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Prospect Theory predicts that people tend to be more risk seeking if their reference point is perceived as a loss and more risk averse when the reference point is perceived as a gain. In line with this prediction, Franken, Georgieva, Muris and Dijksterhuis (2006) showed that young adults who had a prior experience of monetary gains make more safe choices on subsequent decisions than subjects who had an early experience of losses. There are no experimental studies on how experiencing prior gains and losses differently influences young and older adults on a subsequent decision-making task (the Iowa Gambling Task). Hence, in the current paper, adapting the methodology employed by Franken et al.’s (2006), we intended to test the generality of their effect across the life span. Overall, we found that subjects who experienced prior monetary gains or prior monetary losses did not display significant differences in safe/risky choices on subsequent performance in the Iowa Gambling task. Furthermore, the impact of prior gains and losses on risky/safe card selection did not significantly differ between young and older adults. These results showed that the effect found in the Franken et al.’s study (2006) is limited in its generality.
Este artigo analisa aspectos do patriarcalismo presentes em obras de Machado de Assis. O objetivo é evidenciar a crítica a uma cultura patriarcal idealizada, segundo padrões de uma antiguidade clássica difundida no século XIX. Trata-se, portanto, da anatomia de uma farsa, oculta na retórica refinada de representantes da oligarquia escravocrata. Machado de Assis revela, em seus escritos, o ethos da oligarquia que estruturou a sociedade brasileira do anos 1800.
Sleep plays a key role in the pathogenesis and clinic of mood disorders. However, few studies have investigated electroencephalographic sleep parameters during the manic phases of Bipolar Disorder (BD).
Objectives
Sleep management is a priority objective in the treatment of the manic phases of BD and the polysomnographic investigation can be a valid tool both in the diagnostic phase and in monitoring clinical progress.
Methods
Twenty-one patients affected by BD, manic phase, were subjected to sleep monitoring via PSG in the acute phase (at the entrance to the ward) and in the resolution phase (near discharge). All participants were also clinically evaluated using Young Manic Rating Scale (YMRS) Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Morningness-eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) at different timepoints.
Results
Over the hospitalization time frame there was an increase in quantity (Total Sleep Time) and an improvement in the quality and effectiveness of sleep (Sleep Efficiency). In addition, from the point of view of the EEG structure, clinical improvement was accompanied by an increase in the percentage of REM sleep.
Conclusions
Sleep monitoring by PSG can be a valuable tool in the clinical setting both in the diagnostic phase, “objectively” ascertaining the amount of sleep, and in the prognostic phase, identifying electroencephalographic characteristics that can predict the patient’s progress and response to drug therapy. The improvement in effectiveness and continuity of sleep and the change in its structure that accompanies the resolution of manic symptoms also testifies how the regularization of the sleep-wake rhythm is to be considered a priority in treating manic phases.
Esketamine is a novel antidepressant approved by the FDA in 2019 in the form of an intranasal spray, recommended for Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). The intranasal spray system appears to be more manageable than intravenous ketamine infusion. It contains ketamine’s S- isomer which is four-fold more potent for the NMDA receptor.
Objectives
The aim of this case series is to describe our clinical experience in the use of Esketamine.
Methods
6 TRD patients (3 men; 3 women) were recruited in San Raffaele Turro Hospital from March 2021. All patients (2 bipolar and 4 unipolar) were diagnosed with a Major Depressive Episode according to DSM-5 criteria, resistant to at least two antidepressants. Initially, Esketamine was administrated twice weekly for one month; afterward, it was administrated once weekly for a month; finally, it was administrated once weekly or every two weeks for a month. Clinical scales (HAM-D, YMRS, SSI, HAM-A, MADRS, CADSS) were administrated to assess symptoms and sides effects before and after each administration on a weekly basis.
Results
Three patients out of six showed an improvement in depressive symptoms: two patients had remission (final HAM-D score < 8); one patient had a clinical response (final HAM-D score < 50 % respect baseline value). Three patients withdrew the treatment: two for perceived inefficacy, after 16 and 19 administrations, one for personal reasons.
