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A History of Trauma is Associated with Aggression, Depression, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Behavior, and Suicide Ideation in First-Episode Psychosis.
The association between trauma and psychosis outcomes is well-established, and yet the impact of trauma on comorbid clinical symptoms-such as aggression, non-suicidal self-injury behavior (NSSIB), suicide ideation, and suicide behavior-for those with psychosis is unclear. To effectively treat those with first-episode psychosis (FEP) and a history of trauma, we need to understand the impact of trauma on their whole presentation. FEP participants were recruited from an Early Psychosis Program (N = 187, ages 12-35, 72.2% male). Clinicians gathered history of trauma, aggression, and suicide data, and rated current symptom severity and functioning. Data was coded using clinician rated measures, self-report measures, and retrospective clinical chart review. Regression analyses examined whether trauma was associated with a history of aggression, suicidal ideation, suicide behavior, NSSIB, symptoms, and functioning. Trauma was associated with aggression, aggression severity and type of aggression (aggression towards others). Trauma was also associated with depression severity, suicide ideation, most severe suicide ideation, and NSSIB. Trauma was not associated with suicide behavior, severity of suicide behavior or psychosocial functioning. Integrating trauma treatment into FEP care could reduce rates of depression, aggression, suicide ideation, and NSSIB for those with a history of trauma. To reduce suicide attempt occurrence and improve functioning, more research is needed
Quantum Tunneling Effect in Oscillating Friedmann Cosmology
It is shown that the tunneling effect in quantum cosmology is possible not
only at the very beginning or the very end of the evolution, but also at the
moment of maximum expansion of the universe. A positive curvature expanding
Friedmann universe changes its state of evolution spontaneously and completely,
{\it without} any changes in the matter content, avoiding recollapse, and
falling into oscillations between the nonzero values of the scale factor. On
the other hand, an oscillating nonsingular universe can tunnel spontaneously to
a recollapsing regime. The probability of such kind of tunneling is given
explicitly. It is inversely related to the amount of nonrelativistic matter
(dust), and grows from a certain fixed value to unity if the negative
cosmological constant approaches zero.Comment: 18 pages Latex + 2 figures available by fax upon reques
Function of specialized regulatory proteins and signaling pathways in exercise-induced muscle mitochondrial biogenesis
AbstractSkeletal muscle mitochondrial content and function are regulated by a number of specialized molecular pathways that remain to be fully defined. Although a number of proteins have been identified to be important for the maintenance of mitochondria in quiescent muscle, the requirement for these appears to decrease with the activation of multiple overlapping signaling events that are triggered by exercise. This makes exercise a valuable therapeutic tool for the treatment of mitochondrially based metabolic disorders. In this review, we summarize some of the traditional and more recently appreciated pathways that are involved in mitochondrial biogenesis in muscle, particularly during exercise
Spontaneous Creation of Inflationary Universes and the Cosmic Landscape
We study some gravitational instanton solutions that offer a natural
realization of the spontaneous creation of inflationary universes in the brane
world context in string theory. Decoherence due to couplings of higher
(perturbative) modes of the metric as well as matter fields modifies the
Hartle-Hawking wavefunction for de Sitter space. Generalizing this new
wavefunction to be used in string theory, we propose a principle in string
theory that hopefully will lead us to the particular vacuum we live in, thus
avoiding the anthropic principle. As an illustration of this idea, we give a
phenomenological analysis of the probability of quantum tunneling to various
stringy vacua. We find that the preferred tunneling is to an inflationary
universe (like our early universe), not to a universe with a very small
cosmological constant (i.e., like today's universe) and not to a 10-dimensional
uncompactified de Sitter universe. Such preferred solutions are interesting as
they offer a cosmological mechanism for the stabilization of extra dimensions
during the inflationary epoch.Comment: 52 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. Added discussion on supercritical
string vacua, added reference
Do UK universities communicate their brands effectively through their websites?
