The Symmetrical Nature of Bilateral Asymmetry (δ) of Deciduous and Permanent Teeth

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67155/2/10.1177_00220345770560112601.pd

Novel approaches for the treatment of psychostimulant and opioid abuse-focus on opioid receptor-based therapies

INTRODUCTION: Psychostimulant and opioid addiction are poorly treated. The majority of abstinent users relapse back to drug-taking within a year of abstinence, making ‘anti-relapse’ therapies the focus of much current research. There are two fundamental challenges to developing novel treatments for drug addiction. Firstly, there are 3 key stimuli that precipitate relapse back to drug-taking: stress, presentation of drug-conditioned cue, taking a small dose of drug. The most successful novel treatment would be effective against all 3 stimuli. Secondly, a large number of drug users are poly-drug users: taking more than one drug of abuse at a time. The ideal anti-addiction treatment would therefore be effective against all classes of drugs of abuse. AREAS COVERED: In this review, the authors discuss the clinical need and animal models used to uncover potential novel treatments. There is a very broad range of potential treatment approaches and targets currently being examined as potential anti-relapse therapies. These broadly fit into 2 categories: ‘memory-based’ and ‘receptor-based’ and the authors discuss the key targets here within. EXPERT OPINION: Opioid receptors and ligands have been widely studied, and research into how different opioid subtypes affect behaviours related to addiction (reward, dysphoria, motivation) suggests that they are tractable targets as anti-relapse treatments. Regarding opioid ligands as novel ‘anti-relapse’ medications targets - research suggests that a ‘non-selective’ approach to targeting opioid receptors will be the most effective

Correction for Foreshortening in Optical Odontometry

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68279/2/10.1177_00220345790580011801.pd

Persuasive impact of one-sided videos on reasoning about abortion

A study was conducted to assess the volatility of college students\u27 reasoning about abortion. It is widely believed that individuals\u27 views on this controversial issue have crystallized and are resistant to persuasion. The study investigated the persuasive impact of an opposing argument on subjects\u27 current beliefs on the abortion issue. Thirty-three unpaid students of either gender at a private liberal arts college were shown a one-sided video on abortion presenting either the pro-life argument or the pro-choice argument. Subjects were Christians of various denominations. Abortion attitude was measured before and after the video using the Reasoning About Abortion Questionnaire (Parson, Richards, and Kanter, 1990). A gain/loss score was calculated for each subject to represent the degree and direction of attitude change. The results suggested that the videos had greater impact on liberal Christians (Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians) than on conservative Christians (Baptists or Catholics). A positive gain-score for the pro-choice video group (M = +8.09) and a negative gain-score for the pro-life video group (M = -15.13) suggested that each video helped to shift the viewers\u27 reasoning in the direction it advocated. Each video had persuasive impact on viewers but the persuasion was asymmetrical. A significant (video x test) interaction, F (1, 31) = 59.523, p \u3c .001 was obtained. It was concluded that college students\u27 reasoning on abortion is less rigid than has been previously suggested, and that students respond to persuasive appeals

Tourism in Pacific island countries: a status quo round-up

In the 21st century, Pacific island countries (PICs) continue to leverage for tourism the attributes that have imbued them, including appeals to their cultural, geographical, and climatic allure. However, the question raised more frequently by many is why despite the many decades of tourism across the region, development impacts from the sector remain largely muted. The key remit of this paper is to offer a status quo round‐up of tourism in PICs and to draw on key emergent themes that underlay the present context. There is little doubt that for policymakers and their international development partners, whether tourism has or can lead to enduring development outcomes remains clouded in questions over whether there is ample evidence available to support such assertions. However, this has failed to dampen the enthusiasm of multilateral agencies that promote the notion that tourism's potential remains largely underdeveloped. With largely narrow economic bases, PICs have little choice but to seek further development of tourism despite the many fundamental constraints that make them less competitive than Southeast Asian destinations

Estimating individuals’ genetic and non-genetic effects underlying infectious disease transmission from temporal epidemic data

