This essay proposes that critiques of the industrial food system have not kept pace with its rapid transformation through information technologies, and returns to the emergence of microwave cooking during the 1970s for an illustrative case study. Not just the appliances but also their related cookbooks were produced by corporations heavily invested in electronics. Peculiar convergences suggest that a more encompassing approach to the new cuisine is imperative if we are to understand its complex ecology and phenomenology. In deference to a term from one such cookbook published by General Electric, my history is organized around eight related „Microlessons”-each an invented culinary technique, procedure, or adaptation responding to challenges posed by the new technology-that in hindsight are difficult to confine under the rubric of food studies. The aim is to articulate a new perspective on the post-industrial food system and its many consequences.Low-cost feeding-behavior sensors will soon be available for commercial use in dairy farms. The aim of this study was to develop a feed intake model for the individual dairy cow that includes feeding behavior. In a research farm, the individual cows’ voluntary feed intake and feeding behavior were monitored at every meal. A feed intake model was developed based on data that exist in commercial modern farms 'BW,’ 'milk yield’ and 'days in milking’ parameters were applied in this study. At the individual cow level, eating velocity seemed to be correlated with feed intake (R 2=0.93 to 0.94). The eating velocity coefficient varied among individuals, ranging from 150 to 230 g/min per cow. The contribution of feeding behavior (0.28) to the dry matter intake (DMI) model was higher than the contribution of BW (0.20), similar to the contribution of fat-corrected milk (FCM)/BW (0.29) and not as large as the contribution of FCM (0.49). Incorporating feeding behavior into the DMI model improved its accuracy by 1.3 (38%) kg/cow per day. The model is ready to be implemented in commercial farms as soon as companies introduce low-cost feeding-behavior sensors on commercial level.

Hopes to identify genetic susceptibility loci accounting for the heritability seen in unipolar depression have not been fully realized. Family history remains the 'gold standard’ for both risk stratification and prognosis in complex phenotypes such as depression. Meanwhile, the physiological mechanisms underlying life-event triggers for depression remain opaque. Epigenetics, comprising heritable changes in gene expression other than alterations of the nucleotide sequence, may offer a way to deepen our understanding of the aetiology and pathophysiology of unipolar depression and optimize treatments. A heuristic target for exploring the relevance of epigenetic changes in unipolar depression is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene (NR3C1) has been found to be susceptible to epigenetic modification, specifically DNA methylation, in the context of environmental stress such as early life trauma, which is an established risk for depression later in life.

In this paper we discuss the progress that has been made by studies that have investigated the relationship between depression, early trauma, the HPA axis and the NR3C1 gene. Difficulties with the design of these studies are also explored.

Future efforts will need to comprehensively address epigenetic natural histories at the population, tissue, cell and gene levels. The complex interactions between the epigenome, genome and environment, as well as ongoing nosological difficulties, also pose significant challenges.

The work that has been done so far is nevertheless encouraging and suggests potential mechanistic and biomarker roles for differential DNA methylation patterns in NR3C1 as well as novel therapeutic targets.

The work that has been done so far is nevertheless encouraging and suggests potential mechanistic and biomarker roles for differential DNA methylation patterns in NR3C1 as well as novel therapeutic targets.

To compare the frequency of discrepancies in retracted reports of clinical trials with those in adjacent unretracted reports in the same journal.

Blinded case-control study.

Journals in PubMed.

50 manuscripts, classified on PubMed as retracted clinical trials, paired with 50 adjacent unretracted manuscripts from the same journals. Reports were randomly selected from PubMed in December 2012, with no restriction on publication date. Controls were the preceding unretracted clinical trial published in the same journal. All traces of retraction were removed. Three scientists, blinded to the retraction status of individual reports, reviewed all 100 trial reports for discrepancies. Discrepancies were pooled and cross checked before being counted into prespecified categories. Only then was the retraction status unblinded for analysis.

Total number of discrepancies (defined as mathematically or logically contradictory statements) in each clinical trial report.

Of 479 discrepancies found in the 100 trial retrials. Discrepancies could be an early and accessible signal of unreliability in clinical trial reports.

