether there are any signs of subclinical cardiovascular disease (echocardiographic abnormalities) in severe psoriatic patients without clinically overt heart disease. As a second objective, the influence of long-term treatment with TNF-α inhibitors on the ventricular functions of psoriatic patients was also investigated.

The assessment of immune-regulatory effects of extracorporeal photopheresis in systemic sclerosis: a long-term follow-up study.

The therapeutic options in systemic sclerosis (SSc) are limited mainly to the management of complications, and decelerating fibrosis and preventing disease progression are still great challenges. Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is one of the promising therapeutic strategies in SSc; nevertheless, there is no consensus on the ideal timing and frequency of treatment cycles. In the present study, we evaluated the long-term effects of consecutive ECP treatments, and the stability of clinical and laboratory improvements.

Cardiac autonomic functions and the emergence of violence in a highly realistic model of social conflict in humans.

Among the multitude of factors that can transform human social interactions into violent conflicts, biological features received much attention in recent years as correlates of decision making and aggressiveness especially in critical situations. We present here a highly realistic new model of human aggression and violence, where genuine acts of aggression are readily performed and which at the same time allows the parallel recording of biological concomitants. Particularly, we studied police officers trained at the International Training Centre (Budapest, Hungary), who are prepared to perform operations under extreme conditions of stress.

Rosuvastatin improves impaired endothelial function, lowers high sensitivity CRP, complement and immuncomplex production in patients with systemic sclerosis--a prospective case-series study.

Introduction: We studied the effect of rosuvastatin on endothelial and macrovascular function, cardiovascular risk factors and the complement pathway in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc).

Methods: Altogether 28 patients with SSc underwent laboratory and complex vascular assessments before and after six months of 20 mg rosuvastatin treatment. Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery, as well as carotid artery intima-media thickness (ccIMT), carotid-femoral and aorto-femoral pulse wave-velocity (PWV) were analyzed by ECG-synchronized ultrasound.

Distinct phenotypes in mixed connective tissue disease: subgroups and survival.

The aim of the present study was to assess the autoantibody profile, dominant clinical symptoms and cluster characteristics of different mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD phenotypes. Two-hundred-and-one patients with MCTD were followed-up longitudinally. Five clinical parameters, Raynaud's phenomenon, pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH), myositis, interstitial lung disease (ILD), erosive arthritis and five auto-antibodies besides anti-U1RNP, antiendothelial cell antibodies (AECA), anti-CCP, anti-cardiolipin (anti-CL), anti-SSA/SSB and IgM rheumatoid factor (RF) were selected for cluster analysis.

[Systemic sclerosis in a patient suffering from breast cancer].

Scleroderma is the general disease of the connective tissue, which can be characterized by the proliferation of the connective tissue and fibrosis. According to the results of international studies scleroderma is frequently accompanied by neoplastic diseases, among which the most often occurring is the neoplastic pathology of the breast and the lungs. In May 2007, in the case of our 40-year-old woman patient the histological examination of the tumor we noticed in the left breast verified invasive carcinoma.

Immunomodulatory effects of extracorporeal photochemotherapy in systemic sclerosis.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and immunomodulatory effects of extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) in systemic sclerosis (SSc). We enrolled 16 patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc, who received 12 ECP treatments in total. After ECP treatments, the dermal thickness reduced and the mobility of joints improved.

Sarcoidosis in patients with mixed connective tissue disease: clinical, genetic, serological and histological observations.

The objective of this study was to investigate how the development of sarcoidosis influences the disease course of mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). The cellular composition of MCTD-associated sarcoidosis granulomas was evaluated and also the disease-accompanying T-cell activation and alterations of the serum cytokine levels were measured before and after the therapy. The HLA-DR specific alleles were also assessed.

Evaluation of paraoxonase activity in patients with mixed connective tissue disease.

Objective: Mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease. The connection between inflammatory measures and atherosclerosis in MCTD has not been described. Paraoxonase (PON) is known to have an antioxidant function.

Regulatory T cells in peripheral blood of patients with mixed connective tissue disease.

Objective: To determine the percentage and absolute number of CD4+ regulatory T-cells (Treg) in 48 patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD).

Methods: Data were classified on the basis of the stage of the disease: 17 patients were in the active stage and 31 in the inactive stage. The absolute number of CD4+/intracellular interleukin-10+ (IL-10+) and CD4+CD25+high Treg cells was determined by flow cytometry.

Diastolic function of the heart in mixed connective tissue disease.

The authors examined the right and left ventricle functions in patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) by Doppler echocardiography. Of 51 patients, 20 had temporary pulmonary arterial hypertension in their case history. According to our knowledge, this is the first study examining the use of Doppler echocardiography and tissue Doppler technique in MCTD patients.

Clinical and immunoserological characteristics of mixed connective tissue disease associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

We investigated the clinical characteristics and immunoserological alterations in patients with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Anti-U1RNP autoantibodies, anti-endothelial cell antibodies (AECA) and serum thrombomodulin (TM) as well as von Willebrand factor antigen (vWFAg) concentrations were measured in 25 patients with MCTD associated with PAH and in 154 MCTD patients without PAH. The results showed that the probability of survival was lower in MCTD patients with PAH than in the 154 MCTD-non-PAH patients (5-year survival rate in MCTD with PAH: 73%, versus 96% in MCTD-non-PAH; P < 0.

[Interstitial lung disease in mixed connective tissue disease].

Introduction: The authors analyzed the incidence of interstitial lung disease in mixed connective tissue disease. They were seeking an answer to the following problems: the nature of the pathological course of mixed connective tissue disease complicated by and the therapy to be used in interstitial lung disease.

Patients And Methods: 179 patients were followed up during a period of 15.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension in mixed connective tissue disease: successful treatment with Iloprost.

This paper describes a 61-year-old woman who presented with mixed connective tissue disease, which was complicated by the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Her condition worsened rapidly, with development of haemopthysis, tachypnoe and cardiac arrest. Doppler echocardiography showed a high systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (98 mmHg), confirmed by the right heart catheterization.

Evaluation of interstitial lung disease in mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD).

Objective: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) may be a characteristic, often serious, manifestation of mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). In this retrospective study, the frequency and clinical picture of ILD were determined in patients with MCTD using two diagnostic tests: high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and inhaled aerosol clearance times of (99m)Tc-labelled diethylene-triamine pentaacetate ((99m)Tc-DTPA). In addition, pulmonary function, effects of therapy and a variety of immunoserological markers were also assessed.

[Incidence of valvulopathy in Hodgkin-disease patients in long-term complete remission].

Aim: To study the occurrence of valvulopathies after treatment in Hodgkin's disease patients.

Patients And Methods: 124 Hodgkin's disease patients in complete remission for at least 1 year were echocardiographically examined.

Results: Abnormal finding was observed in 48/124 (38.