Search

Benzodiazepines (BZDs) represent one of the most widely used groups of pharmaceuticals, but if used for long periods of time they are associated with dependence and an increased risk of harmful effects. High-dose (HD) BZD dependence is a specific substance use disorder associated with a poor quality of life. It is especially important to pinpoint differences in HD BZD addict subgroups in order to tailor treatment to the individual's specific needs, also considering possible comorbidities with other substance use disorders. We conducted a study to evaluate HD BZD dependence (converted doses to diazepam equivalents, mg) in an Italian sample of 1,354 participants. We also investigated if and to which extent participants co-used other substances (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis/cannabinoids, cocaine, and heroin). We then performed latent class analysis (LCA) to identify the use patterns of these substances, finding three classes: participants in Class 1 (4.3% of the sample) had the highest probability of also using cocaine and alcohol (Polysubstance BZD users); Class 2 comprised subjects with the highest probability of being former heroin, cocaine, THC, and alcohol users (Former polysubstance BZD users); Class 3 represented mono-dependence BZD users (78.5% of the sample) and was the most prevalent among women, while young men were most prevalent in Class 1.The present study underlines different characteristics in HD BZD users both concerning other addictions and sex, and also highlights the need for a stricter control of BZD use, ranging from prescriptions to sales.

The use of benzodiazepines among athletes is a new and growing phenomenon according to the recent case reports published. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify if there is rationale for the use of benzodiazepines and its effects on exercise. This review aims to provide an overview of the effects of benzodiazepine in exercise among healthy adult participants and if they might have an additional ergogenic or ergolytic effect. Electronic searches were conducted in Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science databases up to December 2020. Search terms covered all active substance names of benzodiazepine class and search terms about sport, exercise performance and athletes. We used the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) to assess the methodological quality of the studies included in the qualitative synthesis. The methods and planned analyses of this systematic review were pre-registered at Open Science Framework (OSF: ). A total of thirty-one full articles were assessed for eligibility and ten of them were included in the qualitative analysis. We found 7 studies which investigated benzodiazepine effects after an acute dose administered, whereas only 3 studies studied long-term effects after several doses used. According to our findings it does not seem that benzodiazepines might have an ergogenic or ergolytic effect on exercise performance. The small number of articles included (n = 10) with a relatively low sample of participants (N = 16, range = 6-58) does invite us to take our results with caution. This review evidences valuable insights into the use of benzodiazepines from a physical performance point of view. Our findings highlight the unclear effects benzodiazepines might have on exercise performance and its possible mechanisms of actions. Hence, the need to conduct new studies to understand its possible effects becomes essential to protect the health of athletes of all levels.

Se estudió la distribución espacial de árboles exóticos invasores (AEI) en el Parque Nacional Pre-Delta (PNPD-Entre Ríos, Argentina) mediante el empleo de técnicas de muestreo a distancia. Se modeló la distribución potencial mediante la técnica de interpolación Kriging. Se comparó la cartografía generada con un mapa de zonificación del PNPD y con cartografía de unidades ambientales identificadas en función de un gradiente topográfico. Se registraron datos estructurales del bosque, fenológicos de los árboles y de las acciones de control por parte del personal del PNPD, a fin de caracterizar los procesos de invasión. Se obtuvo cartografía de la distribución potencial de Melia azedarach L., Broussonetia papyrifera (L.) L'Hér. ex Vent., Ligustrum lucidum W.T. Aiton, Brachychiton populneus (Schott & Endl.) R. Br., Fraxinus sp. L. y Morus alba L. Esta última resultó ser dominante en el PNPD en los tres sectores estudiados (barrancas, islas y zona alta). En cuanto a las acciones de manejo de especies exóticas de los agentes del PNPD, cerca del 50% de los ejemplares de M. alba sujeto a aplicaciones de control mecánico (técnica de anillado) presentaron rebrotes, indicando su alta capacidad de supervivencia. Spatial distribution of alien trees was studied on Pre-Delta National Park (PNPD-Entre Ríos, Argentina), by distance sampling techniques. Potential distribution was modelled by Kriging interpolation technique. Generated maps were overlapped with PNPD zonification map and environmental units map. We recorded forest structural data, tree phenology and tree control management actions, in order to characterize the processes of invasion. We obtained maps of potential distribution of Melia azedrach, Broussonetia papyrifera, Ligustrum lucidum, Brachychiton populneus, Fraxinus sp. and Morus alba L. The latter was the dominant species in all studied sectors (cliffs, islands and highlands). As for the management actions carried out with trees of the PNPD, about 50% of the specimens of M. alba subjected to mechanical control (banding technique) showed regrowth, indicating its high survival capacity. Fil: Torresin, Jerónimo A.. Provincia de Misiones. Ministerio de Ecología; Argentina Fil: Zamboni, L. Pamela. Universidad Autonoma de Entre Rios. Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina Fil: Sione, Walter F.. Universidad Autonoma de Entre Rios. Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján; Argentina Fil: Rodriguez, Estela Elizabeth. Universidad Autonoma de Entre Rios. Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Argentina Fil: Aceñolaza, Pablo Gilberto. Universidad Autonoma de Entre Rios. Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Argentina