Conclusions
The use of Esketamine in our TRD patients showed good effectiveness and tolerability but randomized controlled clinical trials are needed to confirm our findings.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global traumatic experience for citizens, especially during sensitive time windows of heightened plasticity such as pregnancy and neonatal life. Pandemic-related stress experienced by mothers during pregnancy may act as an early risk factor for infants’ regulatory capacity development by altering maternal psychosocial well-being (e.g., increased anxiety, reduced social support) and caregiving environment (e.g., greater parenting stress, impaired mother–infant bonding). The aim of the present longitudinal study was to assess the consequences of pandemic-related prenatal stress on infants’ regulatory capacity. A sample of 163 mother–infant dyads was enrolled at eight maternity units in northern Italy. They provided complete data about prenatal stress, perceived social support, postnatal anxiety symptoms, parenting stress, mother–infant bonding, and infants’ regulatory capacity at 3 months of age. Women who experienced emotional stress and received partial social support during pregnancy reported higher anxious symptoms. Moreover, maternal postnatal anxiety was indirectly linked to the infants’ regulatory capacity at 3 months, mediated by parenting stress and mother–infant bonding. Dedicated preventive interventions should be delivered to mothers and should be focused on protecting the mother–infant dyad from the detrimental effects of pandemic-related stress during the COVID-19 healthcare emergency.
Mood disorders are characterized by manic and depressive episodes alternating with normal mood. While social function is heavily impaired during episodes of illness, there are conflicting opinions about inter-episode function. The present paper focuses on self-esteem and social adjustment in remitted mood disorders patients.
Patients with mood disorders (99 bipolar and 86 major depressive subjects, in remission) were compared with a group of 100 control subjects. The self-esteem scale (SES) and the social adjustment scale (SAS) were used to measure self-esteem and social adjustment, respectively, in both groups of subjects.
Patients with mood disorder exhibited worse social adjustment and lower self-esteem than control subjects.These results strongly confirm previous observations of poor inter-episode function in patients with mood disorder.
Clinically, OC-checkers often report staring compulsions and “lack of action completion” sensations, which have been linked to self-agency alterations. Belayachi and Van der Linden (2009) theoretically proposed that “abnormal” checkers self-agency could be due to an over-reliability on environmental cues and to a tendency to specify actions in a procedural and inflexible way, conceiving them as “low-level” agents. Currently, no studies have experimentally address this issue.
Objectives
To investigate self-agency in OC-checkers subtype, measuring gaze agency (the ability to understand that we can cause events through our eye movements) and taking into account both agency beliefs and agency feelings.
Methods
13 OC-checkers and 13 healthy controls underwent two tasks. “Discovery” task, a completely novel task used to examine causal learning abilities. Subjects watched bouncing balls on a computer screen with the aim of discovering the cause of concurrently presented acoustical beeps. “Detection” task, a two-alternative forced choice task that required subjects to tell whether or not the beeps were generated by their own eye movements.
Results
Checkers exhibit:
– lower performance scores and confidence ratings when they have to self-attribute the beep cause, but not eye behavioral differences, during discovery task;
– lower confidence ratings, but a level of accuracy similar to that of controls, during detection task.
Conclusions
Checkers do not show an altered self-agency per se, but what we have called a “doubtful” self-agency: indeed, we argue that agency beliefs alterations found during Discovery task can be due to pathological doubt, rather than to altered agency feelings.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Several studies recently investigated how Anorexia Nervosa patients (ANp) process multimodal information. Longo (2015) hypothesized that ANp might be less reliant on visual perception of bodies than healthy controls (HC). Case et al. showed that processing of multimodal information might be disrupted in ANp. Literature lacks of studies that measure precisely and compare directly the contributions of each sensory input.
Objective
To investigate the integration of visual and haptic inputs in ANp compared with HC and measure the weight of each input.
