Indestructibility of Vopenka's Principle

We show that Vopenka's Principle and Vopenka cardinals are indestructible under reverse Easton forcing iterations of increasingly directed-closed partial orders, without the need for any preparatory forcing. As a consequence, we are able to prove the relative consistency of these large cardinal axioms with a variety of statements known to be independent of ZFC, such as the generalised continuum hypothesis, the existence of a definable well-order of the universe, and the existence of morasses at many cardinals.Comment: 15 pages, submitted to Israel Journal of Mathematic

Accessible opera : overcoming linguistic and sensorial barriers

The desire to make media available for all has been rapidly accepted and implemented by most European countries. Opera, as one of the many audiovisual representations, also falls under the category of production which needs to be made accessible and this article aims to analyse how opera has gone through a complete transformation to become a cultural event for all, overcoming not only linguistic but also sensorial barriers. The first part of the article analyses the various forms of translation associated with opera and the main challenges they entail. The second presents different systems used to make opera accessible to the sensorially challenged, highlighting their main difficulties. Examples from research carried out at the Barcelona's Liceu opera house are presented to illustrate various modalities, especially audio description. All in all, it is our aim to show how translated-related processes have made it possible to open opera to a wider audience despite some initial reluctance

Nigerian scam e-mails and the charms of capital

So-called '419' or 'advance-fee' e-mail frauds have proved remarkably successful. Global losses to these scams are believed to run to billions of dollars. Although it can be assumed that the promise of personal gain which these e-mails hold out is part of what motivates victims, there is more than greed at issue here. How is it that the seemingly incredible offers given in these unsolicited messages can find an audience willing to treat them as credible? The essay offers a speculative thesis in answer to this question. Firstly, it is argued, these scams are adept at exploiting common presuppositions in British and American culture regarding Africa and the relationships that are assumed to exist between their nations and those in the global south. Secondly, part of the appeal of these e-mails lies in the fact that they appear to reveal the processes by which wealth is created and distributed in the global economy. They thus speak to their readers’ attempts to map or conceptualise the otherwise inscrutable processes of that economy. In the conclusion the essay looks at the contradictions in the official state response to this phenomena

Motivational orientation and risk taking in elite winter climbers: A qualitative study

Objectives: High risk sports participants have typically been viewed as a homogenous group despite variability in performance characteristics and the level of risk undertaken. Prolonged engagement high risk sports such as winter climbing are relatively underserved within current literature. Elite winter climbers attempt climbs that are outside the scope of the current ‘known’ i.e. unclimbed routes. The majority of the current understanding of motivation in high risk sports is based on quantitative research and the methodologies and instruments used. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of elite winter climbers and gain a richer understanding of their motivational orientation and risk taking behaviour. Design: Qualitative – inductive. Method: Four elite male winter climbers (aged 42-49 years old) took part in semi-structured interviews and explore their motivational orientation and risk taking behaviour. A thematic analysis was used. Results: Two super-ordinate themes of enactive mastery and engendered disinhibition emerged from the data. Enactive mastery was interpreted as a composite of two higher order themes; task mastery and self-mastery. Engendered disinhibition was interpreted as a composite of two higher order themes; social cognitive appraisal and self-perception. Conclusion: Enactive mastery and engendered disinhibition emerged as key behavioural and psychological determinants that influenced individuals to attempt more difficult and riskier forms of winter climbing. Goal achievement was their primary motive which was set within a confidence frame encapsulated within these super-ordinate themes

Compulsory admissions of patients with mental disorders: state of the art on ethical and legislative aspects in 40 European countries

Wasserman D, Apter G, Baeken C, Bailey S, Balazs J, Bec C, Bienkowski P, Bobes J, Ortiz MFB, Brunn H, Bôke Ö, Camilleri N, Carpiniello B, Chihai J, Chkonia E, Courtet P, Cozman D, David M, Dom G, Esanu A, Falkai P, Flannery W, Gasparyan K, Gerlinger G, Gorwood P, Gudmundsson O, Hanon C, Heinz A, Dos Santos MJH, Hedlund A, Ismayilov F, Ismayilov N, Isometsä ET, Izakova L, Kleinberg A, Kurimay T, Reitan SK, Lecic-Tosevski D, Lehmets A, Lindberg N, Lundblad KA, Lynch G, Maddock C, Malt UF, Martin L, Martynikhin I, Maruta NO, Matthys F, Mazaliauskiene R, Mihajlovic G, Peles AM, Miklavic V, Mohr P, Ferrandis MM, Musalek M, Neznanov N, Ostorharics-Horvath G, Pajević I, Popova A, Pregelj P, Prinsen E, Rados C, Roig A, Kuzman MR, Samochowiec J, Sartorius N, Savenko Y, Skugarevsky O, Slodecki E, Soghoyan A, Stone DS, Taylor-East R, Terauds E, Tsopelas C, Tudose C, Tyano S, Vallon P, Van der Gaag RJ, Varandas P, Vavrusova L, Voloshyn P, Wancata J, Wise J, Zemishlany Z, Öncü F, Vahip

Immigration and recommended care after a suicide attempt in Europe: equity or bias?

