FRONTIERS

Neurosteroids were initially defined as steroid hormones locally synthesized within the nervous tissue. Subsequently, they were described as steroid hormone derivatives that devoid hormonal action but still affect neuronal excitability through modulation of ionotropic receptors. Neurosteroids are further subdivided into natural (produced in the brain) and synthetic. Some authors distinguish between hormonal and regular neurosteroids in the group of natural ones. The latter group, including hormone metabolites like allopregnanolone or tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone, is devoid of hormonal activity. Both hormones and their derivatives share, however, most of the physiological functions. It is usually very difficult to distinguish the effects of hormones and their metabolites. All these substances may influence seizure phenomena and exhibit neuroprotective effects. Neuroprotection offered by steroid hormones may be realized in both genomic and non-genomic mechanisms and involve regulation of the pro-and anti-apoptotic factors expression, intracellular signaling pathways, neurotransmission, oxidative, and inflammatory processes. Since regular neurosteroids show no affinity for steroid receptors, they may act only in a non-genomic mode. Multiple studies have been conducted so far to show efficacy of neurosteroids in the treatment of the central and peripheral nervous system injury, ischemia, neurodegenerative diseases, or seizures. In this review we focused primarily on neurosteroid mechanisms of action and their role in the process of neurodegeneration. Most of the data refers to results obtained in experimental studies. However, it should be realized that knowledge about neuroactive steroids remains still incomplete and requires confirmation in clinical conditions.

To assess the impact of business students’ international experience during college on their post-graduation careers, the authors of this study surveyed alumni from The Kelly School of Business at Indiana University who were five to ten years into their careers. The goal of the research was to determine the impact of international experience on alumni’s career paths. In addition, the survey sought to compare the career paths of alumni who studied abroad to those who did not study abroad.

The aim of this work is to present the development of a hybrid Brain-Computer Interface (hBCI) which combines existing input devices with a BCI. Thereby, the BCI should be available if the user wishes to extend the types of inputs available to an assistive technology system, but the user can also choose not to use the BCI at all; the BCI is active in the background. The hBCI might decide on the one hand which input channel(s) offer the most reliable signal(s) and switch between input channels to improve information transfer rate, usability, or other factors, or on the other hand fuse various input channels. One major goal therefore is to bring the BCI technology to a level where it can be used in a maximum number of scenarios in a simple way. To achieve this, it is of great importance that the hBCI is able to operate reliably for long periods, recognizing and adapting to changes as it does so. This goal is only possible if many different subsystems in the hBCI can work together. Sin...

Impulsivity is a feature of many brain disorders. Although often defined as the predisposition to act with an inadequate degree of deliberation, forethought, or control, it has proven difficult to measure. This may in part be due to the fact that it is a multifaceted construct, with impulsive decisions potentially arising as a result of a number of underlying mechanisms. Indeed, a "functional" degree of impulsivity may even promote effective behavior in healthy participants in a way that can be advantageous under certain circumstances. Although many tasks have been developed to study impulsivity, few examine decisions made rapidly, for time-sensitive rewards. In the current study we examine behavior in 59 adults on a manual "Traffic Light" task which requires participants to take risks under time pressure, if they are to maximize reward. We show that behavioral variables that index rapid anticipatory responding in this paradigm are correlated with one, specific self-report measure of impulsivity: "lack of premeditation" on the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale. Participants who scored more highly on this subscale performed better on the task. Moreover, anticipatory behavior reduced significantly with age (18-79 years), an effect that continued to be upheld after correction for potential age differences in the ability to judge the timing of responses. Based on these findings, we argue that the Traffic Light task provides a parametric method to study one aspect of impulsivity in health and disease: namely, rapid decision-making in pursuit of risky, time-sensitive rewards.

Modular toolkit for Data Processing (MDP) is a data processing framework written in Python. From the user's perspective, MDP is a collection of supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms and other data processing units that can be combined into data processing sequences and more complex feed-forward network architectures. Computations are performed effi ciently in terms of speed and memory requirements. From the scientifi c developer's perspective, MDP is a modular framework, which can easily be expanded. The implementation of new algorithms is easy and intuitive. The new implemented units are then automatically integrated with the rest of the library. MDP has been written in the context of theoretical research in neuroscience, but it has been designed to be helpful in any context where trainable data processing algorithms are used. Its simplicity on the user's side, the variety of readily available algorithms, and the reusability of the implemented units make it also a useful educational tool.

