Making sense of the social world is an intricate process heavily influenced by cultural elements. Gambling is a prevalent leisure-time activity characterized by risk-taking conduct. While some individuals who engage in it do so without experiencing any harm, others will develop gambling problems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study focused on mothers and childless women in recovery from a gambling disorder (GD) in the context of risk society. Mothers with GD suffer from dual social stigma as gamblers and as women who put their children at risk. Mothers in "risk society" tend to recognize that their choices can affect their children's future.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Gambling is a public health concern. Problem gambling is related to a range of psycho-social risk factors including ethnonational affiliation. Israel is an insightful case to probe problem gambling, given the socio-economic marginalization of Israeli Arabs, the continued exposure of Israelis to stress and the conservative Israeli gambling market.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) generate oligodendrocytes, a process that may be tuned by neuronal activity, possibly via synaptic connections to OPCs. However, a developmental role of synaptic signaling to OPCs has so far not been shown unequivocally. To address this question, we comparatively analyzed functional and molecular characteristics of highly proliferative and migratory OPCs in the embryonic brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a tightly and actively regulated vascular barrier. Answering fundamental biological and translational questions about the BBB with currently available approaches is hampered by a trade-off between accessibility and biological validity. We report an approach combining micropipette-based local perfusion of capillaries in acute brain slices with multiphoton microscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGender is a multidimensional construct that differentiates males and females according to its meanings in different socio-cultural contexts. Recovery capital (RC) describes the internal and external resources individuals employ and/or have access to when overcoming addictions. Negative RC refers to elements that hinder recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFast synaptic communication uses diffusible transmitters whose spread is limited by uptake mechanisms. However, on the submicron-scale, the distance between two synapses, the extent of glutamate spread has so far remained difficult to measure. Here, we show that quantal glutamate release from individual hippocampal synapses activates extracellular iGluSnFr molecules at a distance of >1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs the immunocompetent cells of the central nervous system, microglia accumulate at amyloid beta plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and acquire a morphological phenotype of activated microglia. Recent functional studies, however, indicate that in mouse models of amyloidosis and AD, these cells are rather dysfunctional indicated by a reduced phagocytic activity. Here, we report that this reduction in phagocytic activity is associated with perturbed purinergic receptor signaling, since phagocytosis could be stimulated by P2Y receptor activation in control, but not in 5xFAD transgenic animals, an animal model of amyloid deposition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMigraine is a neurovascular brain disorder suggested to be due to dysfunction of the trigeminovascular system with sensitization of trigeminal ganglion (TG) nociceptors. Since the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has been established as a key player in the pathogenesis of migraine, CGRP receptor antagonists have been considered useful compounds to block headache originating from hyperactivation of such TG neurons. Whereas there is some information on the expression of CGRP receptors in postmortem human tissue, data are lacking for migraineurs suffering from common or genetic migraine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is extensive literature on possible effects of extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MFs) on human cognitive functions. However, due to methodological deficits (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpace radiation hazards are recognized as a key concern for human space flight. For long-term interplanetary missions, they constitute a potentially limiting factor since current protection limits for low-Earth orbit missions may be approached or even exceeded. In such a situation, an accurate risk assessment requires knowledge of equivalent doses in critical radiosensitive organs rather than only skin doses or ambient doses from area monitoring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Numerous studies have investigated the potential effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by GSM mobile phones ( approximately 900 MHz to approximately 1800 MHz) on cognitive functioning, but results have been equivocal. In order to try and clarify this issue, the current study carried out a meta-analysis on 19 experimental studies.
Design: Meta-analysis.
