• Ellegaard Myrick posted an update 4 hours, 13 minutes ago

    Fear generalization refers to the spread of acquired fear to novel stimuli that resemble the original fear-related stimulus. Preliminary evidence suggests that excessive fear generalization is a pathogenic feature of anxiety disorders, however, it remains unclear how fear generalization affects pathological avoidance. The current study thus aimed to examine the link between categorical fear generalization and costly avoidance. By combining a fear acquisition training phase and an avoidance test, the current findings showed that acquired fear spreads to novel stimuli that belonged to the same category of the original fear-related stimuli, but not to those that belonged to the fear-irrelevant categories. Importantly, participants avoided these fear-related novel stimuli despite costs. The current findings indicate that categorical fear generalization triggers costly avoidance. In terms of clinical implication, a decrease in costly avoidance aligned with a decrease in US expectancies. This emphasizes that behavioral approach may initiate extinction learning. PURPOSE We aimed to identify clinical and computed tomography (CT) features that distinguish among cystic congenital pulmonary airway malformations (CPAMs) and offer new management strategies. METHODS We retrieved data on 145 children (85 male, 60 female; median age, 14 months) with pathologically confirmed cystic CPAMs from 2008 to 2018 and retrospectively analyzed the clinical and CT characteristics. RESULTS Of the 145 patients, 54 had type 1, 72 had type 2, and 19 had type 4 cystic CPAMs. Significantly more male patients had type 4 CPAMs. Type 2 CPAMs had a higher frequency of combined malformations and prenatal diagnosis than types 1 and 4. NSC 640488 The median diameter of cystic CPAMs was 2.8 cm; that of type 1, 2, and 4 was 4.6, 1.5, and 8.1 cm, respectively. Regression analysis showed that a cyst of >7.9 cm in diameter was likely to be type 4, that of 7.9 cm in diameter, mediastinal shift, and pneumothorax were the most important characteristics of type 4 CPAMs. CT features can distinguish type 4 CPAM from other cystic CPAMs. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the structural changes in brain on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in severely malnourished children before and after treatment. METHODS This was a prospective study conducted at a Severe Malnutrition Treatment Unit (SMTU) at a tertiary care center. The study was carried out with 52 severely malnourished children 0 to 5 y of age admitted to the SMTU. The cases with neurologic diseases such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, meningitis, tumor, or hydrocephalus; or history of perinatal asphyxia were excluded to enable us to detect central nervous system changes attributable to malnutrition only. MRI brain without contrast was performed on all 52 cases at admission and after 6 mo of treatment and were reported by an experienced radiologist. The common MRI findings in the study included cerebral atrophy, dilated ventricles, periventricular white matter changes, widened cortical sulci, enlarged basal cisterns, and widened interhemispheric fissure. Development assessment using the Denver Developmental Screening Test II was also performed to infer correlation with MRI findings. RESULTS Of the 52 children who were severely malnourished, 10 (i.e., 19.2%) had abnormal MRI findings. Development assessment revealed that of the 10 abnormal MRI cases, 80% had delayed developmental milestones as well. These changes are reversible in most cases after nutritional rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS The present study revealed that malnutrition per se has a significant effect on the structure of the developing brain and also affects neurologic development. These changes are reversible after treatment so early stimulation and nutritional rehabilitation can help to prevent permanent neurologic derangements. In the paper, exponential synchronization issue is considered for memristive neural networks (MNNs) with time-varying delays via quantized sliding-mode algorithm. Quantized Sliding-mode controller is introduced to ensure the slave system can be exponentially synchronized with the host system via the super-twisting algorithm, which has been proved in the main results. Quantization function consists of uniform quantizer and logarithmic quantizer. Simulation results are given with comparisons between two quantizers in the end. Controlled synthesis of hierarchical hydroxyapatite materials is a hot research topic because of the excellent biocompatibility and bioactivity of the materials. In this study, flower-like hydroxyapatite spheres (FHAPS) were facile synthesized in one pot using Al(OH)3 as a structure-directing agent. The prepared FHAPS comprised nanosheets possessing a uniform diameter of approximately 4 µm. Notably, the FHAPS can be degraded in solutions with a pH of 5.5 for 144 h or incubated with cells for 48 h. In addition, the FHAPS have rough surfaces, which exhibit high loading contents for the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX, 9.1%) and siRNA (2.0%). Thus, the FHAPS can effectively deliver DOX into drug-resistant breast cancer cells to exert an excellent killing effect compared with free DOX and transfect siRNA into tumor cells to interfere with the expression of the target protein. Taken together, this work successfully prepared FHAPS via a convenient synthesis route that shows high delivery efficiency for anticancer drugs and siRNA. Most of our waking time as human beings is spent interacting with other individuals. In order to make good decisions in this social milieu, it is often necessary to make inferences about the internal states, traits and intentions of others. Recently, some progress has been made toward uncovering the neural computations underlying human social decision-making by combining functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging (fMRI) with computational modeling of behavior. Modeling of behavioral data allows us to identify the key computations necessary for social decision-making and to determine how these computations are integrated. Furthermore, by correlating these variables against neuroimaging data, it has become possible to elucidate where in the brain various computations are implemented. Here we review the current state of knowledge in the domain of social computational neuroscience. Findings to date have emphasized that social decisions are driven by multiple computations conducted in parallel, and implemented in distinct brain regions.