The COVID-19 pandemic along with the restrictions that were introduced within Europe starting spring 2020 allows for the identification of predictors for relationship quality during unstable and stressful times.The present study began as strict measures were enforced in response to the rising spread of the COVID-19 within Austria, Poland, Spain and Czech Republic. Here, we investigated quality of romantic relationships among 313 participants as movement restrictions were implemented and subsequently phased out cross-nationally. Participants completed self-report questionnaires over a period of seven weeks, where we predicted relationship quality and change in relationship quality using machine learning models that include a variety of potential predictors related to psychological, demographic and environmental variables.On average, our machine learning tools predicted 29% (linear models) and 22% (non-linear models) of the variance with regard to relationship quality. Here, the most ...

We utilize small groups literature and status characteristics theory to explain the effectiveness of entrepreneurial startup teams. We hypothesized that teams containing members with high status characteristics, such as prior entrepreneurial experience, will have higher levels functioning because these individuals are better able to provide contributions unavailable to lower status individuals. Further, we hypothesized that teams with status diversity will be associated with lower levels of functioning because diversity will reduce collective efficacy, the belief in the team's ability to start a business . We tested our hypotheses using data from the PSED I and II, nationally representative samples of nascent entrepreneurs. We found that the presence of high achieved status characteristics led to an increase in access to important contributions within teams, but did not significantly increase the helpfulness of team members. We did not find consistent evidence that status diversity decreased team functioning. We found preliminary indications that role differentiation and authority structures, measures only available in the PSED II, provided important insight into how status characteristics affect group processes.

In this paper, the content of two laboratory courses developed at the Department of Electronics of the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece, focused on optoelectronics and optical communications, respectively, is presented. Both of these laboratory courses were developed with the philosophy of introducing a research-oriented approach. Emphasis is given on handson experimentation. In such a way, students get a better understanding of the various theoretical concepts (generation of light through single mode Continuous Wave lasers, transmission of optical power, etc.), and become able to analyze and solve problems associated with photonics components and their integration to optical systems. Coupling of experimentation and research is facilitated with a Marie Curie EU-funded grant for the establishment of a Centre of Excellence via the transfer of knowledge in the scientific area of optoelectronics and lasers. Our approach is presented by referring to specific laboratory exercises, such as the experimental study of a variable optical attenuator developed for research purposes, the development of an X-ray high power x-pinch optolectronic device, etc.).

Acute revascularization is associated with improved outcomes in ischemic stroke patients. It is unclear which method of intra-arterial intervention, if any, is ideal. Promising approaches in acute stroke treatment are likely a combination of intravenous and endovascular revascularization efforts, combining early treatment initiation with direct clot manipulation and/or PTA/stenting. In this review, we will discuss available thrombolytic therapies and endovascular recanalization techniques, beginning with chemical thrombolytic agents, followed by mechanical devices, and a review of ongoing trials. Further randomized studies comparing medical therapy, intravenous and endovascular treatments are essential, and their implementation will require the wide support and enthusiasm from the neurologic, neuroradiologic, and neurosurgical stroke communities.

The city is a place of intersecting cultures, identities and ideas that also serves as fertile ground for learning within the context of study abroad. Using the notion of the flâneur, this article problematizes students’ engagement with the spaces and places of the city with special attention to the mediating role now played by technology. We interweave a theoretical discussion with empirical examples from two urban study abroad locales and with suggestions for practice. We argue that despite the complex array of resources the student employs to take on the foreign city, it is only the savvy wanderer who picks up on the subtle differences that we elusively refer to as a city’s “character” or personality and who understands their own shifting role of spectator, wanderer and performer—thus entering into a relationship with place.

Recently, novel lines of research have developed to study the influence of identity processes in sport-related behaviors. Yet, whereas emotions in sport are the result of a complex psychosocial process, little attention has been paid to examining the mechanisms that underlie how group membership influences athletes' emotional experiences. The present narrative review aims at complementing the comprehensive review produced by Rees et al. (2015) on social identity in sport by reporting specific work on identity-based emotions in sport. To that end, we firstly overview the different terminology currently used in the field of emotions in groups to clarify the distinct nature of emotions that result from an individual's social identity. Secondly, we discuss key concepts of social identity to better understand the mechanisms underlying identitybased emotions. Thirdly, we address existing knowledge on identity-based emotions in sport. We close the present narrative review by suggesting future research perspectives based on existing meta-theories of social identity. Evidence from the social psychology literature is discussed alongside existing works from the sport literature to propose a crucial theoretical approach to better understand emotions in sport.

