The aim of this study was to explain previous inconsistent results regarding the effects of positive affect on creative cognition based on the motivational dimensional model of affect theory and provide the underlying neural correlates of the effects of different approach-motivation intensities of positive affect on creative processes (creative idea generation and creative idea evaluation) using the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technique. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to three groups (high-approach-motivated positive affect (HAM), low-approach-motivated positive affect (LAM) and affectively neutral (...) state (NS)) to complete corresponding tasks in creative idea generation and creative idea evaluation stages. In the creative idea generation stage, the results indicated that the LAM group achieved a higher performance in flexibility and originality than the NS group. However, compared with the NS group, the LAM group exhibited a lower sensitivity in the creative idea evaluation stage. The fNIRS technique provides an ideal approach with high ecological validity for exploring the issue of affect and creativity. In current study, fNIRS results showed that the HAM group exhibited significantly more activation in the bilateral frontal lobe than the LAM group and NS group in the creative idea generation stage. This result could reflect individuals attempting to overcome a narrowed attentional scope state through the activation of bilateral frontal cortical resources in the creative process. In the creative idea evaluation stage, compared with the NS group, the LAM group showed significant deactivation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is a brain area associated with executive, controlled processing. Moreover, the approach-motivation intensity altered the connectivity between the left prefrontal cortex and left superior temporal gyrus in the creative idea generation stage. Thus, the influences of positive affect on creative cognitive processes (both creative performance and hemodynamic responses) were modulated by the approach-motivation intensity in the creative idea generation and creative idea evaluation stages. (shrink)

The COVID-19 epidemic is associated with negative mood, which has the potential to be a powerful driver of creativity. However, the influence of negative mood on cognitive creativity and emotional creativity remains elusive. Previous research has indicated that self-focused attention is likely to be related to both negative mood and creativity. The current study introduced two self-focused attention variables to explore how negative mood might contribute to cognitive creativity and emotional creativity. Based on a sample of 351 participants, our study (...) found that negative mood during the outbreak of COVID-19 was associated with cognitive creativity and emotional creativity. Meanwhile, there were significant serial mediation effects of rumination and reflection in the relationship between negative mood and creativity and the psychological impact after exposure to the COVID-19 epidemic was positively correlated with emotional creativity but not with cognitive creativity. These results suggested that individuals, in real life and work, could achieve better creative performance through moderate self-focus. Moreover, individuals with different mood states can be induced to enhance their creativity in times of crisis through intervention training to promote reflection. (shrink)

It has been shown that reward motivation can facilitate proactive control, a cognitive control mode that is characterized of prior preparation and sustained holding of the goal-relevant information in working memory. However, it remains to be established the neural networks that may be involved in this promotion effect. In this study, participants underwent the AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) that measures relative proactive control during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. We employed independent component analysis to decompose multiple brain networks and (...) identified the task related network. Results showed that the salience network (SN) was engaged in the AX-CPT protocol. Importantly, our data demonstrated that reward modulated the association between task engagement of SN and proactive control, whereby the positive correlation was particularly observed in the reward condition. Moreover, reward modulated task engagement of the SN in a proactive manner, which may contribute to the behavioral proactive performance. Overall, our data suggest the involvement of SN in the reward facilitation effect of proactive control. (shrink)

Second language listening is a common challenge for language learners. It remains largely unknown how bilinguals process L2 listening. The literature has suggested an interactive model of L2 listening processing. However, few studies have examined the model from an experimental approach. The current study tried to provide empirical evidence for the interactive model of L2 listening processing in bilinguals by exploring the relationships among English spoken word segmentation, cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and L2 listening proficiency. The results showed positive associations (...) among SWS, cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and L2 listening proficiency. Mediation analysis suggested that SWS might have a positive influence on L2 listening proficiency both directly and indirectly through cognitive inhibition and cognitive flexibility, respectively. These results imply that both bottom-up and top-down processes are engaged in bilinguals’ L2 listening processing. (shrink)

