Review on significance debate

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Sobre algunas especies interesantes del género Amanita secció Vaginatae en Andalucía (España)

Se aportan datos macro y microscópicos así como taxonómicos de algunas especies rares o críticas del género Amanita sect. Vaginatae recogidas en algunas localidades de Andalucía y del sur de Italia: Amanita lividopallescens, Amanita mairei, Amanita separata y Amanita sinuilans.Description and taxonomic notes on some rare or critical species of Amanita sect. Vaginatae collected from localities in southem Spain and southem Italy: A. lividopallescens, A. mairei, separatza and A. simulans

Intergroup Contact Is Associated with Less Negative Attitude toward Women Managers: The Bolstering Effect of Social Dominance Orientation

This cross-sectional study examined the intergroup contact hypothesis in the workplace by enrolling 150 Italian employees. Within the framework of social dominance theory, the purpose of this study was to test the assumption that individuals with higher levels of social dominance orientation are more likely to exhibit prejudice against women in managerial positions and benefit more from intergroup contact with a female supervisor. In particular, we found that individuals with higher levels of social dominance orientation exhibited more negative attitudes towards women in manager positions, but this effect only appeared when their superiors were women, as opposed to men. In addition, participants with higher social dominance orientation experienced more positive outcomes from intergroup contact, resulting in less negative attitudes toward women managers, than those with lower social dominance orientation. Overall, these findings yield insights into how intergroup contact affects individuals with prejudice tendencies, indicating that contact with the targeted group (i.e., women in managerial positions) is negatively associated with negative attitudes towards the group, even when the prejudice is driven by social dominance orientation. These results could shed light on new routes to design practical intervention aimed at solving prejudice towards women in leadership roles

Origin and distribution of the BRCA2-8765delAG mutation in breast cancer

Background: The BRCA2-8765delAG mutation was firstly described in breast cancer families from French-Canadian and Jewish-Yemenite populations; it was then reported as a founder mutation in Sardinian families. We evaluated both the prevalence of the BRCA2-8765delAG variant in Sardinia and the putative existence of a common ancestral origin through a haplotype analysis of breast cancer family members carrying such a mutation. Methods: Eight polymorphic microsatellite markers (D13S1250, centromeric, to D13S267, telomeric) spanning the BRCA2 gene locus were used for the haplotype analysis. Screening for the 8765delAG mutation was performed by PCR-based amplification of BRCA2-exon 20, followed by automated sequencing. Results: Among families with high recurrence of breast cancer (≥ 3 cases in first-degree relatives), those from North Sardinia shared the same haplotype whereas the families from French Canadian and Jewish-Yemenite populations presented distinct genetic assets at the BRCA2 locus. Screening for the BRCA2-8765delAG variant among unselected and consecutively-collected breast cancer patients originating from the entire Sardinia revealed that such a mutation is present in the northern part of the island only [9/648 (1.4%) among cases from North Sardinia versus 0/493 among cases from South Sardinia]. Conclusion: The BRCA2-8765delAG has an independent origin in geographically and ethnically distinct populations, acting as a founder mutation in North but not in South Sardinia. Since BRCA2- 8765delAG occurs within a triplet repeat sequence of AGAGAG, our study further confirmed the existence of a mutational hot-spot at this genomic position (additional genetic factors within each single population might be involved in generating such a mutation)

Significance loss brings to extreme self-care related behaviors: the role of interpersonal influence and obsessive (vs. harmonious) passion

Building on Significance Quest Theory we hypothesized that significance loss feelings can bring people to extreme self-care related behaviors via (a) the susceptibility to interpersonal influence, and (b) the development of a predominance of obsessive (vs. harmonious) passion toward the self-care. To test these hypotheses, we ran one cross-sectional study among voluntary participants (N = 401). Results confirmed our hypotheses, suggesting that physical appearance is perceived as a fruitful and useful route to maintain or even restoring ones’ personal sense of significance. Notably, these results shed light on another scope that can be exploited to achieve social significance (i.e., physical appearance) through extremism, and could represent a starting point to design practical intervention to reduce the examined extreme behaviors

The Italian national trends in smoking initiation and cessation according to gender and education

Objectives. This study aims to assess the trend in initiation and cessation of smoking across successive birth cohorts, according to gender and education, in order to provide useful suggestion for tobacco control policy. Study design. The study is based on data from the ?Health conditions and resort to sanitary services? survey carried out in Italy from October 2004 to September 2005 by the National Institute of Statistics. Through a multisampling procedure a sample representative of the entire national territory was selected. Methods. In order to calculate trends in smoking initiation and cessation, data were stratified for birth cohorts, gender and edu- cation level, and analyzed through the life table method. Results. The cumulative probability of smoking initiation, across subsequent generations, shows a downward trend followed by a plateau. This result highlights that there is not a shred of evidence to support the hypothesis of an anticipation in smok- ing initiation. The cumulative probability of quitting, across subsequent generations, follows an upward trend, highlighting the growing tendency of smokers to become an ?early quitter?, who give up within 30 years of age. Conclusion. Results suggest that the Italian antismoking approach, for the most part targeted at preventing the initiation of smoking emphasising the negative consequences, has an effect on the early smoking cessation. Health policies should reinforce the existing trend of ?early quitting? through specific actions. In addition our results show that men with low education exhibit the higher probability of smoking initiation and the lower prob- ability of early quitting, and therefore should be targeted with special attention