The history of livestock started with the domestication of their wild ancestors: a restricted number of species allowed to be tamed and entered a symbiotic relationship with humans. In exchange for food, shelter and protection, they provided us with meat, eggs, hides, wool and draught power, thus contributing considerably to our economic and cultural development. Depending on the species, domestication took place in different areas and periods. After domestication, livestock spread over all inhabited regions of the earth, accompanying human migrations and becoming also trade objects. This required an adaptation to different climates and varying styles of husbandry and resulted in an enormous phenotypic diversity. Approximately 200 years ago, the situation started to change with the rise of the concept of breed. Animals were selected for the same visible characteristics, and crossing with different phenotypes was reduced. This resulted in the formation of different breeds, mostly gen...

The present study examined the hypothesis that feedback inducing an external focus of attention enhances motor learning if it is provided frequently (i.e., 100%) rather than less frequently. Children (10-to 12-year-olds) practiced a soccer throw-in task and were provided feedback about movement form. The feedback statements, provided either after every (100%) or every third (33%) practice trial, were similar in content but induced either an internal focus (body-movement related) or external focus (movement-effect related). The results demonstrated that learning of the movement form was enhanced by external-focus feedback after every trial (100%) relative to external-focus feedback after every third trial (33%) or internal-focus feedback (100%, 33%), as demonstrated by immediate and delayed transfer tests without feedback. There was no difference between the two internal-focus feedback groups. These findings indicate that the attentional focus induced by feedback is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of different feedback frequencies. We argue that the informational properties of feedback cannot sufficiently account for these and related findings, and suggest that the attentional role of feedback be given greater consideration in future studies.

Most discussions of the social and interpersonal styles in individuals with strong psychopathic traits focus on their dangerousness or their affective and interpersonal deficiencies. This study has a different focus, and starts from the idea that such focus on the threat emanating from individuals with a psychopathic style might blind us from the logic inherent to their way of relating with the world. By means of a qualitative analysis (thematic analysis) of narratives from a Lacanian talking therapy, this study examines how 15 youngsters with strong psychopathic traits make sense of interpersonal events and relations. The main recurring theme across these narratives was that others in general are fundamentally distrustful antagonists that they have to protect themselves from. Especially the father figure, with whom identification seems to take place, is seen as a violent actor. Consequently, these youngsters develop multiple strategies of dealing with the threat they experience in relation to (significant) others. These relationship patterns also emerged within the therapeutic relationship, resulting in frequent testing of the therapist's trustworthiness. The results of this study, discussed in terms of Lacanian theory, might help therapists to develop treatment approaches that better fit with the interpersonal orientation of individuals with strong psychopathic traits.

Smart packaging, an emerging technology in the food packaging industry incorporates both active and intelligent technologies. Consumer demand for natural products and increasingly extended and diverse supply chains required to feed the growing global population, mean that traditional packaging is becoming less capable of meeting the functional demands placed on it. To help ensure the commercial success of proposed smart packaging technologies a thorough understanding of consumers attitudes toward them is required. Understanding the cultural, social and cognitive factors that affect acceptance will help "fine tune" smart packaging development to best meet consumer preferences and needs and ensure that communication about the technologies effectively addresses consumer concerns and educates them on the benefits. This systematic review of 28 peer reviewed journal articles summarizes the current knowledge on consumer acceptance or rejection of active and intelligent packaging, and the behavioral forces behind those attitudes. Articles containing primary data and published in the English language over the last 10 years reporting consumer responses to active and/or intelligent packaging technologies in general or to more specific technologies that achieved the functional goals of active or intelligent packaging were obtained and analyzed for themes in the qualitative data analysis software NVivo. Themes were organized into groups as to whether they identified control variables, moderating variables, barriers or motivations to purchase and the benefits of the technology. To develop a conceptual framework for understanding consumer preferences for smart packaging, the identified themes were integrated with several consumer behavior models including the theory of planned behavior and an attitude model. Consumer perceptions of smart packaging is a poorly covered research area with most research being clustered in Europe and a smaller cluster in the Americas so there were significant opportunities to build on the body of knowledge.