Method
We used a visuo-haptic integration task with a setup adapted from Gori et al. (2008) to measure each sensory input's when judging the size of a cube according to Maximum Likelihood Estimation theory which describes the optimal multimodal integration behaviour (Ernst and Banks, 2002). Fifteen ANp and 16 HCs were recruited.
Results
Regardless the group, we found considerable individual variability about the integration processes; moreover, many participants did not integrate optimally. Correlation analysis suggested that ANp rely less on visual information then HC.
Conclusions
Despite using a setup previously validated with children, the observation that many HC did not integrate optimally is not in line with the results of previous studies, making it difficult the comparison with the AN group. The setup might not be adapted to adults and it needs to be improved. Our study shows for the first time how it might be possible to measure and compare directly the contribution of two different sensory modalities. This could provide precious information to deeply investigate the pathology.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Older adults tend to exhibit more prosocial behavior than younger adults. However, little research has focused on understanding the factors that may explain such differences in the social decision-making process. The first aim was to examine if, and to what degree, the content of social information about a recipient has an impact on young vs. older adults’ prosocial behavior. The second aim was to understand if empathic concern, Theory of Mind, and reasoning explain the (expected) age differences in prosociality.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
The study was conducted in northern Italy in a laboratory setting.
Prosocial behavior was measured using the Dictator Game in which participants split a sum of money with recipients presented with four levels of description: no information, physical description, positive psychological description, and negative psychological description. In addition, participants performed tasks on emphatic concern, Theory of Mind, and reasoning.
Results:
Results showed that older adults are more prosocial than younger adults in the Dictator Game. This finding was evident when the recipient was described with positive psychological and physical features. This pattern of results was statistically explained by the reduction in reasoning ability.
Conclusion:
These findings suggest a relationship between age-related reduction in reasoning ability and older adults’ prosocial behavior. The theoretical and practical implication of the empirical findings are discussed.
Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate “Proactive-Adjustment hypothesis” (PA) during the Stop Signal Task (SST). The PA is implied in the highly inconsistent literature, and it deals with the role of response inhibition (RI) in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This hypothesis assumed that participants would balance stopping and going by adjusting the response threshold (RT) in the go task. We verified whether the PA strategy was also implemented in our clinical group. Methods: To reach this goal, we analyzed SST performances in a group of 36 patients with OCD and 36 healthy controls (HCs). To identify different participants’ behaviors during the task, without preconceived notions regarding the diagnosis, we performed a cluster analysis. Furthermore, we analyzed the influence of drug therapy and we investigated whether the rule and reversal acquisition investigated with the Intra-Extra Dimensional Set Shift, differed in the two clusters. Results: We did not find any difference relative to the number of patients with OCD and HCs included in the two clusters. Furthermore, we found that only Not Proactive participants performed the task as fast as possible, while Proactive participants consistently slowed down their RTs and showed a lower number of Direction Errors, higher Stop Signal Delay, and worse cognitive flexibility. Conclusions: Our results show that among patients with OCD the use of PA is changeable and does not differ from HCs. This finding supports the idea that the RI heterogeneity concerning patients with OCD could be related to PA. (JINS, 2018, 24, 1–12)
Previous research has suggested that there is a degree of variability among older adults’ response to memory training, such that some individuals benefit more than others. The aim of the present study was to identify the profile of older adults who were likely to benefit most from a strategic memory training program that has previously proved to be effective in improving memory in healthy older adults.
Method:
In total, 44 older adults (60–83 years) participated in a strategic memory training. We examined memory training benefits by measuring changes in memory practiced (word list learning) and non-practiced tasks (grocery list and associative learning). In addition, a battery of cognitive measures was administered in order to assess crystallized and fluid abilities, short-term memory, working memory, and processing speed.
