Investigating experiences of stigma and its impact on substance use recovery among residents of recovery residences in the United States: A scoping review protocol. BSGH 020.

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to systematically review the literature on stigma experienced by residents in recovery residences and its impact on substance use recovery outcomes.

Method: The review will use the PRISMA-ScR framework to identify studies focused on stigma and recovery in recovery residences published in English within the United States since 2000, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies. Data will be extracted and analyzed thematically to identify gaps in the literature and inform future research and policy development.

Evaluating the association between alcohol sweetness preference, alcohol harm, and alcohol value.

Alcohol use disorder is prevalent, and various risk factors inform drinking onset and drinking patterns. Existing data suggest that alcohol sweet taste preference may be associated with harmful levels of alcohol use and alcohol-related harm. The present exploratory study aimed to characterize people's first alcohol use experience, probe the association between sweet taste preferences and drinking patterns over time, and evaluate the relationship between sweet taste preferences and behavioral economic variables.

Synthesis of a multivalent α-1,2-mannobiose ligand for targeting C-type lectins.

The importance of lectins in biological processes such as pathogen recognition, cell adhesion, and cell recognition is well documented. C-Type lectins, which require calcium for binding, play an important role in the innate immune response by engaging carbohydrates presented as part of the human and pathogen glycocalyx. For example, lectins such as MBL, Dectin-2, langerin and DC-SIGN selectively recognize mannose rich (high-mannose) structures presented as part of the glycocalyx.

Site-specific sulfations regulate the physicochemical properties of papillomavirus-heparan sulfate interactions for entry.

Certain human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are etiological agents for several anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers. During initial infection, HPV16, the most prevalent cancer-causing type, specifically interacts with heparan sulfates (HSs), not only enabling initial cell attachment but also triggering a crucial conformational change in viral capsids termed structural activation. It is unknown, whether these HPV16-HS interactions depend on HS sulfation patterns.

Effects of xylazine on naloxone-precipitated fentanyl withdrawal in male and female rats.

Purpose: The combination of fentanyl and xylazine (i.e., "tranq-dope") was recently declared an emerging national health threat in the United States.

Building Community and Developing Professionally through FUN Final Friday Sessions.

FUN Final Fridays (FFFs) are a professional development effort resulting from a pandemic-inspired virtual pedagogical meeting. Over the past three academic years, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) has hosted FFFs as monthly professional development sessions. These sessions offer a mechanism to address current issues in higher education with emphasis on topics relevant to neuroscience educators.

Social corrections act as a double-edged sword by reducing the perceived accuracy of false and real news in the UK, Germany, and Italy.

Corrective or refutational posts from ordinary users on social media have the potential to improve the online information ecosystem. While initial evidence of these social corrections is promising, a better understanding of the effects across different topics, formats, and audiences is needed. In three pre-registered experiments (N = 1944 UK, N = 2467 Italy, N = 2210 Germany) where respondents completed a social media post assessment task with false and true news posts on various topics (e.

The Limitations of Large Language Models for Understanding Human Language and Cognition.

Researchers have recently argued that the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) can provide new insights into longstanding debates about the role of learning and/or innateness in the development and evolution of human language. Here, we argue on two grounds that LLMs alone tell us very little about human language and cognition in terms of acquisition and evolution. First, any similarities between human language and the output of LLMs are purely functional.

Validating Silent Gesture Lab Studies in a Naturally Emerging Sign Language: How Order is Used to Describe Intensional Versus Extensional Events in Nicaraguan Sign Language.

Languages are neither designed in classrooms nor drawn from dictionaries-they are products of human minds and human interactions. However, it is challenging to understand how structure grows in these circumstances because generations of use and transmission shape and reshape the structure of the languages themselves. Laboratory studies on language emergence investigate the origins of language structure by requiring participants, prevented from using their own natural language(s), to create a novel communication system and then transmit it to others.

A Finite Element Analysis Model for Magnetomotive Ultrasound Elastometry Magnet Design with Experimental Validation.

Objective: Magnetomotive ultrasound (MMUS) using magnetic nanoparticle contrast agents has shown promise for thrombosis imaging and quantitative elastometry via magnetomotive resonant acoustic spectroscopy (MRAS). Young's modulus measurements of smaller, stiffer thrombi require an MRAS system capable of generating forces at higher temporal frequencies. Solenoids with fewer turns, and thus less inductance, could improve high frequency performance, but the reduced force may compromise results.

