The Meaning of Money and Possessions: A Cross-University Comparison

The purpose of the paper is to examine whether students attending state universities and Jesuit universities possess different levels of love of money and materialism. Students attending marketing classes at two universities in the same region of the U.S. (one state and one Jesuit) were asked to complete a survey containing instruments to measure their love of money and their materialism. The results suggest business students attending a Jesuit university have lesser love of money than those attending a state university, but higher materialistic envy

Cápsula endoscópica e estudos imagiológicos contrastados: diferentes perspectivas para uma imagem mais completa do intestino delgado

Small bowel evaluation is a challenging task and has been revolutionized by high-quality contrasted sectional imaging (CT enterography - CTE) and magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) as well as by small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE).The decision of which technique to employ during the investigation of small bowel diseases is not always simple or straightforward. Moreover, contraindications may preclude the use of these techniques in some patients, and although they are noninvasive procedures, may present with various complications. SBCE plays a crucial role in the investigation of both obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and Crohn's disease, but it is also useful for surveillance of patients with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, while CTE is very accurate in small bowel tumours and in established Crohn's Disease, and its use in patients presenting with gastrointestinal bleeding is increasing. MRE, an expensive and not widely available technique, is essential for the study of patients with Crohn's Disease, and presents an attractive alternative to SBCE in Peutz-Jeghers syndrome surveillance.These diagnostic modalities are often not competitive but synergistic techniques. Knowing their characteristics, strengths and limitations, indications, contraindications and potential complications, as well as the adaptation to local availability and expertise, is essential to better select which procedures to perform in each patient, both safely and effectively, in order to optimize management and improve patient outcomes.A investigação do intestino delgado, previamente difícil e limitada, sofreu uma revolução com o aparecimento de técnicas imagiológicas contrastadas de elevada qualidade, como a enterografia por tomografia axial computadorizada (enteroTC) e a enterografia por ressonância magnética (enteroRM), assim como pela enteroscopia por cápsula (EC). A decisão na escolha da técnica a utilizar nas diferentes patologias do intestino delgado não é na maioria das vezes simples ou óbvia. Adicionalmente, a presença de contraindicações pode restringir o uso destas técnicas em alguns doentes, e apesar de não serem consideradas técnicas invasivas, não são isentas de riscos e complicações. A EC tem um papel crucial na investigação da hemorragia digestiva de causa obscura e da doença de Crohn, mas tem-se revestido também de utilidade na vigilância de doentes com síndrome de Peutz-Jeghers; a enteroTC revelou uma elevada capacidade diagnóstica para neoplasias do intestino delgado e na doença de Crohn estabelecida, e a sua utilização na hemorragia digestiva de causa obscura tem vindo a expandir. A enteroRM, apesar de dispendiosa e de disponibilidade limitada, tem uma elevada eficácia no estudo da doença de Crohn, e é uma alternativa válida à EC no síndrome de Peutz-Jeghers. Estas técnicas diagnósticas são frequentemente singergísticas e complementares, ao invés de competitivas. O reconhecimento das suas características, das suas capacidades e limitações, assim como das indicações, contraindicações e potenciais complicações, e aliado à adaptação à disponibilidade e competências locais, é essencial na correcta escolha de procedimentos seguros e eficazes para cada doente, de forma a optimizar a abordagem e o prognóstico.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Elliptic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|$\eta$|<0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2< $p_{\rm T}$< 5.0 GeV/$c$. The elliptic flow signal v$_2$, measured using the 4-particle correlation method, averaged over transverse momentum and pseudorapidity is 0.087 $\pm$ 0.002 (stat) $\pm$ 0.004 (syst) in the 40-50% centrality class. The differential elliptic flow v$_2(p_{\rm T})$ reaches a maximum of 0.2 near $p_{\rm T}$ = 3 GeV/$c$. Compared to RHIC Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV, the elliptic flow increases by about 30%. Some hydrodynamic model predictions which include viscous corrections are in agreement with the observed increase.Comment: 10 pages, 4 captioned figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/389

RNA interference as a key to knockdown overexpressed cyclooxygenase-2 gene in tumour cells

Silencing those genes that are overexpressed in cancer and contribute to the survival and progression of tumour cells is the aim of several researches. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is one of the most intensively studied genes since it is overexpressed in most tumours, mainly in colon cancer. The use of specific COX-2 inhibitors to treat colon cancer has generated great enthusiasm. Yet, the side effects of some inhibitors emerging during long-term treatment have caused much concern. Genes silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) has led to new directions in the field of experimental oncology. In this study, we detected sequences directed against COX-2 mRNA, that potently downregulate COX-2 gene expression and inhibit phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-induced angiogenesis in vitro in a specific, nontoxic manner. Moreover, we found that the insertion of a specific cassette carrying anti-COX-2 short hairpin RNA sequence into a viral vector (pSUPER.retro) greatly increased silencing potency in a colon cancer cell line (HT29) without activating any interferon response. Phenotypically, COX-2 deficient HT29 cells showed a significant impairment of their in vitro malignant behaviour. Thus, the retroviral approach enhancing COX-2 knockdown, mediated by RNAi, proved to be an useful tool to better understand the role of COX-2 in colon cancer. Furthermore, the higher infection efficiency we observed in tumour cells, if compared to normal endothelial cells, may disclose the possibility to specifically treat tumour cells without impairing endothelial COX-2 activity

Encoding of Naturalistic Stimuli by Local Field Potential Spectra in Networks of Excitatory and Inhibitory Neurons

Recordings of local field potentials (LFPs) reveal that the sensory cortex displays rhythmic activity and fluctuations over a wide range of frequencies and amplitudes. Yet, the role of this kind of activity in encoding sensory information remains largely unknown. To understand the rules of translation between the structure of sensory stimuli and the fluctuations of cortical responses, we simulated a sparsely connected network of excitatory and inhibitory neurons modeling a local cortical population, and we determined how the LFPs generated by the network encode information about input stimuli. We first considered simple static and periodic stimuli and then naturalistic input stimuli based on electrophysiological recordings from the thalamus of anesthetized monkeys watching natural movie scenes. We found that the simulated network produced stimulus-related LFP changes that were in striking agreement with the LFPs obtained from the primary visual cortex. Moreover, our results demonstrate that the network encoded static input spike rates into gamma-range oscillations generated by inhibitory–excitatory neural interactions and encoded slow dynamic features of the input into slow LFP fluctuations mediated by stimulus–neural interactions. The model cortical network processed dynamic stimuli with naturalistic temporal structure by using low and high response frequencies as independent communication channels, again in agreement with recent reports from visual cortex responses to naturalistic movies. One potential function of this frequency decomposition into independent information channels operated by the cortical network may be that of enhancing the capacity of the cortical column to encode our complex sensory environment

Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report on the first measurement of the triangular $v_3$, quadrangular $v_4$, and pentagonal $v_5$ charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow $v_2$ and $v_3$ have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387

Sentiment Toward Marketing: An Examination of Future Business Personnel Attending Different Types of Institutions

Consumers’ sentiment toward marketing appears to be an area of important concern to both practitioners and researchers since it can be expected to affect their shopping and purchasing activity. The purpose of this study is to examine the sentiment toward marketing of collegiate business students. Specifically, does the sentiment toward marketing differ between business students attending universities that differ in orientation, such as those attending state universities and those attending Jesuit universities affect students’ sentiment toward marketing? The findings suggest that students attending the Jesuit university may possess more negative sentiment toward marketing. The increased emphasis on social justice and social responsibility at the Jesuit university may increase the standards that the students expect from marketers, leading to more negative sentiment toward marketing when businesses do not perform at these standards