The ubiquitous presence of military slaves has been a distinguishing feature of the armies and the political systems of the Abbâsid Caliphs and the succeeding Sultanates in Islamdom. In the middle ages, the Seljuqid wazir Nizam al-Mulk Tusi and the scholar Ibn Khaldun had separately commented on the virtues of the system of 'recruiting' slaves to consolidate the political strength of a monarch. Ibn K_haldun had astutely noticed that military slaves (ghilminlmamiliklbandagdn; singular: ghulamlmamluklbandah) were valuable subordinates because they were natally alienated and socially dead.' The process of enslavement had carried slaves far from their natal homes, and their non-existent legal and social status in their new environment increased their dependence upon their masters. In the early thirteenth century the chronicler Fak_hr-i Mudabbir noted the value of such a deracinated military group to the ruler: the further [slaves] are taken from their hearth, their kin and their dwellings, har chand az khanah wa aqribâ wa wilâyat-i khlid di2rtar uftad, the more valued, precious and expensive they become, qadr wa qimat wa bahd'f-yi u ziyadat gardad ....2 2 Scholars familiar with the phenomenon of agrestic slavery in the southern United States, find the usage of slaves as military notables (bandagin) highly unusual in Islamdom. In particular, the commodification of the slave, * An earlier, abbreviated version of this paper was read at the fifty-second Indian History

We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence. We have also shown that both worry and intelligence exhibit an inverse correlation with certain metabolites in the subcortical white matter. Here we re-examine the relationships among generalized anxiety, worry, intelligence, and subcortical white matter metabolism in an extended sample. Results from the original study were combined with results from a second study to create a sample comprised of 26 patients with GAD and 18 healthy volunteers. Subjects were evaluated using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, the Wechsler Brief intelligence quotient (IQ) assessment, and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging ( 1 H-MRSI) to measure subcortical white matter metabolism of choline and related compounds (CHO). Patients with GAD exhibited higher IQ's and lower metabolite concentrations of CHO in the subcortical white matter in comparison to healthy volunteers. When data from GAD patients and healthy controls were combined, relatively low CHO predicted both relatively higher IQ and worry scores. Relatively high anxiety in patients with GAD predicted high IQ whereas relatively low anxiety in controls also predicted high IQ. That is, the relationship between anxiety and intelligence was positive in GAD patients but inverse in healthy volunteers. The collective data suggest that both worry and intelligence are characterized by depletion of metabolic substrate in the subcortical white matter and that intelligence may have co-evolved with worry in humans.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

An application of the theory of planned behavior is developed to analyze factors influencing entrepreneurial intent among students of technology and sciences. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test the robustness of the intentapproach using international comparisons. The samples ...

Steroids and peptides mediate a diverse array of animal social behaviors. Human research is restricted by technical-ethical limitations, and models of the neuroendocrine regulation of social-emotional behavior are therefore mainly limited to non-human species, often under the assumption that human social-emotional behavior is emancipated from hormonal control. Development of acute hormone administration procedures in human research, together with the advent of novel non-invasive neuroimaging techniques, have opened up opportunities to systematically study the neuroendocrinology of human social-emotional behavior. Here, we review all placebo-controlled single hormone administration studies addressing human social-emotional behavior, involving the steroids testosterone and estradiol, and the peptides oxytocin and vasopressin. These studies demonstrate substantial hormonal control over human socialemotional behavior and give insights into the underlying neural mechanisms. Finally, we propose a theoretical model that synthesizes detailed knowledge of the neuroendocrinology of social-emotional behavior in animals with the recently gained data from humans described in our review.

Resilience is a psychological construct observed in some individuals that accounts for success despite adversity. Resilience reflects the ability to bounce back, to beat the odds and is considered an asset in human characteristic terms. Academic resilience contextualizes the resilience construct and reflects an increased likelihood of educational success despite adversity. The paper provides an account of the development of a new multidimensional construct measure of academic resilience. The 30 item Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30) explores process-as opposed to outcome-aspects of resilience, providing a measure of academic resilience based on students' specific adaptive cognitive-affective and behavioral responses to academic adversity. Findings from the study involving a sample of undergraduate students (N = 532) demonstrate that the ARS-30 has good internal reliability and construct validity. It is suggested that a measure such as the ARS-30, which is based on adaptive resp...

