Guilt Enhances the Sense of Control and Drives Risky Judgments

The present studies investigate the hypothesis that guilt influences risk-taking by enhancing one's sense of control. Across multiple inductions of guilt, we demonstrate that experimentally induced guilt enhances optimism about risks for the self (Study 1), preferences for gambles versus guaranteed payoffs (Studies 2, 4, and 6), and the likelihood that one will engage in risk-taking behaviors (Study 5). In addition, we demonstrate that guilt enhances the sense of control over uncontrollable events, an illusory control (Studies 3, 4, and 5), and found that a model with illusory control as a mediator is consistent with the data (Studies 5 and 6). We also found that a model with feelings of guilt as a mediator, but not generalized negative affect, fits the data (Study 4). Finally, we examined the relative explanatory power of different appraisals and found that appraisals of illusory control best explain the influence of guilt on risk-taking (Study 6). These results provide the first empirical demonstration of the influence of guilt on sense of control and risk-taking, extend previous theorizing on guilt, and more generally contribute to our understanding of how specific emotions influence cognition and behavior

Improving time–frequency domain sleep EEG classification via singular spectrum analysis

Background: Manual sleep scoring is deemed to be tedious and time consuming. Even among automatic methods such as Time-Frequency (T-F) representations, there is still room for more improvement. New method: To optimise the efficiency of T-F domain analysis of sleep electroencephalography (EEG) a novel approach for automatically identifying the brain waves, sleep spindles, and K-complexes from the sleep EEG signals is proposed. The proposed method is based on singular spectrum analysis (SSA). The single-channel EEG signal (C3-A2) is initially decomposed and then the desired components are automatically separated. In addition, the noise is removed to enhance the discrimination ability of features. The obtained T-F features after preprocessing stage are classified using a multi-class support vector machines (SVM) and used for the identification of four sleep stages over three sleep types. Furthermore, to emphasize on the usefulness of the proposed method the automatically-determined spindles are parameterised to discriminate three sleep types. Result: The four sleep stages are classified through SVM twice: with and without preprocessing stage. The mean accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for before the preprocessing stage are: 71.5 ± 0.11%, 56.1 ± 0.09% and 86.8 ± 0.04% respectively. However, these values increase significantly to 83.6 ± 0.07%, 70.6 ± 0.14% and 90.8 ± 0.03% after applying SSA. Comparison with existing method: The new T-F representation has been compared with the existing benchmarks. Our results prove that, the proposed method well outperforms the previous methods in terms of identification and representation of sleep stages. Conclusion: Experimental results confirm the performance improvement in terms of classification rate and also representative T-F domain

How probiotic bacteria influence the motor and mental behaviors as well as immunological and oxidative biomarkers in multiple sclerosis? A double blind clinical trial

Abstract Background and aims: This clinical trial was carried out to assess the effects of probiotic on mental and motor behaviors, metabolic profiles in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: Forty-eight patients with MS were treated by probiotics or placebo for four months to determine clinical symptoms, mental health, and metabolic profiles. Results: Probiotic decreased expanded disability status scale (−0.52 ± 0.04 vs. + 0.16 ± 0.07, P < 0.001), beck depression inventory (−5.08 ± 0.71 vs. −2.62 ± 0.78, P = 0.026), general health questionnaire-28 (−6.7 ± 1.17 vs. −3.04 ± 1.13, P = 0.03) and depression anxiety and stress scale (−12.54 ± 1.81 vs. −3.33 ± 2.26, P = 0.003). Probiotic reduced malondialdehyde (P < 0.001) and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (P < 0.001). Probiotic resulted in a significant reduction in IL-6 (P = 0.01) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (P = 0.03), and a significant increase in IL-10 (P < 0.001) and nitric oxide levels (P = 0.012). Conclusion: Through modulation of intestinal flora, the probiotic bacteria may improve clinical symptoms by balancing the inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses, and adjusting the oxidative biomarkers in the MS patients. Keywords: Clinical symptom Inflammation Multiple sclerosis Oxidative stress Probiotic

The ethical identity of law students

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordThis paper uses measures of values, moral outlook and professional identity to explore the ethical and professional identity of law students. We do so in two jurisdictions, surveying 441 students studying in England and Wales and 569 students studying in the US. The survey covers the first and final years of an undergraduate law degree and the postgraduate vocational stage in England and Wales, as well as students in all years of the JD programme in the US. We explore whether law students towards the end of their legal education have ethical identities predictive of less ethical conduct than those at the beginning of their legal education; whether law students intending careers in business law have values and profiles consistent with less ethical conduct than those intending to work for government or individuals; and what factors might explain these differences in ethical outlook. Our findings suggest that ethical identity is strongly associated with gender and career intentions. They also suggest weaker moral identities for students intending to practise business law. Ultimately, our findings support a conclusion that is more nuanced than the predominant theses about the impact of legal education on student ethicality which tend to suggest legal education diminishes ethicality

The Effectiveness of Doctoral Program in Nursing in Iran Based on the Patrick Model

Background: Doctoral program in nursing aims to train nursing professionals and managers to improve the quality of care and ultimately to promote public health. Some critics believe that in Iran this program mostly focuses on training instructors and researchers and neither improves the function and position of nursing discipline nor meets the needs of the community. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of nursing doctoral program based on the Patrick model from the perspective of nursing doctoral students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 90 nursing students who were conveniently selected from seven nursing schools. A questionnaire designed based on the Patrick model was used. Descriptive statistics, simple and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Percentage of the effectiveness scores was reported. Results: The mean score of effectiveness of the nursing doctoral program was 84.76 ± 2.73, which assumed a good level. Multiple regression analysis showed that job status and being native in the field of education explains 11% of the variance in the effectiveness score. Conclusions: Although the efficacy of nursing doctoral program is good, however, it needs revision to enhance the outcomes of the program in order to meet public needs and to increase learners’ satisfaction

Relaxations of fluorouracil tautomers by decorations of fullerene-like SiCs: DFT studies

Decorations of silicon carbide (SiC) fullerene-like nanoparticles by fluorouracil (FU) and its tautomers are investigated through density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Two models of fullerene-like particles including Si12C8 and Si8C12 are constructed to be counterparts of decorated hybrid structures, FU@Si12C8 and FU@Si8C12, respectively. The initial models including original FU and tautomeric structures and SiC nanoparticles are individually optimized and then combined for further optimizations in the hybrid forms. Covalent bonds are observed for FU@Si12C8 hybrids, whereas non-covalent interactions are seen for FU@Si8C12 ones. The obtained properties indicated that Si12C8 model could be considered as a better counterpart for interactions with FU structures than Si8C12 model. The results also showed significant effects of interactions on the properties of atoms close to the interacting regions in nanoparticles. Finally, the tautomeric structures show different behaviors in interactions with SiC nanoparticles, in which the SiC nanoparticles could be employed to detect the situations of tautomeric processes for FU structures. © 2016 Elsevier B.V

Increased risk of pre-eclampsia (PE) among women with the history of migraine

The Objective of this study was to assess possible association of history of migraine with pre-eclampsia (PE). This was a retrospective study to compare history of migraine in 90 women affected by PE with 90 women without PE as the control group. They recruited by a nonrandomized consecutive sampling method. Data were collected by a questionnaire including demographic, medical, obstetrics, and migraine assessment sections. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results showed an increased risk of PE in women with history of migraine (odds ratio: 2.87; p < 0.05). Result demonstrated that migraine history in the case group is 144 and in control group is 56. Gestational age (GA) at delivery and weight of neonate (WN) were significantly lower compared to control (GA: 37.3 ± 2.6 vs. 38.7± 1.3 weeks T test; P < 0.01) (WN: 2930 ± 690 vs. 3330 ± 420; T test; P < 0.0). Cesarean section was more frequent in the PE group compared to the control group 37 (42) vs. 14 (15.6); chi square; p < 0.01. The association of migraine with PE is the result of some similar mechanism leading to endothelial dysfunction. Frequent reports of an association between migraine and PE in different populations suggest a history of migraine as a risk factor for PEgestational hypertension (GH). Copyright © Informa UK Ltd

The investigation of relevancy between PIAS1 and PIAS2 gene expression and disease severity of multiple sclerosis

Introduction: PIAS1 and PIAS2 (protein inhibitor of activated STAT 1,2) play key roles in the pathogenesis of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. This study aims to evaluate the gene expression of these factors in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients compared to healthy individuals and correlate them with the severity of MS. Materials and methods: Sixty participants, including 30 patients with MS and 30 healthy controls were studied. The expression of PIAS1 and PIAS2 genes in peripheral blood samples of all participants was measured by real-time PCR. The severity of MS was evaluated using the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Finally, we evaluated the correlation between the expression of PIAS1 and PIAS2 genes with disease severity. Results: The expression of PIAS1 gene was increased in patients with MS compared to healthy subjects (P value<.001). Also, there was a significant correlation between the expression of PIAS1 and PIAS2 genes with disease severity according to EDSS. Conclusion: Our study suggests the expression of PIAS1 and PIAS2 genes as a prognostic and diagnostic marker in MS disease. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis