Risk-taking, delay discounting, and time perspective in adolescent gamblers: an experimental study

Previous research has demonstrated that adult pathological gamblers (compared to controls) show risk-proneness, foreshortened time horizon, and preference for immediate rewards. No study has ever examined the interplay of these factors in adolescent gambling. A total of 104 adolescents took part in the research. Two equal-number groups of adolescent non-problem and problem gamblers, defined using the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA), were administered the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC-14) Scale, and the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ). Adolescent problem gamblers were found to be more risk-prone, more oriented to the present, and to discount delay rewards more steeply than adolescent non-problem gamblers. Results of logistic regression analysis revealed that BART, MCQ, and CFC scores predicted gambling severity. These novel finding provides the first evidence of an association among problematic gambling, high risk-taking proneness, steep delay discounting, and foreshortened time horizon among adolescents. It may be that excessive gambling induces shortsighted behaviors that, in turn, facilitate gambling involvement

“Halal fiction” and the limits of postsecularism: Criticism, critique, and the Muslim in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret

This article examines Leila Aboulela’s 2005 novel Minaret, considering the extent to which it can be seen as an example of a postsecular text. The work has been praised by some as one of the most cogent attempts to communicate a life of Islamic faith in the English language novel form. Others have expressed concern about what they perceive as its apparent endorsement of submissiveness and a secondary status for women, along with its silence on some of the more thorny political issues facing Islam in the modern world. I argue that both these readings are shaped by the current “market” for Muslim novels, which places on such texts the onus of being “authentically representative”. Moreover, while apparently underwriting claims to authenticity, Aboulela’s technique of unvarnished realism requires of the reader the kind of suspension of disbelief in the metaphysical that appears to run contrary to the secular trajectory of the English literary novel in the last 300 years. I take issue with binarist versions of the postsecular thesis that equate the post-Enlightenment West with relentless desacralization and the “Islamic world” with a persistent collectivist and spiritual outlook, and suggest that we pay more attention to fundamental narrative elements which recur across the supposed West/East divide. Historically simplistic understandings of the secularization of culture — followed in the last few years by a postsecular turn — misrepresent the actual evolution of the novel. The “religious” persists, albeit transmuted into symbolic schema and themes of material or emotional redemption. I end by arguing for the renewed relevance of the kind of analysis of literary “archetypes” suggested by Northrop Frye, albeit disentangled from its specifically Christian resonances and infused by more attention to cultural cross-pollination. It is this type of approach that seems more accurately to account for the peculiarities of Aboulela’s fiction

Mature Peripheral RPE Cells Have an Intrinsic Capacity to Proliferate; A Potential Regulatory Mechanism for Age-Related Cell Loss

Mammalian peripheral retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) cells proliferate throughout life, while central cells are senescent. It is thought that some peripheral cells migrate centrally to correct age-related central RPE loss.We ask whether this proliferative capacity is intrinsic to such cells and whether cells located centrally produce diffusible signals imposing senescence upon the former once migrated. We also ask whether there are regional differences in expression patterns of key genes involved in these features between the centre and the periphery in vivo and in vitro. Low density RPE cultures obtained from adult mice revealed significantly greater levels of proliferation when derived from peripheral compared to central tissue, but this significance declined with increasing culture density. Further, exposure to centrally conditioned media had no influence on proliferation in peripheral RPE cell cultures at the concentrations examined. Central cells expressed significantly higher levels of E-Cadherin revealing a tighter cell adhesion than in the peripheral regions. Fluorescence-labelled staining for E-Cadherin, F-actin and ZO-1 in vivo revealed different patterns with significantly increased expression on central RPE cells than those in the periphery or differences in junctional morphology. A range of other genes were investigated both in vivo and in vitro associated with RPE proliferation in order to identify gene expression differences between the centre and the periphery. Specifically, the cell cycle inhibitor p27(Kip1) was significantly elevated in central senescent regions in vivo and mTOR, associated with RPE cell senescence, was significantly elevated in the centre in comparison to the periphery.These data show that the proliferative capacity of peripheral RPE cells is intrinsic and cell-autonomous in adult mice. These differences between centre and periphery are reflected in distinct patterns in junctional markers. The regional proliferation differences may be inversely dependent to cell-cell contact

Intelligence, reason of state and the art of governing risk and opportunity in early modern Europe

Drawing upon primary and secondary historical material, this paper explores the role of intelligence in early modern government. It focuses upon developments in seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century England, a site-specific genealogical moment in the broader history of state power/knowledges. Addressing a tendency in Foucauldian work to neglect pre-eighteenth-century governance, the analysis reveals a set of interrelated processes which gave rise to an innovative technique for anticipating hazard and opportunity for the state. At the intersection of raison d’État, the evolving art of government, widespread routines of secrecy and a post-Westphalia field of European competition and exchange, intelligence was imagined as a fundamental solution to the concurrent problems of ensuring peace and stability while improving state forces. In the administrative offices of the English Secretary of State, an assemblage of complex and interrelated procedures sought to produce and manipulate information in ways which exposed both possible risks to the state and potential opportunities for expansion and gain. As this suggests, the art of intelligence played an important if largely unacknowledged role in the formation and growth of the early modern state. Ensuring strategic advantage over rivals, intelligence also limited the ability of England's neighbours to dominate trade, control the seas and master the colonies, functioning as a constitutive feature of European balance and equilibrium. As the analysis concludes, understanding intelligence as a form of governmental technique – a way of doing something – reveals an entirely novel way of thinking about and investigating its myriad (historical and contemporary) formations