The present study aimed to examine whether a self-related stimulus produces a self-related process bias between pathological-tendency internet users and ordinary internet users. Participants were asked to judge the color of the target stimulus’ frame (internet pictures) in an implicit priming task, which enclosed the prime of self/other-related words and the target of the online image in sequence. Results from Experiment 1 showed that the main effect of priming type and the interaction of the priming type and the subject group (...) were significant. Further analysis revealed that response time (RT) under the self-related condition was significantly longer than that of the other related conditions. Simple effect analysis indicated that RT under the self-related condition was significantly longer than that under the other-related conditions for pathological-tendency internet users but not for ordinary internet users. In Experiment 2, behavior results demonstrated the main effects of priming type and subject group. Further analysis suggested that RT under the self-related condition was significantly longer than that in the other-related tasks for both groups, and the RT of the pathological-tendency internet users was shorter than that of ordinary internet users. ERP data showed that the amplitudes of late positive components under the self-related condition were smaller than that under the other-related conditions. The N2 amplitude was larger under the self-related condition than under the other-related conditions for pathological-tendency internet users but not for ordinary internet users. This finding suggested that internet use influenced the inhibition control and was automatically retrieved during the processing of self-related stimuli. (shrink)

Prior research on employee–organization relationships has exclusively focused on the positive consequences of high-inducement EORs. Drawing from social exchange theory, we develop a model theorizing employee unethical pro-organizational behavior as one potential negative outcome of high-inducement EORs, as mediated by high-quality social exchange relationship between the employee and the employer. Empirical findings from two field studies provided convergent support to the mediation relationship between mutual-investment EORs and employee UPB via perceived social exchange. Moreover, the results in Study 2 further revealed (...) that the relationship was less significant among employees with higher levels of moral identity, because the positive relationship between perceived social exchange and employee UPB was weakened by high moral identity. The theoretical and managerial implications were discussed. (shrink)

In general, stimuli that are familiar and recognizable have an advantage of predominance during binocular rivalry. Recent research has demonstrated that familiar and recognizable stimuli such as upright faces and words in a native language could break interocular suppression faster than their matched controls. In this study, a visible word prime was presented binocularly then replaced by a high-contrast dynamic noise pattern presented to one eye and either a semantically related or unrelated word was introduced to the other eye. We (...) measured how long it took for target words to break from suppression. To investigate word-parts priming, a second experiment also included word pairs that had overlapping subword fragments. Results from both experiments consistently show that semantically related words and words that shared subword fragments were faster to gain dominance compared to unrelated words, suggesting that words, even when interocularly suppressed and invisible, can benefit from semantic and subword priming. (shrink)

We draw from ego depletion and leader–member exchange theories to provide nuanced insight into why abusive supervision is indirectly associated with supervisor-directed destructive voice. A multi-wave, multi-source field study demonstrates evidence that abusive supervision has a positive conditional indirect effect on supervisor-directed destructive voice through subordinates’ relational ego depletion with their supervisors that is stronger for higher LMX differentiation contexts than lower LMX differentiation contexts. We make novel theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions by providing a parsimonious explanation for why relational (...) aspects of supervisory treatment drain subordinates’ capacities for controlling their volitional actions during interactions with their supervisors and how this relationship impacts subordinates’ supervisor-directed destructive voice. Overall, our study extends the application of ego depletion and LMX theories to the examination of abusive supervision and destructive voice in order to meaningfully inform researchers’ attempts to build cohesive streams of research in these areas and practitioners’ attempts to promote ethical workplace environments. (shrink)

Publications by Chinese researchers in scientific journals have dramatically increased over the past decade; however, academic misconduct also becomes more prevalent in the country. The aim of this prospective study was to understand the perceptions of Chinese biomedical researchers towards academic misconduct and the trend from 2010 to 2015. A questionnaire comprising 10 questions was designed and then validated by ten biomedical researchers in China. In the years 2010 and 2015, respectively, the questionnaire was sent as a survey to biomedical (...) researchers at teaching hospitals, universities, and medical institutes in mainland China. Data were analyzed by the Chi squared test, one-way analysis of variance with the Tukey post hoc test, or Spearman’s rank correlation method, where appropriate. The overall response rates in 2010 and 2015 were 4.5% and 5.5%, respectively. Data from 15 participants in 2010 were invalid, and analysis was thus performed for 1263 participants. Among the participants, 54.7% thought that academic misconduct was serious-to-extremely serious, and 71.2% believed that the Chinese authorities paid no or little attention to the academic misconduct. Moreover, 70.2 and 65.2% of participants considered that the punishment for academic misconduct at the authority and institution levels, respectively, was not appropriate or severe enough. Inappropriate authorship and plagiarism were the most common forms of academic misconduct. The most important factor underlying academic misconduct was the academic assessment system, as judged by 50.7% of the participants. Participants estimated that 40.1% of published scientific articles were associated with some form of academic misconduct. Their perceptions towards academic misconduct had not significantly changed over the 5 years. Reform of the academic assessment system should be the fundamental approach to tackling this problem in China. (shrink)