Means substitutability in personal significance restoration

Drawing on Significance Quest Theory, we hypothesized that when people experience a loss of significance related to a specific life domain, they will aim to restore their significance by acting in an extreme manner in a different life domain. To test this hypothesis, we ran two cross-sectional studies using samples of employed people in romantic relationships. Study 1 tested if people experiencing a loss of significance in the romantic relationship domain were more prone to extremism at work. Study 2 tested whether people experiencing work-related significance loss were more prone to engage in obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) toward their romantic partner. Results from both studies confirmed our hypothesis, suggesting that both amorous relationships and careers are perceived as fruitful in maintaining or restoring ones’ sense of personal significance, even if the original loss of significance is derived from an unrelated domain. Notably, this research represents one of the first tests of the key assumption of Significance Quest Theory entailing the substitutability of means through which one can attain or renew their sense of significance

Medusa, a multithread 4-body decay fitting and simulation software

We present a new C++14 compliant application to perform physics data analyses of generic 4-body decays in massively parallel platforms. Medusa is highly based on Hydra, a header-only library which hides most of the complexities of writing parallel code for different architectures. Medusa has been tested through the measurement of the CP-violating phase ϕsin b-hadron decays exploiting the data collected by the LHCb experiment. Medusa executes the optimization of the full model, running over 500000 events, until 330 times faster than a non-parallelized program. Medusa is freely available on GitHub under GPL v.3.0 license

Prevalence of <i>KRAS</i>, <i>BRAF</i>, and <i>PIK3CA</i> somatic mutations in patients with colorectal carcinoma may vary in the same population: clues from Sardinia

Background Role of KRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA mutations in pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC) has been recently investigated worldwide. In this population-based study, we evaluated the incidence rates and distribution of such somatic mutations in genetically isolated population from Sardinia. Methods From April 2009 to July 2011, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues (N = 478) were prospectively collected from Sardinian CRC patients at clinics across the entire island. Genomic DNA was isolated from tissue sections and screened for mutations in KRAS, BRAF, and PIK3CA genes by automated DNA sequencing. Results Overall, KRAS tumour mutation rate was 30% (145/478 positive cases). Distribution of mutation carriers was surprisingly different within the island: 87/204 (43%) in North Sardinia vs. 58/274 (21%) in Middle-South Sardinia (p&lt;0.001). Among 384 CRC cases whose DNA was available, only one (0.3%) patient carried a mutation in BRAF gene; PIK3CA was found mutated in 67 (17%) patients. A significant inverse distribution of PIK3CA mutation rates was observed within Sardinian population: 19/183 (10%) cases from northern vs. 48/201 (24%) cases from central-southern island (p&lt;0.001). This heterogeneity in frequencies of KRAS/PIK3CA somatic mutations is consistent with already-reported discrepancies in distribution of germline mutations for other malignancies within Sardinian population. Preliminary clinical evaluation of 118 KRAS wild-type patients undergoing anti-EGFR-based treatment indicated lack of role for PIK3CA in predicting response to therapy. Conclusions Our findings support the hypothesis that differences in patients’ origins and related genetic backgrounds may contribute to even determine the incidence rate of somatic mutations in candidate cancer genes.</br

A Role of <i>BRCA1</i> and <i>BRCA2</i> germline mutations in breast cancer susceptibility within Sardinian population

Background. In recent years, numerous studies have assessed the prevalence of germline mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in various cohorts. We here extensively investigated the prevalence and geographical distribution of BRCA1-2 mutations in the entire genetically-homogeneous Sardinian population. The occurrence of phenotypic characteristics which may be predictive for the presence of BRCA1-2 germline mutations was also evaluated. Methods. Three hundred and forty-eight breast cancer patients presenting a familial recurrence of invasive breast or ovarian carcinoma with at least two affected family members were screened for BRCA1-2 mutations by DHPLC analysis and DNA sequencing. Association of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutational status with clinical and pathological parameters was evaluated by Pearson's Chi-Squared test. Results and Conclusion. Overall, 8 BRCA1 and 5 BRCA2 deleterious mutations were detected in 35/348 (10%) families; majority (23/35;66%) of mutations was found in BRCA2 gene. The geographical distribution of BRCA1-2 mutations was related to three specific large areas of Sardinia, reflecting its ancient history: a) the Northern area, linguistically different from the rest of the island (where a BRCA2 c.8764_8765delAG mutation with founder effect was predominant); b) the Middle area, land of the ancient Sardinian population (where BRCA2 mutations are still more common than BRCA1 mutations); and c) the South-Western area, with many Phoenician and Carthaginian locations (where BRCA1 mutations are prevalent). We also found that phenotypic features such as high tumor grading and lack of expression of estrogen/progesterone receptors together with age at diagnosis and presence of ovarian cancer in the family may be predictive for the presence of BRCA1-2 germline mutations