What happens to an imperial economy after empire? How do economics, security, and ideology interact at the new state frontiers? Does trade always break down ideological barriers? The eastern borders of Poland, Latvia, and Estonia comprised much of the interwar Soviet state’s western frontier – the focus of Moscow’s revolutionary aspirations and security concerns. These young nations paid for their independence with the loss of the Imperial Russian market. Łódź, the “Polish Manchester,” had fashioned its textiles for Russian and Ukrainian consumers; Riga had been the Empire’s busiest commercial port; Tallinn had been one of the busiest – and Russians drank nine-tenths of the potato vodka distilled on Estonian estates. Eager to reclaim their traditional market, but stymied by the Soviet state monopoly on foreign trade and impatient with the slow grind of trade talks, these countries’ businessmen turned to the porous Soviet frontier. The dissertation reveals how, despite considerable misgivings, their governments actively abetted this traffic. The Polish and Baltic struggles to balance the heady profits of the “border trade” against a host of security concerns shaped everyday lives and government decisions on both sides of the Soviet frontier. Drawing on government archives, business records, and periodicals from seven countries, the dissertation uncovers the changing composition and scale of these “semi-contraband” (and fully-contraband) flows that Soviet authorities struggled to stem. It reveals the centrality of cross-border Jewish networks to this trade, and the implications of this centrality for Polish and Latvian Jews. It traces (and maps) the proliferation of hundreds of government-sanctioned “barter stations” along Poland’s, Latvia’s, and Estonia’s Soviet frontiers, and profiles their operators and visitors. While these bustling shops supplied smugglers with goods, they supplied the Bolsheviks with a tangible, everyday manifestation of hostile capitalist encirclement. In the end, the dissertation suggests that by linking Soviet consumers with the outside world against Moscow’s wishes, the ports and distilleries of Riga, Tallinn, and Tartu and the cloth factories of Łódź inadvertently fashioned the foundations of the interwar Iron Curtain.

In Brazilian schools, many teachers do not organize their teaching and students’ tasks and actions in a way that facilitates theoretical thinking based on the abstraction and generalization of the work content. Because many students struggle to accomplish the tasks and actions themselves, teachers guide them. Over time, the students begin to have more autonomy in executing the proposed activities, as they completed mental operations while learning. This article aims to investigate how young people’s and adults’ awareness of the countryside is formed based on visual elements and writing, facilitating an understanding of their reality. A didactic–formative experiment was performed based on the cultural–historical theory. The comic books produced by the participants allowed them to develop their overall thinking, moving from the abstract to the concrete. They also formed an awareness of reality, which allowed them to have greater autonomy in the production of these stories as a means o...

During the 17th century period, there was a gradual separation of Varaždin Generalate (Slavonnian Military Border) from the eastern part of medieval Križevci County (today: northwest Croatia). Varaždin military and Križevci County, with interlinked jurisdictions of both authorities were, however, a part of greater contact area on the border between the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires. This is where many civil and military jurisdictions and relations were in conflicting complexity, as it was the case for many other borderline areas. In late 16th century this region, encompassing Varaždin Generalate was almost completely devastated with population cut down to insignificant numbers.

It badly needed a repopulation and establishing prerequisites for life in a functioning society of a military border. Organization of civil life was, at the same time a process of adapting natural environment to the new needs. So the stories of that period are ultimately of the environment, of the people and their settlements.

Initially, I wanted to determine what were the environmental consequences of this process. Then I tried to explain who the people, who had settled here, were. Finally, I showed what types of settlements were created in this colonization.

History of environmental issues in the studied area can be divided into two segments. The first is related to the impact of nature on humans in the studied area, and the second to human impact on nature.

The first segment highlights the issue the "Little Ice Age" and the influence of Drava River. Unlike today's times, when climate is significantly affected by human (wrong)doing, and climate changes have huge impact on people all over the world - the pre-industrial era had only impacts on the population. In order to better understand climate changes today, we should strive to better understanding of the climate before Industrial revolution and its changes without human interference.

This is why it’s important to research the climate of Early Modern times, or rather, the effects of so called Little Ice Age, as it affected Varaždin Generalate and Križevci County areas and its influence on the following in particular:

1) agriculture, farming food production and human sustenance
2) forestation and permanent clearance of beech forests from the lowlands
3) effects on human health
4) effects on society and its culture
5) wars and conflicts
6) migrations (and, possibly, link Vlach migrations to “global cooling”).

