Hangover Frequency and Risk for Alcohol Use Disorders: Evidence From a Longitudinal High-Risk Study.

Data from a prospective high-risk study (N=489; 51% with a family history of alcoholism) were used to test whether family history is associated with greater hangover proneness and whether hangover is a risk factor for alcohol use disorders. Hangover was more frequent in family-history-positive participants during the college years. Persons with an alcohol diagnosis showed excess hangover before earning a diagnosis. Year 1 hangover predicted alcohol use disorders at Years 7 and 11, even when family history, sex, Year 1 diagnoses, and Year 1 drinking were statistically controlled. Several nonhangover drinking symptoms failed to predict later diagnoses. Taken together, the findings suggest a need for further research and theory on the role of hangover in the etiology of drinking problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caloric Restriction and Hypothalamic Leptin Gene Therapy Have Differential Effects on Energy Partitioning in Adult Female Rats

Dieting is a common but often ineffective long-term strategy for preventing weight gain. Similar to humans, adult rats exhibit progressive weight gain. The adipokine leptin regulates appetite and energy expenditure but hyperleptinemia is associated with leptin resistance. Here, we compared the effects of increasing leptin levels in the hypothalamus using gene therapy with conventional caloric restriction on weight gain, food consumption, serum leptin and adiponectin levels, white adipose tissue, marrow adipose tissue, and bone in nine-month-old female Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats (n = 16) were implanted with a cannula in the 3rd ventricle of the hypothalamus and injected with a recombinant adeno-associated virus, encoding the rat gene for leptin (rAAV-Lep), and maintained on standard rat chow for 18 weeks. A second group (n = 15) was calorically-restricted to match the weight of the rAAV-Lep group. Both approaches prevented weight gain, and no differences in bone were detected. However, calorically-restricted rats consumed 15% less food and had lower brown adipose tissue Ucp-1 mRNA expression than rAAV-Lep rats. Additionally, calorically-restricted rats had higher abdominal white adipose tissue mass, higher serum leptin and adiponectin levels, and higher marrow adiposity. Caloric restriction and hypothalamic leptin gene therapy, while equally effective in preventing weight gain, differ in their effects on energy intake, energy expenditure, adipokine levels, and body composition.     

Identification of Phenylpyrazolone Dimers as a New Class of Anti-Trypanosoma cruzi Agents

Chagas disease is becoming a worldwide problem; it is currently estimated that over six million people are infected. The two drugs in current use, benznidazole and nifurtimox, require long treatment regimens, show limited efficacy in the chronic phase of infection, and are known to cause adverse effects. Phenotypic screening of an in-house library led to the identification of 2,2′-methylenebis(5-(4-bromophenyl)-4,4-dimethyl-2,4-dihydro-3H-pyrazol-3-one), a phenyldihydropyrazolone dimer, which shows an in vitro pIC₅₀ value of 5.4 against Trypanosoma cruzi. Initial optimization was done by varying substituents of the phenyl ring, after which attempts were made to replace the phenyl ring. Finally, the linker between the dimer units was varied, ultimately leading to 2,2′-methylenebis(5-(3-bromo-4-methoxyphenyl)-4,4-dimethyl-2,4-dihydro-3H-pyrazol-3-one (NPD-0228) as the most potent analogue. NPD-0228 has an in vitro pIC₅₀ value of 6.4 against intracellular amastigotes of T. cruzi and no apparent toxicity against the human MRC-5 cell line and murine cardiac cells.     

Top-down vs bottom-up methodologies in multi-agent system design

Traditionally, two alternative design approaches have been available to engineers: top-down and bottom-up. In the top-down approach, the design process starts with specifying the global system state and assuming that each component has global knowledge of the system, as in a centralized approach. The solution is then decentralized by replacing global knowledge with communication. In the bottom-up approach, on the other hand, the design starts with specifying requirements and capabilities of individual components, and the global behavior is said to emerge out of interactions among constituent components and between components and the environment. In this paper we present a comparative study of both approaches with particular emphasis on applications to multi-agent system engineering and robotics. We outline the generic characteristics of both approaches from the MAS perspective, and identify three elements that we believe should serve as criteria for how and when to apply either of the approaches. We demonstrate our analysis on a specific example of load balancing problem in robotics. We also show that under certain assumptions on the communication and the external environment, both bottom-up and top-down methodologies produce very similar solutions.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE AUSTRIAN 200 kWp-PHOTOVOLTAIC-ROOFTOP PROGRAMME

