Relationship between tonic and phasic craving for alcohol.

BackgroundMultiple measures are utilized to assess alcohol craving, often interchangeably. Little is known about the relationship between tonic and phasic craving. This study fills this gap in the literature by examining the association between tonic levels of alcohol craving and phasic craving for alcohol that is provoked by alcohol administration.MethodsForty-three non-treatment seeking problem drinkers underwent an initial interview and two laboratory testing sessions, where either alcohol or a saline placebo was administered intravenously. Tonic craving was assessed via the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) and Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) at the initial interview. Phasic craving was assessed during the laboratory sessions (i.e., alcohol and saline administrations, single blinded) at baseline and at 3 subsequent breath alcohol concentrations (0.02, 0.04, and 0.06 g/dl).ResultsThere was a main effect of PACS in predicting phasic craving across both saline and alcohol administration conditions (p < 0.05). The OCDS was predictive of phasic craving when alcohol, but not saline, was administered (p = 0.058); the obsessive subscale (p = 0.01), but not the compulsive subscale (p > 0.10), predicted phasic craving during alcohol, as compared to saline administration.ConclusionIn sum, tonic craving captured by the OCDS was predictive of phasic craving during alcohol administration whereas the PACS more generally captured the increase in phasic craving. Therefore, these measures of tonic craving may function differently in capturing the experience of phasic craving. Implications for the utilization of the PACS and OCDS as well as assessments of craving in alcoholism research are discussed

The Effects of Hurricane Katrina on Corn, Wheat and Soybean Futures Prices and Basis

Hurricane Katrina caused considerable damage to transportation infrastructure, grain export facilities, and to some crop areas in 2005. Assuming that financial market participants considered the disruption of the grain transportation system by Katrina as having an important impact on fundamental supply and demand factors, futures and/or national basis would subsequently adjust. The objective of this research was to determine the reaction in corn, wheat, and soybean futures and basis due to Katrina using an event study methodology. One parametric (Constant mean return) and one nonparametric procedure (Corrado's rank test) were used to define whether there were statistically significant abnormal returns. During Katrina abnormal returns were larger on the wheat futures market than on the corn and soybean futures markets, which could be partially explained by the timing of the Katrina's landfall with the grain export activities. However, there were only a few statistically significant daily abnormal returns in the futures prices due to the hurricane. There was some evidence of significant cumulative abnormal returns in the corn and wheat futures markets prior to and surrounding the Katrina's landfall. In conclusion, the majority of the corn market reaction to Katrina's damage occurred in the basis and not in the futures market. For the soybean market there was weak evidence of significant reaction in both basis and futures prices. In the case of wheat, the basis was not evaluated and wheat futures prices reacted to the disruption caused by Katrina. The reaction in the corn, wheat and soybean futures prices due to Katrina could have being moderated by the presence of large stocks and large expected production levels of these grains in 2005 or simply by the fact that the damage caused by the hurricane did not affect fundamental supply and demand factors; rather, they only affected transportation logistics.Marketing,

Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in Senators’ Offices, FY2009-FY2013

[Excerpt] This report provides pay data for 16 staff position titles that are typically deployed in Senators’ offices. The positions include the following: Administrative Director; Casework Supervisor; Caseworker; Chief of Staff; Communications Director; Counsel; Executive Assistant; Field Representative; Legislative Assistant; Legislative Correspondent; Legislative Director; Press Secretary; Scheduler; “Specials Director,” a combined category that includes the job titles Director of Projects, Director of Special Projects, Director of Federal Projects, Director of Grants, Projects Director, or Grants Director; Staff Assistant; and State Director. Senators’ staff pay data for the years FY2009-FY2013 were derived from a random sampling of Senators’ offices in which at least one staff member worked in a position in each year

Photoelectrochemical properties of melanin

Melanin is to the animal kingdom like chlorophyll to the vegetal kingdom(1). Melanin collects energy from lower-energy radiation sources, kicks electrons into excited states, initiating a process that would end up producing chemical energy, similar to the way in which photosynthesis supplies energy to plants. However, the precise roles of melanin during this process are unknown. Here we show that the increase in the electron-transfer properties of melanin is independent of the energy of the incident photons. We found in controlled in vivo assays that melanin has the remarkable capability of converting lower-energy radiation towards a more useful form of energy. Furthermore, we found that melanin can break up water molecules and giving up energy suggesting an additional behavior mode for melanin. Our results demonstrate how members of the melanin family are likely to function as transducers, oxidizing water, pushing apart water molecules, as well as recruiting back ions into molecules that are subsequently polarized again. Melanin drives the photon energy of lower-energy radiation sources by quenching electrons and initiating an ionic event independently of their relative energy contention. We anticipate our assay to be a starting point for more sophisticated photoelectrochemical applications. For example, the individual and combined action of multiple photovoltaic applications could be tested, including conducting polymers, for example poly-(phenylenevinylene) (PPV) derivatives or C60 particles. Furthermore, melanin's energy conversion ability is a major target of solar energy conversion development, and an organic-semiconductor way for photoelectrochemical applications will be relevant for such developments.</sup></sup&#x3e

Convergence between the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale and diagnostic interview for the assessment of alcohol craving.

