Hoarding Symptoms Are Not Exclusive to Hoarders

Hoarding Disorder (HD) was originally conceptualized as a subcategory of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and numerous studies have in fact focused exclusively on investigating the comorbidity between OCD and HD. Hoarding behavior can nevertheless also be found in other clinical populations and in particular in patients with eating disorders (ED), anxiety disorders (AD), major depression (MD), and psychotic disorders (PD). The current study was carried out with the aim of investigating, using a validated instrument such as the Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R), the presence of HD symptoms in patients diagnosed with ED, AD, MD and PD. Hoarding symptomatology was also assessed in groups of self-identified hoarders (SIH) and healthy controls. The results revealed that 22.5% of the ED patients exceeded the cut-off for the diagnosis of HD, followed by 7.7% of the patients with MD, 7.4% of the patients with AD, and 5.9% of the patients with PD. The patients with ED had significantly higher SI-R scores than the other groups in the Acquisition and Difficulty Discarding scales while the AD, MD, and PD patients were characterized exclusively by Difficulty Discarding. These data suggest to clinicians that hoarding symptoms should be assessed in other types of patients and especially in those affected by Bulimia and Binge eating

Critical Theory of Two-Dimensional Mott Transition: Integrability and Hilbert Space Mapping

We reconsider the Mott transition in the context of a two-dimensional fermion model with density-density coupling. We exhibit a Hilbert space mapping between the original model and the Double Lattice Chern-Simons theory at the critical point by use of the representation theory of the q-oscillator and Weyl algebras. The transition is further characterized by the ground state modification. The explicit mapping provides a new tool to further probe and test the detailed physical properties of the fermionic lattice model considered here and to enhance our understanding of the Mott transition(s)

Muscle Dysmorphia and its Associated Psychological Features in Three Groups of Recreational Athletes

AbstractMuscle Dysmorphia (MD) is a psychological disorder characterized by the preoccupation with the idea that one’s body is not lean and muscular. The current study aimed to explore MD behaviours and symptoms in three groups of recreational athletes: bodybuilders (BB; n = 42), strength athletes (SA; n = 61), and fitness practitioners (FP; n = 22). Furthermore, we assessed MD-related psychological features as well as possible psychological predictors of MD among groups. Results highlighted that the BB group reported more beliefs about being smaller and weaker than desired compared to the other groups, whereas individuals in the SA group reported setting higher standards for themselves than the FP group. Lastly, orthorexia nervosa and social anxiety symptoms emerged as predictors of MD symptoms in the BB group. Taken together, our findings suggest that individuals in the BB group are characterized by more MD general symptomatology than those in the other groups; furthermore, only orthorexia nervosa and social anxiety may play a specific role in predicting MD general symptoms in bodybuilders.</jats:p

Revising the Intolerance of Uncertainty Model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Evidence from UK and Italian Undergraduate Samples

The Intolerance of Uncertainty Model (IUM) of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) attributes a key role to Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), and additional roles to Positive Beliefs about Worry (PBW), Negative Problem Orientation (NPO), and Cognitive Avoidance (CA), in the development and maintenance of worry, the core feature of GAD. Despite the role of the IUM components in worry and GAD has been considerably demonstrated, to date no studies have explicitly assessed whether and how PBW, NPO, and CA might turn IU into worry and somatic anxiety. The current studies sought to re-examine the IUM by assessing the relationships between the model’s components on two different non-clinical samples made up of UK and Italian undergraduate students. One-hundred and seventy UK undergraduates and 488 Italian undergraduates completed measures assessing IU, worry, somatic anxiety, depression, and refined measures of PBW, NPO, and CA. In each sample, two mediation models were conducted in order to test whether PBW, NPO, and CA differentially mediate the path from IU to worry and the path from IU to somatic anxiety. Secondly, it was tested whether IU also moderates the mediations. Main findings showed that, in the UK sample, only NPO mediated the path from IU to worry; as far as concern the path to anxiety, none of the putative mediators was significant. Differently, in the Italian sample PBW and NPO were mediators in the path from IU to worry, whereas only CA played a mediational role in the path from IU to somatic anxiety. Lastly, IU was observed to moderate only the association between NPO and worry, and only in the Italian sample. Some important cross-cultural, conceptual, and methodological issues raised from main results are discussed

