The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether brain reward function decreases during withdrawal from nicotine and methamphetamine, and whether decreased reward function is related to aversion during withdrawal from these drugs. For that purpose, male Sprague-Dawley rats were chronically infused subcutaneously with 9 mg/kg per day nicotine, or with 6 mg/kg per day methamphetamine u...

Intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) behavior is an experimental methodology to study reward and motivational effects. We have established a new paradigm to evaluate enhancing motivation by drugs in the runway method using the priming stimulation of ICSS. In the present study, we investigated the effects of nomifensine on the experimental extinction process of non-reinforcing reward and pre-tri...

BACKGROUND The Gly-to-Arg substitution at the 16 position (rs1042713) in the β2-adrenoceptor gene (ADRB2) is associated with enhanced downregulation and uncoupling of β2-receptors. OBJECTIVES We sought to undertake a meta-analysis to test the hypothesis that there is an interaction between the A allele of rs1042713 (Arg16 amino acid) and long-acting β-agonist (LABA) exposure for asthma exacer...

Organizations make use of important information in day-to-day business. Protecting sensitive information is imperative and must be managed. Companies in many parts of the world protect sensitive information using the international standard known as the information security management system (ISMS). ISO 27000 series is the international standard ISMS used to protect confidentiality, integrity, a...

Background: Communication is a necessity of social life which is very important in health care settings due to the type of work and clients. The aim of this study was determine the association between interpersonal communication skills (ICSs) and personality dimensions of nurses working in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, 223 nurses we...

AIM To investigate whether the maternal use of different doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) during the first trimester of pregnancy for the treatment of asthma increases the risk of congenital malformations in the offspring. METHODS From the linkage of three administrative Canadian databases, a cohort of 4561 pregnancies from women with asthma who delivered between 1990 and 2000 was reco...

BACKGROUND Some of the disagreements on the perception of dyspnea (PD) during bronchoconstriction in asthma patients could depend on the interrelationships among the following: (1) the influence of baseline airflow obstruction on the patient's ability to detect any further increase in airway resistance; (2) the effect of eosinophilic inflammation on the airway; (3) bronchial hyperresponsiveness...

BACKGROUND The global focus on improved cookstoves (ICSs) and clean fuels has increased because of their potential for delivering triple dividends: household health, local environmental quality, and regional climate benefits. However, ICS and clean fuel dissemination programs have met with low rates of adoption. OBJECTIVES We reviewed empirical studies on ICSs and fuel choice to describe the ...

AIMS The aim of this study was to examine the effect on symptoms in patients with induced cardioinhibitory carotid sinus syndrome (ICSS) when treated or not treated with a pacemaker. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty patients with a history of syncope or pre-syncope and ICSS were randomized to receive a permanent pacemaker (P group, n = 30) or no pacing (NP group, n = 30). ICSS was defined as a ventr...