Search

The emerging novel therapeutic psilocybin produces psychedelic effects via engagement of cerebral serotonergic targets by psilocin (active metabolite). The serotonin 2A receptor critically mediates these effects by altering distributed neural processes that manifest as increased entropy, reduced functional connectivity (FC) within discrete brain networks (i.e., reduced integrity) and increased FC between networks (i.e., reduced segregation). Reduced integrity of the default mode network (DMN) is proposed to play a particularly prominent role in psychedelic phenomenology, including perceived ego-dissolution. Here, we investigate the effects of a psychoactive peroral dose of psilocybin (0.2-0.3 mg/kg) on plasma psilocin level (PPL), subjective drug intensity (SDI) and their association in fifteen healthy individuals. We further evaluate associations between these measures and resting-state FC, measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, acquired over the course of five hours after psilocybin administration. We show that PPL and SDI correlate negatively with measures of network integrity (including DMN) and segregation, both spatially constrained and unconstrained. We also find that the executive control network and dorsal attention network desegregate, increasing connectivity with other networks and throughout the brain as a function of PPL and SDI. These findings provide direct evidence that psilocin critically shapes the time course and magnitude of changes in the cerebral functional architecture and subjective experience following psilocybin administration. Our findings provide novel insight into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying profound perceptual experiences evoked by this emerging transnosological therapeutic and implicate the expression of network integrity and segregation in the psychedelic experience and consciousness.

We aimed to investigate the relationship between striatal morphology in Huntington disease (HD) and measures of motor and cognitive dysfunction. MRI scans, from the IMAGE-HD study, were obtained from 36 individuals with pre-symptomatic HD (pre-HD), 37 with early symptomatic HD (symp-HD), and 36 healthy matched controls. The neostriatum was manually segmented and a surface-based parametric mapping protocol derived two pointwise shape measures: thickness and surface dilation ratio. Significant shape differences were detected between all groups. Negative associations were detected between lower thickness and surface area shape measure and CAG repeats, disease burden score, and UHDRS total motor score. In symp-HD, UPSIT scores were correlated with higher thickness in left caudate tail and surface dilation ratio in left posterior putamen; Stroop scores were positively correlated with the thickness of left putamen head and body. Self-paced tapping (slow) was correlated with higher thickness and surface dilation ratio in the right caudate in symp-HD and with bilateral putamen in pre-HD. Self-paced tapping (fast) was correlated with higher surface dilation ratio in the right anterior putamen in symp-HD. Shape changes correlated with functional measures subserved by corticostriatal circuits, suggesting that the neostriatum is a potentially useful structural basis for characterisation of endophenotypes of HD.

Authors acknowledge funding to RS from NSF under the Comparative Island Ecodynamics grant (no: 1202692). Medieval settlements in Iceland and Greenland were vulnerable to changes in spring (April-June) snow cover duration and depth. These would have adversely affected the viability of their pastoral farming systems, but the impact would have been spatially variable. We use a physical-based model of snow distribution and melt to model spring snow cover and depth at a scale relevant to human activities across four sites: southern and northern Iceland, and inner and middle fjord sites in South Greenland, using both present day and simulated climate data from the HadCM3 GCM-model. Our climate scenarios cover the period CE 1000–1500, encompassing a climate shift to cooler conditions. We find that under average present climate conditions the inner fjord site in Greenland has similar spring snow conditions to sites in Iceland, but that the middle fjord site has notably greater snow cover, and as climate cools spring snow cover at this site becomes extensive (>60 days). The largest increase in snow cover duration between current average climate conditions and the coolest climate scenarios (47 days increase) is experienced at our Iceland sites. Inner and middle fjord sites in Greenland diverge in terms of snow cover under all scenarios, a potential driver of the growing importance of marine wild resources and the end of the Norse Greenland settlement. Publisher PDF

