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The search for correlations between secondary cosmic ray detection rates and seismic effects has long been a subject of investigation motivated by the hope of identifying a new precursor type that could feed a global early warning system against earthquakes. Here we show for the first time that the average variation of the cosmic ray detection rates correlates with the global seismic activity to be observed with a time lag of approximately two weeks, and that the significance of the effect varies with a periodicity resembling the undecenal solar cycle, with a shift in phase of around three years, exceeding 6 sigma at local maxima. The precursor characteristics of the observed correlations point to a pioneer perspective of an early warning system against earthquakes., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures in the main article and 11 pages and 4 figures in the Suplementary Material

There is growing interest in non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) as a novel treatment option for substance-use disorders (SUDs). Recent momentum stems from a foundation of preclinical neuroscience demonstrating links between neural circuits and drug consuming behavior, as well as recent FDA-approval of NIBS treatments for mental health disorders that share overlapping pathology with SUDs. As with any emerging field, enthusiasm must be tempered by reason; lessons learned from the past should be prudently applied to future therapies. Here, an international ensemble of experts provides an overview of the state of transcranial-electrical (tES) and transcranial-magnetic (TMS) stimulation applied in SUDs. This consensus paper provides a systematic literature review on published data – emphasizing the heterogeneity of methods and outcome measures while suggesting strategies to help bridge knowledge gaps. The goal of this effort is to provide the community with guidelines for best practices in tES/TMS SUD research. We hope this will accelerate the speed at which the community translates basic neuroscience into advanced neuromodulation tools for clinical practice in addiction medicine.

There is growing interest in non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) as a novel treatment option for substance-use disorders (SUDs). Recent momentum stems from a foundation of preclinical neuroscience demonstrating links between neural circuits and drug consuming behavior, as well as recent FDA-approval of NIBS treatments for mental health disorders that share overlapping pathology with SUDs. As with any emerging field, enthusiasm must be tempered by reason; lessons learned from the past should be prudently applied to future therapies. Here, an international ensemble of experts provides an overview of the state of transcranial-electrical (tES) and transcranial-magnetic (TMS) stimulation applied in SUDs. This consensus paper provides a systematic literature review on published data – emphasizing the heterogeneity of methods and outcome measures while suggesting strategies to help bridge knowledge gaps. The goal of this effort is to provide the community with guidelines for best practices in tES/TMS SUD research. We hope this will accelerate the speed at which the community translates basic neuroscience into advanced neuromodulation tools for clinical practice in addiction medicine.

Organ cultures are practical tools to investigate regenerative strategies for the intervertebral disc. However, most existing organ culture systems induce severe tissue degradation with only limited representation of the in vivo processes. The objective of this study was to develop a space- and cost-efficient tissue culture model, which represents degenerative processes of the nucleus pulposus (NP). Intact bovine NPs were cultured in a previously developed system using Dyneema jackets. Degenerative changes in the NP tissue were induced either by the direct injection of chondroitinase ABC (1-20 U/mL) or by the diffusion of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) (both 100 ng/mL) from the culture media. Extracellular matrix composition (collagens, proteoglycans, water, and DNA) and the expression of inflammatory and catabolic genes were analyzed. The anti-inflammatory and anti-catabolic compound epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG, 10 µM) was employed to assess the relevance of the degenerative NP model. Although a single injection of chondroitinase ABC reduced the proteoglycan content in the NPs, it did not activate cellular responses. On the other hand, IL-1β and TNF-α significantly increased the mRNA expression of inflammatory mediators IL-6, IL-8, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP1, MMP3, and MMP13). The cytokine-induced gene expression in the NPs was ameliorated with EGCG. This study provides a proof of concept that inflammatory NP cultures, with appropriate containment, can be useful for the discovery and evaluation of molecular therapeutic strategies against early degenerative disc disease.

The article analyzes the prevalence of alimentary obesity in Ukraine and abroad, as well as factors that contribute to the occurrence of the disease., У статті проаналізовано поширеність аліментарного ожиріння в Україні та за її межами, а також фактори, що сприяють виникненню даного захворювання.

In the article was found that among overweight’s risk factors dominate such as poor nutrition, smoking, alcohol consumption, capture media on a background of low physical activity. However, in females the greatest impact on the development of preobesity are alcohol in a group of students, alcohol and capture media – in the group of teachers and almost equally all the studied factors – in the group of students. In males the greatest impact on the development of preobesity include alcohol and capture media in the group of students , alcohol consumption, smoking and capture media – in the groups of students and teachers., У статті встановлено, що серед факторів ризику надлишкової маси тіла домінують нераціональне харчування, тютюнопаління, вживання алкоголю, захоплення медіа на фоні низької фізичної активності. При цьому, в осіб жіночої статі найбільший вплив на розвиток передожиріння мають вживання алкоголю у групі учнів, вживання алкоголю та захоплення медіа – у групі вчителів та практично в однаковій мірі всі досліджувані чинники - у групі студентів. В осіб чоловічої статі найбільший вплив на розвиток передожиріння мають вживання алкоголю та захоплення медіа у групі учнів, вживання алкоголю, тютюнопаління та захоплення медіа – у групі студентів і вчителів.

