Rat Models of ADHD

Postprint version of published article. Original available at www.springerlink.co

The Vital Role of Social Workers in Community Partnerships: The Alliance for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Youth

The account of The Alliance for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) Youth formation offers a model for developing com- munity-based partnerships. Based in a major urban area, this university-community collaboration was spearheaded by social workers who were responsible for its original conceptualization, for generating community support, and for eventual staffing, administration, direct service provision, and program evaluation design. This article presents the strategic development and evolution of this community- based service partnership, highlighting the roles of schools of social work, academics, and social work students in concert with community funders, practitioners and youth, in responding to the needs of a vulnerable population

For which side the bell tolls: The laterality of approach-avoidance associative networks

The two hemispheres of the brain appear to play different roles in emotion and/or motivation. A great deal of previous research has examined the valence hypothesis (left hemisphere = positive; right = negative), but an increasing body of work has supported the motivational hypothesis (left hemisphere = approach; right = avoidance) as an alternative. The present investigation (N = 117) sought to provide novel support for the latter perspective. Left versus right hemispheres were briefly activated by neutral lateralized auditory primes. Subsequently, participants categorized approach versus avoidance words as quickly and accurately as possible. Performance in the task revealed that approach-related thoughts were more accessible following left-hemispheric activation, whereas avoidance-related thoughts were more accessible following right-hemispheric activation. The present results are the first to examine such lateralized differences in accessible motivational thoughts, which may underlie more “downstream” manifestations of approach and avoidance motivation such as judgments, decision making, and behavior

Study of hadronic event-shape variables in multijet final states in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Constraints on parton distribution functions and extraction of the strong coupling constant from the inclusive jet cross section in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Teaching appropriate interactions with pharmaceutical company representatives: The impact of an innovative workshop on student attitudes

BACKGROUND: Pharmaceutical company representatives (PCRs) influence the prescribing habits and professional behaviour of physicians. However, the skills for interacting with PCRs are not taught in the traditional medical school curriculum. We examined whether an innovative, mandatory workshop for third year medical students had immediate effects on knowledge and attitudes regarding interactions with PCRs. METHODS: Surveys issued before and after the workshop intervention solicited opinions (five point Likert scales) from third year students (n = 75) about the degree of bias in PCR information, the influence of PCRs on prescribing habits, the acceptability of specific gifts, and the educational value of PCR information for both practicing physicians and students. Two faculty members and one PCR led the workshop, which highlighted typical physician-PCR interactions, the use of samples and gifts, the validity and legal boundaries of PCR information, and associated ethical issues. Role plays with the PCR demonstrated appropriate and inappropriate strategies for interacting with PCRs. RESULTS: The majority of third year students (56%, 42/75) had experienced more than three personal conversations with a PCR about a drug product since starting medical school. Five percent (4/75) claimed no previous personal experience with PCRs. Most students (57.3%, 43/75) were not aware of available guidelines regarding PCR interactions. Twenty-eight percent of students (21/75) thought that none of the named activities/gifts (lunch access, free stethoscope, textbooks, educational CD-ROMS, sporting events) should be restricted, while 24.0% (8/75) thought that students should be restricted only from sporting events. The perceived educational value of PCR information to both practicing physicians and students increased after the workshop intervention from 17.7% to 43.2% (chi square, p = .0001), and 22.1% to 40.5% (p = .0007), respectively. Student perceptions of the degree of bias of PCR information decreased from 84.1% to 72.9% (p = .065), but the perceived degree of influence on prescribing increased (44.2% to 62.1% (p = .02)). CONCLUSIONS: Students have exposure to PCRs early in their medical training. A single workshop intervention may influence student attitudes toward interactions with PCRs. Students were more likely to acknowledge the educational value of PCR interactions and their impact on prescribing after the workshop intervention

Sex doll ownership: an agenda for research

Purpose of review: The topic of sex doll ownership is becoming an increasingly discussed issue from both a social and legal perspective. This review aims to examine the veracity of the existing psychological, sexological, and legal literature in relation to doll ownership. Recent findings: Strong views exist across the spectrum of potential socio-legal positions on sex doll ownership. However, there is an almost total lack of empirical analyses of the psychological characteristics or behavioral implications of doll ownership. As such, existing arguments appear to represent the philosophical positions of those scholars expressing them, rather than being rooted in any objective evidence base. Summary: Despite an absence of empirical data on the characteristics and subsequent effects of doll ownership, discussions about the ethical and legal status of doll ownership continue. This highlights a real and urgent need for a coherent research agenda to be advanced in this area of work

Caenorhabditis elegans behavioral genetics: where are the knobs?

Thousands of behavioral mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans have been studied. I suggest a set of criteria by which some genes important in the evolution of behavior might be recognized, and identify neuropeptide signaling pathways as candidates

Secreted Phospholipase A2 Involvement in Neurodegeneration: Differential Testing of Prosurvival and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Enzyme Inhibition

There is increased interest in the contribution of secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) enzymes to neurodegenerative diseases. Systemic treatment with the nonapeptide CHEC-9, a broad spectrum uncompetitive inhibitor of sPLA2, has been shown previously to inhibit neuron death and aspects of the inflammatory response in several models of neurodegeneration. A persistent question in studies of sPLA2 inhibitors, as for several other anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective compounds, is whether the cell protection is direct or due to slowing of the toxic aspects of the inflammatory response. To further explore this issue, we developed assays using SY5Y (neuronal cells) and HL-60 (monocytes) cell lines and examined the effects of sPLA2 inhibition on these homogeneous cell types in vitro. We found that the peptide inhibited sPLA2 enzyme activity in both SY5Y and HL-60 cultures. This inhibition provided direct protection to SY5Y neuronal cells and their processes in response to several forms of stress including exposure to conditioned medium from HL-60 cells. In cultures of HL-60 cells, sPLA2 inhibition had no effect on survival of the cells but attenuated their differentiation into macrophages, with regard to process development, phagocytic ability, and the expression of differentiation marker CD36, as well as the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6. These results suggest that sPLA2 enzyme activity organizes a cascade of changes comprising both cell degeneration and inflammation, processes that could theoretically operate independently during neurodegenerative conditions. The effectiveness of sPLA2 inhibitor CHEC-9 may be due to its ability to affect both processes in isolation. Testing potential anti-inflammatory/neuroprotective compounds with these human cell lines and their conditioned media may provide a useful screening tool prior to in vivo therapeutic applications

Increased ion temperature and neutron yield observed in magnetized indirectly driven D_{2}-filled capsule implosions on the national ignition facility

The application of an external 26 Tesla axial magnetic field to a D_{2} gas-filled capsule indirectly driven on the National Ignition Facility is observed to increase the ion temperature by 40% and the neutron yield by a factor of 3.2 in a hot spot with areal density and temperature approaching what is required for fusion ignition [1]. The improvements are determined from energy spectral measurements of the 2.45 MeV neutrons from the D(d,n)^{3}He reaction, and the compressed central core B field is estimated to be ∼4.9  kT using the 14.1 MeV secondary neutrons from the D(T,n)^{4}He reactions. The experiments use a 30 kV pulsed-power system to deliver a ∼3  μs current pulse to a solenoidal coil wrapped around a novel high-electrical-resistivity AuTa_{4} hohlraum. Radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations are consistent with the experiment