Effective Field Theories for Electrons in Crystalline Structures

We present an effective field theory formulation for a class of condensed matter systems with crystalline structures for which some of the discrete symmetries of the underlying crystal survive the long distance limit, up to mesoscopic scales, and argue that this class includes interesting materials, such as $Si$-doped $GaAs$. The surviving symmetries determine a limited set of possible effective interactions, that we analyze in detail for the case of $Si$-doped $GaAs$ materials. These coincide with the ones proposed in the literature to describe the spin relaxation times for the $Si$-doped $Ga As$ materials, obtained here as a consequence of the choice of effective fields and their symmetries. The resulting low-energy effective theory is described in terms of three (six chiral) one-dimensional Luttinger liquid systems and their corresponding intervalley transitions. We also discuss the Mott transition within the context of the effective theory.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

LO STATO PSICO - FISICO NEGLI STUDENTI UNIVERSITARI PENDOLARI

Lo stress \ue8 un insieme di modificazioni fisiologiche, cognitive, emotive e comportamentali di cui l\u2019individuo ha esperienza nel momento in cui \ue8 richiesto un adattamento alle circostanze ambientali presenti: si configura pertanto come una reazione generale a situazioni specifiche e, non ha una connotazione positiva o negativa, svolgendo primariamente una funzione di tipo adattivo. Ci\uf2 che rende disfunzionale e \u201cpatologico\u201d lo stress \ue8 il modo in cui l\u2019individuo valuta la situazione con la quale si trova a rapportarsi: in questi casi si parla pertanto di distress, ovvero \u201cstress negativo\u201d (Selye, 1956). Gli stimoli e le situazioni che, valutate negativamente, determinano una reazione di distress sono definiti stressors; questi possono essere acuti (si verificano una sola volta e per un periodo limitato di tempo) oppure cronici (di lunga durata). A loro volta, gli stressors cronici possono essere intermittenti o propriamente cronici. Nel primo caso, si presentano a intervalli di tempo regolari, hanno una durata limitata e perci\uf2 sono pi\uf9 o meno prevedibili; nel secondo, invece, sono rappresentati da situazioni di lunga durata, che permeano la vita dell\u2019individuo e che diventano stressanti nel momento in cui ostacolano in maniera persistente il perseguimento degli obiettivi della persona. Due sono le reazioni fisiologiche principali che caratterizzano la risposta di stress: muscolari (tensione muscolare o immobilizzazione) e neurovegetative (dovute a un\u2019eccessiva stimolazione del Sistema Nervoso Autonomo simpatico). Gli effetti di queste reazioni fisiologiche, andando a combinarsi con quella che \ue8 l\u2019interpretazione che la persona da della situazione e la propria esperienza emotiva, determinano alcuni dei principali sintomi riferiti legati allo stress: emicrania, tachicardia, iperventilazione, difficolt\ue0 di concentrazione, umore depresso, irritabilit\ue0, stanchezza, affaticamento

