Tackling student binge drinking: pairing incongruent messages and measures reduces alcohol consumption

Objectives: Excessive alcohol consumption is a persistent problem in Northern European cultures. Across a 2-week period, we tested the effect of varying message frames, message types, and response measures, in reducing alcohol consumption. Design: Three hundred and twenty-three respondents were allocated to a 2 (message frame: gain vs. loss) × 2 (message type: health vs. social) × 2 (response type: engaging vs. refraining) mixed design. Method: Binge drinking and units consumed were measured at Time 1 and Time 2 (2 weeks later). Participants read (following Time 1) a gain- or loss-framed message on binging emphasizing either social or health consequences and answered engaging in or refraining from drinking attitude measures. Results: No main effects were identified. The key finding was that gain-framed messages, when used in conjunction with engage response measures (an incongruous pairing), were highly effective in reducing alcohol consumption 2 weeks later compared with the other message frame/response measure combinations. Conclusions: We suggest that for prevention behaviours, gain-framed messages, when paired with engage response measures, initiate an inconsistency resolution process. Together, our findings emphasize the importance of message frame and response type when seeking to reduce alcohol consumption using persuasive health messages

A case of Muir-Torre syndrome associated with mucinous hepatic cholangiocarcinoma and a novel germline mutation of the MSH2 gene

Muir-Torre syndrome (MTS) is a rare cancer-predisposing syndrome that is autosomal dominantly inherited and characterized by the development of sebaceous skin lesions (adenomas, epitheliomas, basaliomas and carcinomas). These lesions are typically associated with tumors that belong to the spectrum of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) (i.e. tumors of the colorectum, endometrium, stomach or ovary). Biliary malignancy in association with MTS has only rarely been reported. We report a case of Muir-Torre syndrome associated with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, a location not previously described, and associated with a novel missense mutation of the MSH2 gene (c.2026T>C), predicted to disrupt the function of the gen

Electron correlation in C_(4N+2) carbon rings: aromatic vs. dimerized structures

The electronic structure of C_(4N+2) carbon rings exhibits competing many-body effects of Huckel aromaticity, second-order Jahn-Teller and Peierls instability at large sizes. This leads to possible ground state structures with aromatic, bond angle or bond length alternated geometry. Highly accurate quantum Monte Carlo results indicate the existence of a crossover between C_10 and C_14 from bond angle to bond length alternation. The aromatic isomer is always a transition state. The driving mechanism is the second-order Jahn-Teller effect which keeps the gap open at all sizes.Comment: Submitted for publication: 4 pages, 3 figures. Corrected figure

Lattice-Boltzmann Method for Geophysical Plastic Flows

We explore possible applications of the Lattice-Boltzmann Method for the simulation of geophysical flows. This fluid solver, while successful in other fields, is still rarely used for geotechnical applications. We show how the standard method can be modified to represent free-surface realization of mudflows, debris flows, and in general any plastic flow, through the implementation of a Bingham constitutive model. The chapter is completed by an example of a full-scale simulation of a plastic fluid flowing down an inclined channel and depositing on a flat surface. An application is given, where the fluid interacts with a vertical obstacle in the channel.Comment: in W. Wu, R.I. Borja (Edts.) Recent advances in modelling landslides and debris flow, Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering (2014), ISBN 978-3-319-11052-3, pp. 131-14

A case of Muir-Torre syndrome associated with mucinous hepatic cholangiocarcinoma and a novel germline mutation of the MSH2 gene.

Muir-Torre syndrome (MTS) is a rare cancer-predisposing syndrome that is autosomal dominantly inherited and characterized by the development of sebaceous skin lesions (adenomas, epitheliomas, basaliomas and carcinomas). These lesions are typically associated with tumors that belong to the spectrum of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) (i.e., tumors of the colorectum, endometrium, stomach or ovary). Biliary malignancy in association with MTS has only rarely been reported. We report a case of Muir-Torre syndrome associated with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, a location not previously described, and associated with a novel missense mutation of the MSH2 gene (c.2026T > C), predicted to disrupt the function of the gene

A critical assessment of the Self-Interaction Corrected Local Density Functional method and its algorithmic implementation

We calculate the electronic structure of several atoms and small molecules by direct minimization of the Self-Interaction Corrected Local Density Approximation (SIC-LDA) functional. To do this we first derive an expression for the gradient of this functional under the constraint that the orbitals be orthogonal and show that previously given expressions do not correctly incorporate this constraint. In our atomic calculations the SIC-LDA yields total energies, ionization energies and charge densities that are superior to results obtained with the Local Density Approximation (LDA). However, for molecules SIC-LDA gives bond lengths and reaction energies that are inferior to those obtained from LDA. The nonlocal BLYP functional, which we include as a representative GGA functional, outperforms both LDA and SIC-LDA for all ground state properties we considered.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Diffusion tensor driven image registration: a deep learning approach

Tracking microsctructural changes in the developing brain relies on accurate inter-subject image registration. However, most methods rely on either structural or diffusion data to learn the spatial correspondences between two or more images, without taking into account the complementary information provided by using both. Here we propose a deep learning registration framework which combines the structural information provided by T2-weighted (T2w) images with the rich microstructural information offered by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans. We perform a leave-one-out cross-validation study where we compare the performance of our multi-modality registration model with a baseline model trained on structural data only, in terms of Dice scores and differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) maps. Our results show that in terms of average Dice scores our model performs better in subcortical regions when compared to using structural data only. Moreover, average sum-of-squared differences between warped and fixed FA maps show that our proposed model performs better at aligning the diffusion data

Feature-based diversity optimization for problem instance classification

Parallel Problem Solving from Nature – PPSN XIVUnderstanding the behaviour of heuristic search methods is a challenge. This even holds for simple local search methods such as 2-OPT for the Traveling Salesperson problem. In this paper, we present a general framework that is able to construct a diverse set of instances that are hard or easy for a given search heuristic. Such a diverse set is obtained by using an evolutionary algorithm for constructing hard or easy instances that are diverse with respect to different features of the underlying problem. Examining the constructed instance sets, we show that many combinations of two or three features give a good classification of the TSP instances in terms of whether they are hard to be solved by 2-OPT.Wanru Gao, Samadhi Nallaperuma, and Frank Neuman

Towards a genetic AIDS vaccine

We discuss a recent Nature Medicine publication by Philip Johnson and co-workers (Vector-mediated gene transfer engenders long-lived neutralizing activity and protection against SIV infection in monkeys. Nat. Med. 2009, 15: 901-906) in which an effective HIV-1 vaccine was designed that is based on gene therapy. The introduced gene produces an antibody-like immunoadhesin in the blood that neutralizes the virus