Discrepancies in published trial reports should no longer be assumed to be unimportant. Scientists, blinded to retraction status and with no specialist skill in the field, identify significantly more discrepancies in retracted than unretracted reports of clinical trials. Discrepancies could be an early and accessible signal of unreliability in clinical trial reports.The study was conducted to investigate the extent to which services meet patients’ needs and identify the factors associated with higher needs. 174 outpatients were assessed using CANSAS, BPRS and GSDS. The total number of unmet needs in persons with psychotic, eating, personality and affective disorders was higher than in patients with anxiety disorders. Being single, positive symptoms, depression/anxiety, hospitalizations and high social disability accounted for 50 % of the variance in level of unmet need. Persons with eating and personality disorders reported similar level of unmet needs to those with psychotic and affective disorders. The best correlates of unmet needs were depression/anxiety and social disability.

Alcohol dependence is known to be associated with steep discounting of delayed rewards, but its relation to the discounting of delayed losses and probabilistic rewards is unclear. Moreover, patterns of alcohol consumption vary considerably between communities, but previous research has not examined the relation between discounting and alcohol dependence in low-income African Americans.

The goal of the present study was to determine whether low-income, alcohol-dependent African Americans differ from controls in the degree to which they discount delayed rewards, delayed losses, or probabilistic rewards.

African-American participants, both cases and controls, were recruited from the same low-income neighborhoods, and propensity-score matching was used to further control for demographic differences. Participants performed three tasks that assessed their discounting of hypothetical monetary outcomes delayed rewards, delayed losses, and probabilistic rewards.

Alcohol-dependent cases discounted delayed gains, but not delayed losses or probabilistic gains, more steeply than their matched controls. The difference in discounting of delayed gains was localized to the male cases, whose discounting was steeper than either the male controls or the female cases; no gender difference was observed between male and female controls.

The present results extend findings regarding discounting by substance abusers to a previously unstudied group, low-income African Americans, and suggest that in this group at least, alcohol dependence, particularly in males, may be more a reflection of choosing immediate rewards than of ignoring their delayed negative consequences.

The present results extend findings regarding discounting by substance abusers to a previously unstudied group, low-income African Americans, and suggest that in this group at least, alcohol dependence, particularly in males, may be more a reflection of choosing immediate rewards than of ignoring their delayed negative consequences.

Studies employing the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) demonstrated that areas of the frontal cortex, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), are involved in the decision-making process. However, the precise role of these regions in maintaining optimal choice is not clear.

We used the rat gambling task (rGT), a rodent analogue of the IGT, to determine whether inactivation of or altered dopamine signalling within discrete cortical sub-regions disrupts decision-making.

Following training on the rGT, animals were implanted with guide cannulae aimed at the prelimbic (PrL) or infralimbic (IL) cortices, the OFC, or the ACC. Prior to testing, rats received an infusion of saline or a combination of baclofen and muscimol (0.125 μg of each/side) to inactivate the region and an infusion of a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist (0, 0.1, 0.3, and 1.0 μg/side).

Rats tended to increase their choice of a disadvantageous option and decrease their choice of the optimal option following inactivation of either the IL or PrL cortex. In contrast, OFC or ACC inactivation did not affect decision-making. Infusion of a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist into any sub-region did not alter choice preference.

Online activity of the IL or PrL cortex is important for maintaining an optimal decision-making strategy, but optimal performance on the rGT does not require frontal cortex dopamine D2 receptor activation. Additionally, these results demonstrate that the roles of different cortical regions in cost-benefit decision-making may be dissociated using the rGT.

Online activity of the IL or PrL cortex is important for maintaining an optimal decision-making strategy, but optimal performance on the rGT does not require frontal cortex dopamine D2 receptor activation. Additionally, these results demonstrate that the roles of different cortical regions in cost-benefit decision-making may be dissociated using the rGT.

Recreational ketamine use may be modulated by factors such as ketamine infusion patterns, associated conditioned stimuli and spatial-temporal contexts. Our aim was to study the pharmacological and non-pharmacological factors that regulate the acquisition of ketamine use.

In experiment 1, four groups of male rats were trained to self-administer ketamine during nine 1-h daily sessions, under four reinforcement schedules i) pre-session ketamine priming (Priming-[KET]), ii) conditioned stimulus (CS) paired to the ketamine infusions ([KET + CS]), iii) neither priming nor CS ([KET]), iv) combination of both (Priming-[KET + CS]). In experiment 2, two groups of male rats were trained to self-administer ketamine during nine 1-h daily or weekly sessions, under the Priming-[KET + CS] schedule. Lever pressing was then extinguished by saline substitution for ketamine infusion. Afterwards, ketamine was made available again upon responding under the same schedule.

The Priming-[KET + CS] schedule of reinforcement showed a significant increase in the number of ketamine reinforcements and a significant discrimination between active vs.