Results:
Results confirmed the efficacy of the training in improving performance in both practiced and non-practiced memory tasks. For the practiced memory tasks, results showed that memory baseline performance and crystallized ability predicted training gains. For the non-practiced memory tasks, analyses showed that memory baseline performance was a significant predictor of gain in the grocery list learning task. For the associative learning task, the significant predictors were memory baseline performance, processing speed, and marginally the age.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that older adults with a higher baseline memory capacity and with more efficient cognitive resources were those who tended to benefit most from the training. The present study provides new avenues in designing personalized intervention according to the older adults’ cognitive profile.
From their discovery, CNTs have increasingly attracted interest because of
their peculiar electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties. In 1991,
Sumio Iijima first observed and described in detail the atomic arrangement
of this new type of carbon structure [1]. By a technique used for fullerene
synthesis, he produced needle-like tubes at the cathode of an arc-discharge
evaporator. From that time, carbon nanotubes have been used for many
applications and represent one of the most typical building blocks used in
nanotechnology. Their peculiarities include unique properties of field
emission and electronic transport, higher mechanical strength with respect
to other materials, and interesting chemical features.
The use of CNTs has recently gained momentum in the development of
electrochemical biosensors, since their utilization can create devices with
enhanced sensitivity and detection limit capable of detecting compounds in
concentrations comparable to those present in the human body.
This chapter will review the most important features of carbon nanotubes, and
present an example in which their application can enhance the detection of
drugs and metabolites relevant in personalized medicine: P450 biosensors for
therapeutic drug monitoring.
Overview
Carbon is a very interesting element, since it can assume several stable
molecular structures. Any molecule entirely composed of carbon is called a
fullerene.
III-nitrides (III-Ns) semiconductors and their alloys have shown in the last few years high potential for interesting applications in photonics and electronics. III-Ns based heterostructures (HS) have been under wide investigation for different applications such as high frequency transistors, ultraviolet photodetector, light emitters etc. In the present contribution a III-Ns based heterostructure, in particular the nearly lattice matched Al1-xInxN/AlN/GaN HS will be discussed. The formation of the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG), its origin, its electrical and optical properties, the confined subband states in the well and its effect on the conduction mechanisms have been studied. Moreover, extended defects and their effect on the degradation phenomena of the 2DEG have been analyzed.
Organic single crystals offer the interesting and unique opportunity to investigate the intrinsic electrical behaviour of organic materials, excluding hopping phenomena due to grain boundaries and structural imperfections. Their structural asymmetry permits also to investigate the correlation between their three-dimensional order and their charge transport characteristics. Here we report on millimeter-sized, solution-grown organic single crystals, based on 4-hydroxycyanobenzene (4HCB), which exhibit three-dimensional anisotropic electrical properties along the three crystallographic axes a, b (constituting the main crystal flat face) and c (the crystal thickness), measured over several different samples. The carrier mobility was determined by means of space charge limited current (SCLC) and air-gap field effect transistors fabricated with 4HCB single crystals and the measured value well correlate with the structural packing anisotropy of the molecular crystal. A differential analysis of SCLC curves allowed to determine the distribution and the concentration of the dominant electrically active density of states within the gap.
We studied the anisotropic charge transport properties of solution-grown organic single crystals based on a dipolar molecule 4HCB (4-hydroxy-cyanobenzene) by electrical transport measurements, current-voltage and space charge limited current (SCLC), and by X-ray diffraction analyses.
Optical excitation differently affects the flow of charge carriers along the two main planar crystal axis, altering the charge transport anisotropy induced by the molecular π-orbitals stacking. We attribute this behaviour to the presence of an intrinsic molecular dipole and to its different orientation within the crystal lattice. The anisotropy of transport along the three crystallographic directions has been assessed by electrical characterization and correlated to the crystal molecular packing as determined by X-ray analyses.
