The Influence of l- and dl-Tryptophane and Kynurenic Acid Administration on Bile Volume and Composition

We have undertaken to determine whether kynurenic acid production or excretion in the bile (as reported by Kotake and Ichihara) might be responsible, at least in part, for the choleretic effect of tryptophane. We have also studied the influence of optical configuration of tryptophane on bile volume and on bile salt output, both of which Whipple and Smith found were increased by l-tryptophane administration

Local Communication Protocols for Learning Complex Swarm Behaviors with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Swarm systems constitute a challenging problem for reinforcement learning (RL) as the algorithm needs to learn decentralized control policies that can cope with limited local sensing and communication abilities of the agents. While it is often difficult to directly define the behavior of the agents, simple communication protocols can be defined more easily using prior knowledge about the given task. In this paper, we propose a number of simple communication protocols that can be exploited by deep reinforcement learning to find decentralized control policies in a multi-robot swarm environment. The protocols are based on histograms that encode the local neighborhood relations of the agents and can also transmit task-specific information, such as the shortest distance and direction to a desired target. In our framework, we use an adaptation of Trust Region Policy Optimization to learn complex collaborative tasks, such as formation building and building a communication link. We evaluate our findings in a simulated 2D-physics environment, and compare the implications of different communication protocols.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, version 2, accepted at ANTS 201

NASSAM: a server to search for and annotate tertiary interactions and motifs in three-dimensional structures of complex RNA molecules

Similarities in the 3D patterns of RNA base interactions or arrangements can provide insights into their functions and roles in stabilization of the RNA 3D structure. Nucleic Acids Search for Substructures and Motifs (NASSAM) is a graph theoretical program that can search for 3D patterns of base arrangements by representing the bases as pseudo-atoms. The geometric relationship of the pseudo-atoms to each other as a pattern can be represented as a labeled graph where the pseudo-atoms are the graph's nodes while the edges are the inter-pseudo-atomic distances. The input files for NASSAM are PDB formatted 3D coordinates. This web server can be used to identify matches of base arrangement patterns in a query structure to annotated patterns that have been reported in the literature or that have possible functional and structural stabilization implications. The NASSAM program is freely accessible without any login requirement at http://mfrlab.org/grafss/nassam/

Delayed identification and diagnosis of Huntington\u27s disease due to psychiatric symptoms

Huntington\u27s disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative illness that affects 2-9/100.000 of the general population. The usual onset is at around age 35-40 years, but there were cases with onset above 55 years. The disease manifests clinically with many neurological and psychiatric symptoms, leading in advanced phases to dementia, but cognitive symptoms are frequently present much earlier in the disease course. HD is caused by an expanded polyglutamine stretch in the N-terminal part of a 350 kDa protein called huntingtin (HTT). This stretch is encoded by a trinucleotide CAG repetition in exon 1 of HTT. An expansion of greater than 36 repeats results in HD. The number of repeats is inversely correlated with the age of onset of motor symptoms, and disease onset during childhood or adolescence is associated with more than 60 CAG repeats. Mood disturbances may be one of the earliest symptoms of HD and may precede the onset of the motor pheno-type for almost 10 years. Neuropsychiatric symptoms may delay the appropriate diagnosis of HD and have major implications for disease management, prognosis and quality of life for patients and families. This case study is about a 58 years old female patient with late identification of Huntington\u27s disease after two admissions to psychiatric inpatient units, for the treatment of behavioral disturbances

Effectiveness of lurasidone in schizophrenia or schizoaffective patients switched from other antipsychotics: a 6-month, open-label, extension study

Objective. To evaluate the long-term safety and tolerability of lurasidone in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder patients switched to lurasidone. Method. Patients in this multicenter, 6-month open-label, flexible-dose, extension study had completed a core 6-week randomized trial in which clinically stable, but symptomatic, outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were switched to lurasidone. Patients started the extension study on treatment with the same dose of lurasidone taken at study endpoint of the 6-week core study; following this, lurasidone was flexibly dosed (40-120 mg/day), if clinically indicated, starting on Day 7 of the extension study. The primary safety endpoints were the proportion of patients with treatment emergent adverse events (AEs), serious AEs, or who discontinued due to AEs. Secondary endpoints included metabolic variables and measures of extrapyramidal symptoms and akathisia, as well as the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S), and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS). The study was conducted from August 2010 to November 2011. Results. Of the 198 patients who completed the 6-week core study, 149 (75.3%) entered the extension study and 148 received study medication. A total of 98 patients (65.8%) completed the 6-month extension study. Lurasidone 40, 80, and 120 mg were the modal daily doses for 19 (12.8%), 65 (43.9%), and 64 (43.2%) of patients, respectively. Overall mean (SD) daily lurasidone dose was 102.0 mg (77.1). The most commonly reported AEs were insomnia (13 patients [8.8%]), nausea (13 patients [8.8%]), akathisia (12 patients [8.1%]), and anxiety (9 patients [6.1%]). A total of 16 patients (10.8%) had at least one AE leading to discontinuation from the study. Consistent with prior studies of lurasidone, there was no signal for clinically relevant adverse changes in body weight, lipids, glucose, insulin, or prolactin. Movement disorder rating scales did not demonstrate meaningful changes. Treatment failure (defined as any occurrence of discontinuation due to insufficient clinical response, exacerbation of underlying disease, or AE) was observed for 19 patients (12.8% of patients entering) and median time to treatment failure was 58 days (95% CI 22-86). The discontinuation rate due to any cause was 50/148 (33.8%), and median time to discontinuation was 62 days (95% CI 30-75). The mean PANSS total score, mean CGI-S score, and mean CDSS score decreased consistently from core study baseline across extension visits, indicating an improvement in overall condition. Conclusions. In this 6-month, open-label extension study, treatment with lurasidone was generally well-tolerated with sustained improvement in efficacy measures observed in outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who had switched to lurasidone from a broad range of antipsychotic agents

Structure and mechanism of the iron‐sulfur flavoprotein phthalate dioxygenase reductase

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154520/1/fsb2009014006.pd