How a good sleep predicts life satisfaction: The role of zero-sum beliefs about happiness

Sleep, although a vital aspect of human functioning, has received scant attention in happiness research. This research examines the effect of sleep quality on life satisfaction, and one possible mechanism that bridges the two. One cognitive factor that might tie the relationship between sleep and life satisfaction is a belief about the (in) finite nature of happiness (zero-sum belief about happiness; ZBH), a mindset that occurs more under conditions of scarcity. Given the interconnections among experiences prompted by various types of scarcity (e.g., financial and calorie), we predicted that deprived cognitive resource caused by poor sleep may activate the ZBH, thereby hurting one’s life satisfaction. As expected, we found that sleep quality predicted the participants’ life satisfaction, even controlling for baseline variables. More importantly, this relationship was partially mediated by ZBH. This study opens interesting questions on a relatively unexamined role of non-social predictors, such as sleep, in well-being.11Yssciscopu

Peculiar Mammographic and Ultrasonographic Findings of a Retained Silastic Drain in the Breast

Foreign bodies, such as surgical sponges or drains, are sometimes retained after surgical procedures.1 Retention of a drain in the breast tissue postoperatively is an unusual complication. This report describes two cases of characteristic sonographic findings related to retained silastic drains following breast surgery

Dimensions of Affecting Factors on the Acceptance of Smartphones regarding Travel Information

With hand-held devices and mobile computing becoming ubiquitous in our lives, it is true that many people are interested inthe usage of smartphones in the tourism industry. However, even though there are lots of studies on technology acceptanceand online travel information, there is little research on smartphone acceptance for travel information. The aim of this study isto investigate the determinants of travelers’ intentions to adopt smartphones within the context of their travel activities. Inthis paper we propose a new approach to examine the intention of travelers to use smartphones by viewing smartphone usagefrom two standpoints: hardware (technology) and software (online travel information). In terms of hardware, the unitedtheory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model is used to investigate the intention to use smartphones, and thetravel websites satisfaction (E-SAT) model is used to investigate the intention to use smartphones in terms of software. Basedon the literature of two research streams, this study proposes an instrument to measure the affecting factors on the acceptanceof smartphones regarding travel information

Real-time delay-multiply-and-sum beamforming with coherence factor for in vivo clinical photoacoustic imaging of humans

In the clinical photoacoustic (PA) imaging, ultrasound (US) array transducers are typically used to provide B-mode images in real-time. To form a B-mode image, delay-and-sum (DAS) beamforming algorithm is the most commonly used algorithm because of its ease of implementation. However, this algorithm suffers from low image resolution and low contrast drawbacks. To address this issue, delay-multiply-and-sum (DMAS) beamforming algorithm has been developed to provide enhanced image quality with higher contrast, and narrower main lobe compared but has limitations on the imaging speed for clinical applications. In this paper, we present an enhanced real-time DMAS algorithm with modified coherence factor (CF) for clinical PA imaging of humans in vivo. Our algorithm improves the lateral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of original DMAS beam-former by suppressing the background noise and side lobes using the coherence of received signals. We optimized the computations of the proposed DMAS with CF (DMAS-CF) to achieve real-time frame rate imaging on a graphics processing unit (GPU). To evaluate the proposed algorithm, we implemented DAS and DMAS with/without CF on a clinical US/PA imaging system and quantitatively assessed their processing speed and image quality. The processing time to reconstruct one B-mode image using DAS, DAS with CF (DAS-CF), DMAS, and DMAS-CF algorithms was 7.5, 7.6, 11.1, and 11.3 ms, respectively, all achieving the real-time imaging frame rate. In terms of the image quality, the proposed DMAS-CF algorithm improved the lateral resolution and SNR by 55.4% and 93.6 dB, respectively, compared to the DAS algorithm in the phantom imaging experiments. We believe the proposed DMAS-CF algorithm and its real-time implementation contributes significantly to the improvement of imaging quality of clinical US/PA imaging system.11Ysciescopu