During the 17th century period, Varaždin Generalate and Križevci County borderline regions were rich in natural water resources, rivers and streams. People from the lowlands and river valleys were heavily endangered by frequent flooding on the research areas:

1) Drava River valleys
2) Sava River valleys
3) Lonja River and Česma River lowlands.

As for Drava River area, the hydro regulation of its stream had begun in the 17th century, in order to prevent flooding and save the settlements and population. In 17th century, the regulation effects were very limited, but also announced the future of increased human interventions into nature, unlike the medieval times. River regulations in this region would intensify in the late 18th century, and later, in the 19th century even to greater extent.

Wetlands and marshes were important as a natural regulator for flooding- these terrains absorbed excess of water in flooding. Such wetlands were usually along the big rivers, like Drava and Sava, but would be found near other, smaller rivers like Česma, Bednja and Lonja, the latter being best known for the marshes of Lonja River valley.

Forming of settlements, right in the middle of 17th century wetlands, is an evidence of successful colonization of the terrain. 17th century anthropization of terrains was followed by drainage of wetlands. The second half of 17th century saw some successful drainage in vicinity of Molve, Hlebine, Čigoč and some failed ones, like Mačkovec. Human settlement succeeded only on elevated terrain, like island of dry land surrounded by wetlands and marshes. Even today, such higher grounds are called ‘rooftop beams’.

Another nature’s influence on humans is clearly visible: enlarged thyroid gland, a goiter, often seen in people living by rivers, due to river water deficiency of iodine. The research of the Drava River area confirmed this, as a limiting factor to colonization processes. Suffering from enlarged thyroid gland caused serious health problems to population in close vicinity of rivers. 17th century records of goiter disease, the way it was detailed in 20th century records, could provide room for hypothesis that endemic cretinism, as a direct consequence of deficiency of thyroid hormones, might have been similar to those in the Early Modern Era times.

In this article we try do discuss frontiers crossovers and space (re)criation,
due to workers circulation at american Cone-Sul, in the beginning of the XX
century. For this, our recount flows through Rivers Prata and Paraguai; visiting
the port cities of Buenos Aires, Montevidéu, Assunção and Corumbá, having a
special view of the suburbbs where the seaworkers lived.

Musical emotions, such as happiness and sadness, have been investigated using instrumental music devoid of linguistic content. However, pop and rock, the most common musical genres, utilize lyrics for conveying emotions. Using participants' self-selected musical excerpts, we studied their behavior and brain responses to elucidate how lyrics interact with musical emotion processing, as reflected by emotion recognition and activation of limbic areas involved in affective experience. We extracted samples from subjects' selections of sad and happy pieces and sorted them according to the presence of lyrics. Acoustic feature analysis showed that music with lyrics differed from music without lyrics in spectral centroid, a feature related to perceptual brightness, whereas sad music with lyrics did not diverge from happy music without lyrics, indicating the role of other factors in emotion classification. Behavioral ratings revealed that happy music without lyrics induced stronger positive emotions than happy music with lyrics. We also acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging data while subjects performed affective tasks regarding the music. First, using ecological and acoustically variable stimuli, we broadened previous findings about the brain processing of musical emotions and of songs versus instrumental music. Additionally, contrasts between sad music with versus without lyrics recruited the parahippocampal gyrus, the amygdala, the claustrum, the putamen, the precentral gyrus, the medial and inferior frontal gyri (including Broca's area), and the auditory cortex, while the reverse contrast produced no activations. Happy music without lyrics activated structures of the limbic system and the right pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, whereas auditory regions alone responded to happy music with lyrics. These findings point to the role of acoustic cues for the experience of happiness in music and to the importance of lyrics for sad musical emotions.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder affecting approximately 1-3% of the population. OCD is probably an etiologically heterogeneous condition. Individuals with OCD frequently have additional psychiatric disorders concomitantly or at some time during their lifetime. Recently, some authors proposed an OCD subclassification based on comorbidity. An important issue in assessing comorbidity is the fact that the non-response to treatment often involves the presence of comorbid conditions. Non-responsive patients are more likely to meet criteria for comorbid axis I or axis II disorders and the presence of a specific comorbid condition could be a distinguishing feature in OCD, with influence on the treatment adequacy and outcome.

