The operationalized psychodynamic diagnostics system. Clinical relevance, reliability and validity

In this paper, we present a multiaxial system for psychodynamic diagnosis, which has attained wide usage in Germany in the last 10 years. First we will discuss the 4 operationalized psychodynamic diagnostics (OPD) axes: illness experience and treatment assumptions, relationships, mental conflicts, and structure, then clinical applications will be outlined. Focus psychodynamic formulations can be employed both with inpatients and with outpatients. Studies show good reliability in a research context and acceptable reliability for clinical purposes. Validity will be separately summarized as content, criterion, and construct validity. Validity studies indicate good validity for the individual axes. Numerous studies on the OPD indicate areas of possible improvement, for example for clinical purposes the OPD should be more practically formulated

Enteric dysbiosis and fecal calprotectin expression in premature infants.

BackgroundPremature infants often develop enteric dysbiosis with a preponderance of Gammaproteobacteria, which has been related to adverse clinical outcomes. We investigated the relationship between increasing fecal Gammaproteobacteria and mucosal inflammation, measured by fecal calprotectin (FC).MethodsStool samples were collected from very-low-birth weight (VLBW) infants at ≤2, 3, and 4 weeks' postnatal age. Fecal microbiome was surveyed using polymerase chain reaction amplification of the V4 region of 16S ribosomal RNA, and FC was measured by enzyme immunoassay.ResultsWe enrolled 45 VLBW infants (gestation 27.9 ± 2.2 weeks, birth weight 1126 ± 208 g) and obtained stool samples at 9.9 ± 3, 20.7 ± 4.1, and 29.4 ± 4.9 days. FC was positively correlated with the genus Klebsiella (r = 0.207, p = 0.034) and its dominant amplicon sequence variant (r = 0.290, p = 0.003), but not with the relative abundance of total Gammaproteobacteria. Klebsiella colonized the gut in two distinct patterns: some infants started with low Klebsiella abundance and gained these bacteria over time, whereas others began with very high Klebsiella abundance.ConclusionIn premature infants, FC correlated with relative abundance of a specific pathobiont, Klebsiella, and not with that of the class Gammaproteobacteria. These findings indicate a need to define dysbiosis at genera or higher levels of resolution

Elective Open Suprarenal Aneurysm Repair in England from 2000 to 2010 an Observational Study of Hospital Episode Statistics

Background: Open surgery is widely used as a benchmark for the results of fenestrated endovascular repair of complex abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). However, the existing evidence stems from single-centre experiences, and may not be reproducible in wider practice. National outcomes provide valuable information regarding the safety of suprarenal aneurysm repair. Methods: Demographic and clinical data were extracted from English Hospital Episodes Statistics for patients undergoing elective suprarenal aneurysm repair from 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2010. Thirty-day mortality and five-year survival were analysed by logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards modeling. Results: 793 patients underwent surgery with 14% overall 30-day mortality, which did not improve over the study period. Independent predictors of 30-day mortality included age, renal disease and previous myocardial infarction. 5-year survival was independently reduced by age, renal disease, liver disease, chronic pulmonary disease, and known metastatic solid tumour. There was significant regional variation in both 30-day mortality and 5-year survival after risk-adjustment. Regional differences in outcome were eliminated in a sensitivity analysis for perioperative outcome, conducted by restricting analysis to survivors of the first 30 days after surgery. Conclusions: Elective suprarenal aneurysm repair was associated with considerable mortality and significant regional variation across England. These data provide a benchmark to assess the efficacy of complex endovascular repair of supra-renal aneurysms, though cautious interpretation is required due to the lack of information regarding aneurysm morphology. More detailed study is required, ideally through the mandatory submission of data to a national registry of suprarenal aneurysm repair

Pair-breaking quantum phase transition in superconducting nanowires

A quantum phase transition (QPT) between distinct ground states of matter is a wide-spread phenomenon in nature, yet there are only a few experimentally accessible systems where the microscopic mechanism of the transition can be tested and understood. These cases are unique and form the experimentally established foundation for our understanding of quantum critical phenomena. Here we report the discovery that a magnetic-field-driven QPT in superconducting nanowires - a prototypical 1d-system - can be fully explained by the critical theory of pair-breaking transitions characterized by a correlation length exponent $\nu \approx 1$ and dynamic critical exponent $z \approx 2$. We find that in the quantum critical regime, the electrical conductivity is in agreement with a theoretically predicted scaling function and, moreover, that the theory quantitatively describes the dependence of conductivity on the critical temperature, field magnitude and orientation, nanowire cross sectional area, and microscopic parameters of the nanowire material. At the critical field, the conductivity follows a $T^{(d-2)/z}$ dependence predicted by phenomenological scaling theories and more recently obtained within a holographic framework. Our work uncovers the microscopic processes governing the transition: The pair-breaking effect of the magnetic field on interacting Cooper pairs overdamped by their coupling to electronic degrees of freedom. It also reveals the universal character of continuous quantum phase transitions.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

The Antioxidant Potential of the Mediterranean Diet in Patients at High Cardiovascular Risk: An In-Depth Review of the PREDIMED

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading global cause of death. Diet is known to be important in the prevention of CVD. The PREDIMED trial tested a relatively low-fat diet versus a high-fat Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) for the primary prevention of CVD. The resulting reduction of the CV composite outcome resulted in a paradigm shift in CV nutrition. Though many dietary factors likely contributed to this effect, this review focuses on the influence of the MedDiet on endogenous antioxidant systems and the effect of dietary polyphenols. Subgroup analysis of the PREDIMED trial revealed increased endogenous antioxidant and decreased pro-oxidant activity in the MedDiet groups. Moreover, higher polyphenol intake was associated with lower incidence of the primary outcome, overall mortality, blood pressure, inflammatory biomarkers, onset of new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and obesity. This suggests that polyphenols likely contributed to the lower incidence of the primary event in the MedDiet groups. In this article, we summarize the potential benefits of polyphenols found in the MedDiet, specifically the PREDIMED cohort. We also discuss the need for further research to confirm and expand the findings of the PREDIMED in a non-Mediterranean population and to determine the exact mechanisms of action of polyphenols

