Activation of Immune and Defense Responses in the Intestinal Mucosa by Outer Membrane Vesicles of Commensal and Probiotic Escherichia coli Strains.

The influence of microbiota in human health is well-known. Imbalances in microbiome structure have been linked to several diseases. Modulation of microbiota composition through probiotic therapy is an attempt to harness the beneficial effects of commensal microbiota.

Effects of a multidisciplinary approach on the effectiveness of antiviral treatment for chronic hepatitis C.

Unlabelled:  Background. Despite the introduction of direct antiviral agents, pegylated interferon remains the mainstay of treatment for chronic hepatitis C. However, pegylated interferon is associated with a high rate of severe adverse events and decreased quality of life.

Compulsive Buying Behavior: Characteristics of Comorbidity with Gambling Disorder.

Compulsive buying behavior (CBB) has begun to be recognized as a condition worthy of attention by clinicians and researchers. Studies on the commonalities between CBB and other behavioral addictions such as gambling disorder (GD) exist in the literature, but additional research is needed to assess the frequency and clinical relevance of the comorbidity of CBB and GD. The aim of the study was to estimate the point-prevalence of CBB+GD in a clinical setting.

Genomics of Three New Bacteriophages Useful in the Biocontrol of Salmonella.

Non-typhoid Salmonella is the principal pathogen related to food-borne diseases throughout the world. Widespread antibiotic resistance has adversely affected human health and has encouraged the search for alternative antimicrobial agents. The advances in bacteriophage therapy highlight their use in controlling a broad spectrum of food-borne pathogens.

Treatment Outcome in Male Gambling Disorder Patients Associated with Alcohol Use.

Aims: The primary objective of this study was to analyze the association between alcohol consumption and short-term response to treatment (post intervention) in male patients with gambling disorder enrolled in a group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program.

Methods: The sample consisted of 111 male individuals with a diagnosis of Gambling Disorder, with a mean age of 45 years (SD = 12.2).

Characterization of Zinc and Cadmium Hyperaccumulation in Three Noccaea (Brassicaceae) Populations from Non-metalliferous Sites in the Eastern Pyrenees.

The Southern slope of the Pyrenees is the meridional limit for the distribution of several Noccaea populations. However, the systematic description of these populations and their hyperaccumulation mechanisms are not well established. Morphological and genetic analysis (ITS and 3 chloroplast regions) were used to identify Noccaea populations localized on non-metallicolous soils during a survey in the Catalonian Pyrenees.

The Rho Termination Factor of Clostridium botulinum Contains a Prion-Like Domain with a Highly Amyloidogenic Core.

Prion-like proteins can switch between a soluble intrinsically disordered conformation and a highly ordered amyloid assembly. This conformational promiscuity is encoded in specific sequence regions, known as prion domains (PrDs). Prions are best known as the causative factors of neurological diseases in mammals.

Border Disease Virus: An Exceptional Driver of Chamois Populations Among Other Threats.

Though it is accepted that emerging infectious diseases are a threat to planet biodiversity, little information exists about their role as drivers of species extinction. Populations are also affected by natural catastrophes and other pathogens, making it difficult to estimate the particular impact of emerging infectious diseases. Border disease virus genogroup 4 (BDV-4) caused a previously unreported decrease in populations of Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica) in Spain.

Semantic Verbal Fluency Pattern, Dementia Rating Scores and Adaptive Behavior Correlate With Plasma Aβ42 Concentrations in Down Syndrome Young Adults.

Down syndrome (DS) is an intellectual disability (ID) disorder in which language and specifically, verbal fluency are strongly impaired domains; nearly all adults show neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), including amyloid deposition by their fifth decade of life. In the general population, verbal fluency deficits are considered a strong AD predictor being the semantic verbal fluency task (SVFT) a useful tool for enhancing early diagnostic. However, there is a lack of information about the association between the semantic verbal fluency pattern (SVFP) and the biological amyloidosis markers in DS.

A Serious Videogame as an Additional Therapy Tool for Training Emotional Regulation and Impulsivity Control in Severe Gambling Disorder.

Background: Gambling disorder (GD) is characterized by a significant lack of self-control and is associated with impulsivity-related personality traits. It is also linked to deficits in emotional regulation and frequently co-occurs with anxiety and depression symptoms. There is also evidence that emotional dysregulation may play a mediatory role between GD and psychopathological symptomatology.

"String Hallucinations": Multimodal Tactile and Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson's Disease.

The aim of this work was to report on 7 patients presenting a distinctive form of multimodal (tactile and visual) hallucinations for which the term "string hallucinations" is proposed. Having observed a patient interacting with imaginary strips of skin in his hands at our movement disorders unit, we prospectively studied PD patients and caregivers over a 6-month period using a semistructured interview addressed to this particular phenomenon. Demographic characteristics as well as cognitive and motor function were assessed.