IntroductionThe Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure craving for alcohol. Recent research has suggested that scores on the PACS can be used as a "stand in" for the diagnostic criterion of alcohol craving with a proposed cutoff of >20 on the PACS indicating a "positive" alcohol craving symptom. The present study examined the convergence between the PACS and face-to-face diagnostic interview for the assessment of alcohol craving.MethodA sample of non-treatment seeking heavy drinkers (N = 338) enrolled in experimental studies of AUD completed the PACS as well as a face-to-face diagnostic interview for AUD, which included the craving item from the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA).ResultsUsing the PACS cut-off score of >20, 12.9% (N = 43) of the sample met criteria for alcohol craving compared to 21% (N = 74) of the sample meeting criteria based on the diagnostic interview. Using the PACS cutoff of >20, sensitivity (i.e., true positive rate) was 41% and specificity (i.e., true negative rate) was 95%. Exploratory analyses suggested that a cut-off score of ≥15 achieved the optimal balance of sensitivity (67%) and specificity (81%) in our sample.ConclusionsAdvancing the assessment of alcohol craving and the conversion from DSM-IV to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria represents an important research direction. The present study recommends that a PACS score cut off of ≥15 should be used as an indicator of clinically significant alcohol craving in community samples of non-treatment seekers

Developmental and functional effects of steroid hormones on the neuroendocrine axis and spinal cord

This review highlights the principal effects of steroid hormones at central and peripheral levels in the neuroendocrine axis. The data discussed highlight the principal role of oestrogens and testosterone in hormonal programming in relation to sexual orientation, reproductive and metabolic programming, and the neuroendocrine mechanism involved in the development of polycystic ovary syndrome phenotype. Moreover, consistent with the wide range of processes in which steroid hormones take part, we discuss the protective effects of progesterone on neurodegenerative disease and the signalling mechanism involved in the genesis of oestrogen-induced pituitary prolactinomas.Fil: Zubeldia Brenner, Lautaro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Roselli, C. E.. Oregon Health and Science University Portland; Estados UnidosFil: Recabarren, S. E.. Universidad de Concepción; ChileFil: Gonzalez Deniselle, Maria Claudia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Lara, H. E.. Universidad de Chile; Chil

Presence of Borrelia, Rickettsia, and Ehrlichia in Field-collected Ticks on Candlers Mountain, Virginia

Tick survey is an important factor in the determination of tick-borne disease in an area. A tick survey was done on Candlers Mountain in Lynchburg, Virginia, to look for the presence of Borrelia, Rickettsia, and Ehrlichia. With the help of CO2 traps, 116 ticks were collected, including 75 adult lone star ticks and 3 adult blacklegged ticks. The use of the CO2 trap was successful as a tick capturing method, but a preference was seen in the capture of lone star ticks. The ticks’ DNA will then be extracted and analyzed for the presence of pathogens in future work

Learning to become an expert : reinforcement learning and the acquisition of perceptual expertise

To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the development of perceptual expertise, we recorded ERPs while participants performed a categorization task. We found that as participants learned to discriminate computer-generated "blob'' stimuli, feedback modulated the amplitude of the errorrelated negativity (ERN)-an ERP component thought to reflect error evaluation within medial-frontal cortex. As participants improved at the categorization task, we also observed an increase in amplitude of an ERP component associated with object recognition (the N250). The increase in N250 amplitude preceded an increase in amplitude of an ERN component associated with internal error evaluation (the response ERN). Importantly, these electroencephalographic changes were not observed for participants who failed to improve on the categorization task. Our results suggest that the acquisition of perceptual expertise relies on interactions between the posterior perceptual system and the reinforcement learning system involving medial-frontal cortex

A low complexity iterative channel estimation and equalisation scheme for (data-dependent) superimposed training

Channel estimation/symbol detection methods based on superimposed training (ST) are known to bemore bandwidth efficient than those based on traditional time-multiplexed training. In this paper we present an iterative version of the ST methodwhere the equalised symbols obtained via ST are used in a second step to improve the channel estimation, approaching the performance of the more recent (and improved) data dependent ST (DDST), but now with less complexity. This iterative ST method (IST) is then compared to a different iterative superimposed training method of Meng and Tugnait (LSST).We show via simulations that the BER of our IST algorithm is very close to that of the LSST but with a reduced computational burden of the order of the channel length. Furthermore, if the LSST iterative approach (originally based on ST) is now implemented using DDST, a faster convergence rate can be achieved for the MSE of the channel estimates