Gendered Hate Speech in Swiss WhatsApp Messages

This paper provides a first manual analysis of the use of 14 gender-specific swear words in Swiss WhatsApp messages in (Swiss) German, French and Italian. We will show that gender-specific swear words only concern non-participants of the discourse when used offensively, in our data. When such items are directly addressed to the interlocutor, they are rather used ironically or even hypocoristically. Furthermore, we will show that gendered hate speech in this context is not a matter of mutual discrimination by the two sexes, but that Swiss WhatsApp users also refer to people of their own sex using gender-specific swear words

Wohnhaus-Architektur in Byzanz

Byzantinische Wohnhaus-Architektur ist erst seit kurzer Zeit Gegenstand der Forschung. Ausgrabungen konzentrieren sich zumeist entweder auf ältere Strukturen oder besser erhaltene byzantinische Gebäude. Schriftliche und bildliche Quellen können nicht immer zur Ergänzung unseres Wissens herangezogen werden. Zu Beginn der Forschung waren die Betrachtungen zu Wohnhäusern noch sehr stark in die der Siedlungsstrukture eingebunden. Dies änderte sich nach und nach, jedoch wurden erst in den letzten Jahren auch Funde zum Gegenstand der Diskussion. Obwohl einiges zu den Details der Wohnhaus-Architektur bekannt ist, bleiben diese noch unbearbeitet. So gibt es viele Informationen zu Mauerwerk, Dächern, Fenstern, Türen, Fußböden, Treppen, Trennwänden, Decken, Keramiken, Lagergefäßen, Feuerstellen, Ausstattung und anderen Funden. Diese Informationen wurden in der Literatur jedoch bis dato nicht ausreichend bearbeitet um ein klares Bild von byzantinischer Wohnhaus-Architektur zu zeigen

Effect of Childhood Trauma on Adult Depression and Neuroendocrine Function: Sex-Specific Moderation by CRH Receptor 1 Gene

Variations of the corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1) gene appear to moderate the development of depression after childhood trauma. Depression more frequently affects women than men. We examined sex differences in the effects of the CRHR1 gene on the relationship between childhood trauma and adult depression. We recruited 1,063 subjects from the waiting rooms of a public urban hospital. Childhood trauma exposure and symptoms of depression were assessed using dimensional rating scales. Subjects were genotyped for rs110402 within the CRHR1 gene. An independent sample of 78 subjects underwent clinical assessment, genotyping, and a dexamethasone/CRH test. The age range at recruitment was 18–77 years and 18–45, for the two studies respectively. In the hospital sample, the protective effect of the rs110402 A-allele against developing depression after childhood trauma was observed in men (N = 424), but not in women (N = 635). In the second sample, the rs110402 A-allele was associated with decreased cortisol response in the dexamethasone/CRH test only in men. In A-allele carriers with childhood trauma exposure women exhibited increased cortisol response compared men; there were no sex differences in A-allele carriers without trauma exposure. This effect may, however, not be related to gender differences per se, but to differences in the type of experienced abuse between men and women. CRHR × environment interactions in the hospital sample were observed with exposure to physical, but not sexual or emotional abuse. Physical abuse was the most common type of abuse in men in this cohort, while sexual abuse was most commonly suffered by women. Our results suggest that the CRHR1 gene may only moderate the effects of specific types of childhood trauma on depression. Gender differences in environmental exposures could thus be reflected in sex-specific CRHR1 × child abuse interactions

Siegener Beiträge zur Geschichte und Philosophie der Mathematik 2015

Die "Siegener Beiträge zur Geschichte und Philosophie der Mathematik - SieB" bieten ein Forum für den interdisziplinären Diskurs im Bereich Philosophie und Geschichte der Mathematik, der eine Pluralität an Themen, Perspektiven und Methoden mit dem Bemühen um ein besseres Verständnis ’der’ Mathematik vereint. Im Sinne der Leitfrage nach dem "Wesen" der Mathematik enthält der vorliegende Band Beiträge zur Mathematik- und Logikgeschichte und zugleiche Beiträge zur Philosophie der Mathematik

