Differential Effects of Pregabalin and Morphine on the Sleep-Wake Cycle and Circadian Rhythms in Mice with Neuropathic Pain.

Background: Neuropathic pain is commonly associated with disturbances in sleep architecture and circadian rhythms, leading to fragmented sleep, body temperature fluctuations, and altered locomotion. While pregabalin and morphine are frequently prescribed for neuropathic pain management, their effects on sleep and circadian regulation are poorly understood.

Methods: To identify the effects of spared nerve injury (SNI) on sleep architecture and circadian rhythms, male and female C57BL/6JRJ mice were implanted with wireless transmitters for continuous monitoring of electroencephalogram (EEG), electromyogram (EMG), locomotion, and body temperature.

Site-selective C(sp)-H amination of (het)aryl acetic acid derivatives under copper(II) catalysis.

A ubiquitous copper(II) catalyzed cross-dehydrogenative (CDC) process of (Het)arylacetamide derivatives employing free cyclic/acyclic secondary amines with the aid of 8-aminoimidazo[1,2- pyridine] (8-AIP) as a bidentate chelating auxiliary has been successfully developed. This methodology exhibits a broad substrate scope with good functional group compatibility in the presence of air. Furthermore, the synthetic adaptability of this novel protocol is showcased through the post-diversification of synthesized derivatives.

Homophilic organization of egocentric communities in ICT services.

Members of a society can be characterized by a large number of features, such as gender, age, ethnicity, religion, social status, and shared activities. One of the main tie-forming factors between individuals in human societies is homophily, the tendency of being attracted to similar others. Homophily has been studied mainly in the context of link formation and social dynamics.

Discovery of 1-(Cyclopropylmethyl)-2-(Dibenzo[b,d]Thiophen-2-yl)-1H-Benzo[d]Imidazole-5-Carboxylic Acid as Orally Bioavailable EP4 Receptor Antagonist.

The prostaglandin E (PGE) regulates several biological processes via interaction with 1 of 4 E-type prostanoid receptors (EP1-EP4). The E-type prostanoid receptor 4 (EP4) is expressed primarily on myeloid cells, T lymphocytes, and tumor cells, and has emerged as a major contributor to PGE-mediated enhancement of tumor survival pathways and as a suppressor of innate and adaptive antitumor immune responses. To date, significant work on the discovery of EP4 receptor antagonists has been carried out, but no compound has been approved for use in humans yet.

Turnover in close friendships.

Humans are social animals and the interpersonal bonds formed between them are crucial for their development and well being in a society. These relationships are usually structured into several layers (Dunbar's layers of friendship) depending on their significance in an individual's life with closest friends and family being the most important ones taking major part of their time and communication effort. However, we have little idea how the initiation and termination of these relationships occurs across the lifespan.

Morningness-eveningness assessment from mobile phone communication analysis.

Human behaviour follows a 24-h rhythm and is known to be governed by the individual chronotypes. Due to the widespread use of technology in our daily lives, it is possible to record the activities of individuals through their different digital traces. In the present study we utilise a large mobile phone communication dataset containing time stamps of calls and text messages to study the circadian rhythms of anonymous users in a European country.

Brittle to quasibrittle transition in a compound fiber bundle.

The brittle to quasibrittle transition has been studied for a compound of two different kinds of fibrous materials, having distinct difference in their breaking strengths under the framework of the fiber bundle model. A random fiber bundle model has been devised with a bimodal distribution of the breaking strengths of the individual fibers. The bimodal distribution is assumed to consist of two symmetrically placed rectangular probability distributions of strengths p and 1-p, each of width d, and separated by a gap 2s.

Brittle-to-quasibrittle transition in bundles of nonlinear elastic fibers.

Properties of the fiber bundle model have been studied using equal load-sharing dynamics where each fiber obeys a nonlinear stress (s)-strain (x) characteristic function s=G(x) till its breaking threshold. In particular, four different functional forms have been studied: G(x)=e^{αx}, 1+x^{α}, x^{α}, and xe^{αx} where α is a continuously tunable parameter of the model in all cases. Analytical studies, supported by extensive numerical calculations of this model, exhibit a brittle to quasibrittle phase transition at a critical value of α_{c} only in the first two cases.

Fiber bundle model with highly disordered breaking thresholds.

We present a study of the fiber bundle model using equal load-sharing dynamics where the breaking thresholds of the fibers are drawn randomly from a power-law distribution of the form p(b)∼b-1 in the range 10-β to 10β. Tuning the value of β continuously over a wide range, the critical behavior of the fiber bundle has been studied both analytically as well as numerically. Our results are: (i) The critical load σc(β,N) for the bundle of size N approaches its asymptotic value σc(β) as σc(β,N)=σc(β)+AN-1/ν(β), where σc(β) has been obtained analytically as σc(β)=10β/(2βeln10) for β≥βu=1/(2ln10), and for β<βu the weakest fiber failure leads to the catastrophic breakdown of the entire fiber bundle, similar to brittle materials, leading to σ_{c}(β)=10-β; (ii) the fraction of broken fibers right before the complete breakdown of the bundle has the form 1-1/(2βln10); (iii) the distribution D(Δ) of the avalanches of size Δ follows a power-law D(Δ)∼Δ-ξ with ξ=5/2 for Δ≫Δc(β) and ξ=3/2 for Δ≪Δc(β), where the crossover avalanche size Δc(β)=2/(1-e10-2β)2.

Scaling forms for relaxation times of the fiber bundle model.

Using extensive numerical analysis of the fiber bundle model with equal load sharing dynamics we studied the finite-size scaling forms of the relaxation times against the deviations of applied load per fiber from the critical point. Our most crucial result is we have not found any ln(N) dependence of the average relaxation time in the precritical state. The other results are as follows: (i) The critical load σ(c)(N) for the bundle of size N approaches its asymptotic value σ(c)(∞) as σ(c)(N)=σ(c)(∞)+AN(-1/ν).