As High Content Screening (HCS) has moved into the main stream for biological and pharmaceutical investigations, a lag of well integrated pipelines for automated acquisition, management and analysis of HCS results turns out to be a bottleneck for fully leveraging the wealth of information contained in a screen and moving to higher throughput. For many applications, monolithic pipelines can not deliver the flexibility and versatility needed. Laboratories and scientific service providers instead usually look into integrating components from both, the open source world and the commercial software world into best-of-breed data pipelines. In this article, we will present two open source components that can be used as flexible and powerful building blocks for such a pipeline.

BACKGROUND: Light microscopy is of central importance in cell biology. The recent introduction of automated high content screening has expanded this technology towards automation of experiments and performing large scale perturbation assays. Nevertheless, evaluation of microscopy data continues to be a bottleneck in many projects. Currently, among open source software, CellProfiler and its extension Analyst are widely used in automated image processing. Even though revolutionizing image analysis in current biology, some routine and many advanced tasks are either not supported or require programming skills of the researcher. This represents a significant obstacle in many biology laboratories. RESULTS: We have developed a tool, Enhanced CellClassifier, which circumvents this obstacle. Enhanced CellClassifier starts from images analyzed by CellProfiler, and allows multi-class classification using a Support Vector Machine algorithm. Training of objects can be done by clicking directly "on the microscopy image" in several intuitive training modes. Many routine tasks like out-of focus exclusion and well summary are also supported. Classification results can be integrated with other object measurements including inter-object relationships. This makes a detailed interpretation of the image possible, allowing the differentiation of many complex phenotypes. For the generation of the output, image, well and plate data are dynamically extracted and summarized. The output can be generated as graphs, Excel-files, images with projections of the final analysis and exported as variables. CONCLUSION: Here we describe Enhanced CellClassifier which allows multiple class classification, elucidating complex phenotypes. Our tool is designed for the biologist who wants both, simple and flexible analysis of images without requiring programming skills. This should facilitate the implementation of automated high-content screening.

The first radon soil gas survey in Serbia, using passive detectors (SSNTD, CR-39), was carried out in June 2005 at field sites in Niska Banja town. The aim of the survey was to identify risk zones characterised by high levels of this radioactive gas. Radon measurements were made at the depth of 50cm, in the ground according to a systematic grid pattern. Furthermore, at all 48 measurement points, the surface gamma dose rates in the air was also measured at the same locations and soil samples were collected for gamma spectrometric analysis for the radionuclides Ra-226, Th-228 and K-40. Radon concentrations were found to range from 1270 to 155000 Bq m(-3) with an average of 33765 Bq m(-3) and a median value of 12626 Bq m(-3). The geometrical mean value and geometrical standard deviation were calculated as 16160 Bq m(-3) and 3.5 Bq m(-3), respectively. Gamma dose rate varies from 92 to 316 nGy h(-1), with an average of 132 nGy h(-1). The radium content in collected soil samples ranges from 24 to 1810 Bq kg(-1) with an average of 187 Bq kg(-1). High correlations (r(2) GT 0.8) between soil gas radon concentration, gamma dose rate and Ra-226 content in soil were found for each pair. The distribution of radon concentrations in soil gas shows bimodal shape. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The first radon soil gas survey in Serbia, using passive detectors (SSNTD, CR-39), was carried out in June 2005 at field sites in Niska Banja town. The aim of the survey was to identify risk zones characterised by high levels of this radioactive gas. Radon measurements were made at the depth of 50cm, in the ground according to a systematic grid pattern. Furthermore, at all 48 measurement points, the surface gamma dose rates in the air was also measured at the same locations and soil samples were collected for gamma spectrometric analysis for the radionuclides Ra-226, Th-228 and K-40. Radon concentrations were found to range from 1270 to 155000 Bq m(-3) with an average of 33765 Bq m(-3) and a median value of 12626 Bq m(-3). The geometrical mean value and geometrical standard deviation were calculated as 16160 Bq m(-3) and 3.5 Bq m(-3), respectively. Gamma dose rate varies from 92 to 316 nGy h(-1), with an average of 132 nGy h(-1). The radium content in collected soil samples ranges from 24 to 1810 Bq kg(-1) with an average of 187 Bq kg(-1). High correlations (r(2) GT 0.8) between soil gas radon concentration, gamma dose rate and Ra-226 content in soil were found for each pair. The distribution of radon concentrations in soil gas shows bimodal shape. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changes in daily precipitation versus intensity under a global warming scenario in two regional climate simulations of the United States show a well-recognized feature of more intense precipitation. More important, by resolving the precipitation intensity spectrum, the changes show a relatively simple pattern for nearly all regions and seasons examined whereby nearly all high-intensity daily precipitation contributes a larger fraction of the total precipitation, and nearly all low-intensity precipitation contributes a reduced fraction. The percentile separating relative decrease from relative increase occurs around the 70th percentile of cumulative precipitation, irrespective of the governing precipitation processes or which model produced the simulation. Changes in normalized distributions display these features much more consistently than distribution changes without normalization. Further analysis suggests that this consistent response in precipitation intensity may be a consequence of the intensity spectrum's adherence to a gamma distribution. Under the gamma distribution, when the total precipitation or number of precipitation days changes, there is a single transition between precipitation rates that contribute relatively more to the total and rates that contribute relatively less. The behavior is roughly the same as the results of the numerical models and is insensitive to characteristics of the baseline climate, such as average precipitation, frequency of rain days, and the shape parameter of the precipitation's gamma distribution. Changes in the normalized precipitation distribution give a more consistent constraint on how precipitation intensity may change when climate changes than do changes in the normormalized distribution. The analysis does not apply to extreme precipitation for which the theory of statistical extremes more likely provides the appropriate description.