Protein-Based Classifier to Predict Conversion from Clinically Isolated Syndrome to Multiple Sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory, demyelinating, and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. In most patients, the disease initiates with an episode of neurological disturbance referred to as clinically isolated syndrome, but not all patients with this syndrome develop multiple sclerosis over time, and currently, there is no clinical test that can conclusively establish whether a patient with a clinically isolated syndrome will eventually develop clinically defined multiple sclerosis. Here, we took advantage of the capabilities of targeted mass spectrometry to establish a diagnostic molecular classifier with high sensitivity and specificity able to differentiate between clinically isolated syndrome patients with a high and a low risk of developing multiple sclerosis.

Computational analysis of candidate prion-like proteins in bacteria and their role.

Prion proteins were initially associated with diseases such as Creutzfeldt Jakob and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. However, deeper research revealed them as versatile tools, exploited by the cells to execute fascinating functions, acting as epigenetic elements or building membrane free compartments in eukaryotes. One of the most intriguing properties of prion proteins is their ability to propagate a conformational assembly, even across species.

Socioeconomic status and oppositional defiant disorder in preschoolers: parenting practices and executive functioning as mediating variables.

Objectives: To investigate the mediating mechanisms of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in preschoolers through pathways analysis, considering the family socioeconomic status (SES) as the independent variable and the parenting style and the children's executive functioning (EF) as the mediating factors.

Method: The sample included 622 three-year-old children from the general population. Multi-informant reports from parents and teachers were analyzed.

Gene expression parallels synaptic excitability and plasticity changes in Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by abnormal accumulation of β-amyloid and tau and synapse dysfunction in memory-related neural circuits. Pathological and functional changes in the medial temporal lobe, a region essential for explicit memory encoding, contribute to cognitive decline in AD. Surprisingly, functional imaging studies show increased activity of the hippocampus and associated cortical regions during memory tasks in presymptomatic and early AD stages, whereas brain activity declines as the disease progresses.

Are the users of social networking sites homogeneous? A cross-cultural study.

The growing use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) around the world has made it necessary to understand individuals' behaviors within these sites according to different cultures. Based on a comparative study between two different European countries (The Netherlands versus Spain), a comparison of typologies of networked Internet users has been obtained through a latent segmentation approach. These typologies are based on the frequency with which users perform different activities, their socio-demographic variables, and experience in social networking and interaction patterns.

Decoding the genetic and functional diversity of the DSF quorum-sensing system in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia uses the Diffusible Signal Factor (DSF) quorum sensing (QS) system to mediate intra- and inter-specific signaling and regulate virulence-related processes. The components of this system are encoded by the rpf cluster, with genes rpfF and rpfC encoding for the DSF synthase RpfF and sensor RpfC, respectively. Recently, we have shown that there exist two variants of the rpf cluster (rpf-1 and rpf-2), distinguishing two groups of S.

Genetic control of inflorescence architecture in legumes.

The architecture of the inflorescence, the shoot system that bears the flowers, is a main component of the huge diversity of forms found in flowering plants. Inflorescence architecture has also a strong impact on the production of fruits and seeds, and on crop management, two highly relevant agronomical traits. Elucidating the genetic networks that control inflorescence development, and how they vary between different species, is essential to understanding the evolution of plant form and to being able to breed key architectural traits in crop species.

Recreational drug use among individuals living with HIV in Europe: review of the prevalence, comparison with the general population and HIV guidelines recommendations.

Background: Adherence problems, interactions and higher rate of risk activities have been observed in HIV individuals using recreational drugs. Our aim was to describe recreational drug use in both HIV individuals and general population in Europe, and to assess at what extent HIV guidelines address this issue.

Methods: Data on recreational drug use across Europe were obtained from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the general population, and through Pubmed search.

Is there a universal answering strategy for rejecting negative propositions? Typological evidence on the use of prosody and gesture.

Previous research has proposed that languages diverge with respect to how their speakers confirm and contradict negative questions. Taking into account the classification between truth-based and polarity-based languages, this paper is mainly concerned with the expression of REJECT (a semantic operation that signals a contradiction move with respect to the common ground, along Krifka's lines) in two languages belonging to two typologically distinct answering systems, namely Catalan (polarity-based) and Russian (a mixed system using polarity-based, truth-based, and echoic strategies). This investigation has two goals.

Emotional intelligence and recovering from induced negative emotional state.

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and recovering from negative emotions induction, using a performance test to measure EI. Sixty seven undergraduates participated in the procedure, which lasted 75 min and was divided into three stages. At Time 1, subjects answered the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)-S, Profile of Mood States (POMS)-A, and EI was assessed by Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT).

Brain activity and cognition: a connection from thermodynamics and information theory.

The connection between brain and mind is an important scientific and philosophical question that we are still far from completely understanding. A crucial point to our work is noticing that thermodynamics provides a convenient framework to model brain activity, whereas cognition can be modeled in information-theoretical terms. In fact, several models have been proposed so far from both approaches.