Vicarious Reinforcement Procedures: An Analysis of Stimulus Control and Potential Side Effects

Vicarious reinforcement refers to a change in responding that is altered by observing another individual's behavior being reinforced (Kazdin, 1973a). Although vicarious reinforcement procedures appear to be an efficient teaching strategy because they involve learning from the behavior of others, previous research has shown varying degrees of vicarious responding. Additionally, previous research has suggested that vicarious responding may be associated with potential side effects (e.g., problem behavior). To date, the variables that influence vicarious responding and potential side effects have received little attention in the behavior analytic literature, which may be one factor that has contributed to the mixed findings. Therefore, the purposes of the current study were to (a) systematically replicate previous research to determine the extent to which stimulus control influenced positive and negative vicarious reinforcement effects (Studies 1 and 2) and (b) assess whether vicarious reinforcement contingencies were aversive for participants whose behavior did not contact direct reinforcement (Study 3). Results from Studies 1 and 2 showed the absence of a vicarious reinforcement effect for 11 of the 12 participants prior to a history of direct, differential reinforcement. Four participants showed vicarious responding following a history of direct, differential reinforcement. For these participants, stimulus control appeared to influence vicarious responding. Results from Study 3 showed idiosyncratic results across 3 participants. For one participant, vicarious positive reinforcement appeared to be aversive; for the second participant, vicarious positive reinforcement did not appear to be aversive. For the third participant, response patterns prevented definitive conclusions regarding whether vicarious positive reinforcement was aversive. Overall results are discussed with respect to the variables responsible for the emergence of vicarious responding and implications for clinical practice

Stable housing with methadone maintenance therapy and motivational interviewing as a treatment for opioid use disorder

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic relapsing condition associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality. Patients suffering from OUD have an increased risk of death from suicide, HIV, infectious disease, and trauma, among other causes. Patients suffering from OUD often manage various comorbid psychiatric illnesses and homelessness. From 1999 to 2017, an estimated 400,000 people died from prescription opioid related overdoses. In 2014, there were 28,647 opioid related overdose deaths in the United States. The current standard of care for treatment of OUD is an opioid receptor agonist methadone or buprenorphine combined with a psychosocial intervention, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), contingency management (CM), or motivational interviewing (MI). MI has proven to be effective in treating OUD when combined with methadone and buprenorphine. Other studies have found increased rates of opioid abstinence when study subjects were provided recovery housing contingent on urine that was free of opioids and other substances (CM). Among patients with a history of incarceration and co-morbid OUD, stable housing in some form -- private residence or living with a friend or family -- has been found to be effective in reducing opioid use when compared to homelessness as a control, suggesting homelessness confers a higher risk of opioid use. This prospective observational study aims to evaluate the effect of stable housing on opioid use disorder treatment and recovery. Study subjects will be Boston area residents who are prescribed methadone. Investigators will follow study subjects over six months while they attend weekly motivational interviewing sessions as part of their treatment regime and attend methadone clinics as usual. Once per week, study subjects will submit urine samples to study affiliated Medical Assistants (MA). Urine samples will be sent to LabCorp for toxicology analysis. At the conclusion of the study, investigators will examine which patients had longer time to relapse based on their housing status. We hypothesize that subjects with stable housing will have longer abstinence, as measured by urine toxicology, than subjects without stable housing. Positive findings could be used to help influence policy makers and federal and state legislation to promote stable housing for patients recovering from OUD

A multi-omics integrative approach unravels novel genes and pathways associated with senescence escape after targeted therapy in NRAS mutant melanoma

