Spirituality as an Essential Determinant for the Good Life, its Importance Relative to Self-Determinant Psychological Needs

This study focuses on the relevance of spirituality as an essential element for the Good Life. Despite spirituality’s prominence in people’s lives and cultures, it has been mostly neglected in psychological needs theories. This paper investigates the value of spirituality compared to that of the three basic psychological needs of self-determination theory: relatedness, competence and autonomy. In a scenario study design, participants in two samples (students and train passengers) were asked to judge a survey on the personal well-being of an imaginary person. The results show that spirituality positively contributes to the qualification of a good life, in terms of desirability and moral goodness. In addition, the crucial role of relatedness was confirmed

WSES Jerusalem guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis

Acute appendicitis (AA) is among the most common cause of acute abdominal pain. Diagnosis of AA is challenging; a variable combination of clinical signs and symptoms has been used together with laboratory findings in several scoring systems proposed for suggesting the probability of AA and the possible subsequent management pathway. The role of imaging in the diagnosis of AA is still debated, with variable use of US, CT and MRI in different settings worldwide. Up to date, comprehensive clinical guidelines for diagnosis and management of AA have never been issued. In July 2015, during the 3rd World Congress of the WSES, held in Jerusalem (Israel), a panel of experts including an Organizational Committee and Scientific Committee and Scientific Secretariat, participated to a Consensus Conference where eight panelists presented a number of statements developed for each of the eight main questions about diagnosis and management of AA. The statements were then voted, eventually modified and finally approved by the participants to The Consensus Conference and lately by the board of co-authors. The current paper is reporting the definitive Guidelines Statements on each of the following topics: 1) Diagnostic efficiency of clinical scoring systems, 2) Role of Imaging, 3) Non-operative treatment for uncomplicated appendicitis, 4) Timing of appendectomy and in-hospital delay, 5) Surgical treatment 6) Scoring systems for intra-operative grading of appendicitis and their clinical usefulness 7) Non-surgical treatment for complicated appendicitis: abscess or phlegmon 8) Pre-operative and post-operative antibiotics.Peer reviewe

PINK1 positively regulates IL-1β-mediated signaling through Tollip and IRAK1 modulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Parkinson disease (PD) is characterized by a slow, progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantianigra. The cause of neuronal loss in PD is not well understood, but several genetic loci, including PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1), have been linked to early-onset autosomal recessive forms of familial PD. Neuroinflammation greatly contributes to PD neuronal degeneration and pathogenesis. IL-1 is one of the principal cytokines that regulates various immune and inflammatory responses via the activation of the transcription factors NF-κB and activating protein-1. Despite the close relationship between PD and neuroinflammation, the functional roles of PD-linked genes during inflammatory processes remain poorly understood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To explore the functional roles of PINK1 in response to IL-1β stimulation, HEK293 cells, mouse embryonic fibroblasts derived from PINK1-null (<it>PINK1</it>^{<it>−/−</it>}) and control (<it>PINK1</it>^<it>+/+</it>) mice, and 293 IL-1RI cells stably expressing type 1 IL-1 receptor were used. Immunoprecipitation and western blot analysis were performed to detect protein–protein interaction and protein ubiquitination. To confirm the effect of PINK1 on NF-κB activation, NF-κB-dependent firefly luciferase reporter assay was conducted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PINK1 specifically binds two components of the IL-1-mediated signaling cascade, Toll-interacting protein (Tollip) and IL-1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1). The association of PINK1 with Tollip, a negative regulator of IL-1β signaling, increases upon IL-1β stimulation, which then facilitates the dissociation of Tollip from IRAK1 as well as the assembly of the IRAK1–TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) complex. PINK1 also enhances Lys63-linked polyubiquitination of IRAK1, an essential modification of recruitment of NF-κB essential modulator and subsequent IκB kinase activation, and increases formation of the intermediate signalosome including IRAK1, TRAF6, and transforming growth factor-β activated kinase 1. Furthermore, PINK1 stimulates IL-1β-induced NF-κB activity via suppression of Tollip inhibitory action.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that PINK1 upregulates IL-1β-mediated signaling through the functional modulation of Tollip and IRAK1. These results further suggest that PINK1 stimulates the ubiquitination of proximal molecules and increases signalosome formation in the IL-1β-mediated signaling pathway. The present study therefore supports the idea of the close relationship between neuroinflammation and PD.</p

Religion and life satisfaction down under

We investigated the association between religious involvement and life satisfaction using panel data from the 2004, 2007, and 2010 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Our study provides strong evidence of an association between attendance at religious services and life satisfaction in the Australian social context. While social resources mediate this association, there appears to be a remaining direct influence of attendance at religious services on life satisfaction. To unravel this association, there is a need to disentangle and separately assess the influence that ‘religious social resources’ and ‘secular social resources’ may have on life satisfaction