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Frontiers in Public Health 2024To date there is no universally accepted model that describes the development of substance related addictive behavior. In order to address this gap, the study sought to...
OBJECTIVES
To date there is no universally accepted model that describes the development of substance related addictive behavior. In order to address this gap, the study sought to examine whether the association between primary emotions and the inclination toward addictive behavior is mediated by an anxious attachment style.
METHODS
The total sample consisted of 900 German speaking non-clinical adults (age: = 27; = 9.60; 71.6% female). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to examine the connection between the primary emotions (SADNESS and ANGER), and the latent variables attachment anxiety and symptoms of addictive behavior.
RESULTS
Substance use symptomatology was correlated with higher attachment anxiety ( = 0.15), SADNESS ( = 0.15), and ANGER ( = 0.11). The effect of SADNESS on addictive behavior is mediated by attachment anxiety ( < 0.01) whereas ANGER had a direct effect on addictive behavior ( < 0.01). The final SEM explains 4% of the variance of addictive behaviors and 22% of attachment anxiety.
CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that both SADNESS and ANGER, along with attachment anxiety, are dispositions that contribute to the risk of engaging in addictive behavior. However, while ANGER directly influences addictive behavior, SADNESS acts through its impact on attachment anxiety.
Topics: Humans; Female; Male; Adult; Behavior, Addictive; Anxiety; Substance-Related Disorders; Object Attachment; Anger; Germany; Emotions; Middle Aged; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult; Sadness; Adolescent
PubMed: 38952738
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1380539 -
BMC Plant Biology Jun 2024Slow-controlled release fertilizers are experiencing a popularity in rice cultivation due to their effectiveness in yield and quality with low environmental costs....
Slow-controlled release fertilizers are experiencing a popularity in rice cultivation due to their effectiveness in yield and quality with low environmental costs. However, the underlying mechanism by which these fertilizers regulate grain quality remains inadequately understood. This study investigated the effects of five fertilizer management practices on rice yield and quality in a two-year field experiment: CK, conventional fertilization, and four applications of slow-controlled release fertilizer (UF, urea formaldehyde; SCU, sulfur-coated urea; PCU, polymer-coated urea; BBF, controlled-release bulk blending fertilizer). In 2020 and 2021, the yields of UF and SCU groups showed significant decreases when compared to conventional fertilization, accompanied by a decline in nutritional quality. Additionally, PCU group exhibited poorer cooking and eating qualities. However, BBF group achieved increases in both yield (10.8 t hm and 11.0 t hm) and grain quality reaching the level of CK group. The adequate nitrogen supply in PCU group during the grain-filling stage led to a greater capacity for the accumulation of proteins and amino acids in the PCU group compared to starch accumulation. Intriguingly, BBF group showed better carbon-nitrogen metabolism than that of PCU group. The optimal nitrogen supply present in BBF group suitable boosted the synthesis of amino acids involved in the glycolysis/ tricarboxylic acid cycle, thereby effectively coordinating carbon-nitrogen metabolism. The application of the new slow-controlled release fertilizer, BBF, is advantageous in regulating the carbon flow in the carbon-nitrogen metabolism to enhance rice quality.
Topics: Oryza; Fertilizers; Nitrogen; Carbon; Edible Grain; Delayed-Action Preparations
PubMed: 38951829
DOI: 10.1186/s12870-024-05309-9 -
Cancer Medicine Jul 2024Distress during SARS-CoV-2 outbreak affected also cancer patients' well-being. Aim of this study was to investigate patient' reactions and behavior (flexible-adaptive...
The emotional states and associated behavioral responses (flexible-adaptive behaviors vs. inflexible-maladaptive behaviors) of cancer patients during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak: A multi-center cross-sectional study in Italy.
OBJECTIVE
Distress during SARS-CoV-2 outbreak affected also cancer patients' well-being. Aim of this study was to investigate patient' reactions and behavior (flexible-adaptive vs. inflexible-maladaptive) during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.
METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was designed with a self-report questionnaire, "the ImpACT questionnaire," developed for the study. Regression analysis was performed on data.
RESULTS
Four hundred and forty five cancer patients from 17 Italian regions participated in the study. 79.8% of participants were female (mean age of 58 years). 92.6% of participants reported feeling vulnerable to COVID-19 contagion; 75.6% reported helpless, 62.7% sad, 60.4% anxious, and 52.0% anger. Avoidance of thinking about coronavirus is the principal maladaptive behavior that emerged. Participants who reported feeling anxious were more likely to have fear of staff being infected with COVID-19 (OR = 3.01; 95% CI = 1.49-6.30) and to have disrupted sleep due to worry (OR = 2.42; 95% CI = 1.23-4.83). Younger participants reported more anxiety (OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.94-1.00); men reported feeling calm more than women (OR = 2.60; 95% CI = 1.27-5.43).
CONCLUSIONS
Majority of cancer patients reported serious concerns regarding SARS-CoV-2 infection; reliable information and psychological support must be offers to respond to these needs.
Topics: Humans; COVID-19; Female; Male; Cross-Sectional Studies; Middle Aged; Italy; Neoplasms; SARS-CoV-2; Aged; Anxiety; Adaptation, Psychological; Emotions; Surveys and Questionnaires; Adult; Fear
PubMed: 38949180
DOI: 10.1002/cam4.7442 -
Neuro-oncology Advances 2024The treatment timing and choice after neurosurgical resection in patients with newly diagnosed diffuse low-grade glioma (DLGG) remain controversial. Indeed, the effect...
BACKGROUND
The treatment timing and choice after neurosurgical resection in patients with newly diagnosed diffuse low-grade glioma (DLGG) remain controversial. Indeed, the effect of such treatments must be balanced with the possible side effects. This study evaluated the feasibility of longitudinal exhaustive quality of life (QoL) and neuropsychological assessments in patients with DLGG receiving first-line temozolomide.
METHODS
QoL, neurocognition, and psychological disorders were assessed prospectively until disease progression, using testing, clinician-reported, and self-reported questionnaires. The primary endpoint was the participation and adherence to this complete assessment at (before temozolomide initiation), months 6 and 12 of treatment, and month 6 post-treatment. The QoL and neuropsychological changes over time also were described.
RESULTS
Twenty-six of the twenty-nine eligible patients were enrolled (participation rate: 89.7%, 95% CI: 72.6-97.8). The adherence rate was 95.7% (95% CI: 78.1-99.9; = 23 because 3 patients progressed in the first 12 months of treatment). Up to month 6 post-treatment, QoL and fatigue remained stable (EORTC QLQC30 and BN20, MFI-20); some specific symptoms were transitory. Both subjective (FACT-Cog) and objective (Z-scores of neurocognitive tests) neurocognitive outcomes remained stable or tended to improve. The percentage of patients with severe depression (BDI-II), anxiety (STAI-Y), or anger (STAXI-II) was stable over time.
CONCLUSIONS
This prospective study demonstrated the feasibility of an exhaustive and longitudinal evaluation of QoL, neurocognition, and psychological disorders, with high acceptability by patients with DLGG undergoing chemotherapy. First-line temozolomide seems to have limited short-term effects on QoL and neurocognition. These findings must be confirmed in the long term and in a larger cohort.
PubMed: 38946878
DOI: 10.1093/noajnl/vdae084 -
NeuroImage Jun 2024Every individual experiences negative emotions, such as fear and anger, significantly influencing how external information is perceived and processed. With the gradual...
Every individual experiences negative emotions, such as fear and anger, significantly influencing how external information is perceived and processed. With the gradual rise in brain-behavior relationship studies, analyses investigating individual differences in negative emotion processing and a more objective measure such as the response time (RT) remain unexplored. This study aims to address this gap by establishing that the individual differences in the speed of negative facial emotion discrimination can be predicted from whole-brain functional connectivity when participants were performing a face discrimination task. Employing the connectome predictive modeling (CPM) framework, we demonstrated this in the young healthy adult group from the Human Connectome Project-Young Adults (HCP-YA) dataset and the healthy group of the Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety (BANDA) dataset. We identified distinct network contributions in the adult and adolescent predictive models. The highest represented brain networks involved in the adult model predictions included representations from the motor, visual association, salience, and medial frontal networks. Conversely, the adolescent predictive models showed substantial contributions from the cerebellum-frontoparietal network interactions. Finally, we observed that despite the successful within-dataset prediction in healthy adults and adolescents, the predictive models failed in the cross-dataset generalization. In conclusion, our study shows that individual differences in the speed of emotional facial discrimination can be predicted in healthy adults and adolescent samples using their functional connectivity during negative facial emotion processing. Future research is needed in the derivation of more generalizable models.