This report describes the investigation of care recommendations in the medical system across European countries to immigrants who attempted suicide. Data from seven European countries with 8865 local and 2921 immigrant person-cases were derived from the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Suicidal Behaviour and ensuing MONSUE (Monitoring Suicidal Behaviour in Europe) project. The relationship between immigrant status and type of aftercare recommended was analysed with binary logistic regression, adjusting for gender, age, method of attempt and the Centre collecting the data. Clear disparities were identified in the care recommendation practices toward immigrants, compared with hosts, over and above differing policies by the European Centres

Corticosteroid modulation and testosterone changes during alcohol intoxication affects voluntary alcohol drinking

A number of studies have shown that stress and an activated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are associated with increased voluntary alcohol drinking. Recently, associations have been found between activated HPA and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes in alcohol-preferring AA and non-preferring ANA, F2 (crossbred second generation from original AA and ANA), and Wistar rats. The aim of the present study has been to determine the role of corticosterone and alcohol-related testosterone-effects in subsequent alcohol drinking in AA, ANA, F2 and Wistar rats. The present study comprises of four substudies presenting new analyses of existing data, by which correlations between basal corticosterone levels, changes in testosterone levels during alcohol intoxications and subsequent voluntary alcohol consumption are investigated. The results displayed positive correlations between basal corticosterone levels and subsequent alcohol-mediated testosterone elevations, which was positively associated with voluntary alcohol consumption. The results also showed a negative correlation between basal corticosterone levels and alcohol-mediated testosterone decreases, which was negatively associated with alcohol consumption. In conclusion, the present study displays novel results, according to which the HPA axis, one hand, relates to testosterone elevation (potentially causing and/or strengthening reinforcement) during alcohol intoxication, which in turn may relate to higher voluntary alcohol consumption (AA rats). Vice versa, the HPA axis may also relate to alcohol-mediated testosterone decrease (causing testosterone reduction and disinforcement) and low-alcohol drinking (ANA, F2 and Wistar rats). In addition, the present results showed that alcohol-mediated testosterone changes may also, independently of the HPA axis, correlate with voluntary alcohol drinking, which indicate the impact of genetic factors. Thus, the role of the HPA-axis may be more related to situational stress than to intrinsic factors. In further studies, it should be investigated, whether the present results also apply to stress and human alcohol drinking.Peer reviewe

The impact of education, country, race and ethnicity on the self-report of postpartum depression using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale

Universal screening for postpartum depression is recommended in many countries. Knowledge of whether the disclosure of depressive symptoms in the postpartum period differs across cultures could improve detection and provide new insights into the pathogenesis. Moreover, it is a necessary step to evaluate the universal use of screening instruments in research and clinical practice. In the current study we sought to assess whether the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the most widely used screening tool for postpartum depression, measures the same underlying construct across cultural groups in a large international dataset. Ordinal regression and measurement invariance were used to explore the association between culture, operationalized as education, ethnicity/race and continent, and endorsement of depressive symptoms using the EPDS on 8209 new mothers from Europe and the USA. Education, but not ethnicity/race, influenced the reporting of postpartum depression [difference between robust comparative fit indexes (∆*CFI) 0.01), but not between European countries (∆*CFI < 0.01). Investigators and clinicians should be aware of the potential differences in expression of phenotype of postpartum depression that women of different educational backgrounds may manifest. The increasing cultural heterogeneity of societies together with the tendency towards globalization requires a culturally sensitive approach to patients, research and policies, that takes into account, beyond rhetoric, the context of a person's experiences and the context in which the research is conducted

Asthma prescribing, ethnicity and risk of hospital admission: an analysis of 35,864 linked primary and secondary care records in East London

This work was partly supported by funding from the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research

Clinical phenotypes of perinatal depression and time of symptom onset: analysis of data from an international consortium

Background The perinatal period is a time of high risk for onset of depressive disorders and is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, including maternal suicide. Perinatal depression comprises a heterogeneous group of clinical subtypes, and further refinement is needed to improve treatment outcomes. We sought to empirically identify and describe clinically relevant phenotypic subtypes of perinatal depression, and further characterise subtypes by time of symptom onset within pregnancy and three post-partum periods. Methods Data were assembled from a subset of seven of 19 international sites in the Postpartum Depression: Action Towards Causes and Treatment (PACT) Consortium. In this analysis, the cohort was restricted to women aged 19–40 years with information about onset of depressive symptoms in the perinatal period and complete prospective data for the ten-item Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS). Principal components and common factor analysis were used to identify symptom dimensions in the EPDS. The National Institute of Mental Health research domain criteria functional constructs of negative valence and arousal were applied to the EPDS dimensions that reflect states of depressed mood, anhedonia, and anxiety. We used k-means clustering to identify subtypes of women sharing symptom patterns. Univariate and bivariate statistics were used to describe the subtypes. Findings Data for 663 women were included in these analyses. We found evidence for three underlying dimensions measured by the EPDS: depressed mood, anxiety, and anhedonia. On the basis of these dimensions, we identified five distinct subtypes of perinatal depression: severe anxious depression, moderate anxious depression, anxious anhedonia, pure anhedonia, and resolved depression. These subtypes have clear differences in symptom quality and time of onset. Anxiety and anhedonia emerged as prominent symptom dimensions with post-partum onset and were notably severe. Interpretation Our findings show that there might be different types and severity of perinatal depression with varying time of onset throughout pregnancy and post partum. These findings support the need for tailored treatments that improve outcomes for women with perinatal depression