Neurocognitive Predictors of Drug Relapse

Worldwide, about 35 million people, that is 0.8% of the world’s adult population, use heroin and/or cocaine and more than 10-13% of these drug users are or will become drug dependent (UNODC, World Drug Report, 2012). Drug dependency is characterized as a chronic relapsing disorder (Leshner, 1997; McLellan et al., 2000). Substance dependent individuals often relapse, despite their efforts to stay abstinent (APA, 1994). Hence, the major goal of treatment facilities is to prevent treatment dropout and subsequent relapse. Unfortunately, about 50% of heroin and cocaine dependent patients already dropout in the first phase of clinical treatments, which is the detoxification phase. These dropout rates are consistent across several countries and remained steady over the years (the Netherlands: Franken and Hendriks, 1999; Switzerland: Hättenschwiler et al., 2000; United Kingdom: Gossop et al., 2002; Day and Strang, 2011). In addition, treatment dropout is associated with higher relapse rates (Gossop et al., 1987, 2002). There is ample room for improving these dropout and relapse rates of substance dependent patients. To improve treatment for these patients we first have to know the factors predicting relapse

21st Century Pedagogy using Wikipedia

When the era of Constructivismis laced with a broad range of Web2.0 tools, a new form of learning has evolved. Knowledge construction and deconstruction has become easier as the means to write and rewrite information has continued to evolve. Wikipedia is one of the most powerful instruments through which this digital revolution of knowledge creation, co-creation and access has been redefined. This paper is a treatise, exploring the ease with which Wikipedia can be assimilated within the curriculum and how even a secondary school student can add to the immense world of knowledge. Wikipedia is a free access, free content platform that offers every person the capability and easy-to-use tools to become a contributor of knowledge. Since its inception in 2001, the online encyclopaedia hasgrown with a burgeoning number of articles being added, modified and reviewed by contributors worldwide by the second. The very nature of the website is collaborative, thus enabling collective learning and cooperative exchange of information. Placing a student in this infinite space as a collaborative contributor of information, which is governed by the website’s stringent governance policies and is open to review and critique across the world, makes him or her a conscientious creator of verified knowledge which consolidates the learning at the highest taxonomic level of education. This curricular integration of Wikipedia could thus be the very essence of constructivism, making it a highly desirable and viable method of digitising any pedagogy

Antioxidant Activity of Indian Medicinal Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) cv. Njavara

A study was conducted to find out the antioxidant activity of medicinal rice (Oryza sativa L.) cv. Njavara. Two eco types of Njavara rice Njavara black (NB) and Njavara yellow (NY) were procured from RRS, Moncompu and one eco type of Hraswa was obtained from ARS, Mannuthy. Hraswa was treated as the control. Diphenyl picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, superoxide anion radical scavenging activity, reducing power assay, total antioxidant activity, total phenols, zinc and selenium (Se) were estimated. The results of the antioxidant properties revealed that for DPPH scavenging activity and hydroxyl radical activity NY had highest antioxidant activity. For superoxide radical scavenging activity, NB had the highest activity. Present investigation showed that as the concentration increased, the reducing power of all the rice varieties increased and the highest reducing power was shown by NB. NY had shown the highest total antioxidant activity. Present study revealed that among the three rice varieties NB had the highest total phenol content. Zn content was slightly higher in NY than NB. The present study revealed that control variety Hraswa had the highest Se content

Medicinal Properties of Njavara Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) cv.

A study was conducted to find out the therapeutic value of medicinal rice (Oryza sativa L.) cv. Njavara. Njavara rice for the study was procured from Rice Research Station, Moncompu. For assessing the efficacy of Njavara on the blood sugar levels, a feeding trial for 3 months was conducted among five subjects who were diabetic and willing to participate but not on medication. Blood sugar levels were monitored during 0, 45 and 90th day of supplementation. The results revealed that for all subjects\u27 blood sugar levels decreased after supplementation study. Diphenyl picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, superoxide anion radical scavenging activity and Vitamin E level were also ascertained. The findings revealed that after the supplementation of Njavara, the DPPH scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical activity, superoxide anion-radical scavenging activity and vitamin E level of the blood samples of all the five subjects under study have increased

Placental thickness as a sonographic biomarker for gestational age among singleton pregnancies