International audience; For a class of d-interval exchange transformations, whichwe call the symmetric class,we deÞne a new self-dual induction process in which the system is successively induced on a union ofsub-intervals. This algorithm gives rise to an underlying graph structure which reßects the dynamicalbehavior of the system, through theRokhlin towers of the induced maps. We apply it to build a wide as-sortment of explicit examples on four intervals having different dynamical properties: these include theÞrst nontrivial examples with eigenvalues (rational or irrational), the Þrst ever example of an exchangeon more than three intervals satisfying VeechÕs simplicity (though this weakening of the notion of min-imal self-joinings was designed in 1982 to be satisÞed by interval exchange transformations), and anunexpected example which is non uniquely ergodic, weakly mixing for one invariant ergodic measurebut has rational eigenvalues for the other invariant ergodic measure.

In this paper we study some classes of infinite words generalizing episturmian words, and analyse the relations occurring among such classes. In each case, the reversal operator R is replaced by an arbitrary involutory antimorphism @q of the free monoid A^*. In particular, we define the class of @q-words with seed, whose ''standard'' elements (@q-standard words with seed) are constructed by an iterative @q-palindrome closure process, starting from a finite word u"0 called the seed. When the seed is empty, one obtains @q-words; episturmian words are exactly the R-words. One of the main theorems of the paper characterizes @q-words with seed as infinite words closed under @q and having at most one left special factor of each length n>=N (where N is some nonnegative integer depending on the word). When N=0 we call such words @q-episturmian. Further results on the structure of @q-episturmian words are proved. In particular, some relationships between @q-words (with or without seed) and @q-episturmian words are shown.

The fine morphology of hematoxylin bodies--structures which, by light microscopy, are considered to be pathognomonic for systemic lupus erythematosus--is described in renal glomeruli. These bodies are highly pleomorphic and are predominantly of cellular origin. The nuclear components, which are responsible for the characteristic tinctorial properties, appear as aggregates of clumped chromatin and/or irregular masses of finely granular, moderately dense, lobulated material, generally enveloped by membranes. The cytoplasmic components consist of a multitude of vesicles, vacuoles, degenerating granules, and glycogen. Hematoxylin bodies are usually contained within the bounderies of mesangial cells. A transition from circulating leukocytes to typical hematoxylin bodies could be demonstrated. It is suggested that the changes in leukocytes which culminate in hematoxylin bodies are intiated by the action of antinuclear antibodies and also possibly by the ingestion of immune complexes. This proposed appearance and morphogenesis of hematoxylin bodies is in general agreement with a few previously published investigations on these structures and also with the in vitro counterpart, the lupus erythematosus (LE) cell.

We introduce and study a complexity function on words $c_x(n),$ called \emph{cyclic complexity}, which counts the number of conjugacy classes of factors of length $n$ of an infinite word $x.$ We extend the well-known Morse-Hedlund theorem to the setting of cyclic complexity by showing that a word is ultimately periodic if and only if it has bounded cyclic complexity. Unlike most complexity functions, cyclic complexity distinguishes between Sturmian words of different slopes. We prove that if $x$ is a Sturmian word and $y$ is a word having the same cyclic complexity of $x,$ then up to renaming letters, $x$ and $y$ have the same set of factors. In particular, $y$ is also Sturmian of slope equal to that of $x.$ Since $c_x(n)=1$ for some $n\geq 1$ implies $x$ is periodic, it is natural to consider the quantity $\liminf_{n\rightarrow \infty} c_x(n).$ We show that if $x$ is a Sturmian word, then $\liminf_{n\rightarrow \infty} c_x(n)=2.$ We prove however that this is not a characterization of Sturmian words by exhibiting a restricted class of Toeplitz words, including the period-doubling word, which also verify this same condition on the limit infimum. In contrast we show that, for the Thue-Morse word $t$, $\liminf_{n\rightarrow \infty} c_t(n)=+\infty.$, Comment: To appear in Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A