Two-point discrimination values vary depending on test site, sex and test modality in the orofacial region: a preliminary study

The two-point discrimination (TPD) test is one of the most commonly used neurosensory tests to assess mechanoperception in the clinical settings. While there have been numerous studies of functional sensibility of the hand using TPD test, there have been relatively not enough reports on TPD in the orofacial region. Objective The aims of the present study were to determine the normal values of TPD in the six trigeminal sites (the forehead, cheek, mentum, upper lip, lower lip, and the tongue tip) and to investigate the effect of the site, sex, and test modality on the TPD perception. Material and Methods Forty healthy volunteers consisting of age-matched men (20) and women (20) with a mean age of 27.1 years were recruited. One examiner performed the TPD test using a simple hand-operated device, i.e., by drawing compass with a blunt or sharp-pointed tip. The static TPD with a blunt-pointed tip (STPDB), moving TPD with a blunt-pointed tip (MTPDB), and static TPD with a sharp-pointed tip (STPDS) were measured. The predictors were the site, sex, and test modality, and the outcome variable was the TPD value. Three-way ANOVA was used for statistics. Results The analysis showed a significant effect of the site, sex and test modality on the TPD values. Significant differences between the test sites were observed with the descending order from the forehead and cheek>;mentum>;upper lip and lower lip>;tongue tip and index finger. Women showed lower TPD values than those of men. The STPDS measurements were consistently lower than those of the STPDB and MTPDB. Conclusions The normal values of TPD in this study suggest that the cheek and forehead were less sensitive than other regions evaluated and women were more sensitive than men. The STPDS was the most sensitive test modality

A Novel Secretory Vesicle from Deer Antlerogenic Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Conditioned Media (DaMSC-CM) Promotes Tissue Regeneration

Multipotent stem cells have the capacity to generate terminally differentiated cell types of each lineage; thus, they have great therapeutic potential for a wide variety of diseases. The most widely available stem cells are derived from human tissues, and their use for therapeutic application is limited by their high cost and low productivity. Herein, we report that conditioned media of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from deer antlers enhanced tissue regeneration through paracrine action via a combination of secreted growth factors and cytokines. Notably, DaMSC-conditioned media (DaMSC-CM) enhanced hair regeneration by activating the Wnt signaling pathway. In addition, DaMSC-CM had regenerative potential in damaged skin tissue through induction of skin regeneration-related genes. Remarkably, we identified round vesicles derived from DaMSC-CM, with an average diameter of ~120 nm that were associated with hair follicle formation, suggesting that secretory vesicles may act as paracrine mediators for modulation of local cellular responses. In addition, these secretory vesicles could regulate the expression of Wnt-3a, Wnt-10b, and lymphoid enhancer-binding factor-1 (LEF-1), which are related to tissue renewal. Thus, our findings demonstrate that the use of DaMSC-CM as a unique natural model for rapid and complete tissue regeneration has possible application for therapeutic development

Molecular Cloning and Functional Characterization of Protein Phosphatase 2C of Two Scuticociliates – Uronema marinum and Miamiensis avidus (Ciliophora: Scuticociliatia)

Complementary DNAs (cDNAs) of protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) were cloned from two marine scuticociliates Uronema marinum and Miamiensis avidus. Both PP2C proteins showed structural characteristics of typical PP2C, such as highly conserved amino acid residues predicted for binding to phosphate and metal ions, 11 conserved PP2C motifs and 10 invariant residues. The phosphatase activity of recombinantly produced U. marinum PP2C (UmPP2C) was in proportion to the PP2C protein and Mg2+ concentrations, and was not sensitive to okadaic acid, but was inhibited by sodium fluoride, EDTA or Ca2+. The expression of UmPP2C was significantly up-regulated by exposure the ciliates with PMA suggesting that UmPP2C dephosphrylates proteins phosphorylated by protein kinases as in other eukaryotes and has a regulatory function against abrupt increase of protein phosphorylation triggered by strong stimulations