We investigated the electronic levels of defects introduced in 4H-SiC α-particle detectors by irradiation with 1 MeV neutrons up to a fluence equal to 8x1015 n/cm2. As well, we investigated their effect on the detector radiation hardness. This study was carried out by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and photo-induced current transient spectroscopy (PICTS). As the irradiation level approaches fluences in the order of 1015 n/cm2, the material behaves as highly resistive due to a very great compensation effect but the diodes are still able to detect with a acceptably good charge collection efficiency (CCE) equal to 80%. By further increasing fluence, CCE decreases reaching the value of ≈ 20% at fluence of 8x1015 n/cm2.
The dominant peaks in the PICTS spectra occur in the temperature range [400, 700] K. Enthalpy, capture cross-section and order of magnitude of the density of such deep levels were calculated. In the above said temperature range the deep levels associated to the radiation induced defects play the key role in the degradation of the CCE. Two deep levels at Et = 1.18 eV and Et = 1.50 eV are likely to be responsible of such dramatic decrease of the charge collection efficiency. These levels were reasonably associated to an elementary defect involving a carbon vacancy and to a defect complex involving a carbon and a silicon vacancy, respectively.
We present a combined Capacitance-Voltage (C-V), Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) and Photocurrent (PC) study of short-term instabilities of InGaN/GaN LEDs submitted to forward current aging tests at room temperature. C-V profiles detect changes consisting in apparent doping and/or charge concentration increase within the quantum wells. This increase is correlated to dramatic modifications in the DLTS spectrum when the reverse bias and filling pulse are properly adjusted in order to probe the quantum well region. The new distribution of the electronic levels detected by DLTS could explain the observed decrease in the light emission efficiency [1,2] of the device, as the deep levels generated during the stress may provide alternative recombination paths for free carriers. The photocurrent spectra do not change in shape during stress, although their amplitude slightly decreases. This is related to a decrease of the device yield, in this photodetector configuration, with increasing aging time. Thus, we can suggest that the introduction of new defect levels in the bulk material lowers the free carrier mobility.
This paper reports on first results obtained on GaN epitaxial
layer grown on a single wafer with a lateral variation in
defect density. The chemically homogeneous GaN epitaxial layer
was deposited by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition onto a
specially prepared buffer layer. A chemical gradient in the
nitrogen contents of the precursor flux was induced during the
growth of the GaN buffer layer. This condition leads a
corresponding gradient of the dislocation density within the
epilayer. The electrical and optical properties of the GaN
epilayer have been analysed by means of electron beam induced
current, photoluminescence and photocurrent techniques. All our
measurements reveal lateral gradients in the epilayer properties
as concern (i) the density of recombining centres in the GaN film
and (ii) their recombination activity, both radiative and
nonradiative. This paper shows that a proper combination of beam
based techniques can contribute to the detailed analysis of the
well know yellow luminescence band which in the GaN epilayer here
investigated consist of four well distinct peaks.
Self heating during long-term DC-aging is found to be responsible
for the degradation of the electrical and optical characteristics
of blue p-GaN/p-AlGaN/InGaN/n+-GaN/SiC LEDs. Electroluminescence
and Cathodoluminescence studies reveal an additional large optical
band, not observed in unstressed devices, on the p-type side of the
LEDs. Deconvolution procedures shows the band, peaked at about 3.1 eV,
is due to three main emissions at 2.93, 3.08 and 3.23 eV. Deep Level
Transient Spectroscopy reveals the presence of four traps for majority
carriers in p-type GaN. A comparison with the optical spectra suggests
three of them (at 0.12, 0.22 and about 0.5 eV) are responsible for the
additional emissions after stress, while a further trap at 1.21 eV is
considered non-radiative in nature. A thermally activated mechanism
inducing the dissociation of native Mg-H complexes and the subsequent
formation of metastable Mg-H2 complexes is considered responsible
for the LED degradation. The hypothesis is supported by high power
electron beam irradiation during Cathodoluminescence studies which
induced a complete disappearance of the band at 3.1 eV as a consequence
of the dissociation under energetic electron beam of the metastable
Mg-H2 complexes.