Hardware implementations of spiking neurons can be extremely useful for a large variety of applications, ranging from high-speed modeling of large-scale neural systems to real-time behaving systems, to bidirectional brain-machine interfaces. The specific circuit solutions used to implement silicon neurons depend on the application requirements. In this paper we describe the most common building blocks and techniques used to implement these circuits, and present an overview of a wide range of neuromorphic silicon neurons, which implement different computational models, ranging from biophysically realistic and conductance-based Hodgkin-Huxley models to bi-dimensional generalized adaptive integrate and fire models. We compare the different design methodologies used for each silicon neuron design described, and demonstrate their features with experimental results, measured from a wide range of fabricated VLSI chips.

Up to 60% of depressed patients do not respond completely to antidepressants (ADs) and up to 30% do not respond at all. Genetic factors contribute for about 50% of the AD response. During the recent years the possible influence of a set of candidate genes as genetic predictors of AD response efficacy was investigated by us and others. They include the cytochrome P450 superfamily, the P-glycoprotein (ABCB1), the tryptophan hydroxylase, the catechol-Omethyltransferase, the monoamine oxidase A, the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR), the norepinephrine transporter, the dopamine transporter, variants in the 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors (5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, 5-HT3A, 5-HT3B, and 5-HT6), adrenoreceptor beta-1 and alpha-2, the dopamine receptors (D2), the G protein beta 3 subunit, the corticotropin releasing hormone receptors (CRHR1 and CRHR2), the glucocorticoid receptors, the c-AMP response-element binding, and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Marginal associations were reported for angiotensin I converting enzyme, circadian locomotor output cycles kaput protein, glutamatergic system, nitric oxide synthase, and interleukin 1-beta gene. In conclusion, gene variants seem to influence human behavior, liability to disorders and treatment response. Nonetheless, gene × environment interactions have been hypothesized to modulate several of these effects.

Neuroactive steroids synthesized in neuronal tissue, referred to as neurosteroids, are implicated in proliferation, differentiation, activity and survival of nerve cells. Neurosteroids are also involved in the control of a number of behavioral, neuroendocrine and metabolic processes such as regulation of food intake, locomotor activity, sexual activity, aggressiveness, anxiety, depression, body temperature and blood pressure. In this article, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the existence, neuroanatomical distribution and biological activity of the enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of neurosteroids in the brain of vertebrates, and we review the neuronal mechanisms that control the activity of these enzymes. The observation that the activity of key steroidogenic enzymes is finely tuned by various neurotransmitters and neuropeptides strongly suggests that some of the central effects of these neuromodulators may be mediated via the regulation of neurosteroid production.

In this paper we present a very exciting overlap between emergent nanotechnology and neuroscience, which has been discovered by neuromorphic engineers. Specifically, we are linking one type of memristor nanotechnology devices to the biological synaptic update rule known as spike-time-dependent-plasticity (STDP) found in real biological synapses. Understanding this link allows neuromorphic engineers to develop circuit architectures that use this type of memristors to artificially emulate parts of the visual cortex. We focus on the type of memristors referred to as voltage or flux driven memristors and focus our discussions on a behavioral macro-model for such devices. The implementations result in fully asynchronous architectures with neurons sending their action potentials not only forward but also backward. One critical aspect is to use neurons that generate spikes of specific shapes. We will see how by changing the shapes of the neuron action potential spikes we can tune and manipulate the STDP learning rules for both excitatory and inhibitory synapses. We will see how neurons and memristors can be interconnected to achieve large scale spiking learning systems, that follow a type of multiplicative STDP learning rule. We will briefly extend the architectures to use three-terminal transistors with similar memristive behavior. We will illustrate how a V1 visual cortex layer can assembled and how it is capable of learning to extract orientations from visual data coming from a real artificial CMOS spiking retina observing real life scenes. Finally, we will discuss limitations of currently available memristors. The results presented are based on behavioral simulations and do not take into account non-idealities of devices and interconnects. The aim of this paper is to present, in a tutorial manner, an initial framework for the possible development of fully asynchronous STDP learning neuromorphic architectures exploiting two or three-terminal memristive type devices. All files used for the simulations are made available through the journal web site 1 .

