Anticipatory Feelings in Intertemporal Choice on Consumption: A Dynamic Experiment

Following the evaluation of anticipatory feelings in Scitovsky\u2019s Joyless Economy, we explored a specific interpretation of reversals in intertemporal choice. Anticipatory feelings can be explained as the feeling experienced by the agent while awaiting an upcoming event. We adopted a dynamic experiment where individuals made decisions of consumption at multiple points of time: three experimental sessions in three different dates at two-week intervals. We elicited the initial plans of the same sample in three different sessions over a one-month period and tracked how they implemented their plans as the anticipated event drew closer. The paper innovates with respect to the literature on intertemporal decision making in that the motivation for a varying discount rate, caused by anticipation or procrastination, has been elicited with both monetary and non-monetary (consumption) incentives and within a dynamic setting. We found that anticipatory feeling is a significant possible explanation behind choice reversal. The results remained significant after controlling the other explanatory factors such as risk aversion, uncertainty and time inconsistency

Dynamics of relativistic solitons

Relativistic solitons are self-trapped, finite size, electromagnetic waves of relativistic intensity that propagate without diffraction spreading. They have been predicted theoretically within the relativistic fluid approximation, and have been observed in multi-dimensional particle in cell simulations of laser pulse interaction with the plasma. Solitons were observed in the laser irradiated plasmas with the proton imaging technique as well. This paper reviews many theoretical results on relativistic solitons in electron-ion plasmas.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Historical comparison of the damage caused by the propagation of a dam break wave in a pre-alpine valley

Study region: Valle Camonica basin and Lake Iseo in the Italian pre-alpine and alpine region. Study focus: This paper provides the first hydraulic reconstruction of the terminal part of the Gleno dam break with the propagation of the flood wave along a wide pre-alpine valley. The reconstruction of this part of the event, accomplished with a new 2D Shallow Water Equations solver, provides the occasion to tackle some important issues related to the computation of flood damage, a topic of paramount practical importance for which there is no widely accepted procedure in the literature. New hydrological insights for the region: The hydraulic reconstruction provides insights into the propagation of the flood through the floodplain as far as the inlet of Lake Iseo. A methodology for damage computation is presented that considers a physically based criterion for the vulnerability of human life, with significant implications with respect to the use of simpler approaches based only on the density of the population. The economic evaluation of the damage to the built environment and to agricultural activities is included through a comprehensive recent approach. We discuss the variations of the expected damage due to the hydraulic works accomplished over the last 100 years to decrease the flood hazard, showing that its reduction has been followed by an increase in the expected damage in the surrounding areas

High blood levels of IL-6 nicely correlate with animal survival in trained C26 bearing mice

Exercise is a beneficial adjunct therapy to maintain or enhance quality of life in cancer patients. Recently, few studies demonstrated a correlation between high concentrations of IL-6 and a poor survival. This depends on the equilibrium between the concentrations of IL-6 and sIL-6R. Exercise induces a beneficial increase in circulating IL-6 (1). Fresh fragments of solid C26 tumor were inoculated in healthy 3 months-old mice (n=230, M=115 and F=115). The experimental procedure were 12 weeks long. During the first 6 weeks, mice were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions: sedentary (SED) or progressive training (TRP). After the first 6 weeks, all mice were inoculated with a fresh fragment of tumor. All trained adult mice after the tumor inoculation were randomly assigned to a different training program: low intensity training (TRL), moderate intensity training (TRM) and high intensity training (TRH). Mice run 5 days per week on a Rota-Rod following one of the specific training program (TRP ,TRL, TRM and TRH) (2). After tumor inoculation the mice were daily weighted and tumor size monitored until death. Moreover, 8 mice for each group were sacrificed when cachexia occurred (>9% body weight loss), and blood samples were stored for CBA Enhanced flex set flow-cytometric assays (IL-6 and TNF-alpha). The TRM and TRH training protocol performed by trained adult male mice extend the median survival compared to the sedentary adult mice and trained female mice. Interesting the beneficial effect of exercise seemed to be mediated extending the survival days. Significant high blood levels of IL-6 were recorded among the male trained mice (TRM and TRH) groups in comparison with sedentary adult mice and trained female mice (TRM and TRH). The results suggest that endurance exercise as adjuvant therapy is gender and physical training level specific. This effect seems to be mediated by IL-6 blood levels

Asaia lannensis bacteremia in a 'needle freak' patient

The genus Asaia has gained much interest lately owing to constant new species discoveries and its role as a potential opportunistic pathogen to humans. Here we describe a transient bacteremia due to Asaia lannensis in a patient with a psychiatric disorder (compulsive self-injection of different substances). Common phenotypic methods of identification failed to identify this organism, and only restriction fragment lenght polymorphism of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene allowed for proper identification. The isolate was highly resistant to most antibiotics. The paper also discusses the currently available medical literature, acknowledges the potential problems linked to the isolation of these strains and proposes an approach to species identification that can be applied in a clinical microbiology laboratory

