Measurement of Quantum and Particle Energies With Scintillation Counters

Abstract Not Provided

What causes aberrant salience in schizophrenia? A role for impaired short-term habituation and the GRIA1 (GluA1) AMPA receptor subunit.

The GRIA1 locus, encoding the GluA1 (also known as GluRA or GluR1) AMPA glutamate receptor subunit, shows genome-wide association to schizophrenia. As well as extending the evidence that glutamatergic abnormalities have a key role in the disorder, this finding draws attention to the behavioural phenotype of Gria1 knockout mice. These mice show deficits in short-term habituation. Importantly, under some conditions the attention being paid to a recently presented neutral stimulus can actually increase rather than decrease (sensitization). We propose that this mouse phenotype represents a cause of aberrant salience and, in turn, that aberrant salience (and the resulting positive symptoms) in schizophrenia may arise, at least in part, from a glutamatergic genetic predisposition and a deficit in short-term habituation. This proposal links an established risk gene with a psychological process central to psychosis and is supported by findings of comparable deficits in short-term habituation in mice lacking the NMDAR receptor subunit Grin2a (which also shows association to schizophrenia). As aberrant salience is primarily a dopaminergic phenomenon, the model supports the view that the dopaminergic abnormalities can be downstream of a glutamatergic aetiology. Finally, we suggest that, as illustrated here, the real value of genetically modified mice is not as ‘models of schizophrenia’ but as experimental tools that can link genomic discoveries with psychological processes and help elucidate the underlying neural mechanisms

New Mexico Youth Risk & Resiliency 2015 Survey Results Report: Housing Instability and Health

In 2015, for the first time, the NM-YRRS questionnaire included a question on homelessness, or housing status. The question mirrored the homelessness definition of the McKinney-Vento Act, which is used by the New Mexico Public Education Department to identify homeless students. For the purposes of this report, students identified as homeless will be referred to as students in unstable housing. Students living in unstable housing were at significantly increased risk for facing violence, using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, suicidal behaviors and other mental health issues and other serious challenges

Anomalous heat transport in binary hard-sphere gases

© 2019 American Physical Society. Equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) are used to investigate the thermal conductivity of binary hard-sphere fluids. It is found that the thermal conductivity of a mixture can not only lie outside the series and parallel bounds set by their pure component values, but can lie beyond even the pure component fluid values. The MD simulations verify that revised Enskog theory can accurately predict nonequilibrium thermal conductivities at low densities and this theory is applied to explore the model parameter space. Only certain mass and size ratios are found to exhibit conductivity enhancements above the parallel bounds and dehancement below the series bounds. The anomalous dehancement is experimentally accessible in helium-hydrogen gas mixtures and a review of the literature confirms the existence of mixture thermal conductivity below the series bound and even below the pure fluid values, in accordance with the predictions of revised Enskog theory. The results reported here may reignite the debate in the nanofluid literature on the possible existence of anomalous thermal conductivities outside the series and parallel bounds as this Rapid Communication demonstrates they are a fundamental feature of even simple fluids

Revised Enskog Theory (RET) and molecular dynamics simulations of the viscosities and thermal conductivity of the hard sphere fluid and crystal

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS S.P would like to thank Prof. Andres Santos (Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz) for helpful discussions and valuable suggestions. Some of the calculations were performed at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS).Peer reviewe

A comprehensive study of the thermal conductivity of the hard sphere fluid and solid by Molecular Dynamics simulation

Peer reviewedPostprin

Brain Circuits of Methamphetamine Place Reinforcement Learning: The Role of the Hippocampus-VTA Loop

The reinforcing effects of addictive drugs including methamphetamine (METH) involve the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA). VTA is primary source of dopamine (DA) to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the ventral hippocampus (VHC). These three brain regions are functionally connected through the hippocampal-VTA loop that includes two main neural pathways: the bottom-up pathway and the top-down pathway. In this paper, we take the view that addiction is a learning process. Therefore, we tested the involvement of the hippocampus in reinforcement learning by studying conditioned place preference (CPP) learning by sequentially conditioning each of the three nuclei in either the bottom-up order of conditioning; VTA, then VHC, finally NAc, or the top-down order; VHC, then VTA, finally NAc. Following habituation, the rats underwent experimental modules consisting of two conditioning trials each followed by immediate testing (test 1 and test 2) and two additional tests 24 h (test 3) and/or 1 week following conditioning (test 4). The module was repeated three times for each nucleus. The results showed that METH, but not Ringer's, produced positive CPP following conditioning each brain area in the bottom-up order. In the top-down order, METH, but not Ringer's, produced either an aversive CPP or no learning effect following conditioning each nucleus of interest. In addition, METH place aversion was antagonized by coadministration of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist MK801, suggesting that the aversion learning was an NMDA receptor activation-dependent process. We conclude that the hippocampus is a critical structure in the reward circuit and hence suggest that the development of target-specific therapeutics for the control of addiction emphasizes on the hippocampus-VTA top-down connection

Thermodynamic and dynamical properties of the hard sphere system revisited by molecular dynamics simulation

Acknowledgements Some of the MD calculations were performed at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS). DMH would like to thank Dr. T. Crane (Department of Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) for helpful software support.Peer reviewedPostprin