Dynamic risk control by human nucleus accumbens

Real-world decisions about reward often involve a complex counterbalance of risk and value. Although the nucleus accumbens has been implicated in the underlying neural substrate, its criticality to human behaviour remains an open question, best addressed with interventional methodology that probes the behavioural consequences of focal neural modulation. Combining a psychometric index of risky decision-making with transient electrical modulation of the nucleus accumbens, here we reveal profound, highly dynamic alteration of the relation between probability of reward and choice during therapeutic deep brain stimulation in four patients with treatment-resistant psychiatric disease. Short-lived phasic electrical stimulation of the region of the nucleus accumbens dynamically altered risk behaviour, transiently shifting the psychometric function towards more risky decisions only for the duration of stimulation. A critical, on-line role of human nucleus accumbens in dynamic risk control is thereby established

Validation in clinical population of the Problematic Internet Entertainment Use Scale for Adults (PIEUSAd)

Addiction to technologies has been a widely debated scientific and clinically, being a condition for further study as potential psychiatric disorder. Some Spanish scales measure Internet addiction, but no one has been validated clinically. The aims were to describe a clinical sample of patients in treatment for a technology addiction, and to validate clinically the “Problematic Internet Entertainment Use Scale for Adults” (PIEUSAd). Little-scale clinical adult sample (N=31; 71 % men, and an age mean of 33.31) was selected, collecting socio-demographic and clinical data, technological usages, and the PIEUSAd and Compulsive Internet Use Scale in a survey. The setting was a public health center in Barcelona (Spain). The patients in treatment for a technological addiction as primary diagnosis were usually young males, which suffer from a genuine e-addiction (above all, internet addiction, gaming and cybersex); only the middle seems to have a dual pathology (usually another addiction). They are usually referred by other clinician and the majority don’t have previous psychiatric care. The PIEUSAd showed large variability in item scored, and high factor and construct validity, and excellent reliability (a=0.98). In conclusion, the heterogeneity in the characteristics of patients is evidenced. Moreover, the PIEUSAd has been clinical validated to do a better screen in technological addictions, where “loss of control” and “evasion” seems to be the prevalent addictive symptoms in these types of patients. Spanish abstract: La adicción a las tecnologías ha sido debatida ampliamente tanto científica como clínicamente, siendo una condición a estudiar como potencial trastorno psiquiátrico. Algunas escalas españolas miden la adicción al internet, pero ninguna ha sido validada clínicamente. Los objetivos son describir la muestra clínica de pacientes en tratamiento por una adicción tecnológica, así como validar clínicamente la “Problematic Internet Entertainment Use Scale for Adults” (PIEUSAd). Una muestra clínica a pequeña escala (N=31; 71 % hombres, con una edad media de 33,31) fue seleccionada, se recogieron datos socio-demográficos, clínicos y de uso de tecnologías, así como la PIEUSAd y la “Compulsive Internet Use Scale” a través de una encuesta. El contexto fue un centro de salud pública de Barcelona (España). Los pacientes en tratamiento por una adicción tecnológica como primer diagnóstico eran usualmente hombres jóvenes que sufrían de una e-adicción genuina (sobre todo, adicción a internet, videojuegos o cibersexo); solo la mitad parecía sufrir una patología dual (normalmente otra adicción). Eran normalmente derivados por otros profesionales de la salud y la mayor parte no habían sido tratados psiquiá- tricamente con anterioridad. La PIEUSAd mostró gran variabilidad en sus puntuaciones, alta validez factorial y de constructo, y excelente fiabilidad (a=0,98). En conclusión, la heterogeneidad de las características de los pacientes fue evidenciada. Además, la PIEUSAd ha sido validada clínicamente para poder hacer un mejor cribado en las adicciones tecnológicas, donde la “pérdida de control” y la “evasión” parecen ser los síntomas prevalentes en estos tipos de pacientes

Large-scale latitudinal and vertical distributions of NMHCs and selected halocarbons in the troposphere over the Pacific Ocean during the March-April 1999 Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM-Tropics B)

Nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and selected halocarbons were measured in whole air samples collected over the remote Pacific Ocean during NASA's Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics B (PEM-Tropics B) in March and early April 1999. The large-scale spatial distributions of NMHCs and C2Cl4 reveal a much more pronounced north-south interhemispheric gradient, with higher concentrations in the north and lower levels in the south, than for the late August to early October 1996 PEM-Tropics A experiment. Strong continental outflow and winter-long accumulation of pollutants led to seasonally high Northern Hemisphere trace gas levels during PEM-Tropics B. Observations of enhanced levels of Halon 1211 (from developing Asian nations such as the PRC) and CH3Cl (from SE Asian biomass burning) support a significant southern Asian influence at altitudes above 1 km and north of 10° N. By contrast, at low altitude over the North Pacific the dominance of urban/industrial tracers, combined with low levels of Halon 1211 and CH3Cl, indicate a greater influence from developed nations such as Japan, Europe, and North America. Penetration of air exhibiting aged northern hemisphere characteristics was frequently observed at low altitudes over the equatorial central and western Pacific south to ∼5° S. The relative lack of southern hemisphere biomass burning sources and the westerly position of the South Pacific convergence zone contributed to significantly lower PEM-Tropics B mixing ratios of the NMHCs and CH3Cl south of 10° S compared to PEM-Tropics A. Therefore the trace gas composition of the South Pacific troposphere was considerably more representative of minimally polluted tropospheric conditions during PEM-Tropics B. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union

Diferencias psicopatológicas en mujeres con Dependencia Emocional con y sin uso de sustancias ilegales comórbido

En este artículo se presenta un análisis clínico de las diferencias psicopatológicas entre dos grupos de pacientes, mujeres, con problemas de Dependencia Emocional con y sin consumo de sustancias ilegales comórbido. Las pacientes fueron evaluadas mediante los cuestionarios TDS100, SCL-90-R, BIS-11 y una entrevista semiestructurada adaptada de la entrevista SCID-I. Los grupos se formaron en función de si existía consumo de drogas o no en el momento de la evaluación. A través de los resultados hallados, se puede concluir que el grupo de mujeres con un consumo ocasional de drogas presenta una mayor gravedad en la escala de Acomodación medida a través del TDS-100, así como puntuaciones más altas en psicopatología comórbida (Sensibilidad Interpersonal, Ansiedad, Hostilidad, Ideación paranoide, Psicoticismo y GSI) medida por el SCL-90-R. Finalmente, el grupo con uso de drogas obtuvo puntuaciones significativamente más altas en la subescala Impulsividad Motora medida por el BIS-11. English abstract: In this article we present a clinical analysis of the psychopathological differences between women patients with Affective Dependence problems with and without comorbid substance use. The patients were assessed trough the TDS-100, SCL-90-R, BIS-11 questionnaires and a semi-structured interview adapted from the SCID-I interview. The groups were created based on the substance use at the moment of the assessment. The results reveal that the group of women with occasional use of drugs shows higher severity in the Accommodation scale measured trough the TDS-100 and in the comorbid psychopathology measured by the SCL-90R (Interpersonal Sensitivity, Anxiety, Hostility, Paranoid ideation, Psychoticism y GSI). Finally, the group with drug use obtained significantly higher scores in the Motor Impulsiveness subscale measured by the BIS-11

A closer look at chaotic advection in the stratosphere: part II: statistical diagnostics

Statistical diagnostics of mixing and transport are computed for a numerical model of forced shallow-water flow on the sphere and a middle-atmosphere general circulation model. In particular, particle dispersion statistics, transport fluxes, Liapunov exponents (probability density functions and ensemble averages), and tracer concentration statistics are considered. It is shown that the behavior of the diagnostics is in accord with that of kinematic chaotic advection models so long as stochasticity is sufficiently weak. Comparisons with random-strain theory are made

How and why DNA barcodes underestimate the diversity of microbial eukaryotes

Background: Because many picoplanktonic eukaryotic species cannot currently be maintained in culture, direct sequencing of PCR-amplified 18S ribosomal gene DNA fragments from filtered sea-water has been successfully used to investigate the astounding diversity of these organisms. The recognition of many novel planktonic organisms is thus based solely on their 18S rDNA sequence. However, a species delimited by its 18S rDNA sequence might contain many cryptic species, which are highly differentiated in their protein coding sequences. Principal Findings: Here, we investigate the issue of species identification from one gene to the whole genome sequence. Using 52 whole genome DNA sequences, we estimated the global genetic divergence in protein coding genes between organisms from different lineages and compared this to their ribosomal gene sequence divergences. We show that this relationship between proteome divergence and 18S divergence is lineage dependant. Unicellular lineages have especially low 18S divergences relative to their protein sequence divergences, suggesting that 18S ribosomal genes are too conservative to assess planktonic eukaryotic diversity. We provide an explanation for this lineage dependency, which suggests that most species with large effective population sizes will show far less divergence in 18S than protein coding sequences. Conclusions: There is therefore a trade-off between using genes that are easy to amplify in all species, but which by their nature are highly conserved and underestimate the true number of species, and using genes that give a better description of the number of species, but which are more difficult to amplify. We have shown that this trade-off differs between unicellular and multicellular organisms as a likely consequence of differences in effective population sizes. We anticipate that biodiversity of microbial eukaryotic species is underestimated and that numerous ''cryptic species'' will become discernable with the future acquisition of genomic and metagenomic sequences

Leaf-applied sodium chloride promotes cadmium accumulation in durum wheat grain

Cadmium (Cd) accumulation in durum wheat grain is a growing concern. Among the factors affecting Cd accumulation in plants, soil chloride (Cl) concentration plays a critical role. The effect of leaf NaCl application on grain Cd was studied in greenhouse-grown durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. durum, cv. Balcali-2000) by immersing (10 s) intact flag leaves into Cd and/or NaCl-containing solutions for 14 times during heading and dough stages. Immersing flag leaves in solutions containing increasing amount of Cd resulted in substantial increases in grain Cd concentration. Adding NaCl alone or in combination with the Cd-containing immersion solution promoted accumulation of Cd in the grains, by up to 41%. In contrast, Zn concentrations of grains were not affected or even decreased by the NaCl treatments. This is likely due to the effect of Cl complexing Cd and reducing positive charge on the metal ion, an effect that is much smaller for Zn. Charge reduction or removal (CdCl2 0 species) would increase the diffusivity/lipophilicity of Cd and enhance its capability to penetrate the leaf epidermis and across membranes. Of even more significance to human health was the ability of Cl alone to penetrate leaf tissue and mobilize and enhance shoot Cd transfer to grains, yet reducing or not affecting Zn transfer

S-Transform based Fault Detection Algorithm for Enhancing Distance Protection Performance

This paper presents a new fault detection algorithm based on the Fast Discrete Stockwell Transform. The algorithm can improve the functionality of existing distance protection and resolve shortcomings identified during the fault detection process in case of fault occurrence in systems with a high penetration of power electronics-based generators. Reported results of the operation of commercial distance relays of four different vendors show that all relays experience difficulties during ungrounded faults. An RTDS testbed is developed for extensive hardware in the loop testing, comprising electromagnetic transient models of Type-3 and Type-4 wind generators. The proposed algorithm successfully overcomes the identified problems for cases where commercial relays maloperate. The threshold parameters for the fault detection are set by using the energy content attributed to the Fast Discrete Stockwell Transform time–frequency domain signal. Other distance protection modules such as the determination of directionality, phase selection and the computation of the impedance, which are necessary for the protection selectivity, are developed based on currently available solutions applied in commercial relays. The new algorithm has been extensively tested using RTDS for various fault conditions and the obtained results are reported in the paper

Burden of Parkinsonism and Parkinson\u27s Disease on Health Service Use and Outcomes in Latin America

\ua9 2023 - The authors. Published by IOS Press.Background: Little is known about the burden of parkinsonism and Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) in Latin America. Better understanding of health service use and clinical outcomes in PD is needed to improve its prognosis. Objective: The aim of the study was to estimate the burden of parkinsonism and PD in six Latin American countries. Methods: 12,865 participants aged 65 years and older from the 10/66 population-based cohort study were analysed. Baseline assessments were conducted in 2003-2007 and followed-up 4 years later. Parkinsonism and PD were defined using current clinical criteria or self-reported diagnosis. Logistic regression models assessed the association between parkinsonism/PD with baseline health service use (community-based care or hospitalisation in the last 3 months) and Cox proportional hazards regression models with incident dependency (subjective assessment by interviewer based on informant interview) and mortality. Separate analyses for each country were combined via fixed effect meta-analysis. Results: At baseline, the prevalence of parkinsonism and PD was 7.9% (n = 934) and 2.6% (n = 317), respectively. Only parkinsonism was associated with hospital admission at baseline (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.30-2.74). Among 7,296 participants without dependency at baseline, parkinsonism (HR 2.34, 95% CI 1.81-3.03) and PD (2.10, 1.37-3.24) were associated with incident dependency. Among 10,315 participants with vital status, parkinsonism (1.73, 1.50-1.99) and PD (1.38, 1.07-1.78) were associated with mortality. The Higgins I2 tests showed low to moderate levels of heterogeneity across countries. Conclusions: Our findings show that older people with parkinsonism or PD living in Latin America have higher risks of developing dependency and mortality but may have limited access to health services