Gender effect on the right-left discrimination task in a sample of heroin-dependent patients

Rationale: Discriminating right from left is an everyday cognitive ability. Repeated exposure to certain drugs, such as heroin, can produce poor performance on many cognitive tasks. However, it is yet unclear whether drug abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination. Objectives: The aim of the present study is to examine whether the spatial ability measured by the right-left discrimination task can be affected by heroin abuse and whether such drug effect, if it exists, is gender related. Methods: A paper-and-pen test was used. The test consists of line drawings of a person with no arm, one arm, or both arms crossing the vertical body axis of the figure. The line drawings are viewed from the back, from the front, or randomly alternating between the back and front drawings. The subjects task is to mark which is the right or left hand in the figure as fast as possible. Results: A main finding in this study was that the ability to discriminate between left and right in visual space was impaired in heroin-dependent patients. Especially, heroin-dependent females performed poorer than control females in all conditions but heroin-dependent males only performed poorly in part of conditions. Conclusions: Recent heroin abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination and such impairment is gender related: heroin-dependent females demonstrated greater performance deficits than males.

Study of effect Rosmarinus officinalis oil and nisin on the growth of Streptococcus iniae in lab conditions and fillets of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Fish are an important part of a healthy diet since they contain high quality protein, but typically present a low fat percent when compared to other meats. Fish is an extremely perishable food commodity. On the other hand, food borne diseases are still a major problem in the world, even in well-developed countries. The increasing incidence of food borne diseases coupled with the resultant social and economic implications means there is a constant striving to produce safer food and to develop new antimicrobial agents concerns over the safety of some chemical preservatives and negative consumer reactions to preservatives they perceive as chemical and artificial, have prompted on increased interest in more ‘‘naturalgreen’’ alternatives for the maintenance or extension of product shelf-life. Particular interest has focused on the potential applications of plant essential oils. However, to establish the usefulness of natural antimicrobial preservatives, they must be evaluated alone and in combination with other preservation factors to determine whether there are synergistic effects and multiple hurdles can be devised. In this study, were evaluated the effects of different concentrations of Rosmarinus officinalis and nisin and storage time (15 days) on growth of Streptococcus iniae GQ850377 in a lab conditions and a food model system (fillets of rainbow trout) in 4 and 8 °C. In addition, we also studied multi factorial effects of four different concentration of rosemary, three different concentrations of nisin, two different levels of pH in 3 temperature 4,15 and 37 °C on log% of S.iniae during 43 days in BHI broth. The results on growth of S. iniae were evaluated using SPSS 20.0 statistical software and analyzed the logarithm of total count of the bacterial by Tukey Test. Results were considered statistically significant when P<0.05. MIC and MBC values of rosemary and nisin were 0.03, 0.075 % and 5, 40 μg/mL, respectively. The growth of S. iniae was effected significantly (P<0.05) by rosemary and nisin and also combination of rosemary and nisin in 4 and 8 °C. Samples treated with 0.135 and 0.405 % of rosemary showed a significant decrease on the growth of the bacteria compared with control sample(P<0.05). The most ١٤٦ inhibitory effects were seen in samples treated with 0.135 and 0.405% of rosemary until 9 days after storage. Also, the synergism effects of rosemary and nisin on the growth rate of bacteria was significant (P<0.05) compared with untreated samples and samples treated with the rosemary or nisin, only. Synergistic effects was observed at concentration of 0.405% rosemary and 0.75 μg/mL nisin in both temprature. Results of this study showed that different concentration of rosemary a significant inhibitory effect (P<0.05) on log% of S. iniae, in BHI broth in pH 5.5 and 7 in 4,15 and 37 °C during 43 days. In concentration of 0% rosemary (control) in pH 5.5 and 7 and 37°C, log% were 1.099 and 3.15, whereas in concentration of 0.015% rosemary were -4/241 and 1.454, respectively. The use of essential oils may improve food safety and overall microbial quality. If essential oils were to be more widely applied as antibacterials in foods, the organoleptic impact would be important. In addition, it is recommended to apply essential oils or their compounds as part of a hurdle system and to use it as an antimicrobial component along with other preservation techniques. Thus essential of R. officinalis with high antibacterial activity selected in this study could be a potential source for inhibitory substances against some food-borne pathogens and they may be candidates for using in foods or food-processing systems.

