Functional and Biochemical Alterations of the Medial Frontal Cortex in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Context: The medial frontal cortex (MFC), including the dorsal anterior cingulate (dAC) and supplementary motor area (SMA), is critical for adaptive and inhibitory control of behaviour. Abnormally high MFC activity has been a consistent finding in functional neuroimaging studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the precise regions and the neural alterations associated with this abnormality remain unclear. Objective: To examine the functional and biochemical properties of the MFC in patients with OCD. Design: Cross-sectional design combining volume localized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) and functional MRI (fMRI) with an inhibitory control paradigm (the Multi-Source Interference Task; MSIT) designed to activate the MFC. Setting: Healthy control participants and OCD patients recruited from the general community. Participants: Nineteen OCD patients (10 male, and 9 female) and nineteen age, gender, education and intelligence-matched healthy control participants. Main Outcome Measures: Psychometric measures of symptom severity, MSIT behavioural performance, blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activation and 1H-MRS brain metabolite concentrations. Results: MSIT behavioural performance did not differ between OCD patients and control subjects. Reaction-time interference and response errors were correlated with BOLD activation in the dAC region in both groups. Relative to control subjects, OCD patients showed hyper- activation of the SMA during high response-conflict (incongruent > congruent) trials and hyper-activation of the rostral anterior cingulate (rAC) region during low response- conflict (incongruent < congruent) trials. OCD patients also showed reduced levels of neuronal N-acetylaspartate in the dAC region, which was negatively correlated with their BOLD activation of the region. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that hyper-activation of the medial frontal cortex in OCD patients may be a compensatory response to neural pathology in the region. This relationship may partly explain the nature of inhibitory control deficits that are frequently seen in this group and may serve as a focus of future treatment studies

Factors Influencing First-Generation Students\u27 Ability To Obtain A Doctoral Degree In Clinical Psychology: An Intersectional Approach

Although first-generation college students aspire to obtain graduate education, we know they are less likely to earn these advanced degrees compared to their non-first-generation counterparts (Engle & Tinto, 2008). There are several identified reasons for this discrepancy including differences in social identity from their families, financial barriers, and lack of social support (Gardner & Holley, 2011; King, 2017; Michalski et al., 2011). For example, it has been described how, many of our families have difficulty understanding why anyone would go to school after finishing college (Cook-Morales et al., 1995). The first half of this symposium will provide insight and discussion on previous literature relative to first-generation students aspiring to obtain doctoral degrees in clinical psychology. Next, presenters will transition to a panel discussion with attendees regarding their roads to successfully being admitted into a clinical psychology Ph.D. program. Our objective is to present students with various pathways to achieving this goal and how we overcame certain challenges as first-generation students while acknowledging intersectional factors at play

ON THE PERFORMANCE OF GNSS LEVELLING OVER STEEP SLOPES

In geodetic applications variety, one of the main current focuses is recently to determine the heights of ground stations with high accuracy. Specially the possibility of acquiring 3D information of the point positioning with high accuracy is opening up new strategies of investigating the heighting. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) for 3D positioning is undergoing rapid developments andGNSS heighting can be an alternative to terrestrial techniques of height measurements. This paper presents a research study on the use of GNSS heighting in the case of steep slopes and multipath issue. Short baseline solution strategieswere performed by using Bernese Software v. 5.0. The analysis results are also compared to the results of techniques of the terrestrial levelling. The results showthat GNSS can be used as an practical surveying method to the terrestrial levelling with comparable accuracies. Furthermore, one can save up to 1 hour using GNSSinstead of geometric levelling over a steep slope of a 100 m. On the other hand, as usual multipath is the primary error source decreasing the efficiency of GNSS, and it has been studied experimentally in this paper

Association of polymorphisms in APOE, p53, and p21 with primary open-angle glaucoma in Turkish patients

Purpose To investigate the association between Apolipoprotein E (APOE), tumor suppressor protein p53 (p53), and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (p21) genes and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in a cohort of Turkish subjects. Methods Seventy-five POAG patients (49 women, 26 men) and 119 healthy subjects (67 women, 52 men) were genotyped with polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Allele and genotype frequencies between healthy subjects and glaucoma patients were compared by the χ2 test, and intraocular pressure (IOP), cup/disc ratio (C/D) and visual field indices (MD and PSD) were compared among different APOE, p53, and p21 genotypes in POAG group. A p value 0.05). POAG subjects with the ε2ε3 genotype had a worse PSD value (median=2.2) than those with the ε3ε4 genotype (median=1.77; p=0.01) and POAG subjects with the ε3ε3 genotype had worse MD and PSD values (median= -7.4 and 3.4, respectively) than those with the ε3ε4 genotype (median= -4.1 and 1.77, respectively; p=0.034 and 0.028, respectively). Conclusions Our study found no link between polymorphisms in APOE, p53, and p21 genes and POAG in Turkish patients, although a larger sample is required to elucidate the role of these polymorphisms in the pathogenesis and course of glaucoma

Biodiesel production from jatropha seeds: Solvent extraction and in situ transesterification in a single step

