Description: This article is about a study designed to analyze how young people, operationalized in this study as people of Latino descent between the ages of 18-25, are using their mobile phone for various applications and what particular gratifications they derive from using the phone. But this study takes on a much larger dimension, because it involves a cross-cultural strategy. Research partners were recruited in five Latin American countries: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, in order to collect data and compare it to other countries and to what is happening in the United States.

Description: In this article, the authors study the electroencephalogram (EEG) of 30 closed-eye subjects with a technique of analysis recently proposed to detect punctual events signaling rapid transitions between different metastable states. After single-EEG-channel event detection, the authors study global properties of events simultaneously occurring among two or more electrodes termed coincidences. The authors convert the coincidences into a diffusion process with three distinct rules that can yield the same μ only in the case where the coincidences are driven by a renewal process. The authors establish that the time interval between two consecutive renewal events driving the coincidences has a waiting-time distribution with inverse power-law index μ≈2 corresponding to ideal 1/f noise. The authors argue that this discovery, shared by all subjects of our study, supports the conviction that 1/f noise is an optimal communication channel for complex networks as in art or language and may therefore be the channel through which the brain influences complex processes and is influenced by them.

Description: This article discusses redox activation of alkene ligands. The reactivity of metal olefin complexes with non-innocent ligands (NILs) was examined. Treatment of PtCl2(diene) with the deprotonated catechol or aminophenol ligands afforded the corresponding Pt(NIL)(diene) complexes. The Pt(ͭBAfPh)(COD), Pt(tBAfPh)(nbd), and Pt(O2C6H2tBu2)(COD) (H2tBAfPh = 2-(2-trifluoromethyl)anilino-4,6-di-tert-butylphenol, H2O2C6H2tBu2 = 3,5-di-tert-butylcatechol) complexes were examined by cyclic voltammetry. Treatment of Pt(tBAfPh)(COD) or Pt(tBAfPh)(ndb) with AgPF6 afforded the imino-semiquinones [Pt(tBAfPh)(COD)] PF6 or [Pt(tBAfPh)(nbd)]PF6 respectively. The [Pt(tBAfPh)(COD)] complex was unreactive toward nucleophiles, whereas the oxidized derivative, [Pt(tBAfPh)(COD)]PF6, rapidly and stereospecifically added alkoxides at the carbon trans to the phenolate. The Pt(tBAfPh)(COD), [Pt(tBAfPh)(COD)]PF6, Pt(tBAfPh)(C8H12OMe), and [Cp2Co][Pt-(tBAfPh)(C8H12OMe)] complexes were characterized crystallographically.

Description: This article discusses non-Markovian nonstationary completely positive open-quantum-system dynamics. By modeling the interaction of a system with an environment through a renewal approach, the authors demonstrate that completely positive non-Markovian dynamics may develop some unexplored nonstandard statistical properties. The renewal approach is defined by a set of disruptive events, consisting in the action of a completely positive superoperator over the system density matrix. The random time intervals between events are described by an arbitrary waiting-time distribution. The authors show that, in contrast to the Markovian case, if one performs a system preparation (measurement) at an arbitrary time, the subsequent evolution of the density-matrix evolution is modified. The nonstationary character refers to the absence of an asymptotic master equation even when the preparation is performed at arbitrary long times. In spite this property, the authors demonstrate that operator expectation values and operators correlations have the same dynamical structure, establishing the validity of a nonstationary quantum regression hypothesis. The nonstationary property of the dynamics is also analyzed through the response of the system to an external weak perturbation.

Description: This article discusses the neuroprotective properties of palmitoylethanolamine against oxidative stress in a neuronal cell line. Background: N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) are lipids upregulated in response to cell and tissue injury and are involved in cytoprotection. Arachidonylethanolamide (AEA) is a well characterized NAE that is an endogenous ligand at cannabinoid and vanilloid receptors, but it exists in small quantities relative to other NAE types. The abundance of other NAE species, such as palmitoylethanolamine (PEA), together with their largely unknown function and receptors, has prompted us to examine the neuroprotective properties and mechanism of action of PEA. The authors hypothesized that PEA protects HT22 cells from oxidative stress and activates neuroprotective kinase signaling pathways. Results: Indeed PEA protected HT22 cells from oxidative stress in part by mediating an increase in phosphorylated Akt (pAkt) and ERK 1/2 immunoreactivity as well as pAkt nuclear translocation. These changes take place within a time frame consistent with neuroprotection. Furthermore, the authors determined that changes in pAkt immunoreactivity elicited by PEA were not mediated by activation of cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2), thus indicating a novel mechanism of action. These results establish a role for PEA as a neuroprotectant against oxidative stress, which occurs in a variety of ...