Search

Jun Li,1,* Xuehua Huang,2,* Kangning Sang,1 Mark Bodner,3 Ke Ma,2 Xiao-Wei Dong1,4 1Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (MOE and STCSM), Shanghai Changning ECNU Mental Health Center, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; 2Department of Pain Management, Xin Hua Hospital, affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; 3MIND Research Institute, Irvine, CA, USA; 4NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Although the interaction between pain and cognition has been recognized for decades, the neural substrates underlying their association remain unclear. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is known as a critical brain area for higher cognitive functions, as well as for pain perception and modulation. The objective of the present study was to explore the role of the PFC in the interaction between chronic pain and cognitive functions by examining the relationship between spontaneous activity in the frontal lobe and pain intensity reported by postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) patients.Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 16 PHN patients were collected, and regional homogeneity and related functional connectivity were analyzed.Results: The results showed negative correlations between patients’ pain scores and regional homogeneity values in several prefrontal areas, including the left lateral PFC, left medial PFC, and right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (P

Icosahedral symmetry is ubiquitous in nature, and understanding possible deformations of structures exhibiting it can be critical in determining fundamental properties. In this work we present a framework for generating and representing deformations of such structures while the icosahedral symmetry is preserved. This is done by viewing the points of an orbit of the icosahedral group as vertices of an icosahedral polytope. Contraction of the orbit is defined as a continuous variation of the coordinates of the dominant point--which specifies the orbit in an appropriate basis--toward smaller positive values. Exact icosahedral symmetry is maintained at any stage of the contraction. All icosahedral orbits or polytopes can be built by successive contractions. This definition of contraction is general and can be applied to orbits of any finite reflection group. PACS Nos.: 61.05.-a, 61.18.-j, 61.48.-c. La symetrie icosaedrique est omnipresente dans la nature et la comprehension des deformations possibles des structures est critique pour determiner les proprietes fondamentales. Nous presentons ici un cadre de travail pour generer et representer les deformations de ce type de structures, tout en preservant la symetrie icosaedrique. Ceci est fait en prenant des points d'une orbite du groupe icosaedre comme des sommets d'un polytope icosaedrique. La contraction de l'orbite est definie par des variations continues des coordonnees du point dominant--ceci positionne l'orbite dans une base appropriee--vers de plus petites valeurs positives. Nous maintenons la symetrie icosaedrique a toutes les etapes de la contraction. Toutes les orbites/polytopes icosaedriques peuvent etre construites par contractions successives. Cette definition de la contraction est generale et peut etre appliquee aux orbites de n'importe quel groupe de reflexion fini. [Traduit par la Redaction], 1. Introduction In the optimization of self-assembled structures in nature, the formation of regular polyhedrals is a ubiquitously encountered strategy. Examples of this include the formation of hollow-cage fullerenes [1], [...]

This work proposes an approach to characterize lipid oxidation of oils based on the measurement of isothermal calorimetry data, including information on the duration of the monomolecular, bimolecular and termination periods. The approach has been exploited with fish and lard oil samples at temperatures from 40 to 80°C and with corn and linseed oils at 80°C. The length of the monomolecular period was the most sensitive to the variation of temperature. Accordingly, the monomolecular period was used as index of oxidative stability of oils. Thus, the highest oxidative stability was observed for corn oil samples at 80°C (tmono = 2060 min), followed by linseed (tmono = 390 min), fish (tmono = 40 min) and lard oils (tmono = 30 min). The different stability of the samples was discussed with their fatty acids profile and antioxidant activity. The results confirmed that the content in natural antioxidants is the key responsible for the final oxidative stability of the samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports that results of a study show that purified growth hormone transcription factor, GHF-1, did not bind to a prolactin-expressing gene; Implies that pituitary-specific expression of growth hormone and prolactin is controlled by two distinct trans-acting factors.

Approximately 12 million red blood cell units are transfused to nearly 4 million patients annually in the United States (1). The conservation of blood has historically arisen from awareness that the inventory of this resource is limited (2), as well as the knowledge that blood transfusion carries a risk (3). Estimates of current blood transfusion risks (4- 12) , and the costs of transfusion complications (13—17), are summa rized in Table 1. In addition, emphasis on the costs of health care has raised issues related to the costs of blood transfusion (18, 19). Finally, recent guidelines have emphasized that in the elective transfusion set ting, no blood transfusion is a desirable outcome (20, 21). Furthermore, these guidelines along with consen sus conference recommendations (22) have emphasized that if blood is to be transfused, autologous (the pa tient's own) blood is preferable to allogeneic (from an anonymous, volunteer donor) blood. Thus, the costs of blood conservation, for which an increasing array of technologic procedures and products have become available (Table 2), have also become an issue (23). The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of emerging data on the cost-effectiveness of blood and blood conservation interventions in order to help iden tify areas important for future investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]