Accelerated turnover of taste bud cells in mice deficient for the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27Kip1

Background: Mammalian taste buds contain several specialized cell types that coordinately respond to tastants and communicate with sensory nerves. While it has long been appreciated that these cells undergo continual turnover, little is known concerning how adequate numbers of cells are generated and maintained. The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27Kip1 has been shown to influence cell number in several developing tissues, by coordinating cell cycle exit during cell differentiation. Here, we investigated its involvement in the control of taste cell replacement by examining adult mice with targeted ablation of the p27Kip1 gene.Results: Histological and morphometric analyses of fungiform and circumvallate taste buds reveal no structural differences between wild-type and p27Kip1-null mice. However, when examined in functional assays, mutants show substantial proliferative changes. In BrdU incorporation experiments, more S-phase-labeled precursors appear within circumvallate taste buds at 1 day post-injection, the earliest time point examined. After 1 week, twice as many labeled intragemmal cells are present, but numbers return to wild-type levels by 2 weeks. Mutant taste buds also contain more TUNEL-labeled cells and 50% more apoptotic bodies than wild-type controls. In normal mice, p27 Kip1 is evident in a subset of receptor and presynaptic taste cells beginning about 3 days post-injection, correlating with the onset of taste cell maturation. Loss of gene function, however, does not alter the proportions of distinct immunohistochemically-identified cell types.Conclusions: p27Kip1 participates in taste cell replacement by regulating the number of precursor cells available for entry into taste buds. This is consistent with a role for the protein in timing cell cycle withdrawal in progenitor cells. The equivalence of mutant and wild-type taste buds with regard to cell number, cell types and general structure contrasts with the hyperplasia and tissue disruption seen in certain developing p27Kip1-null sensory organs, and may reflect a compensatory capability inherent in the regenerative taste system

Business Ethics: The Promise of Neuroscience

Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience research portend well for furthering understanding of many of the fundamental questions in the field of business ethics, both normative and empirical. This article provides an overview of neuroscience methodology and brain structures, and explores the areas in which neuroscience research has contributed findings of value to business ethics, as well as suggesting areas for future research. Neuroscience research is especially capable of providing insight into individual reactions to ethical issues, while also raising challenging normative questions about the nature of moral responsibility, autonomy, intent, and free will. This article also provides a brief summary of the papers included in this special issue, attesting to the richness of scholarly inquiry linking neuroscience and business ethics. We conclude that neuroscience offers considerable promise to the field of business ethics, but we caution against overpromise

Strategies to prevent intraoperative lung injury during cardiopulmonary bypass

During open heart surgery the influence of a series of factors such as cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), hypothermia, operation and anaesthesia, as well as medication and transfusion can cause a diffuse trauma in the lungs. This injury leads mostly to a postoperative interstitial pulmonary oedema and abnormal gas exchange. Substantial improvements in all of the above mentioned factors may lead to a better lung function postoperatively. By avoiding CPB, reducing its time, or by minimizing the extracorporeal surface area with the use of miniaturized circuits of CPB, beneficial effects on lung function are reported. In addition, replacement of circuit surface with biocompatible surfaces like heparin-coated, and material-independent sources of blood activation, a better postoperative lung function is observed. Meticulous myocardial protection by using hypothermia and cardioplegia methods during ischemia and reperfusion remain one of the cornerstones of postoperative lung function. The partial restoration of pulmonary artery perfusion during CPB possibly contributes to prevent pulmonary ischemia and lung dysfunction. Using medication such as corticosteroids and aprotinin, which protect the lungs during CPB, and leukocyte depletion filters for operations expected to exceed 90 minutes in CPB-time appear to be protective against the toxic impact of CPB in the lungs. The newer methods of ultrafiltration used to scavenge pro-inflammatory factors seem to be protective for the lung function. In a similar way, reducing the use of cardiotomy suction device, as well as the contact-time between free blood and pericardium, it is expected that the postoperative lung function will be improved

The interaction of bacterial pathogens with platelets.

In recent years, the frequency of serious cardiovascular infections such as endocarditis has increased, particularly in association with nosocomially acquired antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Growing evidence suggests a crucial role for the interaction of bacteria with human platelets in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular infections. Here, we review the nature of the interactions between platelets and bacteria, and the role of these interactions in the pathogenesis of endocarditis and other cardiovascular diseases