Contemporary scholarships on various accounts of the concept of harmony in Chinese philosophy have produced fruitful outcomes by examining the term he. A standard use of he to account for harmony comes from the Analects, and this account sets up disjunctions not just between he and tong but also between harmony and tong. Such disjunctions are even more conspicuous in the political discourses from the Zuozhuan and Guoyu, and hence, has led scholars to overlook the more nuanced resonances between tong, (...) he, and harmony that can be identified from other canonical texts, such as in shangtong of the Mozi, in hetong of the Guanzi, and in datong of the Liji. This article aims to present nuanced relations between harmony, he, and tong, and proposes tong as another viable option to express harmony, thereby correcting the imbalance that the predominant scholarships recognize he and neglect tong. (shrink)

Contemporary scholarships on various accounts of the concept of harmony in Chinese philosophy have produced fruitful outcomes by examining the term he. A standard use of he to account for harmony comes from the Analects, and this account sets up disjunctions not just between he and tong but also between harmony and tong. Such disjunctions are even more conspicuous in the political discourses from the Zuozhuan and Guoyu, and hence, has led scholars to overlook the more nuanced resonances between tong, (...) he, and harmony that can be identified from other canonical texts, such as in shangtong of the Mozi, in hetong of the Guanzi, and in datong of the Liji. This article aims to present nuanced relations between harmony, he, and tong, and proposes tong as another viable option to express harmony, thereby correcting the imbalance that the predominant scholarships recognize he and neglect tong. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating roles of hostile attribution bias and negative reciprocity beliefs in the relationship between workplace incivility, as perceived by employees, and their interpersonal deviance. Data were collected using a three-wave survey research design. Participants included 233 employees from a large manufacturing company in China. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Our study revealed that hostile attribution bias and negative reciprocity beliefs strengthened the positive relationship between workplace incivility (...) and interpersonal deviance. This relationship was the most positive when both hostile attribution bias and negative reciprocity beliefs were high. The findings provided evidence that directing employees to depress hostile attribution bias and negative reciprocity beliefs may attenuate the effects of workplace incivility on interpersonal deviance. Implications for theory, research, and management practice are discussed. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of different emotions and social consensus on moral decision-making using a mixed 2 × 2 experimental design. The results showed that the main effect of social consensus was significant: the moral decision-making level of participants under the condition of low social consensus was lower than that of participants under the condition of high social consensus, while no main effect of emotion emerged. Second, the results showed that emotion and social consensus have interactive effects on (...) moral decision-making. When social consensus was high, there was no significant difference in moral decision-making between individuals with positive emotions and individuals with negative emotions. When social consensus was low, individuals with negative emotions were more likely to make immoral decisions than individuals with positive emotions. These results reveal that emotion and social consensus work together in affecting moral decision-making. (shrink)

AimWe aim to explore the impact of occupational stress on the quality of life of nurses in infectious disease departments and to explore the mediating role of psychological resilience on this impact.BackgroundSudden public health events and the prevalence of infectious diseases give nurses in infectious disease departments a heavy task load and high occupational stress, which can affect their quality of life, and which is closely related to the quality of clinical care they provide. There are few existing studies on (...) occupational stress, psychological resilience, and the quality of life of nurses in infectious disease departments.MethodsWe collected data from infectious-disease-specialized hospitals or infectious disease departments of general hospitals in China. In total 1,536 nurses completed questionnaires: the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Scale. We use a structural equation model to test the mediating role of the psychological resilience in the relationship between occupational stress and quality of life.ResultsAmong 1,536 participants, 88.2% experienced an effort-reward imbalance. The average scores for psychological resilience and quality of life were 56.06 and 51.80, respectively. Our results show that occupational stress is negatively correlated with psychological resilience and quality of life. In addition, we find that psychological resilience is positively correlated with quality of life and that the indirect effect of occupational stress on quality of life through psychological resilience is significant, indicating at least a partial mediating role of psychological resilience.ConclusionA high proportion of nurses in infectious disease departments felt that their jobs’ effort-reward imbalance was high. These nurses’ scores for psychological resilience were in the middle level among Chinese people generally, but their quality of life was lower than the Chinese norm. We conclude that occupational stress has an important impact on their quality of life, and psychological resilience plays a partial mediating role on this impact.Implications for Nursing ManagementHospital managers can benefit from paying attention to the occupational stress of nurses and helping to improve the quality of life of nurses by alleviating this occupational stress and improving psychological resilience. (shrink)

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) simulates uncertain gains and losses in real life situations and thus is a good measure of uncertain decision making. The role of working memory (WM) in IGT performance still remains unclear. The present study aimed to examine the effect of WM on IGT performance. Three groups of participants matched on gender ratio were randomly assigned to no WM load, low WM load, and high WM load conditions. Initially the three groups did not show significant difference (...) in WM capacity. They finished a modified version of IGT and then their implicit learning effect and explicit cognition on IGT were assessed. Results indicated a linear increasing trend of IGT performance among high WM load, low WM load and no WM load groups; participants in the no WM load and low WM load groups revealed implicit learning effect, while participants in the high WM load group did not; all participants showed explicit cognition on IGT to the same level. These results suggested that participants in the high WM load group showed good explicit cognition to IGT but showed poor performance. This pattern is similar to frontal patients. Further studies should be conducted to explore this issue. (shrink)

The information in the working environment of industrial Internet is characterized by diversity, semantics, hierarchy, and relevance. However, the existing representation methods of environmental information mostly emphasize the concepts and relationships in the environment and have an insufficient understanding of the items and relationships at the instance level. There are also some problems such as low visualization of knowledge representation, poor human-machine interaction ability, insufficient knowledge reasoning ability, and slow knowledge search speed, which cannot meet the needs of intelligent and (...) personalized service. Based on this, this paper designs a cognitive information representation model based on a knowledge graph, which combines the perceptual information of industrial robot ontology with semantic description information such as functional attributes obtained from the Internet to form a structured and logically reasoned cognitive knowledge graph including perception layer and cognition layer. Aiming at the problem that the data sources of the knowledge base for constructing the cognitive knowledge graph are wide and heterogeneous, and there are entity semantic differences and knowledge system differences among different data sources, a multimodal entity semantic fusion model based on vector features and a system fusion framework based on HowNet are designed, and the environment description information such as object semantics, attributes, relations, spatial location, and context acquired by industrial robots and their own state information are unified and standardized. The automatic representation of robot perceived information is realized, and the universality, systematicness, and intuition of robot cognitive information representation are enhanced, so that the cognition reasoning ability and knowledge retrieval efficiency of robots in the industrial Internet environment can be effectively improved. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted immense work on the investigation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Ontologies – structured, controlled, vocabularies – are designed to support consistency of interpretation, and thereby to prevent the development of data silos. This paper describes how ontologies are serving this purpose in the virus research domain, following the principles of the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontology (OBO) Foundry and drawing on the resources of the Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO) Core. We report the development of the Virus Infectious (...) Disease Ontology (VIDO), a reference ontology extending IDO Core covering viral infectious diseases. We examine newly minted terms, showcase ontology term reuse, and illustrate the use of VIDO by annotating selections from recent life science research on SAR-CoV-2, in the interest of supporting machine learning projects. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo investigate the attitudes of Chinese parents regarding the storage of dried blood spots collected for newborn screening (NBS) and their use in research.MethodsWe conducted a hospital-based survey of parents and examined parental attitudes regarding (a) allowing NBS sample storage, (b) permitting use of children’s NBS samples for research with parental permission, and (c) permitting use of children’s NBS samples for research without parental permission.ResultsThe response rate was 52 percent. Of parents surveyed, 68 percent would permit their infant’s NBS sample (...) to be stored for at least some length of time. If permission is obtained, 69 percent of parents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” to permit use of the NBS sample for research. If permission is not obtained, only 14 percent of parents “strongly agreed” or “agreed.” There was no significant association between permitting use of NBS samples for research and parental gender, education, household income, number of children, or site of residence.ConclusionsThis is the first survey of Chinese parents regarding the use of NBS samples for different types of research, with results indicating that most parents would permit their infant’s sample to be stored and would support the use of NBS dried blood spots for research purposes. (shrink)