Green Bio-Refineries (GBRs) have economic and environmental potentials through changing land use from cereals to grass production and provision of grass-based protein feed for livestock production and other valuable byproducts. However, the potentials are dependent on local conditions of the GBRs, such as land productivity, environmental sensitivity and transport distances for feedstock as well as the regional economy which GBRs are a part of. In this paper, we compare the total (direct, indirect and induced) effects of different location choices of GBRs in Denmark at different (municipal, regional, national) scales − a key step for decisions about development of GBRs from both investors' and authorities' perspectives. We integrate a local life-cycle assessment (LCA), a geographic information system (GIS) analysis and an economic-environmental input-output (EEIO) based model (LINE) into a common framework (GIS-LCA-EEIO). We show that locating GBRs in Western Denmark, where the soils are primarily sandy and livestock densities are high, generates higher socio-economic gains than in Eastern Denmark, where the soils are primarily loamy and the concentrations of livestock are lower. We conclude by sketching out priority areas for developing GBRs and discuss the policy implications of the results within the context of development of a bio-based economy.

Understanding habitat preferences and distribution of threatened species is a cornerstone of conservation, however many of the techniques available can be resource intensive. One cost-effective method is by collecting information on species presence and absence from people who regularly interact with the area of interest, also known as Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK). However, the reliability of this type of data has been questioned, especially when there is a possibility that the focal species is being misidentified or their presence misreported. This can introduce false negatives, when a species is present but has not been reported, and false positives, when the species has been reported but is not present. These biases are not always accounted for which can result in the under- or overestimation of species presence. To better understand the reliability of LEK data, we compared the outputs of five different analytical techniques to that of a more widely accepted approach, resource selection functions (RSF), using GPS-collar data from three different carnivore species (African lion Panthera leo, cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and African wild dog Lycaon pictus). Hierarchical models which accounted for the possibilities of both false negatives and false positives most closely matched that of the RSFs, especially for the two rarer species; African wild dog and cheetah. Our results show that when both false negatives and false positives are accounted for that LEK can be used as a rapid and cost-efficient tool for assessing threatened species which can be adopted into practical conservation projects. Carnivores Detection probability False positives GPS telemetry data Interview survey Occupancy models Species distribution © 2020. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. Locked until 24.07.2021 due to copyright restrictions. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The results of analytical and experimental investigations for an electro-optic polarization controller are reported. A device configuration composed of two polarization converters with a phase shifter centered between them and all integrated over a single Ti diffused channel waveguide on LiNbO3 is used. Polarization control is achieved by applying voltages on the three integrated elements independently to adjust the phase difference between orthogonal TE and TM components of a guided optical wave as well as their relative strength. Experimental results agree with analytical predictions. For arbitrary incident polarization, endless polarization transformation can be realized at the output.

A significant portion of our risk for dementia in old age is associated with lifestyle factors (diet, exercise, and cardiovascular health) that are modifiable, at least in principle. One such risk factor, high-homocysteine levels in the blood, is known to increase risk for Alzheimer's disease and vascular disorders. Here, we set out to understand how homocysteine levels relate to 3D surface-based maps of cortical gray matter distribution (thickness, volume, and surface area) computed from brain magnetic resonance imaging in 803 elderly subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative data set. Individuals with higher plasma levels of homocysteine had lower gray matter thickness in bilateral frontal, parietal, occipital, and right temporal regions and lower gray matter volumes in left frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital regions, after controlling for diagnosis, age, and sex and after correcting for multiple comparisons. No significant within-group associations were found in cognitively healthy people, patients with mild cognitive impairment, or patients with Alzheimer's disease. These regional differences in gray matter structure may be useful biomarkers to assess the effectiveness of interventions, such as vitamin B supplements, that aim to prevent homocysteine-related brain atrophy by normalizing homocysteine levels.

