Belief in luck or in skill: which locks people into gambling?

According to the social axioms framework, people's beliefs about how the world functions (i.e., internal or external locus of control) are related to their social behaviors.

A deformable surface model for real-time water drop animation.

A water drop behaves differently from a large water body because of its strong viscosity and surface tension under the small scale. Surface tension causes the motion of a water drop to be largely determined by its boundary surface. Meanwhile, viscosity makes the interior of a water drop less relevant to its motion, as the smooth velocity field can be well approximated by an interpolation of the velocity on the boundary.

[Study on Chinese medical syndrome distribution laws in 507 coronary heart disease patients of the Han nationality in Fuzhou city].

Objective: To explore Chinese medical syndrome distribution laws in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients of the Han nationality in Fuzhou city.

Methods: A questionnaire on Chinese medical syndrome was carried out in 507 patients with confirmed CHD from different regions of Fuzhou city. The correlation analyses of Chinese medical syndrome distribution laws, the Chinese medical syndrome types and complications, gender, age, the body mass index (BMI) were conducted.

Trichostatin A selectively suppresses the cold-induced transcription of the ZmDREB1 gene in maize.

Post-translational modifications of histone proteins play a crucial role in responding to environmental stresses. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) catalyze the removal of an acetyl group from histones and are generally believed to be a transcriptional repressor. In this paper, we report that cold treatment highly induces the up-regulation of HDACs, leading to global deacetylation of histones H3 and H4.

Electrical bistability in self-assembled hybrid multilayers of phospholipid and nanoparticles.

A novel kind of biomolecule-based electrical bistable device composed of phospholipid-CdTe nanoparticle multilayered films was demonstrated. The composite film was fabricated by a facile solution-cast method. X-ray reflectivity and transmission electron microscopy measurements showed the homogeneous distribution of nanoparticles within the lamellar lipid matrix with long-range ordering.

In nonfunctional pituitary adenomas, estrogen receptors and slug contribute to development of invasiveness.

Context: Clinical studies suggest that an imbalance in the actions of estrogen receptor (ER)-α and ERβ is associated with invasion of tumors of epithelial origin. Both ER have been detected in the pituitary adenomas (PA). Our previous study together with other reports suggests that an imbalance between ERα and ERβ contributes to the pathogenesis and biological behavior of PA including invasion.

Motion imitation with a handheld camera.

In this paper, we present a novel method to extract motion of a dynamic object from a video that is captured by a handheld camera, and apply it to a 3D character. Unlike the motion capture techniques, neither special sensors/trackers nor a controllable environment is required. Our system significantly automates motion imitation which is traditionally conducted by professional animators via manual keyframing.

Feasibility of high temporal resolution breast DCE-MRI using compressed sensing theory.

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of high temporal resolution breast DCE-MRI using compressed sensing theory.

Methods: Two experiments were designed to investigate the feasibility of using reference image based compressed sensing (RICS) technique in DCE-MRI of the breast. The first experiment examined the capability of RICS to faithfully reconstruct uptake curves using undersampled data sets extracted from fully sampled clinical breast DCE-MRI data.

High-intensity focused ultrasound combined with transarterial chemoembolization for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: long-term follow-up and clinical analysis.

Objective: High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) combined with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) has been used to treat unresectable HCC, but its long-term effects and major prognostic factors remain to be determined. The purpose of this study was to assess its long-term effects and find major prognostic factors to help us select eligible patients in the future.

Methods: 73 patients with unresectable HCC received follow-up after HIFU+TACE.

Simpler score of routine laboratory tests predicts liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

Background And Aim: In recent years, a great interest has been dedicated to the development of noninvasive predictive models to substitute liver biopsy for fibrosis assessment and follow-up. Our aim was to provide a simpler model consisting of routine laboratory markers for predicting liver fibrosis in patients chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) in order to optimize their clinical management.

Methods: Liver fibrosis was staged in 386 chronic HBV carriers who underwent liver biopsy and routine laboratory testing.

Interactive Shape Interpolation through Controllable Dynamic Deformation.

In this paper, we introduce an interactive approach to generate physically based shape interpolation between poses. We extend linear modal analysis to offer an efficient and robust numerical technique to generate physically-plausible dynamics even for very large deformation. Our method also provides a rich set of intuitive editing tools with real-time feedback, including control over vibration frequencies, amplitudes, and damping of the resulting interpolation sequence.

High-intensity focused ultrasound ablation: effective and safe therapy for solid tumors in difficult locations.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ultrasound-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound therapeutic ablation of solid tumors in difficult locations.

Subjects And Methods: A procedure was performed with a focused ultrasound tumor therapeutic system which provides real-time ultrasound guidance. All patients underwent MDCT or MRI, and some patients underwent PET/CT.

Predictors of hepatic steatosis in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B patients and their diagnostic values in hepatic fibrosis.

Objective: To investigate predictors of hepatic steatosis in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and their diagnostic values in hepatic inflammation and fibrosis.