何定生是顧頡剛在廣州中山大學任教時的學生，早年即已有文章收錄於《古史辨》中，而享有古史辨學者的光環。一九四九年隨國民政府來臺，任教於臺大中文系。生前出版有《詩經今論》一書，收錄三篇《詩經》研究論文，為 臺灣學界所仰重。一九七○去世後，其弟子何寄澎、曾志雄整理遺稿，出版《定生論學集──詩經與孔學研究》，收錄四篇論著。《何定生著作集》即在此二書的基礎上，復廣泛蒐求其論著、書信與相關資料，編為二冊。第一冊 為《何定生著作集一：詩經、孔學及其他》，第二冊為《何定生著作集二：尚書與文法》，雖尚未能將何氏著作網羅殆盡，但已足將何氏學術的主要面向及研究精華充分展現出來。 何定生深受五四以來新文化運動的影響，繼承顧頡剛及古史辨的學風，將此學風在戰後的臺灣學界持續發皇。何定生的學問主要表現在《詩經》，強調復古解放的精神，他呼籲今日的《詩經》研究，應從清學的漢學壁壘中出來， 以復於原始的樂歌地位。他認為惟有站在《儀禮》的樂歌地位來讀《詩經》，從人性的同類意識來接觸人性，才有碰到詩人靈感的可能。.

法律文化,是各民族、各国家和各地区法律善的整体表现,涉及法制建设和法律发展的整体水平,如立法、执法、司法和守法,以及法律教育、法律职业,民众的法律意识和法律观念等的发展状态。.

本书收录的16篇文章分为两个部分:第一部分属于哲学伦理学部分,包括政治哲学、应用伦理,也涉及到宗教与形而上学;第二部分是社会史部分,解释近三千年中国社会历史方面的初步探讨。.

Shang ce. Ru xue yu si xiang -- xia ce. Qing dai xue shu si chao.

We have become estranged from the cosmic movements, according to Bataille. We are confined by the error linked to the representation of ‘the stationary earth’. We have negated the immersive immanence of the whole and made nature into a fixed world of tools and things. How then do we recognise ourselves as part of the ‘rapture of the heavens’? Bataille urges us to consider life as a solar phenomenon, the free play of solar energy on the earth. This paper argues (...) how Bataille’s cosmic vision anticipates both planetary and ecological thinking. This entails a base materialism of difference based on a radical Nietzschean and Heraclitean theory of becoming and flux. This thought is developed along Bataillean concepts such as the movement of the whole, the labyrinthine, and compound beings, ipseity, as well as the concept of a communifying movement. This materialism paired with Vladimir Vernadsky’s biosphere lays the foundation for the laws of the general economy, which also constitutes an economy inclusive of a general ecology: a tragic vision of Gaia and Dionysos. Finally, poetry is considered, as a way we might reconnect with the universe and stimulate ecological imagination. (shrink)

This article aims to investigate the impact of employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility on job embeddedness under the drastic circumstances of coronavirus disease 2019. This study also investigated the role of organizational identification as a psychological mechanism linking employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility to job embeddedness. Survey data were collected from 325 employees in banking industry of China and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Results revealed that CSR to employees and organizational identification were positively and (...) significantly related to job embeddedness, while CSR to customers, CSR to government, and CSR to society did not significantly predict job embeddedness. Organizational identification fully mediated the relationship between CSR to customers, CSR to government, CSR to society and job embeddedness, and partially mediated the relationship between CSR to employees and job embeddedness. The results suggest engaging in CSR activities can lead employees to identify themselves with the organization and enhance their embeddedness. The article concludes with several implications for practice and recommendations for future research. (shrink)

To be human is to be autonomous, yet this is a trait that most of us lack. We are subject to forces external to our being. We are workers; we are citizens; we are needful creatures. Humanity-proper in these times of neoliberal omnipotence is defined differently. The key terms are familiar: personal betterment, personal responsibility, productivity, pleasantness. A forked tongue slithers in our conscience, tells us that these are the traits of the human condition. Through Bataille, this paper argues the (...) substrate of these oft repeated familiar mantras are other. Neoliberal subjects, propelled by need, understand themselves along the axis of the useful choice. The paper turns to myth to understand the interdependence of need and choice, and how this interdependence posits being as always in desire but never in pleasure. Revisiting Don Giovanni, a character central to Acéphalic thought, and the commentary of Søren Kierkegaard, we think in terms of non-abstraction, of pleasurably floating in change, rather than toiling in desire. For it is by grace in the form of chance, that at the very time of transgression, that we – in and for an instant – become human, become as the sacred in the flesh. (shrink)