We present an optimization study on laser parameters for 3D micromachining of fused silica to achieve critical goals for practical applications including high surface quality, high volume production, and complex surfaces by ultrafast laser direct writing assisted chemical etching. We conducted experiments on laser pulse width of 300 fs and 1 ps, pulse energy ranging from 0.1 µJ to 1.6 µJ, three different polarizations (circular, parallel and perpendicular) and number of overlapped pulses from 3 to 10,000 at 1030 nm with up to 2 MHz repetition rate to investigate their effect on nanogratings and one dimensional (1D) channel and two dimensional (2D) planar surface selective etching on 1 mm thick fused silica. In one configuration, we achieved 21.8 nm RMS surface roughness with 80 µm Gaussian filtering and in another configuration, we estimated the maximum writing speed to be 1.25 m/s for given 2 MHz repetition rate with less than 400 nm filtered root mean square (RMS) surface roughness at a 1 mm2 area which covers the thickness of the glass.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are psychiatric disorders that involve distortion of the experience of one's physical appearance. In AN, individuals believe that they are overweight, perceive their body as "fat," and are preoccupied with maintaining a low body weight. In BDD, individuals are preoccupied with misperceived defects in physical appearance, most often of the face. Distorted visual perception may contribute to these cardinal symptoms, and may be a common underlying phenotype. This review surveys the current literature on visual processing in AN and BDD, addressing lower- to higher-order stages of visual information processing and perception. We focus on peer-reviewed studies of AN and BDD that address ophthalmologic abnormalities, basic neural processing of visual input, integration of visual input with other systems, neuropsychological tests of visual processing, and representations of whole percepts (such as images of faces, bodies, and other objects). The literature suggests a pattern in both groups of over-attention to detail, reduced processing of global features, and a tendency to focus on symptom-specific details in their own images (body parts in AN, facial features in BDD), with cognitive strategy at least partially mediating the abnormalities. Visuospatial abnormalities were also evident when viewing images of others and for non-appearance related stimuli. Unfortunately no study has directly compared AN and BDD, and most studies were not designed to disentangle disease-related emotional responses from lower-order visual processing. We make recommendations for future studies to improve the understanding of visual processing abnormalities in AN and BDD.

The γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporters (GATs) are essential regulators of the activity in the GABAergic system through their continuous uptake of the neurotransmitter from the synaptic cleft and extrasynaptic space. Four GAT subtypes have been identified to date, each displaying different pharmacological properties and expression patterns. The present study focus on the human betaine/GABA transporter 1 (BGT-1), which has recently emerged as a new target for treatment of epilepsy. However, the lack of selective inhibitors of this transporter has impaired the exploration of this potential considerably. With the objective of identifying novel compounds displaying selectivity for BGT-1, we performed a screening of a small compound library at cells expressing BGT-1 using a [ 3 H]GABA uptake assay. The screening resulted in the identification of the compound N -(1-benzyl-4-piperidinyl)-2,4-dichlorobenzamide (BPDBA), a selective inhibitor of the human BGT-1 transporter with a non-competitive profile exhibiting no significant inhibitory activity at the other three human GAT subtypes. The selectivity profile of the compound was subsequently confirmed at cells expressing the four mouse GAT subtypes. Thus, BPDBA constitutes a potential useful pharmacological tool compound for future explorations of the function of the BGT-1 subtype.

The excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) play a pivotal role in regulating the synaptic concentration of glutamate in the mammalian central nervous system. To date, five different subtypes have been identified, named EAAT15 in humans (and GLAST, GLT-1, EAAC1, EAAT4, and EAAT5, respectively, in rodents). Recently, we have published and presented a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study of a novel class of selective inhibitors of EAAT1 (and GLAST), with the analogs UCPH-101 (IC(50)=0.66μM) and UCPH-102 (IC(50)=0.43μM) being the most potent inhibitors in the series. In this paper, we present the design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of six coumarin-based fluorescent analogs of UCPH-101/102 as subtype-selective inhibitors at EAAT1. Analogs 1114 failed to inhibit EAAT1 function (IC(50) values >300μM), whereas analogs 15 and UCPH-102F inhibited EAAT1 with IC(50) values in the medium micromolar range (17μM and 14μM, respectively). Under physiological pH no fluorescence was observed for analog 15, while a bright blue fluorescence emission was observed for analog UCPH-102F. Regrettably, under confocal laser scanning microscopy selective visualization of expression of EAAT1 over EAAT3 was not possible due to nonspecific binding of UCPH-102F.