Between 1992 and 1994 a 200 kWp-rooftop programme to promote small grid-connected Photovoltaic (PV) systems was conducted in Austria. Within this programme about 100 PV systems with an average capacity of 2.28 kWp were installed. This paper investigates the socio-economic aspects of this programme and the prospects for a further dissemination of this technology. The major conclusions of this investigation are as follows: (1) The motives to invest in a PV system are: (i) environmental protection; (ii) an alternative to nuclear power; (iii) technical interest. Yet, it is also important that the public supports this purchase by means providing subsidies. (2) The purchase of a PV system leads to different changes in consumer behaviour. Consumers with low initial consumption increased their electricity demand slightly, while the majority of consumers with high initial electricity demand saved electricity. (3) The financial incentives in the programme were not optimally designed. With the same amount of total subsidies it would have been possible to promote more PV systems. (4) The key factors for a further dissemination of PV systems are: (i) financial incentives; (ii) a reduction of the investment costs; (iii) increase in reliability; (iv) distribution of information; (v) enhancement of environmental awareness.     

Development of a multifunctional coating system for laser-induced material transport

The aim of our research is to develop a novel surface coating for the use in laser microdissection and laser pressure catapulting (LMPC). LMPC is a contact- and contamination-free technique to separate histologic material and living cells for further proteomic and genomic analysis. Several physico-chemical functions must be included within the optimum coating system designed for this purpose, like optical absorption at the laser wavelength, combined with optical transparency in the visible region, a control of the laser ablation process, mechanical stability and biocompability for the adhesion of the histologic material.To achieve the optimum system the combination of several layers is required. The optical absorbance to capture the radiation energy from a frequency-tripled Nd:YAG laser (λ = 355 nm) is reached by a thin layer of zinc oxide (ZnO), deposited by hollow cathode gas flow sputtering. The laser ablation process is controlled by a polyelectrolyte multilayer, consisting of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS). The evaporation of chemisorbed water from the film is used to promote the catapulting process. For the mechanically stable, laser-dissectible layer organic coatings, like photoresists or lacquers, are suitable. Silica-containing polyacrylate nanocomposites were employed for this purpose.The investigation of the coating system included LMPC experiments with varying compositions of the layer system. The best results were obtained using a system consisting of ZnO, a polyelectrolyte multilayer deposited from 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ containing polymer solutions, and a 1.5-μm thick layer of the polyacrylate nanocomposite.To check the quality of the developed system, experiments with the commonly used poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) foil were performed simultaneously. In addition to the determination of the parameters required for LMPC, quantitative real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (rt-PCR) of the dissected material verified the benefit of the new system.     

Traits as dimensions or categories? Developmental change in the understanding of trait terms.

Recent research has suggested that young children have relatively well-developed trait concepts. However, this literature overlooks potential age-related differences in children's appreciation of the fundamentally dimensional nature of traits. In Study 1, we presented 4-, 5-, and 7-year-old children and adults with sets of characters and asked them to indicate the preferences of a target character who shared appearance attributes with one character (appearance match) and shared a common trait with the other character (trait match). Traits were presented in a way that emphasized either their categorical or their dimensional nature. When the dimensional nature of trait terms was emphasized, the youngest children made fewer trait-based inferences, and the use of traits increased with age. In Study 2, we gave 4-year-old children and adults the same task except that the extent to which appearance cues could serve as a meaningful basis of judgment was varied. Results were consistent with the findings of Study 1, although children were more likely to rely on dimensional presentations of traits in the absence of strong appearance cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development and evaluation of the Harm Reduction Self-Efficacy Questionnaire.

The authors recruited 99 injection drug users to assess the psychometric properties of a new self-report questionnaire--the Harm Reduction Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (HRSEQ)--designed to measure injection drug users' confidence to employ 15 specific health-preserving coping skills in different types of high-risk situations (experiencing withdrawal, feeling depressed, and feeling social pressure to use drugs unsafely). Scores for each high-risk situation had good internal consistency (αs = .89 -.92) and good 1-week test-retest reliability (rs = .70 -.85). Comparison with measures of drug-related problems, use of coping skills, and health self-efficacy supported both construct and discriminant validity of the HRSEQ. Exploratory factor analyses revealed 3 major themes (cleanliness precautions, overdose precautions, and safer injection practices) that summarized most, but not all, of the 15 items. Mean differences among the 3 situations suggest that harm reduction self-efficacy should be assessed in the context of specific high-risk situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)