Radiat Prot Dosimetry
September 2008
In order to obtain a deeper insight into the molecular mechanism controlling the cellular response to high-linear energy transfer (LET) radiation, the number and size of pATM (S1981) and gamma-H2AX foci were compared in cultures of diploid human fibroblasts after exposure to charged particles of varying species, energy and LET at the NIRS-HIMAC-facility (Chiba, Japan). Particle LET ranged from 2.2 to 300 keV/mum, and a low fluence of 7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiat Prot Dosimetry
December 2006
Dose verification in heavy-ion beams using passive dosemeter systems, e.g. thermoluminescence dosemeters (TLDs), is crucial due to the changing efficiency of the dosemeters for different ion species and linear energy transfer (LET) values.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe reduction of dose onboard spacecraft and aircraft by appropriate shielding measures plays an essential role in the future development of space exploration and air travel. The design of novel shielding strategies and materials may involve hydrogenous composites, as it is well known that liquid hydrogen is most effective in attenuating charged particle radiation. As precursor for a later flight experiment, the shielding properties of newly developed hydrogen-rich polymers and rare earth-doped high-density rubber were tested in various ground-based neutron and heavy ion fields and compared with aluminium and polyethylene as reference materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiat Prot Dosimetry
December 2006
One of the most essential difficulties in heavy-ion dosimetry by means of thermoluminescence dosemeters (TLDs)--often seen as a serious disadvantage of TLD utilisation--regards the changing TL-efficiency with increasing linear energy transfer (LET) of the particle. This behaviour leads to a falsification of absorbed dose that can be significant for many applications, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiat Prot Dosimetry
December 2006
Absorbed dose and average linear energy transfer (LET) were assessed by means of (7)LiF:Mg,Ti (TLD-700) thermoluminescent (TL) detectors for different panels on-board the Russian Segment of the International Space Station in the timeframe between March and November 2002 (233 d). A technique is presented to correct the measured absorbed dose values for TL efficiency in the radiation climate on-board the spacecraft. Average LET is determined from the high-temperature TL emission in the TLD-700 glow curve and used as a parameter in the TL efficiency correction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Atominstitute of the Austrian Universities has conducted various space research missions in the last 12 years in cooperation with the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. They dealt with the exact determination of the radiation hazards for cosmonauts and the development of precise measurement devices. Special emphasis will be laid on the last experiment on space station MIR the goal of which was the determination of the depth distribution of absorbed dose and dose equivalent in a water filled Phantom.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiat Prot Dosimetry
December 2004
The spectral distribution of the neutron fluence rate was determined on-board a series of eight trans-atlantic flights between Cologne (Germany) and Washington, DC (USA), using a passive Bonner Sphere spectrometer based on thermoluminescence detectors. Contrary to the commonly applied active systems, the passive instrument facilitates a complete discrimination of gamma ray and charged particle-induced events in the detector count rate. The system was calibrated in the CERN-EU High-Energy Reference Field (CERF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvaluation of LiF:Mg,Ti thermoluminescence dosemeters (TLDs) according to the high-temperature ratio (HTR) method enables the determination of the dose-average linear energy transfer (LET), the mean quality factor and the dose equivalent in mixed radiation fields of unknown composition. The neutron contribution is assessed by the Extended Pair method calibrated in the CERN-EU High-Energy Reference Field (CERF). The advantages of the small passive detectors as an easy-to-handle monitoring system for in-flight surveillance are demonstrated by measurements on-board north-bound and trans-equatorial flights.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiat Prot Dosimetry
April 2003
Due to the pronounced energy dependence of the neutron quality factor, accurate assessment of the biologically relevant dose requires knowledge of the spectral neutron fluence rate. Bonner sphere spectrometers (BSSs) are the only instruments which provide a sufficient response over practically the whole energy range of the cosmic ray induced neutron component. Measurements in a 62 MeV proton beam at Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland, and in the CERN-EU high-energy reference field led to the assumption that conventional active devices for the detection of thermal neutrons inside the BSS, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiation exposure of aircrew is a serious concern which has been given special emphasis in the European Council directive 96/29/Euratom. The cosmic ray induced neutron component can contribute more than 50% to the biologically relevant dose at aviation altitudes. Various computational approaches to route dose assessment, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA water-filled tissue equivalent phantom with a diameter of 35 cm was developed at the Institute for Biomedical Problems. Moscow. Russia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThermoluminescence (TL) dating was applied for artefacts found near the small village of Michelstetten, Lower Austria. Settlements in this region can be traced hack a long time and, according to archaeologists, the discovered artefacts may be as old as 6000 years. A modified sample preparation technique based on the fine-grain method was developed.
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