Background: The aim of the study was to exploring the application of placental thickness as a sonographic marker for determining gestational age among singleton pregnant mothers.Methods: This longitudinal, observational study was conducted in obstetrics and gynecology department and department of Radiology, Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College and Hospital, Ariyur, Puducherry, in antenatal mothers of 11-40 weeks of gestation from 2018 to 2019. The study included 278 normal singleton pregnant women. The details regarding the socio-demographic variables, relevant clinical history and examination, laboratory investigations and ultrasound report containing gestational age, placental thickness measured at the level of cord insertion were documented in a proforma. The sonographic measurements were made using a grey scale real time ultrasound machine Siemens ACUSON x400 with a convex 2-5 mhz probe.Results: The study included 278 pregnant women with a mean age of 25.8±44 years. Majority of them were home makers (n=155, 55.7%) and educated (n=257, 92.4%) and primigravida(n=117, 57.9%).The position of the placenta in majority of the participants was posterior placed (71.6%). The mean gestational age of the studied antenatal women was 28.3±7.2 weeks as per ultrasonogram. Majority of the participants were younger aged between 20 to 30 years of age and very few teenage pregnancies. There was a significant correlation between the gestational age and placental thickness (p<0.001). There was a significant (p<0.001) correlation between placental thickness and femur length (r=0.972).Conclusions: The placental thickness showed significant positive correlation with the gestational age as measured by ultrasonogram. Hence it can be used as a parameter in determining the gestational age

Effect of osmotic stress on seed germination and seedling characters of Mung bean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wildzek]

The Screening of osmotic stress was undertaken to investigate the effect of water stress and salinity stress on the seeds of mung bean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) and its responses to drought tolerance at seedling stage. Water stress was simulated by non-ionic water-soluble polymer polyethylene glycol of molecular weight 6000 and salinity stress was induced with NaCl. The experiment demonstrated that osmotic stress caused by NaCl and PEG has a negative impact on the germination rate and seedling growth of Vigna radiata. Both NaCl and PEG inhibited germination and seedling growth in mung bean, but the effects of NaCl compared to PEG was less on germination and seedling growth

The clinical relevance of attentional bias in substance use disorders

Individuals with substance use disorders typically show an attentional bias for substance-related cues: Those cues are able to grab and hold the attention, in preference to other cues in the environment. We discuss the theoretical context for this work before reviewing the measurement of attentional bias, and its relationship to motivational state and relapse to substance use after a period of abstinence. Finally, we discuss the implications of this research for the treatment of substance use disorders. We conclude that attentional bias is associated with subjective craving, and that moment-by-moment fluctuations in attentional bias may precede relapse to substance use. The evidence regarding the predictive relationship between attentional bias assessed in treatment contexts and subsequent relapse is inconsistent. Furthermore, there is currently insufficient evidence to endorse attentional bias modification as a treatment for substance use disorders. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are highlighted

Effect of electron beam irradiation on structural and optical properties of Cu-doped In2O3 films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering.

Undoped and Cu-doped In2O3 films were prepared by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering technique. The effects of Cu doping and high-energy electron beam irradiation on the structural and optical properties of as-prepared films were investigated using techniques such as x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), lateral scanning electron microscopic image analysis, energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, micro-Raman, and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. Moderate doping of Cu in In2O3 enhanced the intensity of (222) peak, indicating alignment of crystalline grains along . Electron beam irradiation promoted orientation of crystalline grains along in undoped and moderately Cu-doped films. EDX spectroscopic and XPS analyses revealed incorporation of Cu2+ ions in the lattice. The transmittance of Cu-doped films decreased with e-beam irradiation. Systematic reduction of the bandgap energy with an increase in Cu doping concentration was seen in unirradiated and electron-beam-irradiated films

Surveys without Questions: A Reinforcement Learning Approach

The 'old world' instrument, survey, remains a tool of choice for firms to obtain ratings of satisfaction and experience that customers realize while interacting online with firms. While avenues for survey have evolved from emails and links to pop-ups while browsing, the deficiencies persist. These include - reliance on ratings of very few respondents to infer about all customers' online interactions; failing to capture a customer's interactions over time since the rating is a one-time snapshot; and inability to tie back customers' ratings to specific interactions because ratings provided relate to all interactions. To overcome these deficiencies we extract proxy ratings from clickstream data, typically collected for every customer's online interactions, by developing an approach based on Reinforcement Learning (RL). We introduce a new way to interpret values generated by the value function of RL, as proxy ratings. Our approach does not need any survey data for training. Yet, on validation against actual survey data, proxy ratings yield reasonable performance results. Additionally, we offer a new way to draw insights from values of the value function, which allow associating specific interactions to their proxy ratings. We introduce two new metrics to represent ratings - one, customer-level and the other, aggregate-level for click actions across customers. Both are defined around proportion of all pairwise, successive actions that show increase in proxy ratings. This intuitive customer-level metric enables gauging the dynamics of ratings over time and is a better predictor of purchase than customer ratings from survey. The aggregate-level metric allows pinpointing actions that help or hurt experience. In sum, proxy ratings computed unobtrusively from clickstream, for every action, for each customer, and for every session can offer interpretable and more insightful alternative to surveys.Comment: The Thirty-Third AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-19