This paper attempts to explore the effectiveness of UK universitiesâ websites. The area of branding in higher education has received increasing academic investigation, but little work has researched how universities demonstrate their brand promises through their websites. The quest to differentiate through branding can be challenging in the university context, however. It is argued that those institutions that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to face a changing future. Employing a multistage methodology, the web pages of twenty UK universities were investigated by using a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results indicated âtraditional valuesâ such as teaching and research were often well communicated in terms of online brand but âemotional valuesâ like social responsibility and the universitiesâ environments were less consistently communicated, despite their increased topicality. It is therefore suggested that emotional values may offer a basis for possible future online differentiation
A Comparative Study of National Infrastructures for Digital (Open) Educational Resources in Higher Education
This paper reports on the first stage of an international comparative study for the project âDigital educational
architectures: Open learning resources in distributed learning infrastructuresâEduArcâ, funded by the German
Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This study reviews the situation of digital educational resources
(or (O)ER) framed within the digital transformation of ten different Higher Education (HE) systems (Australia,
Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United States). Following
a comparative case study approach, we investigated issues related to the existence of policies, quality
assurance mechanisms and measures for the promotion of change in supporting infrastructure development
for (O)ER at the national level in HE in the different countries. The results of this mainly documentary research
highlight differences and similarities, which are largely due to variations in these countriesâ political structure
organisation. The discussion and conclusion point at the importance of understanding each countryâs context
and culture, in order to understand the differences between them, as well as the challenges they face
Fomin's conception of quantum cosmogenesis
The main aim of this paper is to extend the early approach to quantum
cosmogenesis provided by Fomin. His approach was developed independently to the
well-known Tryon description of the creation of the closed universe as a
process of quantum fluctuation of vacuum. We apply the Fomin concept to derive
the cosmological observables. We argue that Fomin's idea from his 1973 work, in
contrast to Tryon's one has impact on the current Universe models and the
proposed extension of his theory now can be tested by distant supernovae SNIa.
Fomin's idea of the creation of the Universe is based on the intersection of
two fundamental theories: general relativity and quantum field theory with the
contemporary cosmological models with dark energy. As a result of comparison
with contemporary approaches concerning dark energy, we found out that Fomin's
idea appears in the context of the present acceleration of the Universe
explanation: cosmological models with decaying vacuum. Contemporary it appears
in the form of Ricci scalar dark energy connected with the holographic
principle. We show also that the Fomin model admits the bounce instead of the
initial singularity. We demonstrate that the Fomin model of cosmogenesis can be
falsified and using SNIa data the values of model parameters is in agreement
with observations.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; (v2) 22 pages, references added, figures
improved; (v3) rewritten using revtex4; (v4) minor changes; (v5) improved
formulas and extended statistical analysi
Identifying foundation species in North American forests using longâterm data on ant assemblage structure
Foundation species are locally abundant and uniquely control associated biodiversity, whereas dominant species are locally abundant but are thought to be replaceable in ecological systems. It is important to distinguish foundation from dominant species to direct conservation efforts. Longâterm studies that remove abundant species while measuring community dynamics have the potential to (1) aid in the identification of foundation vs. dominant species and, (2) once a foundation species is identified, determine how long its effects persist within a community after its loss. Longâterm data on ant assemblages within two canopyâmanipulation experimentsâthe Harvard Forest Hemlock Removal Experiment (HFâHeRE) and the Black Rock Future of Oak Forests Experiment (BRFâFOFE)âprovide insights into how ant assemblages change and reassemble following the loss of Tsuga canadensis or Quercus spp. Previous research documented foundation species effects on ants in the HFâHeRE for up to four years after T. canadensis loss. Six additional years of data at HFâHeRE presented for the first time here show that removal of T. canadensis resulted in taxonomic and some measures of functional shifts in ant assemblages that persisted for ten years, further supporting the hypothesis that T. canadensis is a foundation species at Harvard Forest. In contrast, ant assemblages at BRFâFOFE varied little regardless of whether oaks or other tree species were removed from the canopy, suggesting that Quercusspecies do not act as foundation species at Black Rock Forest. Deer and moose exclosures within each experiment also allowed for comparisons between effects on ants of foundation or dominant tree species relative to effects of large herbivores. At HFâHeRE, effects of T. canadensis were stronger than effects of large herbivores on taxonomic and functional diversity of ant assemblages. At BRFâFOFE, in contrast, effects of Quercus species were weaker than effects of large herbivores on ant taxonomic diversity and some measures of ant functional diversity. These findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing between the roles of irreplaceable foundation species and replaceable dominant ones in forested ecosystems along with other drivers of biodiversity (e.g., herbivory)
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