Differential leadership as a localized leadership style gradually developed on the basis of the Pattern of Differential Sequence. It plays a dual role in stimulating “insider subordinates” and “outsider subordinates” through the dynamic transformation of the roles. Using the process of game reasoning, the study identifies the differing principles used by insider subordinates and outsider subordinates in implementing deviant innovative behaviors. The simulation graph presents the perceived benefits of employees performing or not performing deviant innovative behaviors as clues during the (...) reasoning process, and implements deviant innovative behaviors for the high risk-taking trait of insider subordinates and the high internal control personality of outsider subordinates who implement deviant innovation. The theoretical derivation of behavior provides relevant references, and provides counter measures for effectively promoting employees’ deviant innovative behavior in the context of differential leadership. (shrink)

Background: Individuals’ information processing includes automatic and effortful processes and the latter require sustained concentration or attention and larger amounts of cognitive “capacity.” Event-related potentials reflect all neural activities that are related to a certain stimulus. Investigating ERP characteristics of effortful cognitive processing in people with schizophrenia would be helpful in further understanding the neural mechanism of schizophrenia.Methods: Both schizophrenia patients and health controls completed ERP measurements during the performance of the basic facial emotion identification test and the face-vignette task. (...) Data of ERP components, BFEIT and FVT performances were analyzed.Results: Schizophrenia patients’ accuracies of face emotion detection in the BFEIT and vignette emotion detection in the FVT were both significantly worse than the performance of the HC group. Repeated-measures ANOVAs performed on mean amplitudes and latencies revealed that the interaction effect for group × experiment × site was significant for N250 amplitude. In FVT experiment, N250 amplitudes at prefrontal and frontal sites in schizophrenia group were larger than those of HC group; the maximum N250 amplitude was present at the prefrontal site in both the groups. For N250 latency, the interaction effect for group × experiment was significant; N250 latencies in the schizophrenia group were longer than those of the HC group.Conclusion: Schizophrenia patients present effortful cognitive processing dysfunctions which reflect in abnormal ERP components, especially N250 at prefrontal cortex and frontal cortex sites. These findings have important implications for further clarifying the neural mechanism of effortful cognitive processing deficits in schizophrenia. (shrink)

BackgroundThe Basal ganglia (BG) played a crucial role in the brain-level mechanisms of chronic pain disorders. However, the functional changes of BG in chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) are still poorly understood. This study investigated the BG subregions’ resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) in CP/CPPS patients compared with healthy controls.MethodsTwenty eight patients with CP/CPPS and 28 age- and education-matched healthy males underwent clinical measurements and 3T brain MR imaging, including T1-weighted structural images and resting-state functional imaging. The data were analyzed (...) by the seeded-based rs-FC analysis. Then, a machine learning method was applied to assess the feasibility of detecting CP/CPPS patients through the changed rs-FC.ResultsCompared with healthy males, patients presented decreased rs-FC between the BG subregions and right middle cingulate cortex, and correlated with pain (r = 0.51, p-uncorrected = 0.005) and urinary symptoms (r = –0.4, p-uncorrected = 0.034). The left superior temporal gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus showed decreased rs-FC with the BG subregions as well. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.943 (accuracy = 80%, F1-score = 80.6%) was achieved for the classification of CP/CPPS patients and healthy males with support vector machine (SVM) based on the changed rs-FC.ConclusionThese findings provide evidence of altered BG subregions’ rs-FC in CP/CPPS, which may contribute to our understanding of the BG’s role in CP/CPPS. (shrink)

The DAMA project is an observatory for rare processes and it is operative deep underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the I.N.F.N. In particular, the DAMA/LIBRA (Large sodium Iodide Bulk for RAre processes) set-up consists of highly radiopure NaI(Tl) detectors for a total sensitive exposed mass of ≃250 kg. Recent results, obtained by this set-up by exploiting the model independent annual modulation signature of Dark Matter (DM) particles, have confirmed and improved those obtained by the former DAMA/NaI experiment. (...) A model independent evidence for the presence of Dark Matter particles in the galactic halo is cumulatively obtained at 8.2 σ C.L. No systematics or side reactions able to account for the measured modulation amplitude and to contemporaneously satisfy all the many specific requirements of the signature have been found or suggested by anyone over more than a decade. An example of one of the many possible model dependent corollary quests for the candidate particles and for the related astrophysical, nuclear and particle physics scenarios is presented considering the whole cumulative exposure. Future perspectives are shortly addressed. (shrink)