Investigating stress in commuting university students

Commuting can be considered as a chronic stressor, since it is often experienced as an unpleasant condition which negatively impacts on the individual psychological, physical and social well-being. Stress becomes dysfunctional and pathological when the individual negatively appraise specific situations. According to the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) commuters are people daily travelling out of their residence town for working or studying purposes irrespectively of the distance covered or the mean travel duration. To date, the most studies have been focused on stress among commuting workers; however, it is noteworthy that students represent a wide proportion of commuting population in Italy (about the 23%, conforming to a survey carried out by CENSIS, Centro Studi Investimenti Sociali). In consideration of these data, it is important to cast light on the consequences of commuting on students\u2019 skills and psycho-physical well-being. Present study was aimed at investigating stress among commuting university students, in order to provide answers for some important questions: does commuting affect students\u2019 performance? Does commuting affect daily psychological and physical well-being? What are the commuting characteristics mainly involved in affecting student\u2019s performance and well-being? Three-thousand three-hundred and fifteen commuting students attending the University of Palermo enrolled the study. Non valid data (inconsistent answers) were excluded from the analyses and the final sample consisted of 2949 participants: 60.1% (N = 1773) were females and 39.9% (N = 1176) were males. All students provided socio-anagraphic data and completed an ad hoc self-report questionnaire comprising 20 items. A section of the questionnaire was aimed at collecting information concerning daily commuting, such as place of study (inside or outside the town of residence), estimated daily covered distance, etc. The other section was developed to investigate how commuting students appraise their commuting condition; it investigates three areas: perception of commuting, psycho-physical well-being and disease associated with commuting stressors. The main finding of present study highlights the existence of important differences between commuting students on the basis of means of transportation. It emerged that those using public transports (train, bus, metro) reported a more negative evaluation of their commuting and lower psycho-physical well-being levels than those travelling by private transports. In particular, students travelling by motorcycle described their daily commuting as positive and reported good psycho-physical conditions when arriving at university. This result is in line with previous literature indicating that control and predictability are important subjective factors which mediate the relationship between commuting and stress. People using public transports usually face with uncontrollable events (for example delays or crowding) which facilitate a negative appraisal of commuting. When this is chronically experienced, it may lead to stress and thus lack of energy, irritability, negative mood and difficulties in concentration. All these factors can negatively impact on student\u2019 performance

Electrochemical oxidation of salicylic acid using BDD as electrode material

The major project of the SHMIL landfill's leachate aims to find a complete treatment scheme, that leads to sty below the limits of the polluted compounds in Table before 2020. The presented work is part of the initial phase and it focuses on an advanced oxidation process, which uses radicals to oxidize pollutants, in particular the organic matter. The process is called electrochemical oxidation and it uses electrodes, that generate radicals on the anode surface, which oxidize hazardous compounds. The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) has not been reduced all by the same redox reactions, as some organic substances are more persistent and must be treated with more advanced techniques. Oxidation by radicals is the most efficient and fastest way that leads to the increament of BOD5/COD, meanwhile the concentration of the pollutants decreases, because the radicals react with both, biodegradable and non biodegradable organic matter. Furthermore, other studies prove a good removal ratio for heavy metals and ammonia nitrogen using electrochemical oxidation. This makes argue the treatment can reach good results for the application on the complex matrix of landfill leachate. The treatment is challenging for a theoretical reason, because the specific aspect of the radical oxidation are not completely known and the technique are not developed enough to test it and also for a practical reason. The setup is new and finding the methodology to carry out an experiment requires a creative effort. In the reported work, different configurations of the setup are analized. In the electrolytic cell, the electrodes are made of a cover of BDD (boron-doped diamond) on a silicon support. The evaluated aspects are the following: the electrolyte nature of NaCl and NaSO4, the concentration of it in the solution of 0,05 M and 0,1 M, the application of reversal mode or not, the applied current of 1 A, 3,5 A and 7 A, the pH of the solution between 3, 7 and 12 and the temperature of 13°C, 20°C and 27°C.\\ The collected data for every experiment are the temperature, the conductivity, the applied current, the voltage, the pH of the solution, the absorbance spectrum and the TOC concentration.\\ \\ The experiments carried out with NaCl demonstrate a higher removal rate compared to the ones with the other electrolyte. Moreover, the comparison between the different applied currents, indicates a better efficiency for the higher current. For the second round of experiments, it can be argue that at higher temperature, as well as higher pH, the absorbance value at the peak of 298 nm, decreases faster than the other configurations. The results of the TOC analysis, instead, depict the removal ratio is basically the same for all the configurations with a mild higher carbon concentration of the last sample for the experiments at 13°C. The final result of the carbon concentration together with the ones of the absorbance, prove the generation of the intermediates is influenced by the different parameters, but the final carbon concentration does not change