1,721,135 research outputs found
CRF1 receptor antagonists as novel pharmacological treatment for bingeing-related eating disorders
No full textThe interaction between dieting and stress is a key factor for triggering binge episodes on palatable food in human binge eaters. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) mechanisms are known to play a pivotal role in the regulation of this maladaptive behavior.
The present study evaluated the effect of the CRF1 receptor antagonist R121919 and the corticosterone synthesis inhibitor metyrapone in female rats in which binge eating was evoked by stress and cycles of food restrictions.
Rats were first subjected or not to repeated cycles of regular chow food restriction/refeeding during which they were also given limited access (2 h) to palatable food. On the test day, rats were either exposed or not to the sight of the palatable food for 15 minutes without allowing access (frustration stress), before assessing food consumption for 2 h.
Systemic injections of the CRF1 receptor antagonist R121919, but not of the metyrapone, blocked binge-like eating behavior. Moreover, corticosterone injection did not induce binge eating in non-stressed rats.
Restricted and stressed rats showed up-regulation of crh1 receptor mRNA signal in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and central amygdala (CeA) but not in basolateral amygdala (BLA) or in the paraventricular nucleus. Injection of CRF receptor antagonist D-Phe-CRF(12– 41) in CeA but not in the BLA blocked binge-like eating behavior.
These findings demonstrate that extra-hypothalamic CRF1 receptors, rather than those involved in endocrine functions, are involved in binge eating. CRF1 receptor antagonism may represent a novel pharmacological treatment for binge-related eating disorders
Anxiolytic-like effects of nociceptin/orphanin FQ in the elevated plus maze and in the conditioned defensive burying test in rats
No full textDifferent reports suggest that nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) may have either anxiolytic- or anxiogenic-like effect in rodents. Since N/OFQ elicits hypolocomotion, which undergoes rapid tolerance, and hypolocomotion may be associated to emotional consequences, the present study was designed to investigate the effect of N/OFQ on anxiety after development of tolerance to its hypolocomotor effect. The effect of single or double intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of N/OFQ was evaluated on anxiety-related behaviors in rats, in the elevated plus maze (EPM) and conditioned defensive burying (CDB) tests. After single administration, N/OFQ displayed an anxiogenic-like pattern of response on the elevated plus maze but hypolocomotion was also observed. Conversely, in the CDB test, N/OFQ induced a clear-cut anxiolytic pattern. To produce tolerance to N/OFQ-induced hypolocomotion the peptide was administered by two i.c.v. injections separated by 120 min; in these conditions it decreased the expression of anxiety-related behaviors in both tests without affecting locomotor activity. The nociceptin/orphanin FQ peptide (NOP) receptor antagonist UFP-101 significantly reduced the effects of N/OFQ to control values in either tests. Corticosterone levels were significantly increased after a single N/OFQ administration (not in a dose-dependent manner) but this increase did not reach significance after double administration (1 nmol/rat). Our results support the idea that N/OFQ may act as an anxiolytic-like agent in the rat; the apparent anxiogenic-like effect observed following its single administration in the EPM may be consequent to its, effect on locomotion. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Chronic intracerebroventricular infusion of nociceptin/orphanin FQ increases food and ethanol intake in alcohol-preferring rats
No full textCentral administration of low doses of nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ), the endogenous
ligand of the opioid-like orphan receptor NOP, have been shown to reduce ethanol consumption,
ethanol-induced conditioned place preference and stress-induced reinstatement
of alcohol-seeking behavior in alcohol preferring rats. The present study evaluated the effect
of continuous (7 days) lateral brain ventricle infusions of N/OFQ (0, 0.25, 1, 4, and 8 mg/h), by
means of osmotic mini-pumps, on 10% ethanol intake in Marchigian-Sardinian alcoholpreferring
(msP) rats provided 2 h or 24 h access to it. N/OFQ dose-dependently increased
food intake in msP rats. On the other hand, in contrast to previous studies with acute
injections, continuous lateral brain ventricle infusion of high doses of N/OFQ increased
ethanol consumption when the ethanol solution was available for 24 h/day or 2 h/day. The
present study demonstrates that continuous activation of the opioidergic N/OFQ receptor
does not blunt the reinforcing effects of ethanol. Moreover, the data suggest that continuous
activation of the opioidergic N/OFQ receptor is not a suitable way to reduce alcohol abuse
Commercially available lipid formulations of amphotericin b: are they bioequivalent and therapeutically equivalent?
No full text
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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