Changes in daily precipitation versus intensity under a global warming scenario in two regional climate simulations of the United States show a well-recognized feature of more intense precipitation. More important, by resolving the precipitation intensity spectrum, the changes show a relatively simple pattern for nearly all regions and seasons examined whereby nearly all high-intensity daily precipitation contributes a larger fraction of the total precipitation, and nearly all low-intensity precipitation contributes a reduced fraction. The percentile separating relative decrease from relative increase occurs around the 70th percentile of cumulative precipitation, irrespective of the governing precipitation processes or which model produced the simulation. Changes in normalized distributions display these features much more consistently than distribution changes without normalization. Further analysis suggests that this consistent response in precipitation intensity may be a consequence of the intensity spectrum's adherence to a gamma distribution. Under the gamma distribution, when the total precipitation or number of precipitation days changes, there is a single transition between precipitation rates that contribute relatively more to the total and rates that contribute relatively less. The behavior is roughly the same as the results of the numerical models and is insensitive to characteristics of the baseline climate, such as average precipitation, frequency of rain days, and the shape parameter of the precipitation's gamma distribution. Changes in the normalized precipitation distribution give a more consistent constraint on how precipitation intensity may change when climate changes than do changes in the normormalized distribution. The analysis does not apply to extreme precipitation for which the theory of statistical extremes more likely provides the appropriate description.

The measurement campaigns have been done in the rural community of Niska. Banja, a spa town located in southern Serbia, to evaluate population exposure to natural radioactivity. After a screening survey in 200 houses, annual radon and thoron concentrations were measured in 34 houses, and in 2004 a detailed investigation was carried out at six houses with elevated indoor radon concentrations. The paper presents the results of these detailed measurements. The complementary techniques were applied to determine radon and thoron concentrations in indoor air, in soil gas, radon exhalation from soil, soil permeability, and indoor and outdoor gamma doses. Soil and water samples were collected and analysed in the laboratory. Indoor radon and thoron. concentrations were found to be more than 1 kBq m(-3) and 200 Bq m(-3) respectively. Extremely high concentrations of soil-gas radon ( GT 2000 kBq m(-3)) and radon exhalation rates (1.5 mBq m(-2) s(-1)) were observed. These results will be utilised to set up the methodology for a more systematic investigation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The measurement campaigns have been done in the rural community of Niska. Banja, a spa town located in southern Serbia, to evaluate population exposure to natural radioactivity. After a screening survey in 200 houses, annual radon and thoron concentrations were measured in 34 houses, and in 2004 a detailed investigation was carried out at six houses with elevated indoor radon concentrations. The paper presents the results of these detailed measurements. The complementary techniques were applied to determine radon and thoron concentrations in indoor air, in soil gas, radon exhalation from soil, soil permeability, and indoor and outdoor gamma doses. Soil and water samples were collected and analysed in the laboratory. Indoor radon and thoron. concentrations were found to be more than 1 kBq m(-3) and 200 Bq m(-3) respectively. Extremely high concentrations of soil-gas radon ( GT 2000 kBq m(-3)) and radon exhalation rates (1.5 mBq m(-2) s(-1)) were observed. These results will be utilised to set up the methodology for a more systematic investigation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.