Visualizing sound emission of elephant vocalizations: evidence for two rumble production types

Recent comparative data reveal that formant frequencies are cues to body size in animals, due to a close relationship between formant frequency spacing, vocal tract length and overall body size. Accordingly, intriguing morphological adaptations to elongate the vocal tract in order to lower formants occur in several species, with the size exaggeration hypothesis being proposed to justify most of these observations. While the elephant trunk is strongly implicated to account for the low formants of elephant rumbles, it is unknown whether elephants emit these vocalizations exclusively through the trunk, or whether the mouth is also involved in rumble production. In this study we used a sound visualization method (an acoustic camera) to record rumbles of five captive African elephants during spatial separation and subsequent bonding situations. Our results showed that the female elephants in our analysis produced two distinct types of rumble vocalizations based on vocal path differences: a nasally- and an orally-emitted rumble. Interestingly, nasal rumbles predominated during contact calling, whereas oral rumbles were mainly produced in bonding situations. In addition, nasal and oral rumbles varied considerably in their acoustic structure. In particular, the values of the first two formants reflected the estimated lengths of the vocal paths, corresponding to a vocal tract length of around 2 meters for nasal, and around 0.7 meters for oral rumbles. These results suggest that African elephants may be switching vocal paths to actively vary vocal tract length (with considerable variation in formants) according to context, and call for further research investigating the function of formant modulation in elephant vocalizations. Furthermore, by confirming the use of the elephant trunk in long distance rumble production, our findings provide an explanation for the extremely low formants in these calls, and may also indicate that formant lowering functions to increase call propagation distances in this species'

Supersymmetric Monojets at the Large Hadron Collider

Supersymmetric monojets may be produced at the Large Hadron Collider by the process qg -> squark neutralino_1 -> q neutralino_1 neutralino_1, leading to a jet recoiling against missing transverse momentum. We discuss the feasibility and utility of the supersymmetric monojet signal. In particular, we examine the possible precision with which one can ascertain the neutralino_1-squark-quark coupling via the rate for monojet events. Such a coupling contains information on the composition of the neutralino_1 and helps bound dark matter direct detection cross-sections and the dark matter relic density of the neutralino_1. It also provides a check of the supersymmetric relation between gauge couplings and gaugino-quark-squark couplings.Comment: 46 pages, 10 figures. The appendix has been rewritten to correct an error that appears in all previous versions of the appendix. This error has no effect on the results in the main body of the pape

Occupational differences, cardiovascular risk factors and lifestyle habits in South Eastern rural Australia

BACKGROUND: In rural and remote Australia, cardiovascular mortality and morbidity rates are higher than metropolitan rates.This study analysed cardiovascular and other chronic disease risk factors and related health behaviours by occupational status, to determine whether agricultural workers have higher cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk than other rural workers. METHODS: Cross-sectional surveys in three rural regions of South Eastern Australia (2004-2006). A stratified random sample of 1001 men and women aged 25-74 from electoral rolls were categorised by occupation into agricultural workers (men = 214, women = 79), technicians (men = 123), managers (men = 148, women = 272) and 'home duties' (women = 165). Data were collected from self-administered questionnaire, physical measurements and laboratory tests. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk were assessed by Framingham 5 years risk calculation. RESULTS: Amongst men, agricultural workers had higher occupational physical activity levels, healthier more traditional diet, lower alcohol consumption, lower fasting plasma glucose, the lowest proportion of daily smokers and lower age-adjusted 5 year CVD and CHD risk scores.Amongst women, managers were younger with higher HDL cholesterol, lower systolic blood pressure, less hypertension, lower waist circumference, less self-reported diabetes and better 5 year CVD and CHD risk scores.Agricultural workers did not have higher cardiovascular disease risk than other occupational groups. CONCLUSIONS: Previous studies have suggested that farmers have higher risks of cardiovascular disease but this is because the risk has been compared with non-rural populations. In this study, the comparison has been made with other rural occupations. Cardiovascular risk reduction programs are justified for all. Programs tailored only for agricultural workers are unwarranted

Testing the efficacy of voluntary urban greenhouse gas emissions inventories

Drawing from an original dataset of urban metropolitan carbon footprints, we explore the correlations between national level climate change commitments and subnational level inventories. We ask: Does voluntary reporting allow a city to perform better than national average? Does ambitiousness in commitment have an impact on performance in footprint reduction? Does having long-term commitments affect performance in footprint reduction? Do binding national level commitments (such as those under the Kyoto Protocol) affect performance at the city level in terms of footprint reduction? To provide answers, we synthesize data from the largest repository of voluntary sub-national commitments and actions towards footprint reduction and greenhouse gas inventories from around the world, the Carbonn platform. More than 500 cities report at least one action, commitment or inventory to this database. We find, using a subset of this database, perhaps counter intuitively that cities with more ambitious commitments do not necessarily have steeper reductions in emissions. Our data also suggest that having long-term self-reported goals does not make the cities perform better in terms of footprint reduction. This appears to be true for both government and community commitments reported. Lastly, and positively, our data did reveal a statistically significant effect for cities belonging to countries that had committed to the Kyoto Protocol, suggesting the necessity of binding national (and supranational) climate targets

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal