The “Eyeballing” technique : an emerging and alerting trend of alcohol misuse

Alternative methods of alcohol consumption have recently emerged among adolescents and young adults, including the alcohol “eyeballing”, which consist in the direct pouring of alcoholic substances on the ocular surface epithelium. In a context of drug and behavioural addictions change, “eyeballing” can be seen as one of the latest and potentially highly risky new trends. We aimed to analyze the existing medical literature as well as online material on this emerging trend of alcohol misusePeer reviewedFinal Published versio

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L'area delle risorgive nel sistema insediativo mesolitico: alcuni esempi dal pordenonese

The authors present the work undertaken on the lithic material collected in the spring area between Orcenico Superiore and Savorgnano (Pordenone-Italy). The sites are located on an NE-SW elongated Lateglacial gravel ridge, which to the present day is to be considered a stable area (i.e. preserved from alluvial and erosive action of Tagliamento and Meduna rivers). Different periods are represented in the lithic industries, spanning from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. This paper presents the results of the study carried out on the Mesolithic industries, mainly to be ascribed to the Castelnovian tradition. The typological composition of the assemblages shows different activities which could be associated with residential camps, without any particular specialization although this kind of interpretation could be biased by the non systematic nature of the findings. Different operational chains were in place, aiming to produce either bladelets or flakes. Raw materials are mostly of local origin, although few pieces were brought in from the Prealps, showing a North-South mobility along river routes. At the same time, there are scarce lithic materials imported from the upper part of the Udine plain, which is rich in good quality flint pebbles. Further technological and typological differences show a rather neat separation between sites on either sides of Tagliamento river. When we consider the distribution of Mesolithic sites in Friuli, a logistical settlement system seems to emerge: bigger sites are located at the edge of ecologically differentiated areas in connection with stable water sources such as the spring area between Orcenico and S. Vito al Tagliamento and the piedmont; complementary to those, task-related short-term sites characterised by less materials and fewer lithic types are found in the Prealps at middle altitude

What inspires us? An experimental analysis of the semantic meaning of irrelevant information in creative ideation

Past research showed that apparently irrelevant information for a creative task at hand can lead to higher creative performance, especially in open-minded individuals. Through two diverse experimental procedures, the present work investigated which type of irrelevance information can inspire (i.e., increase) the creative performance during a divergent thinking (DT) task and how open-minded individuals can be inspired by this kind of information. In Experiment 1, the attentional processing of information that was either apparently relevant or irrelevant for the execution of a verbal DT task was assessed by means of an eye-tracking methodology. In Experiment 2, creative performance was explored through a verbal priming paradigm, which forcedly introduced apparently irrelevant information during the DT task. In both experiments, the level of irrelevance was operationalized in terms of semantic distance between the different kind of information. Results from both experiments highlighted the role of the semantic meaning of the irrelevant information as one of the main determinants, along with Openness, of inspiration (i.e., enhancement) of the creative performance

A possible tremorgenic mycotoxicosis by Roquefortine C in a bovine herd

A total of 15 beef cows and calves were referred for history of neurological signs. The animals (12/15 Chianina breed, 3/15 Limousine) were grazing in 300 ha area, fed with grass and hay. Inspection of the hay reveled macroscopic alterations, consisting of diffuse and heavy mold contamination of many hay bales. Due to the not cooperative attitude, the animals were only visually examined in the field; the neurological signs observed were ataxia, intentional head tremors and muscle twitching. Only 3 calves with severe neurological signs were housed in a medication area and underwent a complete clinical exam. All 3 calves showed intentional head tremors and muscle twitching; 1/3 presented severe ataxia and stiffness gait, while 2/3 calves were recumbent and unable to rise. The most important clinical data were: hyperthermia, tachypnea, tachycardia and long capillary refill time. The neurological examination showed deficits of V and VII cranial nerves. Calves could swallow, but they were unable to grab the food. Based on history and clinical examination the following differential diagnoses were considered: tremorgenic mycotoxicosis, nervous ketosis, nervous BVD form, BHV1-5, Listeriosis and WMD. Blood samples were collected for CBC count and biochemistry panel (TP, urea, creatinine, total and direct bilirubin, GGT, AST, CPK, Mg, Se and vit E), urinalysis was performed for ketone bodies. Calves were also tested for infectious diseases (Listeriosis, BVD, BHV 1-5). Multiple samples of altered hay were analyzed for mycotoxins and hay balls were removed in all animals’ stock. The grazing animals recovered spontaneously within 1 week along with 2/3 hospitalized calves, while 1/3 calf was euthanized due to poor general conditions. CBC, biochemistry panel, vit E and oligo-minerals resulted within normal ranges and no positivity for infectious agents were detected. Food analysis showed high concentrations of roquefortine C (RC): 345 μg/kg DM. Presence of RC in livestock food is highly reported, in particular in visibly moldy areas (1). RC intoxication causes anorexia, paralysis and several reports attribute it neurotoxic properties (2). In mice experimental intoxications induced muscle contractions, ataxia, prostration and intermittent seizures. RC intoxication, resembling penitrem A (PA) intoxication, has been reported in dogs. Moreover, RC is considered a sensitive biomarker for PA exposure. PA is a tremorgenic fungal toxin which intoxication causes ataxia, tachypnea, and sustained tremors. The pathophysiological mechanism by which mycotoxins affect the CNS is unknown but the biochemical lesions are reversible. Diagnosis is based on the clinical signs, demonstration of the mycotoxins in the feed and identification of the fungal elements in blood and feces. Affected animals recover completely when they are removed from infected pastures. Based on neurological signs, recovery after altered food removing and results of food analysis, the diagnosis of tremorgenic intoxication was hypothesized. Limits of this report are: lack of PA dosage in the food and lack of RC and PA evaluation in blood and feces of affected animals

Ozempic (Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist) in Social Media Posts: Unveiling User Perspectives through Reddit Topic Modeling

© 2024 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for the Study of Emerging Drugs. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Semaglutide, a Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist marketed under the brand name Ozempic, is originally prescribed for diabetes treatment and obesity management. However, healthy individuals without a medical cause use Ozempic without medical supervision to improve their physical appearance - a trend that has proliferated through social media, news coverage, and relevant celebrity endorsements. Thus, exploring social media posts can provide insight into understanding individuals’ experiences, beliefs, motivation, as well as misconceptions about Ozempic. To do so, this study utilizes BERTopic, a natural language processing approach for topic modeling, to analyze 46,491 Reddit posts from three subreddits (r/ozempic, r/ozempicforweightloss, r/semaglutide) dated between April 2019 and December 2023. The analysis revealed various discussion topics, including using Ozempic for weight loss, dosaging, insurance denial due to lack of a diabetes diagnosis, weight loss tracking, and side effect management. Overall, the overarching theme centered on the off-label use of Ozempic and its GLP-1 agonist counterparts for weight loss purposes. Moreover, awareness on the health hazards associated with the off-label and unsupervised use of Ozempic as an image enhancer do not frequently appear in the social media discussions. These findings, supported by a dynamic topic modeling analysis, offer ecological insights into the experiences and opinions of community members in Ozempic-related subreddits, reinforcing the growing evidence of the drug's increasing popularity for weight management as well as the role played by social media. The study also shows how information campaigns about the health risks associated with the off-label use of Ozempic by healthy individuals without a medical cause may help counterbalance the lack of risk awareness detected in social media discussions.Peer reviewe

Bipolar polaron pair recombination in P3HT/PCBM solar cells

The unique properties of organic semiconductors make them versatile base materials for many applications ranging from light emitting diodes to transistors. The low spin-orbit coupling typical for carbon-based materials and the resulting long spin lifetimes give rise to a large influence of the electron spin on charge transport which can be exploited in spintronic devices or to improve solar cell efficiencies. Magnetic resonance techniques are particularly helpful to elucidate the microscopic structure of paramagnetic states in semiconductors as well as the transport processes they are involved in. However, in organic devices the nature of the dominant spin-dependent processes is still subject to considerable debate. Using multi-frequency pulsed electrically detected magnetic resonance (pEDMR), we show that the spin-dependent response of P3HT/PCBM solar cells at low temperatures is governed by bipolar polaron pair recombination involving the positive and negative polarons in P3HT and PCBM, respectively, thus excluding a unipolar bipolaron formation as the main contribution to the spin-dependent charge transfer in this temperature regime. Moreover the polaron-polaron coupling strength and the recombination times of polaron pairs with parallel and antiparallel spins are determined. Our results demonstrate that the pEDMR pulse sequences recently developed for inorganic semiconductor devices can very successfully be transferred to the study of spin and charge transport in organic semiconductors, in particular when the different polarons can be distinguished spectrally

Computer modeling of radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RF- TC) using the recording intracerebral electrodes implanted for stereo electroencephalography (SEEG) monitoring

Our objective was to use computational modeling to provide a full and comprehensible physical description of the electrical and thermal behavior during electroencephalography-guided radiofrequency thermocoagulation (SEEG-RF-TC), a minimally invasive procedure to destroy epileptic foci in the brain. We used the Finite Element Method to solve a coupled electrical- thermal problem and obtain the temperature distributions in the tissue for a constant power thermocoagulation. We found that 5 W provokes an impedance roll-off (abrupt increase) after approximately 10 s, and that this is related to temperatures of 100 ºC in the surroundings of the contacts. Due to the internal resistance associated with the wires of the electrode, self- heating provoked a temperature increase of up to 3.3 ºC throughout the device. Our findings should alert clinicians who are guided by impedance during SEEG-RF-TC regarding overheating associated with roll-off. The self-heating (approximately 3 ºC) occurring along the electrode should also be taken into account as it could provoke thermal side-effects.Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Grant PID2022-136273OB-C31 funded by MCIN / AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 / FEDER, UE

Fractal Markets Hypothesis and the Global Financial Crisis: Scaling, Investment Horizons and Liquidity

We investigate whether fractal markets hypothesis and its focus on liquidity and invest- ment horizons give reasonable predictions about dynamics of the financial markets during the turbulences such as the Global Financial Crisis of late 2000s. Compared to the mainstream efficient markets hypothesis, fractal markets hypothesis considers financial markets as com- plex systems consisting of many heterogenous agents, which are distinguishable mainly with respect to their investment horizon. In the paper, several novel measures of trading activity at different investment horizons are introduced through scaling of variance of the underlying processes. On the three most liquid US indices - DJI, NASDAQ and S&P500 - we show that predictions of fractal markets hypothesis actually fit the observed behavior quite well.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure