Influences of a Luck Game on Offers in Ultimatum and Dictator Games: Is There a Mediation of Emotions?

The ultimatum (UG) and dictator (DG) games are two tasks where a sum of money has to be divided between two players: a proposer and a receiver. Following the rational choice theory, proposers should offer the minimum in the UG and nothing in the DG, due to the presence/absence of the receivers’ bargaining power. The fact that people generally make non-negligible offers in both games has suggested divergent explicative hypotheses and has generated extensive research to examine exogenous and endogenous factors underlying such decisions. Among the contextual factors affecting the proposers’ offers, the sense of entitlement or of ownership has been shown to reduce offers significantly. A frequent way to induce the sense of entitlement/ownership has been to assign the role of proposer to the player who apparently has better scored in skill tasks executed before the UG or DG or has more contributed, through a previous luck game, to the amount to be shared. Such manipulations, however, could produce a possible overlapping between “ownership” and “merit,” that in this study we aimed to disentangle. We manipulated the participants’ initial endowment through a luck game, by increasing, decreasing or leaving it unchanged, to investigate whether winnings or losses by chance influenced offers in UG and DG in similar or different ways depending on their respective features. All participants played as proposers but this role was apparently random and disconnected from the outcomes of the luck game. Furthermore, we investigated whether the putative effect of experimental manipulation was mediated by the changes in emotions elicited by the luck game and/or by the emotions and beliefs related to decision-making. We used a non-economic version of the games, in which tokens were divided instead of money. In the study, 300 unpaid undergraduates (M = 152) from different degree programs, aged between 18 and 42 years, participated. The results revealed that the effect of outcome manipulation on offers was moderated by the specific structure of the UG and DG. Instead, emotional reactions barely mediated the effect of the experimental manipulation, suggesting that their role in those decisions is less relevant than is assumed in the literature

High domain wall velocities induced by current in ultrathin Pt/Co/AlOx wires with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Current-induced domain wall (DW) displacements in an array of ultrathin Pt/Co/AlOx wires with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy have been directly observed by wide field Kerr microscopy. DWs in all wires in the array were driven simultaneously and their displacement on the micrometer-scale was controlled by the current pulse amplitude and duration. At the lower current densities where DW displacements were observed (j less than or equal to 1.5 x 10^12 A/m^2), the DW motion obeys a creep law. At higher current density (j = 1.8 x 10^12 A/m^2), zero-field average DW velocities up to 130 +/- 10 m/s were recorded.Comment: Minor changes to Fig. 1(b) and text, correcting for the fact that domain walls were subsequently found to move counter to the electron flow. References update

Association between Resistin Levels and All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality: A New Study and a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

CONTEXT: Studies concerning the association between circulating resistin and mortality risk have reported, so far, conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between resistin and both all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality risk by 1) analyzing data from the Gargano Heart Study (GHS) prospective design (n=359 patients; 81 and 58 all-cause and CV deaths, respectively); 2) performing meta-analyses of all published studies addressing the above mentioned associations. DATA SOURCE AND STUDY SELECTION: MEDLINE and Web of Science search of studies reporting hazard ratios (HR) of circulating resistin for all-cause or CV mortality. DATA EXTRACTION: Performed independently by two investigators, using a standardized data extraction sheet. DATA SYNTHESIS: In GHS, adjusted HRs per one standard deviation (SD) increment in resistin concentration were 1.28 (95% CI: 1.07-1.54) and 1.32 (95% CI: 1.06-1.64) for all-cause and CV mortality, respectively. The meta-analyses included 7 studies (n=4016; 961 events) for all-cause mortality and 6 studies (n=4,187: 412 events) for CV mortality. Pooled HRs per one SD increment in resistin levels were 1.21 (95% CI: 1.03-1.42, Q-test p for heterogeneity<0.001) and 1.05 (95% CI: 1.01-1.10, Q-test p for heterogeneity=0.199) for all-cause and CV mortality, respectively. At meta-regression analyses, study mean age explained 9.9% of all-cause mortality studies heterogeneity. After adjusting for age, HR for all-cause mortality was 1.24 (95% CI: 1.06-1.45). CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide evidence for an association between circulating resistin and mortality risk among high-risk patients as are those with diabetes and coronary artery disease

Prevalence of disordered eating behaviors in adolescents with type 1 diabetes: Results of multicenter Italian Nationwide study

Objective: To assess the prevalence of disordered eating behaviors (DEBs) in a large sample of Italian adolescents with type 1 diabetes and to explore potential demographic, clinical, and psychological differences (understood as emotional and behavioral problems) among adolescents with and without DEBs. Method: Adolescents (11–19 years) with type 1 diabetes completed the Diabetes Eating Problems Survey-revised (DEPS-r) and the Youth Self Report (YSR). Demographic and clinical data were also collected. Results: Of 690 adolescents with type 1 diabetes (mean age 14.97 ± 1.81, n&nbsp;= 337 girls) assessed in this study, 28.1% (21% boys, 35% girls) were DEPS-r positive (score ≥ 20). Girls had higher DEPS-r total scores (p&nbsp;&lt;.0001, d&nbsp;=.42) than boys, although no age differences were found in mean DEPS-r total scores (p&nbsp;=.961). In both genders, adolescents with DEBs had significantly higher zBMI (p&nbsp;&lt;.0001, d&nbsp;=.52) and HbA1c values (p&nbsp;&lt;.0001, d&nbsp;=.54) and showed more emotional and behavioral problems (both as internalizing and externalizing problems) than those without DEBs (all p&nbsp;&lt;.0001). These differences were largely confirmed in all age groups. Adolescents reporting insulin misuse had higher HbA1c values (p&nbsp;=.001, d&nbsp;=.26), higher DEPS-r mean scores (p&nbsp;&lt;.0001, d&nbsp;= 1.07), and greater psychological problems (all p&nbsp;&lt;.001) than those who did not. Discussion: DEBs are prevalent among adolescents with type 1 diabetes, and those with eating problems showed adverse clinical and psychological conditions. Routine screening for DEBs and of general psychological condition should be a fundamental part of diabetes care, especially during adolescence. Public significance statement: This nationwide study indicated that DEBs are common in adolescents with T1D, and those suffering from them show poorer clinical conditions and higher emotional and behavioral problems. As such, it offers important contributions for those working with EDs and in the T1D field, as it provides a deeper understanding of the co-occurring DEBs–emotional/behavioral problems in youths with T1D and highlights the importance of continuous monitoring of their psychological condition by a multidisciplinary team

Magnetic relaxation of exchange biased (Pt/Co) multilayers studied by time-resolved Kerr microscopy

Magnetization relaxation of exchange biased (Pt/Co)5/Pt/IrMn multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy was investigated by time-resolved Kerr microscopy. Magnetization reversal occurs by nucleation and domain wall propagation for both descending and ascending applied fields, but a much larger nucleation density is observed for the descending branch, where the field is applied antiparallel to the exchange bias field direction. These results can be explained by taking into account the presence of local inhomogeneities of the exchange bias field.Comment: To appear in Physical Review B (October 2005

Choroid plexus volume in multiple sclerosis can be estimated on structural MRI avoiding contrast injection

We compared choroid plexus (ChP) manual segmentation on non-contrast-enhanced (non-CE) sequences and reference standard CE T1- weighted (T1w) sequences in 61 multiple sclerosis patients prospectively included. ChP was separately segmented on T1w, T2-weighted (T2w) fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (FLAIR), and CE-T1w sequences. Inter-rater variability assessed on 10 subjects showed high reproducibility between sequences measured by intraclass correlation coefficient (T1w 0.93, FLAIR 0.93, CE-T1w 0.99). CE-T1w showed higher signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-to-noise ratio (CE-T1w 23.77 and 18.49, T1w 13.73 and 7.44, FLAIR 13.09 and 10.77, respectively). Manual segmentation of ChP resulted 3.073 ± 0.563 mL (mean ± standard deviation) on T1w, 3.787 ± 0.679 mL on FLAIR, and 2.984 ± 0.506 mL on CE-T1w images, with an error of 28.02 ± 19.02% for FLAIR and 3.52 ± 12.61% for T1w. FLAIR overestimated ChP volume compared to CE-T1w (p &lt; 0.001). The Dice similarity coefficient of CE-T1w versus T1w and FLAIR was 0.67 ± 0.05 and 0.68 ± 0.05, respectively. Spatial error distribution per slice was calculated after nonlinear coregistration to the standard MNI152 space and showed a heterogeneous profile along the ChP especially near the fornix and the hippocampus. Quantitative analyses suggest T1w as a surrogate of CE-T1w to estimate ChP volume.Relevance statement To estimate the ChP volume, CE-T1w can be replaced by non-CE T1w sequences because the error is acceptable, while FLAIR overestimates the ChP volume. This encourages the development of automatic tools for ChP segmentation, also improving the understanding of the role of the ChP volume in multiple sclerosis, promoting longitudinal studies.Key points • CE-T1w sequences are considered the reference standard for ChP manual segmentation.• FLAIR sequences showed a higher CNR than T1w sequences but overestimated the ChP volume.• Non-CE T1w sequences can be a surrogate of CE-T1w sequences for manual segmentation of ChP

