The multi-player performance-enhancing drug game.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Haugen KK
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3656928 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Designers of digital interventions for mental health often leverage interactions from games because the intrinsic motivation that results from game-based interventions may increase participation and translate into improved treatment efficacy. However, there are outstanding questions about the suitability (eg, are desktop or mobile interventions more appropriate?) and intervention potential (eg, do people with depression activate enough to play?) of games for mental health. OBJECTIVE:In this paper, we aimed to describe the presently unknown relationship between gaming activity and indicators of well-being so that designers make informed choices when designing game-based interventions for mental health. METHODS:We gathered validated scales of well-being (Beck's Depression Inventory [BDI-II], Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9], trait anxiety [TA], and basic psychological needs satisfaction [BPNS]), play importance (control over game behavior: control; gamer identity: identity), and play behavior (play frequency, platform preferences, and genre preferences) in a Web-based survey (N=491). RESULTS:The majority of our participants played games a few times a week (45.3%, 222/490) or daily (34.3%, 168/490). In terms of depression, play frequency was associated with PHQ-9 (P=.003); PHQ-9 scores were higher for those who played daily than for those who played a few times a week or less. Similarly, for BDI-II (P=.01), scores were higher for those who played daily than for those who played once a week or less. Genre preferences were not associated with PHQ-9 (P=.32) or BDI-II (P=.68); however, platform preference (ie, mobile, desktop, or console) was associated with PHQ-9 (P=.04); desktop-only players had higher PHQ-9 scores than those who used all platforms. Platform preference was not associated with BDI-II (P=.18). In terms of anxiety, TA was not associated with frequency (P=.23), platform preference (P=.07), or genre preference (P=.99). In terms of needs satisfaction, BPNS was not associated with frequency (P=.25) or genre preference (P=.53), but it was associated with platform preference (P=.01); desktop-only players had lower needs satisfaction than those who used all platforms. As expected, play frequency was associated with identity (P<.001) and control (P<.001); those who played more had identified more as a gamer and had less control over their gameplay. Genre preference was associated with identity (P<.001) and control (P<.001); those who played most common genres had higher control over their play and identified most as gamers. Platform preference was not associated with control (P=.80), but was with identity (P=.001); those who played on all devices identified more as a gamer than those who played on mobiles or consoles only. CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggest that games are a suitable approach for mental health interventions as they are played broadly by people across a range of indicators of mental health. We further unpack the platform preferences and genre preferences of players with varying levels of well-being.
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Project description:The pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global threat to public health. Functional impairments in multiple organs have been reported in COVID-19, including lungs, heart, kidney, liver, brain, and vascular system. Patients with metabolic-associated preconditions, such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, are susceptible to experiencing severe symptoms. The recent emerging evidence of coagulation disorders in COVID-19 suggests that vasculopathy appears to be an independent risk factor promoting disease severity and mortality of affected patients. We recently found that the decreased levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterols (LDL-c) correlate with disease severity in COVID-19 patients, indicating pathological interactions between dyslipidemia and vasculopothy in patients with COVID-19. However, this clinical manifestation has been unintentionally underestimated by physicians and scientific communities. As metabolic-associated morbidities are generally accompanied with endothelial cell (EC) dysfunctions, these pre-existing conditions may make ECs more vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 attack. In this mini-review, we summarize the metabolic and vascular manifestations of COVID-19 with an emphasis on the association between changes in LDL-c levels and the development of severe symptoms as well as the pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying the synergistic effect of LDL-c and SARS-CoV-2 on EC injuries and vasculopathy.
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Project description:BackgroundSkeletal muscle undergoes rapid atrophy upon denervation and the underlying mechanisms are complicated. FOXO3a has been implicated as a major mediator of muscle atrophy, but how its subcellular location and activity is controlled during the pathogenesis of muscle atrophy remains largely unknown. MST1 (Mammalian Sterile 20-like kinase 1) is identified as a central component of the Hippo signaling pathway. MST1 has been shown to mediate phosphorylation of FOXO3a at Ser207. Whether this MST1-FOXO signaling cascade exerts any functional consequence on cellular homeostasis remains to be investigated.ResultWe identified that MST1 kinase was expressed widely in skeletal muscles and was dramatically up-regulated in fast- but not slow-dominant skeletal muscles immediately following denervation. The results of our histological and biochemical studies demonstrated that deletion of MST1 significantly attenuated denervation-induced skeletal muscle wasting and decreased expression of Atrogin-1 and LC3 genes in fast-dominant skeletal muscles from three- to five-month-old adult mice. Further studies indicated that MST1, but not MST2, remarkably increased FOXO3a phosphorylation level at Ser207 and promoted its nuclear translocation in atrophic fast-dominant muscles.ConclusionsWe have established that MST1 kinase plays an important role in regulating denervation-induced skeletal muscle atrophy. During the early stage of muscle atrophy, the up-regulated MST1 kinase promoted progression of neurogenic atrophy in fast-dominant skeletal muscles through activation of FOXO3a transcription factors.
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Project description: Not available
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Project description:Joint improvisation is often observed among humans performing joint action tasks. Exploring the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms behind the emergence of joint improvisation is an open research challenge. This paper investigates jointly improvised movements between two participants in the mirror game, a paradigmatic joint task example. First, experiments involving movement coordination of different dyads of human players are performed in order to build a human benchmark. No designation of leader and follower is given beforehand. We find that joint improvisation is characterized by the lack of a leader and high levels of movement synchronization. Then, a theoretical model is proposed to capture some features of their interaction, and a set of experiments is carried out to test and validate the model ability to reproduce the experimental observations. Furthermore, the model is used to drive a computer avatar able to successfully improvise joint motion with a human participant in real time. Finally, a convergence analysis of the proposed model is carried out to confirm its ability to reproduce joint movements between the participants.
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