Effects of addiction-associated and affective stimuli on the attentional blink in a sample of abstinent opiate dependent patients

The attentional blink reveals the limits of the brain's ability in information processing. It has been extensively studied in people with neurological and psychiatric disturbances to explore the temporal characteristics of information processing and exami

Mangrove community structure survey

Highlights are given of a mangove community structure survey conducted in the coastal barangays of Carles, Panay Island, Philippines, in April 2003. The survey aimed to qualitatively describe the species composition, community structure and plant biomass of mangrove forests. The 13 sample sites showed a total of 18 mangrove species, dominated by Avicennia marina. The findings, which indicate a modest yet declining diversity of mangroves in Carles, reinforce the need for their protection and management. This is due not only to their importance as habitats for fish and shellfish juveniles that replenish stocks for capture fisheries and aquaculture, but also due to the fact that Carles is one of the few remaining areas in Panay where rare mangrove species can still be found.

Optimisation of fuel usage and steam availability in the power and steam plant of a paper mill

This paper presents the results of a project aimed at minimising fuel usage while maximising steam availability in the power and steam plant of a large newsprint mill. The approach taken was to utilise the better regulation and plant wide optimisation capabilities of Advanced Process Control, especially Model Predictive Control (MPC) techniques. These have recently made their appearance in the pulp and paper industry but are better known in the oil and petrochemical industry where they have been used for nearly 30 years. The issue in the power and steam plant is to ensure that sufficient steam is available when the paper machines require it and yet not to have to waste too much steam when one or more of the machines suffers an outage. This is a problem for which MPC is well suited. It allows variables to be kept within declared constraint ranges, a feature which has been used, effectively, to increase the steam storage capacity of the existing plant. This has resulted in less steam being condensed when it is not required and in significant reductions in the need for supplementary firing. The incidence of steam being dump-condensed while also supplementary firing the Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plant has been reduced by 95% and the overall use of supplementary firing is less than 30% of what it was. In addition the plant runs more smoothly and requires less operator time. The yearly benefit provided by the control system is greater than £200,000, measured in terms of 2005 gas prices.

Control of meiotic recombination frequency in plant genomes.

Sexual eukaryotes reproduce via the meiotic cell division, where ploidy is halved and homologous chromosomes undergo reciprocal genetic exchange, termed crossover (CO). CO frequency has a profound effect on patterns of genetic variation and species evolution. Relative CO rates vary extensively both within and between plant genomes. Plant genome size varies by over 1000-fold, largely due to differential expansion of repetitive sequences, and increased genome size is associated with reduced CO frequency. Gene versus repeat sequences associate with distinct chromatin modifications, and evidence from plant genomes indicates that this epigenetic information influences CO patterns. This is consistent with data from diverse eukaryotes that demonstrate the importance of chromatin structure for control of meiotic recombination. In this review I will discuss CO frequency patterns in plant genomes and recent advances in understanding recombination distributions.

MgB2 sample tests for possible applications of superconducting fault current limiters

Cheap to make and easy to shape, Magnesium Diboride (MgB2) throws the field of applied superconductivity wide open. Great efforts have been made to develop a super-conducting fault current limiter (SFCL) using MgB 2. With a superconducting transition temperature of 39 K, MgB 2 can be conveniently cooled with commercial cryocoolers. A cryogenic desktop test system, an ac pulse generation system and a real time data acquisition program in LabView/DAQmx were developed to investigate the quench behavior of MgB2 wires under pulse overcurrents at 25 K in self-field conditions. The experimental results on the current limitation behavior show the possibilities for using MgB2 for future SFCL applications. © 2007 IEEE.

The inverse problem in magnetic force microscopy--inferring sample magnetization from MFM images.

Nanomagnetic structures have the potential to surpass silicon's scaling limitations both as elements in hybrid CMOS logic and as novel computational elements. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) offers a convenient characterization technique for use in the design of such nanomagnetic structures. MFM measures the magnetic field and not the sample's magnetization. As such the question of the uniqueness of the relationship between an external magnetic field and a magnetization distribution is a relevant one. To study this problem we present a simple algorithm which searches for magnetization distributions consistent with an external magnetic field and solutions to the micromagnetic equations' qualitative features. The algorithm is not computationally intensive and is found to be effective for our test cases. On the basis of our results we propose a systematic approach for interpreting MFM measurements.

Interactions between a cyanobacterial bloom (Microcystis) and the submerged aquatic plant Ceratophyllum oryzetorum Kom.

In aquatic ecosystems, macrophytes and phytoplankton are main primary producers, in which macrophyte plays an important role in maintaining clear water state, while phytoplankton often dominates in turbid waterbodies. In the present study, the growth and photosynthetic activity of the submerged aquatic plant Ceratophyllum oryzetorum Kom. in different cell densities of cyanobacterial bloom are studied. The results show that the plant length and fresh mass of C. oryzetorum are promoted by low cyanobacterial cell densities. Medium and high cyanobacterial cell densities, on the contrary, act as inhibitory. Furthermore, the photosynthetic activity of C. oryzetorum is strongly inhibited by high cyanobacterial cell densities. To a certain extent, the growth of cyanobacteria is inhibited by C. oryzetorum, but no significant effect is found in this study.