Magnetization reversal, asymmetry, and role of uncompensated spins in perpendicular exchange coupled systems

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.Soft x-ray resonant magnetic scattering has been used to investigate the element-selective microscopic magnetization reversal behavior of room temperature perpendicular exchange coupled ferromagnetic∕antiferromagnetic (F∕AF) systems and to study the role of the interfacial coupling strength on it. Different nucleation processes and domain size distributions along the decreasing and increasing branches of the reversal have been found. The size of the magnetic domains during reversal depends on both the F anisotropy and F∕AF coupling strength, decreasing when one of them increases. Evidence of the exchange bias(coercivity enhancement) being induced by pinned (unpinned) uncompensated AF interfacial spins is also shown

Plasma cytokines, glomerular filtration rate and adipose tissue cytokines gene expression in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients

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Radiological assessment of dementia: the Italian inter-society consensus for a practical and clinically oriented guide to image acquisition, evaluation, and reporting

Background: Radiological evaluation of dementia is expected to increase more and more in routine practice due to both the primary role of neuroimaging in the diagnostic pathway and the increasing incidence of the disease. Despite this, radiologists often do not follow a disease-oriented approach to image interpretation, for several reasons, leading to reports of limited value to clinicians. In our work, through an intersocietal consensus on the main mandatory knowledge about dementia, we proposed a disease-oriented protocol to optimize and standardize the acquisition/evaluation/interpretation and reporting of radiological images. Our main purpose is to provide a practical guideline for the radiologist to help increase the effectiveness of interdisciplinary dialogue and diagnostic accuracy in daily practice. Results: We defined key clinical and imaging features of the dementias (A), recommended MRI protocol (B), proposed a disease-oriented imaging evaluation and interpretation (C) and report (D) with a glimpse to future avenues (E). The proposed radiological practice is to systematically evaluate and score atrophy, white matter changes, microbleeds, small vessel disease, consider the use of quantitative measures using commercial software tools critically, and adopt a structured disease-oriented report. In the expanding field of cognitive disorders, the only effective assessment approach is the standardized disease-oriented one, which includes a multidisciplinary integration of the clinical picture, MRI, CSF and blood biomarkers and nuclear medicine

Ocrelizumab reduces cortical and deep grey matter loss compared to the S1P-receptor modulator in multiple sclerosis

Introduction: Ocrelizumab (OCR) and Fingolimod (FGL) are two high-efficacy treatments in multiple sclerosis which, besides their strong anti-inflammatory activity, may limit neurodegeneration. Aim: To compare the effect of OCR and FGL on clinical and MRI endpoints. Methods: 95 relapsing-remitting patients (57 OCR, 38 FGL) clinically followed for 36&nbsp;months underwent a 3-Tesla MRI at baseline and after 24&nbsp;months. The annualized relapse rate, EDSS, new cortical/white matter lesions and regional cortical and deep grey matter volume loss were evaluated. Results: OCR reduced the relapse rate from 0.48 to 0.04, FGL from 0.32 to 0.05 (both p &lt; 0.001). Compared to FGL, OCR-group experienced fewer new white matter lesions (12% vs 32%, p = 0.005), no differences in new cortical lesions, lower deep grey matter volume loss (- 0.12% vs - 0.66%; p = 0.002, Cohen's d = 0.54), lower global cortical thickness change (- 0.45% vs - 0.70%; p = 0.036; d = 0.42) and reduced cortical thinning/volume loss in several regions of interests, including those of parietal gyrus (d-range = 0.65-0.71), frontal gyrus (d-range = 0.47-0.60), cingulate (d-range = 0.41-0.72), insula (d = 0.36), cerebellum (cortex d = 0.72, white matter d = 0.44), putamen (d = 0.35) and thalamus (d = 0.31). The effect on some regional thickness changes was confirmed in patients without focal lesions. Conclusions: When compared with FGL, patients receiving OCR showed greater suppression of focal MRI lesions accumulation and lower cortical and deep grey matter volume loss