The objective of this study was to investigate solvent extraction and in situ transesterification in a single step to allow direct production of biodiesel from jatropha seeds. Experiments were conducted using milled jatropha seeds, and n-hexane as extracting solvent. The influence of methanol to seed ratio (2:1–6:1), amount of alkali (KOH) catalyst (0.05–0.1 mol/L in methanol), stirring speed (700–900 rpm), temperature (40–60 °C) and reaction time (3–5 h) was examined to define optimum biodiesel yield and biodiesel quality after water washing and drying. When stirring speed, temperature and reaction time were fixed at 700 rpm, 60 °C and 4 h respectively, highest biodiesel yield (80% with a fatty acid methyl ester purity of 99.9%) and optimum biodiesel quality were obtained with a methanol to seed ratio of 6:1 and 0.075 mol/L KOH in methanol. Subsequently, the influence of stirring speed, temperature and reaction time on biodiesel yield and biodiesel quality was studied, by applying the randomized factorial experimental design with ANOVA (F-test at p = 0.05), and using the optimum values previously found for methanol to seed ratio and KOH catalyst level. Most experimental runs conducted at 50 °C resulted to high biodiesel yields, while stirring speed and reaction time did not give significantly effect. The highest biodiesel yield (87% with a fatty acid methyl ester purity of 99.7%) was obtained with a methanol to seed ratio of 6:1, KOH catalyst of 0.075 mol/L in methanol, a stirring speed of 800 rpm, a temperature of 50 °C, and a reaction time of 5 h. The effects of stirring speed, temperature and reaction time on biodiesel quality were not significant. Most of the biodiesel quality obtained in this study conformed to the Indonesian Biodiesel Standard

CENP-meta, an Essential Kinetochore Kinesin Required for the Maintenance of Metaphase Chromosome Alignment in Drosophila

CENP-meta has been identified as an essential, kinesin-like motor protein in Drosophila. The 257-kD CENP-meta protein is most similar to the vertebrate kinetochore-associated kinesin-like protein CENP-E, and like CENP-E, is shown to be a component of centromeric/kinetochore regions of Drosophila chromosomes. However, unlike CENP-E, which leaves the centromere/kinetochore region at the end of anaphase A, the CENP-meta protein remains associated with the centromeric/kinetochore region of the chromosome during all stages of the Drosophila cell cycle. P-element–mediated disruption of the CENP-meta gene leads to late larval/pupal stage lethality with incomplete chromosome alignment at metaphase. Complete removal of CENP-meta from the female germline leads to lethality in early embryos resulting from defects in metaphase chromosome alignment. Real-time imaging of these mutants with GFP-labeled chromosomes demonstrates that CENP-meta is required for the maintenance of chromosomes at the metaphase plate, demonstrating that the functions required to establish and maintain chromosome congression have distinguishable requirements

High optical efficiency of ZnO nanoparticles

We develop optically efficient photocatalytic ZnO nanoparticles that we chemically embed and well disperse into host PVAc thin films and experimentally demonstrate the highest optical efficiency of ∼70% in ZnO nanoparticle films, with increasing optical spectral efficiency as the excitation wavelength is swept from 370 nm to 290 nm. ©2007 Optical Society of America

Multiple Orbitoides d’Orbigny lineages in the Maastrichtian? Data from the Central Sakarya Basin (Turkey) and Arabian Platform successions (Southeastern Turkey and Oman)

The standard reconstruction of species of Orbitoides d’Orbigny into a single lineage during the late Santonian to the end of the Maastrichtian is based upon morphometric data from Western Europe. An irreversible increase in the size of the embryonic apparatus, and the formation of a greater number of epi-embryonic chamberlets (EPC) with time, is regarded as the main evolutionary trends used in species discrimination. However, data from Maastrichtian Orbitoides assemblages from Central Turkey and the Arabian Platform margin (Southeastern Turkey and Oman) are not consistent with this record. The Maastrichtian Besni Formation of the Arabian Platform margin in Southeastern Turkey yields invariably biconvex specimens, with small, tri- to quadrilocular embryons and a small number of EPC, comparable to late Campanian Orbitoides medius (d’Archiac). The upper Maastrichtian Taraklı Formation from the Sakarya Basin of Central Turkey contains two distinct, yet closely associated forms of Orbitoides, easily differentiated by both external and internal features. Flat to biconcave specimens possess a small, tri- to quadrilocular embryonic apparatus of Orbitoides medius-type and a small number of EPC, whereas biconvex specimens possess a large, predominantly bilocular embryonic apparatus, and were assigned to Orbitoides ex. interc. gruenbachensis Papp–apiculatus Schlumberger based on morphometry. The flat to biconcave specimens belong to a long overlooked species Orbitoides pamiri Meriç, originally described from the late Maastrichtian of the Tauride Mountains in SW Turkey. This species is herein interpreted to be an offshoot from the main Orbitoides lineage during the Maastrichtian, as are forms that we term Orbitoides ‘medius’, since they recall this species, yet are younger than normal occurrence with the accepted morphometrically defined lineage. The consistent correlation between the external and internal test features in O. pamiri implies that the shape of the test is not an ecophenotypic variation, but appears to be biologically controlled. We, therefore, postulate that more than one lineage of Orbitoides exists during the Maastrichtian, with a lineage that includes O. ‘medius’ and O. pamiri displaying retrograde evolutionary features