Unlike that of mammals, the brain of teleost fish exhibits an intense aromatase activity due to the strong expression of one of two aromatase genes (aromatase A or cyp19a1a and aromatase B or cyp19a1b) that arose from a gene duplication event. In situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry and expression of GFP (green fluorescent protein) in transgenic tg(cyp19a1b-GFP) fish demonstrate that aromatase B is only expressed in radial glial cells (RGC) of adult fish. These cells persist throughout life and act as progenitors in the brain of both developing and adult fish. Although aromatase B-positive radial glial cells are most abundant in the preoptic area and the hypothalamus, they are observed throughout the central nervous system and spinal cord. In agreement with the fact that brain aromatase activity is correlated to sex steroid levels, the high expression of cyp19a1b is due to an auto-regulatory loop through which estrogens and aromatizable androgens up-regulate aromatase expression.

The current internecine war in what external observers see as the world’s youngest ‘failed state’ is the product of structural developments. This chapter tries to question the particularities of one rather stable and prosperous region of South Sudan, Kapoeta East (EES), on possible structural reasons for the devastating and lethal crisis in others. It draws attention to the fact that destruction and disenfranchisement concentrate in zones of crucial importance for the power relations and resource flows of its minoritarian but privileged ‘modern sector’. It questions policies promoting and feeding the very institutions that under the conditions of the country sign responsible for a large part of its misery and shocking abuses of power against obligations, rights and human dignity. It raises the question if we should finally stop looking at societies through a particularly ‘modern’ matrix of institutional order and start taking ‘home-grown models’, as they have developed over centuries, serious. More than a century of insightful research as much as contemporary evidence suggest that there are, coexisting with internationally alimented ‘modern’ institutions producing crisis, alternative modes of social regulation that do, in absence of public attention, impressive jobs; that modernisation becomes an iconic remedy for ills produced by its own re-structuring patterns; that the idea of development and its interaction with social realities should be analysed as vigorously as the dialectics of enlightenment; that the modernisation narrative is a myth, protected by belief and force, that serves particular interests and produces harmful gaps between official terms and actual practices.

Cognitive dysfunction is a well recognized symptom of schizophrenia, as well as patients having poor insight into their illness. The subjective scale to investigate cognition in schizophrenia (SSTICS) is one of several scales that have been developed to study subjective cognitive dysfunction and has been compared to patients' objective cognitive level. A literature search was performed using PubMed, psychINFO, Web of Science, and cross-referencing to find 26 articles which used 14 different subjective cognitive dysfunction scales to investigate the relationship between subjective and objective measures of cognition in schizophrenia. Although the majority of studies using the SSTICS found significant correlations between subjective and objective measures of cognition, the findings from the other scales were less clear. From this review, the issue of whether or not schizophrenic patients have good cognitive insight remains unsure. However, due to the heterogeneous nature of the study designs and their outcome measures, continued work in this area with consistency on these points is necessary; on the path to better provide management options for a very debilitating component of this illness.

Electronic slideshow presentations are often faulted anecdotally, but little empirical work has documented their faults. In Study 1 we found that eight psychological principles are often violated in PowerPoint® slideshows, and are violated to similar extents across different fields – for example, academic research slideshows generally were no better or worse than business slideshows. In Study 2 we found that respondents reported having noticed, and having been annoyed by, specific problems in presentations arising from violations of particular psychological principles. Finally, in Study 3 we showed that observers are not highly accurate in recognizing when particular slides violated a specific psychological rule. Furthermore, even when they correctly identified the violation, they often could not explain the nature of the problem. In sum, the psychological foundations for effective slideshow presentation design are neither obvious nor necessarily intuitive, and presentation designers in all fields, from education to business to government, could benefit from explicit instruction in relevant aspects of psychology.

Campylobacter is well recognized as the leading cause of bacterial foodborne diarrheal disease worldwide. Symptoms can range from mild to serious infections of the children and the elderly and permanent neurological symptoms. The organism is a cytochrome oxidase positive, microaerophilic, curved Gram-negative rod exhibiting corkscrew motility and is carried in the intestine of many wild and domestic animals, particularly avian species including poultry. Intestinal colonization results in healthy animals as carriers. In contrast with the most recent published reviews that cover specific aspects of Campylobacter /campylobacteriosis, this broad review aims at elucidating and discussing the (i) genus Campylobacter, growth and survival characteristics; (ii) detection, isolation and confirmation of Campylobacter ; (iii) campylobacteriosis and presence of virulence factors; and (iv) colonization of poultry and control strategies.