Therapy Induced Senescence (TIS) leads to sustained growth arrest of cancer cells. The associated cytostasis has been shown to be reversible and cells escaping senescence further enhance the aggressiveness of cancers. Chemicals specifically targeting senescent cells, so-called senolytics, constitute a promising avenue for improved cancer treatment in combination with targeted therapies. Understanding how cancer cells evade senescence is needed to optimise the clinical benefits of this therapeutic approach. Here we characterised the response of three different NRAS mutant melanoma cell lines to a combination of CDK4/6 and MEK inhibitors over 33 days. Transcriptomic data show that all cell lines trigger a senescence programme coupled with strong induction of interferons. Kinome profiling revealed the activation of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTKs) and enriched downstream signaling of neurotrophin, ErbB and insulin pathways. Characterisation of the miRNA interactome associates miR-211-5p with resistant phenotypes. Finally, iCell-based integration of bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data identifies biological processes perturbed during senescence and predicts 90 new genes involved in its escape. Overall, our data associate insulin signaling with persistence of a senescent phenotype and suggest a new role for interferon gamma in senescence escape through the induction of EMT and the activation of ERK5 signaling.VG is supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fond (FNR) PRIDE DTU CanBIO [grant reference: 21/16763386]. TR is supported by the FNR PRIDE DTU CriTiCS [grant reference: 10907093]. Project-related work performed by VG, HH, CM, DP, MTN, MB, AG, FT and SK were also supported by the University of Luxembourg and the Fondation Cancer, Luxembourg (grant “SecMelPro”). KM and NP are supported by funding from the European Union’s EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, Innovative Training Networks (MSCA-ITN-2019), funded under EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant Agreement No 860895. KM, NMD, GC and NP are supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant 770827. NP is also supported by funding from the Spanish State Research Agency AEI 10.13039/501100011033 grant number PID2019-105500GB-I00.Peer Reviewed"Article signat per 22 autors/es: Vincent Gureghian, Hailee Herbst, Ines Kozar, Katarina Mihajlovic, Noël Malod-Dognin, Gaia Ceddia, Cristian Angeli, Christiane Margue, Tijana Randic, Demetra Philippidou, Milène Tetsi Nomigni, Ahmed Hemedan, Leon-Charles Tranchevent, Joseph Longworth, Mark Bauer, Apurva Badkas, Anthoula Gaigneaux, Arnaud Muller, Marek Ostaszewski, Fabrice Tolle, Nataša Pržulj & Stephanie Kreis"Postprint (published version

Extração de informação como base para descoberta de conhecimento em dados não estruturados

Métodos de Descoberta de Conhecimento em Texto ou Knowledge Discovery inText - KDT tem sido aplicados a uma grande variedade de domínios, desde artigos paracongressos, até receituários médicos. KDT é o processo de encontrar padrões e informaçõesimplícitas interessantes ou úteis em um corpo de informação textual não estruturado[LOH 97]. Este processo combina muitas das técnicas de Extração de  Informação,Recuperação de Informação, Processamento da Linguagem Natural e Sumarização deDocumentos com os métodos de Data Mining (DM).Os dados estruturados, armazenados na maioria dos Sistemas de Gerência deBancos de Dados, são mais fáceis de serem tratados por meios computacionais, porqueexistem linguagens formais, como SQL e QBE, que permitem sua manipulação e consultade forma mais concisa e precisa [LOH 97]. Os dados não estruturados, por outro lado,necessitam de mecanismos computacionais diferentes dos tradicionalmente usados, paraque possam ser coletados, armazenados, manipulados e consultados. Para aplicar métodostradicionais de DM sobre textos, é necessário impor alguma estrutura para os dados[DIX 97]. Ou seja, alguém deve definir a estrutura destes dados, coletá-los e armazená-losnum Banco de Dados convencional. Entretanto, tal processo necessita de apoioautomatizado, pois é difícil, tedioso e sujeito a erros se feito por pessoas. Neste sentido,Descoberta de Conhecimento em Textos é uma área bastante relacionada com a área de Extração de Informação, bem como a de Recuperação de Informação, e realmente pode-seconsiderar que sistemas de KDT são  construídos a partir de componentes que executam estas tarefas [FEL 99]

A multi-omics integrative approach unravels novel genes and pathways associated with senescence escape after targeted therapy in NRAS mutant melanoma