The synthesis, release, reuptake, and metabolism of the excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA, respectively, are tightly controlled. Given the role that these two neurotransmitters play in normal and abnormal neurotransmission, it is important to consider the processes whereby they are regulated. This brief review is focused entirely on the metabolic aspects of glutamate and GABA synthesis and neurotransmission. It describes in limited detail the synthesis, release, reuptake, metabolism, cellular compartmentation and pharmacology of the glutamatergic and GABAergic synapse. This review also provides a summary and brief description of the pathologic and phenotypic features of the various genetic animal models that have been developed in an effort to provide a greater understanding of the role that each of the aforementioned metabolic processes plays in controlling excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission and how their use will hopefully facilitate the development of safer and more efficacious therapies for the treatment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

A polarization-independent four-port wavelength-tunable optical add drop multiplexer (OADM) that utilizes non-polarizing relaxed beam splitters has been analyzed and demonstrated in Ti:LiNbO 3 at the 1530 nm wavelength regime. The design utilizes an asymmetric interferometer configuration with strain induced index grating for polarization coupling along its arms that are shifted in position relative to each other. Experimental results of the filter response agree with theoretical predictions. Electrooptic tuning over a range of 15.7 nm at a rate of 0.08 nm/V has been measured. A temporal response

Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated the involvement of the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. Hyperactivity in the amygdala and hypoactivity in the vlPFC have been reported in manic bipolar patients scanned during the performance of an affective faces task. Whether this pattern of dysfunction persists during euthymia is unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 24 euthymic bipolar and 26 demographically matched healthy control subjects were scanned while performing an affective task paradigm involving the matching and labeling of emotional facial expressions. Neuroimaging results showed that, while amygdala activation did not differ significantly between groups, euthymic patients showed a significant decrease in activation of the right vlPFC (BA47) compared to healthy controls during emotion labeling. Additionally, significant decreases in activation of the right insula, putamen, thalamus and lingual gyrus were observed in euthymic bipolar relative to healthy control subjects during the emotion labeling condition. These data, taken in context with prior studies of bipolar mania using the same emotion recognition task, could suggest that amygdala dysfunction may be a state-related abnormality in bipolar disorder, whereas vlPFC dysfunction may represent a trait-related abnormality of the illness. Characterizing these patterns of activation is likely to help in understanding the neural changes related to the different mood states in bipolar disorder, as well as changes that represent more sustained abnormalities. Future studies that assess mood-state related changes in brain activation in longitudinal bipolar samples would be of interest.

Epileptic seizure activity is associated with an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activities. The latter is mediated by GABA, and several currently used antiepileptic drugs target entities of the GABAergic synapse such as the receptors or the inactivation mechanism consisting of transmembrane transport and enzymatic degradation. The development of tiagabine selectively inhibiting the GABA transporter GAT1 constitutes a proof of concept that the GABA transporters are interesting drug targets in the context of antiepileptic drugs. The review provides a detailed analysis of the role of such transporters pointing in particular to an interesting role of the transporters located extrasynaptically. It is suggested that the betaine-GABA transporter BGT1 should receive particular interest in this context as the GABA analogue EF 1502 (N-[4,4-bis(3-methyl-2-thienyl)-3-butenyl]-4-(methylamino)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[d]isoxazol-3-ol) has been shown to possess a novel anticonvulsant profile in animal models of epilepsy, involving the ability to inhibit GABA transport mediated by GAT1 and BGT1 at the same time.

