Oral Cannabidiol Does Not Produce a Signal for Abuse Liability in Frequent Marijuana Smokers

Background—Cannabidiol (CBD) is a naturally occurring constituent of the marijuana plant. In the past few years, there has been great interest in the therapeutic effects of isolated CBD and it is currently being explored for numerous disease conditions (e.g., pain, epilepsy, cancer, various drug dependencies). However, CBD remains a Schedule I drug on the U.S. Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Despite its status, there are no well-controlled data available regarding its abuse liability. Methods—Healthy, frequent marijuana users (n=31) were enrolled in this within subject, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multisite study that administered oral cannabidiol (0, 200, 400, 800 mg) alone and in combination with smoked marijuana (0.01%, 5.3-5.8% THC). Participants received one dose combination across 8 once-weekly outpatient sessions (7.5 hrs). The primary findings on the drug interaction effects were previously reported (Haney et al., 2016). The present study is a secondary analysis of the data to examine the abuse liability profile of oral cannabidiol (200, 400, 800 mg) in comparison to oral placebo and active smoked marijuana (5.3-5.8% THC). Results—Active marijuana reliably produced abuse-related subjective effects (e.g., high) (p \u3c .05). However, CBD was placebo-like on all measures collected (p \u3e .05). Conclusions—Overall, CBD did not display any signals of abuse liability at the doses tested and these data may help inform U.S. regulatory decisions regarding CBD schedule on the CSA

Endothelial dysfunction is associated with occult coronary artery disease detected by positron emission tomography

Objective: Silent myocardial ischemia is common in asymptomatic subjects without a prior history of coronary artery disease (CAD) and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Our objective was to determine whether endothelial dysfunction is associated with silent myocardial ischemia and whether the association is independent of genetic and familial factors. Material and methods: We examined 416 male monozygotic and dizygotic twins aged 47 to 63 years, free of symptomatic CAD. Subclinical ischemia was diagnosed by [13N] ammonia positron emission tomography at rest and after adenosine stress. Endothelial function was measured by flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery. Generalized estimating equations were used for analysis. Results: Fixed perfusion defects were found in 24 (6%) twins and reversible perfusion defects in 90 (22%) twins, indicating subclinical ischemia. There was an inverse correlation between FMD and the reversible perfusion defect score (r = − 0.14, p = 0.01) but not the fixed defect score (r = − 0.017, p = 0.73). From the lowest to the highest quartiles of FMD, the prevalence of reversible defects decreased from 28% to 14%, p = 0.008. In multivariable analysis, reversible defects were significantly associated with each quartile of decreasing FMD (OR = 1.3; 95% 1.1, 2.5). In 54 twin pairs discordant for endothelial dysfunction (FMD ≤ 7% dilation from baseline), twins with endothelial dysfunction had 9% higher likelihood of having perfusion defects than their co-twins without endothelial dysfunction (p = 0.041). Conclusions: Endothelial dysfunction is independently associated with silent ischemia and this association is not confounded by genetic or other shared familial factors

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease: A Twin Study

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) using a prospective twin study design and objective measures of CHD. BACKGROUND: It has long been hypothesized that PTSD increases the risk of CHD but empirical evidence using objective measures is limited. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study of middle-aged male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. Among twin pairs without self-reported CHD at baseline, we selected pairs discordant for a lifetime history of PTSD, pairs discordant for a lifetime history of major depression, and pairs without either condition. All underwent a clinic visit after a median follow-up of 13 years. Outcomes included clinical events (myocardial infarction, other hospitalizations for CHD and coronary revascularization) and quantitative measures of myocardial perfusion by [N13] positron emission tomography, including a stress total severity score (STSS) and coronary flow reserve (CFR). RESULTS: A total of 562 twins (281 pairs) were included with mean age of 42.6 yrs at baseline. The incidence of CHD was more than double in twins with PTSD (22.6%) than those without PTSD (8.9%; p<0.001). The association remained robust after adjusting for lifestyle factors, other CHD risk factors and major depression (OR=2.2, 95% confidence interval, 1.2-4.1). STSS was significantly higher (+ 95%, p=0.001) and CFR lower (−0.21, p=0.02) in twins with PTSD than those without, denoting worse myocardial perfusion. Associations were only mildly attenuated within 117 twin pairs discordant for PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: Among Vietnam era veterans, PTSD is a risk factor for CHD

Cross-Section Measurement of Virtual Photoproduction of Iso-Triplet Three-Body Hypernucleus, ⋀nn

Missing-mass spectroscopy with the 3H(e, e′K+) reaction was carried out at Jefferson Lab’s (JLab) Hall A in Oct–Nov, 2018. The differential cross section for the 3H(γ∗, K+)Λnn was deduced at ω = Ee − Ee′ = 2.102 GeV and at the forward K+-scattering angle (0° ≤ θγ∗K ≤ 5°) in the laboratory frame. Given typical predicted energies and decay widths, which are (BΛ, Γ) = (−0.25, 0.8) and (−0.55, 4.7) MeV, the cross sections were found to be 11.2 ± 4.8(stat.)+4.1−2.1(sys.) and 18.1 ± 6.8(stat.)+4.2−2.9(sys.) nb/sr, respectively. The obtained result would impose a constraint for interaction models particularly between Λ and neutron by comparing to theoretical calculations

Revealing the short-range structure of the "mirror nuclei" 3^3H and 3^3He

When protons and neutrons (nucleons) are bound into atomic nuclei, they are close enough together to feel significant attraction, or repulsion, from the strong, short-distance part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. These strong interactions lead to hard collisions between nucleons, generating pairs of highly-energetic nucleons referred to as short-range correlations (SRCs). SRCs are an important but relatively poorly understood part of nuclear structure and mapping out the strength and isospin structure (neutron-proton vs proton-proton pairs) of these virtual excitations is thus critical input for modeling a range of nuclear, particle, and astrophysics measurements. Hitherto measurements used two-nucleon knockout or ``triple-coincidence'' reactions to measure the relative contribution of np- and pp-SRCs by knocking out a proton from the SRC and detecting its partner nucleon (proton or neutron). These measurementsshow that SRCs are almost exclusively np pairs, but had limited statistics and required large model-dependent final-state interaction (FSI) corrections. We report on the first measurement using inclusive scattering from the mirror nuclei $^3$H and $^3$He to extract the np/pp ratio of SRCs in the A=3 system. We obtain a measure of the np/pp SRC ratio that is an order of magnitude more precise than previous experiments, and find a dramatic deviation from the near-total np dominance observed in heavy nuclei. This result implies an unexpected structure in the high-momentum wavefunction for $^3$He and $^3$H. Understanding these results will improve our understanding of the short-range part of the N-N interaction

Preliminary design of the BPM electronics memory scanner/dual boxcar averager for the Advanced Photon Source

The memory scanner/dual boxcar averager are VXI modules that are part of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) beam position monitor (BPM) data acquisition system. Each pair of modules is designed to gather and process digital data from up to nine digital channels transmitting the BPM data from the storage ring (360 locations) and the synchrotron (80 locations). They store beam history in a buffer, store the latest scan of all channels, and provide boxcar averaged X and Y position data for the global orbit feedback system, provide boxcar average X and Y position data for beam diagnostics, and a buffered output of SCDU data as it is scanned for the beam abort interlock system. The system`s capability to support single pass, closed orbit and tune measurement functions will also be briefly described