Therapy Induced Senescence (TIS) leads to sustained growth arrest of cancer cells. The associated cytostasis has been shown to be reversible and cells escaping senescence further enhance the aggressiveness of cancers. Chemicals specifically targeting senescent cells, so-called senolytics, constitute a promising avenue for improved cancer treatment in combination with targeted therapies. Understanding how cancer cells evade senescence is needed to optimise the clinical benefits of this therapeutic approach. Here we characterised the response of three different NRAS mutant melanoma cell lines to a combination of CDK4/6 and MEK inhibitors over 33 days. Transcriptomic data show that all cell lines trigger a senescence programme coupled with strong induction of interferons. Kinome profiling revealed the activation of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTKs) and enriched downstream signaling of neurotrophin, ErbB and insulin pathways. Characterisation of the miRNA interactome associates miR-211-5p with resistant phenotypes. Finally, iCell-based integration of bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data identifies biological processes perturbed during senescence and predicts 90 new genes involved in its escape. Overall, our data associate insulin signaling with persistence of a senescent phenotype and suggest a new role for interferon gamma in senescence escape through the induction of EMT and the activation of ERK5 signaling.VG is supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fond (FNR) PRIDE DTU CanBIO [grant reference: 21/16763386]. TR is supported by the FNR PRIDE DTU CriTiCS [grant reference: 10907093]. Project-related work performed by VG, HH, CM, DP, MTN, MB, AG, FT and SK were also supported by the University of Luxembourg and the Fondation Cancer, Luxembourg (grant “SecMelPro”). KM and NP are supported by funding from the European Union’s EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, Innovative Training Networks (MSCA-ITN-2019), funded under EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant Agreement No 860895. KM, NMD, GC and NP are supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant 770827. NP is also supported by funding from the Spanish State Research Agency AEI 10.13039/501100011033 grant number PID2019-105500GB-I00.Peer ReviewedArticle signat per 22 autors/es: Vincent Gureghian 1, Hailee Herbst 1, Ines Kozar 2, Katarina Mihajlovic 3, Noël Malod-Dognin 3, Gaia Ceddia 3, Cristian Angeli 1, Christiane Margue 1, Tijana Randic 1, Demetra Philippidou 1, Milène Tetsi Nomigni 1, Ahmed Hemedan 4, Leon-Charles Tranchevent 4, Joseph Longworth 5, Mark Bauer 1, Apurva Badkas 1, Anthoula Gaigneaux 1, Arnaud Muller 6, Marek Ostaszewski 4, Fabrice Tolle 1, Nataša Pržulj 3, 7, 8 and Stephanie Kreis 1 // 1 Department of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Luxembourg, 6, Avenue du Swing, L-4367 Belvaux, Luxembourg; 2 Laboratoire National de Santé, Dudelange, Luxembourg; 3 Barcelona Supercomputing Center, 08034 Barcelona, Spain; 4 Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; 5 Experimental and Molecular Immunology, Department of Infection and Immunity, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; 6 LuxGen, TMOH and Bioinformatics platform, Data Integration and Analysis unit, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; 7 Department of Computer Science, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK; 8 ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, SpainPostprint (published version

Age of acquisition of 299 words in seven languages: American English, Czech, Gaelic, Lebanese Arabic, Malay, Persian and Western Armenian

We present a new set of subjective Age of Acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in seven languages from various language families and cultural settings: American English, Czech, Scottish Gaelic, Lebanese Arabic, Malaysian Malay, Persian, and Western Armenian. The ratings were collected from a total of 173 participants and were highly reliable in each language. We applied the same method of data collection as used in a previous study on 25 languages which allowed us to create a database of fully comparable AoA ratings of 299 words in 32 languages. We found that in the seven languages not included in the previous study, the words are estimated to be acquired at roughly the same age as in the previously reported languages, i.e. mostly between the ages of 1 and 7 years. We also found that the order of word acquisition is moderately to highly correlated across all 32 languages, which extends our previous conclusion that early words are acquired in similar order across a wide range of languages and cultures

On Critchfield's proposal: student concerns and recommendations

This is the published version, reproduced here with the publisher's permission. This article is also available electronically from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3359848/.No abstract available for this item