We examine 3D patterns of volume differences in the brain associated with blindness, in subjects grouped according to early and late onset. Using tensor-based morphometry, we map volume reductions and gains in 16 early-onset (EB) and 16 late-onset (LB) blind adults (onset 14 years old, respectively) relative to 16 matched sighted controls. Each subject’s structural MRI was fluidly registered to a common template. Anatomical differences between groups were mapped based on statistical analysis of the resulting deformation fields revealing profound deficits in primary and secondary visual cortices for both blind groups. Regions outside the occipital lobe showed significant hypertrophy, suggesting widespread compensatory adaptations. EBs but not LBs showed deficits in the splenium and hypertrophy in the isthmus. Gains in the isthmus and non-occipital white matter were more widespread in the EBs. These differences may reflect regional alterations in late neurodevelopmental processes, such as myelination, that continue into adulthood.

We aimed to improve on the single-atlas ventricular segmentation method of (Carmichael, O.T., Thompson, P.M., Dutton, R.A., Lu, A., Lee, S.E., Lee, J.Y., Kuller, L.H., Lopez, O.L., Aizenstein, H.J., Meltzer, C.C., Liu, Y., Toga, A.W., Becker, J.T., 2006. Mapping ventricular changes related to dementia and mild cognitive impairment in a large community-based cohort. IEEE ISBI. 315-318) by using multi-atlas segmentation, which has been shown to lead to more accurate segmentations (Chou, Y., Leporé, N., de Zubicaray, G., Carmichael, O., Becker, J., Toga, A., Thompson, P., 2008. Automated ventricular mapping with multi-atlas fluid image alignment reveals genetic effects in Alzheimer's disease, NeuroImage 40(2): 615-630); with this method, we calculated minimal numbers of subjects needed to detect correlations between clinical scores and ventricular maps. We also assessed correlations between emerging CSF biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease pathology and localizable deficits in the brain, in 80 AD, 80 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 80 healthy controls from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Six expertly segmented images and their embedded parametric mesh surfaces were fluidly registered to each brain; segmentations were averaged within subjects to reduce errors. Surface-based statistical maps revealed powerful correlations between surface morphology and 4 variables: (1) diagnosis, (2) depression severity, (3) cognitive function at baseline, and (4) future cognitive decline over the following year. Cognitive function was assessed using the mini-mental state exam (MMSE), global and sum-of-boxes clinical dementia rating (CDR) scores, at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Lower CSF Abeta(1-42) protein levels, a biomarker of AD pathology assessed in 138 of the 240 subjects, were correlated with lateral ventricular expansion. Using false discovery rate (FDR) methods, 40 and 120 subjects, respectively, were needed to discriminate AD and MCI from normal groups. 120 subjects were required to detect correlations between ventricular enlargement and MMSE, global CDR, sum-of-boxes CDR and clinical depression scores. Ventricular expansion maps correlate with pathological and cognitive measures in AD, and may be useful in future imaging-based clinical trials.

Hypertension is highly prevalent in elderly individuals and may be associated with cognitive decline, but the mechanisms by which hypertension may impact brain structure, and thereby modulate the time course of late-life cognitive performance, are not well understood. Therefore we used Localized Components Analysis, a novel computational method, to measure spatially-localized patterns of corpus callosum (CC) atrophy in 28 right-handed female subjects aged 75-79 years in the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study (AGES-Reykjavik), a large-scale epidemiological study of aging. Localized callosal atrophy in the posterior midbody and splenium was significantly associated with systolic blood pressure in linear statistical models that controlled for age, while associations between blood pressure and anterior CC atrophy measures were not statistically significant. Additionally, overall measures of global CC atrophy were not significantly associated with blood pressure. The posterior CC may be differentially vulnerable to hypertension-associated atrophy, possibly due to its relatively tenuous vascularization.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Standard of Identity for Cheddar cheeses requires pasteurization of the milk, or as an alternative treatment, a minimum 60-day aging at > or =2 degrees C for cheeses made from unpasteurized milk, to reduce the number of viable pathogens that may be present to an acceptable risk. The objective of this study was to investigate the adequacy of the 60-day minimum aging to reduce the numbers of viable pathogens and evaluate milk subpasteurization heat treatment as a process to improve the safety of Cheddar cheeses made from unpasteurized milk. Cheddar cheese was made from unpasteurized milk inoculated with 10(1) to 10(5) CFU/ml of a five-strain cocktail of acid-tolerant Escherichia coli O157:H7. Samples were collected during the cheese manufacturing process. After pressing, the cheese blocks were packaged into plastic bags, vacuum sealed, and aged at 7 degrees C. After 1 week, the cheese blocks were cut into smaller-size uniform pieces and then vacuum sealed in clear plastic pouches. Samples were plated and enumerated for E. coli O157:H7. Populations of E. coli O157:H7 increased during the cheese-making operations. Population of E. coli O157:H7 in cheese aged for 60 and 120 days at 7 degrees C decreased less than 1 and 2 log, respectively. These studies confirm previous reports that show 60-day aging is inadequate to eliminate E. coli O157:H7 during cheese ripening. Subpasteurization heat-treatment runs were conducted at 148 degrees F (64.4 degrees C) for 17.5 s on milk inoculated with E. coli O157:H7 at 10(5) CFU/ml. These heat-treatment runs resulted in a 5-log E. coli O157: H7 reduction.

