Gambling disorder and suicide: An overview of the associated co-morbidity and clinical characteristics

Context: A high prevalence of suicide and attempted suicide in relation to gambling disorder is in increasing evidence in current scientific data. The objective of this review was to explore if there was a primary correlation between psychiatric co-morbidities and gambling and/or a secondary correlation with suicide acts. Evidence Acquisition: We performed a critical analysis of the most recent papers in the scientific literature in this regard and report on the most significant findings. Results: A direct relationship between gambling and suicidality was highlighted in a number of European, American, and Asian countries. However, it was not clear whether or not gambling increased the risk of suicidal behavior. Twogeneral trends were noted. The first was that gamblers with extreme gambling behavior incurred economic losses and debts to such an extent that suicidal acts appeared to be the only solution. The second was that suicidal acts by gamblers were precipitated by interpersonal and/or working challenges, in conjunction with personality traits of impulsivity and psychiatric co-morbidities. Conclusions: A combination of impulsivity, certain psychiatric disorders, and social factors may explain the frequent occurrence of suicidal behavior in gamblers

Cytotoxic activity induced by crude extracts of Ganoderma lucidum (W. Curt.: Fr.) P. Karst. on mouse myeloma cancer cell-line

Ganoderma lucidum powder using hot water and methanol extraction methods indicated a twofold more active cytotoxic activity with IC50 of 44 ± 3.8 μg/ml in the latter method. The representative dose-response curves of the G. lucidum crude extracts on J558 cell-lines revealed that there were great similarities between the curves which reflected rapid killing activities. The percentage viability of the J558 cell exposed to these crude extracts was dose dependent only up to 150 μg/ml. After which, there was no significant reduction when the dose was increased to 200 or 400 μg/ml. The morphological alterations induced by the crude extract were examined under the phase contrast, fluorescent and electron microscopy. When J558 cells were treated with doses higher than 50 μg/ml of the crude extract, obvious morphological changes and apoptosis occurred after 72 h. At 400 μg/ml, most of the cells showed necrosis characterized as small fragments with uniformly stained red nuclei. The apoptotic and necrotic cells increased by 16.5 and 29.1%, respectively whereas the viable cells decreased by as much as 45.6. The mode of cell death via apoptosis was 3.6% higher than necrosis. However, these morphological changes were not observed in the case of 3T3 cells. Results obtained from scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy further confirmed the occurrence of various apoptotic and necrotic features

Irreversible magnetization switching at the onset of superconductivity in a superconductor ferromagnet hybrid

We demonstrate that the magnetic state of a superconducting spin valve, that is normally controlled with an external magnetic field, can also be manipulated by varying the temperature which increases the functionality and flexibility of such structures as switching elements. In this case, switching is driven by changes in the magnetostatic energy due to spontaneous Meissner screening currents forming in the superconductor below the critical temperature. Our scanning Hall probe measurements also reveal vortex-mediated pinning of the ferromagnetic domain structure due to the pinning of quantized stray fields in the adjacent superconductor. The ability to use temperature as well as magnetic field to control the local magnetisation structure raises the prospect of potential applications in magnetic memory devices