Individuals differ widely in their contribution to the spread of infection within and across populations. Three key epidemiological host traits affect infectious disease spread: susceptibility (propensity to acquire infection), infectivity (propensity to transmit infection to others) and recoverability (propensity to recover quickly). Interventions aiming to reduce disease spread may target improvement in any one of these traits, but the necessary statistical methods for obtaining risk estimates are lacking. In this paper we introduce a novel software tool called SIRE (standing for "Susceptibility, Infectivity and Recoverability Estimation"), which allows for the first time simultaneous estimation of the genetic effect of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), as well as non-genetic influences on these three unobservable host traits. SIRE implements a flexible Bayesian algorithm which accommodates a wide range of disease surveillance data comprising any combination of recorded individual infection and/or recovery times, or disease diagnostic test results. Different genetic and non-genetic regulations and data scenarios (representing realistic recording schemes) were simulated to validate SIRE and to assess their impact on the precision, accuracy and bias of parameter estimates. This analysis revealed that with few exceptions, SIRE provides unbiased, accurate parameter estimates associated with all three host traits. For most scenarios, SNP effects associated with recoverability can be estimated with highest precision, followed by susceptibility. For infectivity, many epidemics with few individuals give substantially more statistical power to identify SNP effects than the reverse. Importantly, precise estimates of SNP and other effects could be obtained even in the case of incomplete, censored and relatively infrequent measurements of individuals' infection or survival status, albeit requiring more individuals to yield equivalent precision. SIRE represents a new tool for analysing a wide range of experimental and field disease data with the aim of discovering and validating SNPs and other factors controlling infectious disease transmission

Effects of priming and pacing strategy on VO2 kinetics and cycling performance

Copyright © 2015 Human KineticsThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Human Kinetics via the DOI in this record.Purpose: To assess whether combining prior ‘priming’ exercise with an all-out pacing strategy was more effective at improving O2 uptake (VO2) kinetics and cycling performance than either intervention administered independently. Methods: Nine males completed target-work cycling performance trials using a self-paced or all-out pacing strategy with or without prior severe-intensity (70%Δ) priming exercise. Breath-by-breath pulmonary VO2 and cycling power output were measured during all trials. Results: Compared to the self-paced-unprimed control trial (22 ± 5 s), the VO2 mean response time (MRT) was shorter (VO2 kinetics was faster) with all-out pacing (17 ± 4 s) and priming (17 ± 3 s), with the lowest VO2 MRT observed when all-out pacing and priming were combined (15 ± 4 s) (P0.05). Conclusions: These findings suggest that combining an all-out start with severe-intensity priming exercise additively improves the VO2 MRT, but not total O2 consumption and cycling performance since these were improved by a similar magnitude in both primed trials relative to the self-paced-unprimed control condition. Therefore, these results support the use of priming exercise as a pre-competition intervention to improve oxidative metabolism and performance during short-duration high-intensity cycling exercise, independent of the pacing strategy adopted

Selector function of MHC I molecules is determined by protein plasticity

The selection of peptides for presentation at the surface of most nucleated cells by major histocompatibility complex class I molecules (MHC I) is crucial to the immune response in vertebrates. However, the mechanisms of the rapid selection of high affinity peptides by MHC I from amongst thousands of mostly low affinity peptides are not well understood. We developed computational systems models encoding distinct mechanistic hypotheses for two molecules, HLA-B*44:02 (B*4402) and HLA-B*44:05 (B*4405), which differ by a single residue yet lie at opposite ends of the spectrum in their intrinsic ability to select high affinity peptides. We used <em>in vivo</em> biochemical data to infer that a conformational intermediate of MHC I is significant for peptide selection. We used molecular dynamics simulations to show that peptide selector function correlates with protein plasticity, and confirmed this experimentally by altering the plasticity of MHC I with a single point mutation, which altered <em>in vivo</em> selector function in a predictable way. Finally, we investigated the mechanisms by which the co-factor tapasin influences MHC I plasticity. We propose that tapasin modulates MHC I plasticity by dynamically coupling the peptide binding region and {\alpha}<sub>3</sub> domain of MHC I allosterically, resulting in enhanced peptide selector function

Combined administration of buprenorphine and naltrexone produces antidepressant-like effects in mice

Opiates have been used historically for the treatment of depression. Renewed interest in the use of opiates as antidepressants has focussed on the development of kappa opioid receptor (κ-receptor) antagonists. Buprenorphine acts as a partial μ-opioid receptor agonist and a κ-receptor antagonist. By combining buprenorphine with the opioid antagonist naltrexone, the activation of μ-opioid receptors would be reduced and the κ-antagonist properties enhanced. We have established that a combination dose of buprenorphine (1mg/kg) with naltrexone (1mg/kg) functions as a short-acting κ-antagonist in the mouse tail withdrawal test. Furthermore, this dose combination is neither rewarding nor aversive in the conditioned place preference paradigm and is without significant locomotor effects. We have shown for the first time that systemic co-administration of buprenorphine (1mg/kg) with naltrexone (1mg/kg) in CD-1 mice produced significant antidepressant-like responses in behaviours in both the forced swim test and novelty induced hypophagia task. Behaviours in the elevated plus maze and light dark box were not significantly altered by treatment with buprenorphine alone, or in combination with naltrexone. We propose that the combination of buprenorphine with naltrexone represents a novel, and potentially a readily translatable approach, to the treatment of depression