PubMed: 38945182
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120715 -
Australian and New Zealand Journal of... Jun 2024Understanding New Zealand-Samoan young people's experiences and definitions of anger.
OBJECTIVE
Understanding New Zealand-Samoan young people's experiences and definitions of anger.
METHODS
Focus group talanoa (discussions) with 12 New Zealand-born Samoan young people guided by 'Teu le Va' methodology. We used a culturally informed thematic analysis approach.
RESULTS
Participants defined anger as a 'bottled up' emotion and emphasised understanding cultural contexts that normalised covert and passive ways of expressing anger. Other key themes around anger we identified included experiencing multiple layers of racism and disconnection in westernised social spaces and pressures to juggle traditional Samoan and western identities. Participants also explored gendered expressions of anger. Communicating anger was important, but not in ways that harm communal values.
CONCLUSIONS
Culturally appropriate qualitative research helps understand complex cultural determinants of mental health and wellbeing and suicidal behaviour.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
We must recognise the positive, polycultural capital of a generation that navigates many cultural spaces, including their emotional expressions. Anger should be understood in relation to cultural and societal pressures. Improved understanding of the cultural context of anger can inform systemic responses during crises in mental health and prevention of suicidality.
PubMed: 38945053
DOI: 10.1016/j.anzjph.2024.100162 -
Radiotherapy and Oncology : Journal of... Jun 2024As no guidelines for pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy (PT) of paediatric posterior fossa (PF) tumours exist to date, this study investigated planning techniques...
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
As no guidelines for pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy (PT) of paediatric posterior fossa (PF) tumours exist to date, this study investigated planning techniques across European PT centres, with special considerations for brainstem and spinal cord sparing.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A survey and a treatment planning comparison were initiated across nineteen European PBS-PT centres treating paediatric patients. The survey assessed all aspects of the treatment chain, including but not limited to delineations, dose constraints and treatment planning. Each centre planned two PF tumour cases for focal irradiation, according to their own clinical practice but based on common delineations. The prescription dose was 54 Gy(RBE) for Case 1 and 59.4 Gy(RBE) for Case 2. For both cases, planning strategies and relevant dose metrics were compared.
RESULTS
Seventeen (89 %) centres answered the survey, and sixteen (80 %) participated in the treatment planning comparison. In the survey, thirteen (68 %) centres reported using the European Particle Therapy Network definition for brainstem delineation. In the treatment planning study, while most centres used three beam directions, their configurations varied widely across centres. Large variations were also seen in brainstem doses, with a brainstem near maximum dose (D2%) ranging from 52.7 Gy(RBE) to 55.7 Gy(RBE) (Case 1), and from 56.8 Gy(RBE) to 60.9 Gy(RBE) (Case 2).
CONCLUSION
This study assessed the European PBS-PT planning of paediatric PF tumours. Agreement was achieved in e.g. delineation-practice, while wider variations were observed in planning approach and consequently dose to organs at risk. Collaboration between centres is still ongoing, striving towards common guidelines.
PubMed: 38942120
DOI: 10.1016/j.radonc.2024.110414 -
EJNMMI Physics Jun 2024For dosimetry, the demand for whole-body SPECT/CT imaging, which require long acquisition durations with dual-head Anger cameras, is increasing. Here we evaluated...
BACKGROUND
For dosimetry, the demand for whole-body SPECT/CT imaging, which require long acquisition durations with dual-head Anger cameras, is increasing. Here we evaluated sparsely acquired projections and assessed whether the addition of deep-learning-generated synthetic intermediate projections (SIPs) could improve the image quality while preserving dosimetric accuracy.