Factors associated with cardiovascular events in systemic lupus erythematosus in a monocentric cohort with up to 40 years of follow-up

OBJECTIVES: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. Several traditional and disease-specific risk factors have been shown to correlate with the occurrence of cardiovascular events (CVE) in patients with SLE. However, results of previous studies are diverse. The objectives of this study were to report number, type and those factors associated with CVE in patients with SLE in a large, single-center, ethnically diverse cohort with a long follow-up duration. METHODS: Medical records of patients treated at the Lupus Clinic at University College London Hospital (UCLH) between 1979 and 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Data about CVE, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, demographic and disease features, and treatment history were collected. Only patients with complete available information were included in the study. Regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with CVE. RESULTS: Four hundred and nineteen patients were included in the study. Maximum follow-up length was 40 years. Seventy-one (17%) patients had at least one CVE. Multivariable analysis showed that only antiphospholipid antibody positivity (p-value<0.001) was associated with CVE. When analysing different types of CVE, antiphospholipid antibodies were specifically associated with both venous thromboembolic events (p-value<0.001) and cerebrovascular events (p-value=0.007). Dedicated subanalyses revealed that cumulative glucocorticoid dose (p-value=0.010) and a diagnosis of SLE before 2000 (p-value<0.001) were significantly associated with CVE. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiovascular disease is highly prevalent among patients with SLE and is associated with antiphospholipid antibodies, glucocorticoid therapy, and diagnosis before 2000

Role of doping agent degree of sulfonation and casting solvent on the electrical conductivity and morphology of pedot:Spaes thin films

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) plays a key role in the field of electrically conducting materials, despite its poor solubility and processability. Various molecules and polymers carrying sulfonic groups can be used to enhance PEDOT’s electrical conductivity. Among all, sul-fonated polyarylether sulfone (SPAES), prepared via homogenous synthesis with controlled degree of sulfonation (DS), is a very promising PEDOT doping agent. In this work, PEDOT was synthesized via high-concentration solvent-based emulsion polymerization using 1% w/w of SPAES with different DS as dopant. It was found that the PEDOT:SPAESs obtained have improved solubility in the chosen reaction solvents, i.e., N, N-dimethylformamide, dimethylacetamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and, for the first time, the role of doping agent, DS and polymerization solvents were investigated analyzing the electrical properties of SPAESs and PEDOT:SPAES samples and studying the different morphology of PEDOT-based thin films. High DS of SPAES, i.e., 2.4 meq R-SO3− × g−1 of polymer, proved crucial in enhancing PEDOT’s electrical conductivity. Furthermore, the DMSO capability to favor PEDOT and SPAES chains rearrangement and interaction results in the formation of a polymer film with more homogenous morphology and higher conductivity than the ones prepared from DMAc, DMF, and NMP. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Biological aggressiveness evaluation in prostate carcinomas: Immunohistochemical analysis of PCNA and p53 in a series of Gleason 6 (3+3) adenocarcinomas

We selected 63 prostate tumors with Gleason's grade 6 (3+3), commonly showing both tubular and cribrous patterns. We compared in both patterns the expression of two of the most used biologic markers: PCNA and p53, with the aim to verify the validity of the Gleason's grading system to compare the morphologic grade with biologic aggressiveness and prognostic value. We did not find any statistical difference in the protein immunopositivity, indicating that both patterns could have identical biologic behaviour; then we confirmed the validity of Gleason's system for considering both tubular and cribrous patterns as an intermediate grade of tumoral differentiation. Moreover, we found a linear relationship between the increase of PCNA and the accumulation of mutated p53; this datum could confirm the hypothesis that p53 mutation is a late event in prostate carcinogenesis

A rational approach to elucidate human monoamine oxidase molecular selectivity

Designing highly selective human monoamine oxidase (hMAO) inhibitors is a challenging goal on the road to a more effective treatment of depression and anxiety (inhibition of hMAO-A isoform) as well as neurodegenerative diseases (inhibition of hMAO-B isoform). To uncover the molecular rationale of hMAOs selectivity, two recently prepared 2H-chromene-2-ones, namely compounds 1 and 2, were herein chosen as molecular probes being highly selective toward hMAO-A and hMAO-B, respectively. We performed molecular dynamics (MD) studies on four different complexes, cross-simulating one at a time the two hMAO-isoforms (dimer embedded in a lipid bilayer) with the two considered probes. Our comparative analysis on the obtained 100 ns trajectories discloses a stable H-bond interaction between 1 and Gln215 as crucial for ligand selectivity toward hMAO-A whereas a water-mediated interaction might explain the observed hMAO-B selectivity of compound 2. Such hypotheses are further supported by binding free energy calculations carried out applying the molecular mechanics generalized Born surface area (MM-GBSA) method and allowing us to evaluate the contribution of each residue to the observed isoform selectivity. Taken as whole, this study represents the first attempt to explain at molecular level hMAO isoform selectivity and a valuable yardstick for better addressing the design of new and highly selective MAO inhibitors