Communication between the amygdala and other brain regions critically regulates sensitivity to threat, which has been associated with risk for mood and affective disorders. The extent to which these neural pathways are genetically determined or correlate with risk-related personality measures is not fully understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we evaluated independent and interactive effects of the 5-HTTLPR genotype and neuroticism on amygdala functional connectivity during an emotional faces paradigm in 76 healthy individuals. Functional connectivity between left amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and between both amygdalae and a cluster including posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus and visual cortex was significantly increased in 5-HTTLPR S' allele carriers relative to L(A)L(A) individuals. Neuroticism was negatively correlated with functional connectivity between right amygdala and mPFC and visual cortex, and between both amygdalae and left lateral orbitofrontal (lOFC) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC). Notably, 5-HTTLPR moderated the association between neuroticism and functional connectivity between both amygdalae and left lOFC/vlPFC, such that S' carriers exhibited a more negative association relative to L(A)L(A) individuals. These findings provide novel evidence for both independent and interactive effects of 5-HTTLPR genotype and neuroticism on amygdala communication, which may mediate effects on risk for mood and affective disorders.

In a process inhibited by the quinoline antimalarial drugs, Plasmodia detoxify heme released during the degradation of hemoglobin by aggregating it into malarial pigment, an insoluble crystalline heme coordination polymer. Synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction patterns for intact desiccated malarial trophozoites and synthetic beta-hematin have been measured; both materials correspond to a single crystalline triclinic lattice with unit cell parameters a = 12.2176(4), b = 14.7184(5), c = 8.0456(3) A; alpha = 90.200(2), beta = 96.806(3), gamma = 97.818(3) degrees and Z = 2. These results unambiguously demonstrate that hemozoin crystallites are identical to synthetic beta-hematin.

Several new discrete surface integral (DSI) methods for solving Maxwell's equations in the time-domain are presented. These methods, which allow the use of general nonorthogonal mixed-polyhedral unstructured grids, are direct generalizations of the canonical staggered-grid finite difference method. These methods are conservative in that they locally preserve divergence or charge. Employing mixed polyhedral cells, (hexahedral, tetrahedral, etc.) these methods allow more accurate modeling of non-rectangular structures and objects because the traditional stair-stepped boundary approximations associated with the orthogonal grid based finite difference methods can be avoided. Numerical results demonstrating the accuracy of these new methods are presented.