Methods: A total of 106 HBeAg-negative CHB patients with clinically and pathologically proven steatosis and 98 patients without steatosis were recruited into this study. The levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting insulin (FINS), triglyceride (TG), cholesterol (CHOL), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), albumin (Alb), globulin (Glb), HBV DNA, body mass index (BMI), homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and pathological changes of the liver in inflammation, fibrosis and fatty deposition were examined in all patients.

Memory-Scalable GPU Spatial Hierarchy Construction.

Recent GPU algorithms for constructing spatial hierarchies have achieved promising performance for moderately complex models by using the breadth-first search (BFS) construction order. While being able to exploit the massive parallelism on the GPU, the BFS order also consumes excessive GPU memory, which becomes a serious issue for interactive applications involving very complex models with more than a few million triangles. In this paper, we propose to use the partial breadth-first search (PBFS) construction order to control memory consumption while maximizing performance.

Primary bone malignancy: effective treatment with high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation.

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term follow-up results of ultrasonographically (US)-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation in patients with primary bone malignancy.

Materials And Methods: The study was approved by the ethics committee. Each patient or parent (if patient was younger than 18 years), signed an informed consent form before being selected and treated.

Data-Parallel Octrees for Surface Reconstruction.

We present the first parallel surface reconstruction algorithm that runs entirely on the GPU. Like existing implicit surface reconstruction methods, our algorithm first builds an octree for the given set of oriented points, then computes an implicit function over the space of the octree, and finally extracts an isosurface as a watertight triangle mesh. A key component of our algorithm is a novel technique for octree construction on the GPU.

Radiance transfer biclustering for real-time all-frequency biscale rendering.

We present a real-time algorithm to render all-frequency radiance transfer at both macroscale and mesoscale. At a mesoscale, the shading is computed on a per-pixel basis by integrating the product of the local incident radiance and a bidirectional texture function. While at a macroscale, the precomputed transfer matrix, which transfers the global incident radiance to the local incident radiance at each vertex, is losslessly compressed by a novel biclustering technique.

Induction of anti-tumor immunity by dendritic cells pulsed with an endoplasmic reticulum retrieval signal modifies heparanase epitope in mice.

Background Aims: It has been reported that the heparanase epitope can elicit a CTL-mediated anti-tumor response; however, the potential of the heparanase epitope modified by an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retrieval signal, a C-terminal Lys-Asp-Glu-Leu sequence, is still unknown.

Methods: The heparanase epitope was modified by ER retrieval signal, and dendritic cells (DC) were pulsed with the modified peptide. The location and presentation of the modified peptide were detected, and the potential of the anti-tumor response was assessed.

Wnt and Notch signaling pathways selectively regulating hematopoiesis.

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are the source of all blood cells in the adult body. The pool of HSPCs is formed during embryogenesis process through a well-characterized succession of intra-embryonic regions and organs. The spatial and temporal restrictions in definitive hematopoietic development and the signaling molecules involved are of great interest as these may prove useful for generating and expanding these clinically important cell populations ex vivo.

[Study on Wnt and Notch signalling involves in regulation of hematopoietic microenvironment.].

Objective: To explore the mechanism of Wnt and Notch pathway involved modulating time and spatial restricted hematopoiesis.

Methods: Murine hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) were isolated from bone marrow (BM) by using c-kit microbeads. E10.

[Establishment of a bone marrow failure mouse model by immune injury].

Objective: To establish a mouse model for the study of pathophysiologic mechanism and treatment of bone marrow failure (BMF).

Methods: Balb/c mice (recipient) were irradiated 5.0 Gy by gamma rays of (60)Co, and then infused 5 x 10(6) lymph node (LN) cells from DBA/2 mice (donor) in 4 hours.

N-glycan based models improve diagnostic efficacies in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

The early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is of great clinical desirable due to lack of specific and sensitive markers. Alterations in the sugar chains of glycoprotein synthesized by the liver contribute to the molecular basis of abnormalities in carcinogenesis. This study aims to construct and assess the diagnostic value of N-glycan based diagnostic model in HCC identification and follow-up.

Recombinant adenovirus encoding vasohibin prevents tumor angiogenesis and inhibits tumor growth.

Numerous lines of evidence have shown that angiogenesis plays a pivotal role in the development of tumors. Therefore anti-angiogenesis therapy represents a potentially promising approach to cancer therapy. Recently, a new inhibitor called vasohibin was discovered to operate as an intrinsic and highly specific feedback inhibitor in the process of angiogenesis.

[Biological characteristics of hematopoietic progenitor cells at different stages of hematopoietic development].

The aim of the present paper is to better understand the mechanism of hematopoietic development through studying the biological characteristics of hematopoietic progenitor cells at different stages of development. Firstly, the c-kit expression levels of the mononuclear cells from murine embryonic aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region at embryonic day (E)10.5 and E11.

Anticipated regret, risk perception, or both: which is most likely responsible for our intention to gamble?

The current study investigated whether risk aversion or regret aversion could be related to a lower intention to gamble, and whether the type of gambling was a moderator of this relationship. The study took place in Macau, often called "the Las Vegas of East Asia." A total of 373 Macau residents completed a questionnaire survey dealing with thirteen types of gambling.