Large-Scale Screening of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Binding Interactions and Their Mixtures with Nuclear Receptors.

Despite their significant impact, comprehensive screenings and detailed analyses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) binding strengths at the orthosteric and allosteric sites of NRs are currently lacking. This study addresses this gap by focusing on the binding interaction analysis of both common and uncommon PFAS with the nuclear receptors (NRs) vitamin D receptor (VDR), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), pregnane X receptor (PXR), and estrogen receptor alpha (ERα). Advanced docking simulations were used to screen 9507 PFAS chemicals at the orthosteric and allosteric sites of PPARγ, PXR, VDR, and ERα.

The value of long-term ecological research for evolutionary insights.

Scientists must have an integrative understanding of ecology and evolution across spatial and temporal scales to predict how species will respond to global change. Although comprehensively investigating these processes in nature is challenging, the infrastructure and data from long-term ecological research networks can support cross-disciplinary investigations. We propose using these networks to advance our understanding of fundamental evolutionary processes and responses to global change.

Each one, teach one: Critical history as counterstories, antiracist affordances, and cues for belonging.

Recently, there have been several calls for psychologists to dismantle systemic racism within the field (e.g., Buchanan et al.

Defining fitness in evolutionary ecology.

An understanding of biological fitness is central to theory and practice in ecology and evolution, yet fitness remains an elusive concept to define and challenging to measure accurately. Fitness reflects an individual's ability to pass its alleles on to subsequent generations. Researchers often quantify proxies for fitness, such as survival, growth or reproductive success.

The positive reinforcing effects of cocaine and opposite-sex social contact: roles of biological sex and estrus.

Rationale: Preclinical studies report that drug use and social contact mutually influence the reinforcing effects of one another. Most of these studies have used same-sex dyads exclusively, and the role of factors related to biological sex and hormonal fluctuations are not well understood.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the reinforcing effects of cocaine and social contact with an opposite-sex partner in male and female rats, and how these effects are modulated by ovarian hormones.

Contextual and psychosocial factors influencing drug reward in humans: The importance of non-drug reinforcement.

The reinforcing efficacy, or behavior-strengthening effect, of a substance is a critical determinant of substance use typically quantified by measuring behavioral allocation to the substance under schedules of reinforcement with escalating response requirements. Although responses on these tasks are often used to indicate stable reinforcing effects or trait-level abuse potential for an individual, task designs often demonstrate within-person variability across varying degrees of a constraint within experimental procedures. As a result, quantifying behavioral allocation is an effective approach for measuring the impact of contextual and psychosocial factors on substance reward.

Human laboratory models of reward in substance use disorder.

Human laboratory models in substance use disorder provide a key intermediary step between highly controlled and mechanistically informative non-human preclinical methods and clinical trials conducted in human populations. Much like preclinical models, the variety of human laboratory methods provide insights into specific features of substance use disorder rather than modelling the diverse causes and consequences simultaneously in a single model. This narrative review provides a discussion of popular models of reward used in human laboratory research on substance use disorder with a focus on the specific contributions that each model has towards informing clinical outcomes (forward translation) and analogs within preclinical models (backward translation).

Treatment with dextroamphetamine decreases the reacquisition of cocaine self-administration: Consistency across social contexts.

Rationale: A return to cocaine use following abstinence frequently occurs in a social context, and the presence of other individuals using cocaine may contribute to the likelihood of use. Previous studies have reported that chronic d-amphetamine treatment decreases cocaine self-administration in laboratory animals and reduces a return to cocaine use following abstinence in humans.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of chronic d-amphetamine treatment on the reacquisition of cocaine use in rats self-administering cocaine in different social contexts.

Incorporating art into a biology course: a student-curated art exhibition about COVID-19.

Incorporating art into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses can be an effective way to help students understand scientific concepts and think about those concepts more holistically. Additionally, art can be used to inform the public about scientific issues. To explore this topic more fully, we developed an assignment for an upper-level biology course in which students curated an art exhibition focused on the 2019 coronavirus disease, COVID-19.

Anonymous Traffic Detection Based on Feature Engineering and Reinforcement Learning.

Anonymous networks, which aim primarily to protect user identities, have gained prominence as tools for enhancing network security and anonymity. Nonetheless, these networks have become a platform for adversarial affairs and sources of suspicious attack traffic. To defend against unpredictable adversaries on the Internet, detecting anonymous network traffic has emerged as a necessity.