Alzheimer's Disease, MCI, and Control Subjects J H Morra1, Z Tu1, L G Apostolova1,2, A E Green1,2, C Avedissian1, S K Madsen1, N Parikshak1, A W Toga1, C R Jack3, N Schuff4, M W Weiner4,5, P M Thompson1 Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States/Dept. of Neurology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States/Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, United States/Dept. of Radiology, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United States/Dept. of Medicine and Psychiatry, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United States

J.L. Stein1, A. DeGiorgio1, S.K. Madsen1, C. Avedissian1, Y.Y. Chou1, J.H. Morra1, A.W. Toga1, K.L. McMahon2, G.I. de Zubicaray2, M.J. Wright3, P.M. Thompson1 1Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States/2University of Queensland, Functional MRI Laboratory, Center for Magnetic Resonance, Brisbane, Australia/3Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia

Introduction: Bipolar (BP) disorder is a severe chronic mental illness characterized by dramatic mood swings between mania and depression. Several lines of evidence have implicated disruptions of prefrontal cortex and amygdala, known components of an emotion regulatory network. Recent data from our group have shown such a disruption occurs during an emotion identification task in bipolar mania (Foland et al., 2008). Here, we use the same task to examine (1) if amygdala hyper-responsivity persists during euthymia, and (2) whether amygdala hyper-responsivity is associated with a reduction in prefrontal cortical (PFC) gray matter thickness, given that the PFC directly suppresses amygdala output (Hariri et al., 2000).

A cyclic odd-even reduction algorithm for symmetric circulant matrices is defined, and a subclass of problems to which the algorithm may be applied is identified. Also, sufficient conditions are established which guarantee that the off-diagonal elements of the reduced matrices converge quadratically to zero.

The influence of indomethacin on collagen synthesis in intact and healing plantaris longus tendons in the rabbit was investigated. Forty-four male New Zealand White rabbits were subjected to a standardized trauma (tenetomy + repair) on the left hindlimb. Half of the animals were subsequently treated with indomethacin, 10 mg/kg per day orally, and the other half with placebo. After 2 and 4 weeks the rabbits were injected intravenously with 3H-proline and killed 18 h later. Indomethacin affected the collagen metabolism differently depending on whether the tendons were involved in wound healing or not. In intact tendons the drug caused a small general inhibition of collagen synthesis. In the healing tendon there was a shift towards the synthesis of more insoluble collagen with little effect on the total synthesis. After 4 weeks there was also a slight but significant decrease in the amount of hydroxyproline in the most soluble collagen fraction from the tenotomized, indomethacin treated tendons.

Several different methods for solving Maxwell's equations in the time-domain through the use of irregular nonorthogonal grids are presented. Employing quadrilateral and/or triangular elements, these methods allow more accurate modeling of nonrectangular structures. The traditional “stair-stepping” boundary approximations associated with standard orthogonal-grid finite-difference methods are avoided. Numerical results comparing all of the methods are given. A modified finite-volume method, which is a direct generalization of the standard finite-difference method to arbitrary polygonal grids, is shown to be the most accurate.

A new lattice truncation scheme for the finite difference time domain approach to the solution of Maxwell's equations has been developed. The problem space is truncated near the sources and the field components on its boundary are generated from those field values known at retarded times on an interior surface one cell from it with an integral representation of the electromagnetic field. The numerical implementation of this global lookback scheme is discussed. Examples which have been used to determine its characteristics and its validity are given.

Elementary teachers in two Florida counties were trained in techniques designed to enhance behavioral control of classroom problems. Workshops were used to instruct teachers in the use and application of behavioral principles through discussion, role-playing, video tape, and observational feedback. Comparisons between trained and untrained teachers demonstrated that trained teachers were substantially higher in teacher approval following appropriate student behavior and much lower in frequency of disapproval directed toward inappropriate student behavior, and they had no errors of approval or disapproval. Inappropriate student behavior was significantly lower for trained teachers. Ancillary “spin off” advantages accrued from the use of undergraduates serving in a variety of classroom roles.

Description d'une observation: survenue d'un keratoacanthome chez un patient de 71 ans, ayant presente 10 semaines plus tot un zona de la face et du cuir chevelu

A Galerkin finite element solution technique for the Maxwell's equations is discussed. This new formulation can be viewed as a generalization of certain staggered-grid finite difference schemes to arbitrary meshes. It is shown that this technique is simple to implement and is more accurate as well as more cost effective than the standard equal-order finite element approach. Numerical are presented to evaluate the performance of this new element relative to the standard element.