In combinatorics of words, a concatenation of $k$ consecutive equal blocks is called a power of order $k$. In this paper we take a different point of view and define an anti-power of order $k$ as a concatenation of $k$ consecutive pairwise distinct blocks of the same length. As a main result, we show that every infinite word contains powers of any order or anti-powers of any order. That is, the existence of powers or anti-powers is an unavoidable regularity. Indeed, we prove a stronger result, which relates the density of anti-powers to the existence of a factor that occurs with arbitrary exponent. As a consequence, we show that in every aperiodic uniformly recurrent word, anti-powers of every order begin at every position. We further show that every infinite word avoiding anti-powers of order $3$ is ultimately periodic, while there exist aperiodic words avoiding anti-powers of order $4$. We also show that there exist aperiodic recurrent words avoiding anti-powers of order $6$., Revision submitted to Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A

A finite word is closed if it contains a factor that occurs both as a prefix and as a suffix but does not have internal occurrences, otherwise it is open. We are interested in the {\it oc-sequence} of a word, which is the binary sequence whose $n$-th element is $0$ if the prefix of length $n$ of the word is open, or $1$ if it is closed. We exhibit results showing that this sequence is deeply related to the combinatorial and periodic structure of a word. In the case of Sturmian words, we show that these are uniquely determined (up to renaming letters) by their oc-sequence. Moreover, we prove that the class of finite Sturmian words is a maximal element with this property in the class of binary factorial languages. We then discuss several aspects of Sturmian words that can be expressed through this sequence. Finally, we provide a linear-time algorithm that computes the oc-sequence of a finite word, and a linear-time algorithm that reconstructs a finite Sturmian word from its oc-sequence., Published in Advances in Applied Mathematics. Journal version of arXiv:1306.2254

In this paper we study a class of infinite words on a finite alphabet A whose factors are closed under the image of an involutory antimorphism @q of the free monoid A^*. We show that given a recurrent infinite word @[email protected]?A^N, if there exists a positive integer K such that for each n>=1 the word @w has (1) cardA+(n-1)K distinct factors of length n, and (2) a unique right and a unique left special factor of length n, then there exists an involutory antimorphism @q of the free monoid A^* preserving the set of factors of @w.

We investigate the least number of palindromic factors in an infinite word. We first consider general alphabets, and give answers to this problem for periodic and non-periodic words, closed or not under reversal of factors. We then investigate the same problem when the alphabet has size two., Accepted for publication in Theoretical Computer Science

In this paper, we solve some open problems related to (pseudo)palindrome closure operators and to the infinite words generated by their iteration, that is, standard episturmian and pseudostandard words. We show that if ϑ is an involutory antimorphism of A* , then the right and left ϑ -palindromic closures of any factor of a ϑ -standard word are also factors of some ϑ -standard word. We also introduce the class of pseudostandard words with “seed”, obtained by iterated pseudopalindrome closure starting from a nonempty word. We show that pseudostandard words with seed are morphic images of standard episturmian words. Moreover, we prove that for any given pseudostandard word s with seed, all sufficiently long left special factors of s are prefixes of it.

Originally introduced and studied by the third and fourth authors together with J. Justin and S. Widmer in arXiv:0801.1656, rich words constitute a new class of finite and infinite words characterized by containing the maximal number of distinct palindromes. Several characterizations of rich words have already been established. A particularly nice characteristic property is that all 'complete returns' to palindromes are palindromes. In this note, we prove that rich words are also characterized by the property that each factor is uniquely determined by its longest palindromic prefix and its longest palindromic suffix., Comment: 6 pages

In this paper we explore various interconnections between rich words, Sturmian words, and trapezoidal words. Rich words, first introduced in arXiv:0801.1656 by the second and third authors together with J. Justin and S. Widmer, constitute a new class of finite and infinite words characterized by having the maximal number of palindromic factors. Every finite Sturmian word is rich, but not conversely. Trapezoidal words were first introduced by the first author in studying the behavior of the subword complexity of finite Sturmian words. Unfortunately this property does not characterize finite Sturmian words. In this note we show that the only trapezoidal palindromes are Sturmian. More generally we show that Sturmian palindromes can be characterized either in terms of their subword complexity (the trapezoidal property) or in terms of their palindromic complexity. We also obtain a similar characterization of rich palindromes in terms of a relation between palindromic complexity and subword complexity., 7 pages