METHODS
This study included 16 patients treated with Lu-DOTATATE with SPECT/CT imaging (120 projections, 120P) at four time points. Deep neural networks (CUSIPs) were designed and trained to compile 90 SIPs from 30 acquired projections (30P). The 120P, 30P, and three different CUSIP sets (30P + 90 SIPs) were reconstructed using Monte Carlo-based OSEM reconstruction (yielding 120P_rec, 30P_rec, and CUSIP_recs). The noise levels were visually compared. Quantitative measures of normalised root mean square error, normalised mean absolute error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, and structural similarity were evaluated, and kidney and bone marrow absorbed doses were estimated for each reconstruction set.
RESULTS
The use of SIPs visually improved noise levels. All quantitative measures demonstrated high similarity between CUSIP sets and 120P. Linear regression showed nearly perfect concordance of the kidney and bone marrow absorbed doses for all reconstruction sets, compared to the doses of 120P_rec (R ≥ 0.97). Compared to 120P_rec, the mean relative difference in kidney absorbed dose, for all reconstruction sets, was within 3%. For bone marrow absorbed doses, there was a higher dissipation in relative differences, and CUSIP_recs outperformed 30P_rec in mean relative difference (within 4% compared to 9%). Kidney and bone marrow absorbed doses for 30P_rec were statistically significantly different from those of 120_rec, as opposed to the absorbed doses of the best performing CUSIP_rec, where no statistically significant difference was found.
CONCLUSION
When performing SPECT/CT reconstruction, the use of SIPs can substantially reduce acquisition durations in SPECT/CT imaging, enabling acquisition of multiple fields of view of high image quality with satisfactory dosimetric accuracy.
PubMed: 38941040
DOI: 10.1186/s40658-024-00655-x -
Journal of Extracellular Biology Aug 2023Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression. They are expressed not only in cells, but also in cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs). The...
Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression. They are expressed not only in cells, but also in cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs). The mechanisms controlling their loading and sorting remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the impact of mutations on the non-coding RNA content of small melanoma EVs. After purification of small EVs from six different patient-derived melanoma cell lines, we characterized them by small RNA sequencing and lncRNA microarray analysis. We found that mutations are associated with a specific micro and long non-coding RNA content in small EVs. Then, we showed that long and small non-coding RNAs enriched in mutant small EVs share a common sequence motif, highly similar to the RNA-binding motif of Sam68, a protein interacting with hnRNP proteins. This protein thus may be an interesting partner of p53, involved in the expression and loading of the ncRNAs. To conclude, our data support the existence of cellular mechanisms associate with mutations which control the ncRNA content of small EVs in melanoma.
PubMed: 38939511
DOI: 10.1002/jex2.105 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2024Social media platforms such as Twitter and Weibo facilitate both positive and negative communication, including cyberbullying. Empirical evidence has revealed that...
INTRODUCTION
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Weibo facilitate both positive and negative communication, including cyberbullying. Empirical evidence has revealed that cyberbullying increases when public crises occur, that such behavior is gendered, and that social media user account verification may deter it. However, the association of gender and verification status with cyberbullying is underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by examining how Weibo users' gender, verification status, and expression of affect and anger in posts influence cyberbullying attitudes. Specifically, it investigates how these factors differ between posts pro- and anti-cyberbullying of COVID-19 cases during the pandemic.
METHODS
This study utilized social role theory, the Barlett and Gentile Cyberbullying Model, and general strain theory as theoretical frameworks. We applied text classification techniques to identify pro-cyberbullying and anti-cyberbullying posts on Weibo. Subsequently, we used a standardized mean difference method to compare the emotional content of these posts. Our analysis focused on the prevalence of affective and anger-related expressions, particularly examining variations across gender and verification status of the users.
RESULTS
Our text classification identified distinct pro-cyberbullying and anti-cyberbullying posts. The standardized mean difference analysis revealed that pro-cyberbullying posts contained significantly more emotional content compared to anti-cyberbullying posts. Further, within the pro-cyberbullying category, posts by verified female users exhibited a higher frequency of anger-related words than those by other users.
DISCUSSION
The findings from this study can enhance researchers' algorithms for identifying cyberbullying attitudes, refine the characterization of cyberbullying behavior using real-world social media data through the integration of the mentioned theories, and help government bodies improve their cyberbullying monitoring especially in the context of public health crises.
PubMed: 38939225
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1395668