78 research outputs found
An explorative approach to understanding individual differences in driving performance and neurocognition in long-term benzodiazepine users
Objective: Previous research reported cognitive and psychomotor impairments in longâterm users of benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs). This article explores the role of acute intoxication and clinical complaints. Methods: Neurocognitive and onâroad driving performance of 19 longâterm (â„6 months) regular (â„twice weekly) BZRA users with estimated plasma concentrations, based on selfâreported use, exceeding the therapeutic threshold (CBZRA+), and 31 longâterm regular BZRA users below (CBZRAâ), was compared to that of 76 controls. Results: BZRA users performed worse on tasks of response speed, processing speed, and sustained attention. Age, but not CBZRA or selfâreported clinical complaints, was a significant covariate. Roadâtracking performance was explained by CBZRA only. The CBZRA + group exhibited increased mean standard deviation of lateral position comparable to that at bloodâalcohol concentrations of 0.5 g/L. Conclusions: Functional impairments in longâterm BZRA users are not attributable to selfâreported clinical complaints or estimated BZRA concentrations, except for roadâtracking, which was impaired in CBZRA + users. Limitations to address are the lack of assessment of objective clinical complaints, acute task related stress, and actual BZRA plasma concentrations. In conclusion, the results confirm previous findings that demonstrate inferior performance across several psychomotor and neurocognitive domains in longâterm BZRA users
Defining binding efficiency and specificity of auxins for SCF(TIR1/AFB)-Aux/IAA co-receptor complex formation.
Structure-activity profiles for the phytohormone auxin have been collected for over 70 years, and a number of synthetic auxins are used in agriculture. Auxin classification schemes and binding models followed from understanding auxin structures. However, all of the data came from whole plant bioassays, meaning the output was the integral of many different processes. The discovery of Transport Inhibitor-Response 1 (TIR1) and the Auxin F-Box (AFB) proteins as sites of auxin perception and the role of auxin as molecular glue in the assembly of co-receptor complexes has allowed the development of a definitive quantitative structure-activity relationship for TIR1 and AFB5. Factorial analysis of binding activities offered two uncorrelated factors associated with binding efficiency and binding selectivity. The six maximum-likelihood estimators of Efficiency are changes in the overlap matrixes, inferring that Efficiency is related to the volume of the electronic system. Using the subset of compounds that bound strongly, chemometric analyses based on quantum chemical calculations and similarity and self-similarity indices yielded three classes of Specificity that relate to differential binding. Specificity may not be defined by any one specific atom or position and is influenced by coulomb matrixes, suggesting that it is driven by electrostatic forces. These analyses give the first receptor-specific classification of auxins and indicate that AFB5 is the preferred site for a number of auxinic herbicides by allowing interactions with analogues having van der Waals surfaces larger than that of indole-3-acetic acid. The quality factors are also examined in terms of long-standing models for the mechanism of auxin binding
Certify or not? An analysis of organic food supply chain with competing suppliers
Customers expect companies to provide clear health-related information for the products they purchase in a big data environment. Organic food is data-enabled with the organic label, but the certification cost discourages small-scale suppliers from certifying their product. This lack of a label means that product that satisfies the organic standard is regarded as conventional product. By considering the trade-off between the profit gained from organic label and additional costs of certification, this paper investigates an organic food supply chain where a leading retailer procures from two suppliers with different brands. Customers care about both the brand-value and quality (more specifically, if food is organic or not) when purchasing the product. We explore the organic certification and wholesale pricing strategies for suppliers, and the supplier selection and retail pricing strategies for the retailer. We find that when two suppliers adopt asymmetric certification strategy, the retailer tends to procure the product with organic label. The supplier without a brand name can compensate with organic certification, which leads to more profits than the branded rival. As the risk of being abandoned by the retailer increases, the supplier without a brand name is more eager than the rival to obtain the organic label. If both suppliers certify the product, however, they will fall into a prisonerâs dilemma under situation with low health utility from organic label and high certification cost
Everyday risk taking as a function of regulatory focus
Uncertainty is an inherent aspect of everyday life. However, faced with uncertainty, some individuals take risks more eagerly than others. Regulatory focus theory may explain such differences because risky behavior may arise naturally from the eagerness of promotion focused individuals, while safe behavior may arise naturally from the vigilance of prevention focused individuals. A highly relevant real-life context for studying risk is mobility, as engaging in traffic inherently carries uncertainty about negative outcomes. We present two studies showing a direct link between regulatory focus and risky behavior going beyond traditional laboratory approaches. In both naturalistic speeding behavior (Study 1) and simulated risk taking (Study 2) promotion focus was positively, and prevention focus was negatively related to actual risky behavior. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
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