Peripheral blood gene expression: it all boils down to the RNA collection tubes

Background: Gene expression profiling from peripheral blood is a valuable tool for biomarker discovery in clinical studies. Different whole blood RNA collection and processing methods are highly variable and might confound comparisons of results across studies. The main aim of the study was to compare genome-wide gene expression profiles obtained from the two widely used commercially available whole blood RNA collection systems - PAXgene and Tempus tubes. Comparisons of present call rates, variances, correlations and influence of globin reduction across the two collection systems was performed using in vivo glucocorticoid stimulation in 24 peripheral blood samples from three individuals. Results: RNA quality, yield and numbers of detected transcripts from the two RNA collection systems was comparable, with no significant differences between the tube types. Globin reduction resulted in a significant increase in present call rates (p = 8.17 × 10 -5 and p = 1.95 × 10 -3 in PAXgene and Tempus tubes respectively) and significant decrease in gene expression variance in both RNA collection tubes (p = 0.0025 and p = 0.041 in PAXgene and Tempus tubes respectively). Comparisons of glucocorticoid receptor-stimulated gene expression profiles between the two collection tube systems revealed an overlap of only 17 to 54%, depending on the stringency level of the statistical thresholds. This overlap increased by 1-8% when the RNA samples were processed to remove the globin mRNA. Conclusion: RNA obtained from PAXgene and Tempus tubes was comparable in terms of quality and yield, however, detectable gene expression changes after glucocorticoid receptor stimulation were distinct, with an overlap of only up to 46% between the two collection systems. This overlap increased to 54% when the samples were depleted of globin mRNA and drastically reduced to 17-18% when only gene expression differences with a fold change greater than 2.0 were assessed. These results indicate that gene expression profiles obtained from PAXgene and Tempus differ drastically and should not be analyzed together. These data suggest that researchers must exert caution while interpreting expression profiles obtained through different RNA collection tubes.</p

Neurobiology of Self-Regulation: Longitudinal Influence of FKBP5 and Intimate Partner Violence on Emotional and Cognitive Development in Childhood.

OBJECTIVE::Self-regulation includes the volitional and nonvolitional regulation of emotional, cognitive, and physiological responses to stimulation. It develops from infancy through individual characteristics and the environment, with the stress hormone system as a central player. Accordingly, the authors hypothesized that genes involved in regulating the stress system, such as FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5), interact with early-life stress exposure, such as exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), to predict self-regulation indicators and associated outcomes, including behavioral and learning problems in school. METHODS::Study participants were a longitudinal birth cohort of 910 children for whom FKBP5 genotypes were available and who were assessed for exposure to IPV during the first 2 years of life as well as multiple measures of self-regulation: stress-induced cortisol reactivity and fear-elicited emotional reactivity at 7, 15, and 24 months, executive function at 36, 48, and 60 months, and emotional and behavioral difficulties and reading and math achievement in school grades 1, 2, and 5. Data were analyzed using longitudinal clustering and ordinal logistic regression procedures followed by mixed linear modeling. RESULTS::Children with two copies of a risk FKBP5 haplotype and IPV exposure were significantly more likely to have a developmental trajectory characterized by high, prolonged stress-induced cortisol reactivity and emotional reactivity in toddlerhood, followed by low executive function at school entry and high emotional and behavior problems and low reading ability in the primary school grades. CONCLUSIONS::The interaction of FKBP5 and IPV affects the physiological response to stress early in life, with consequences for emotional and cognitive self-regulation. Targeting self-regulation may present an early intervention strategy for children facing genetic and environmental risk

Clients’ Perspective on Predetermined Time Limits for Therapy in the Context of the Norwegian Welfare System

Limited capacity and high demand for mental health care drive efforts to improve the efficiency of treatment and increasingly result in predetermined time limits for treatment, even in government-covered treatment in welfare systems. How do clients experience having predetermined time limits for psychotherapy? We analyzed the transcripts of interviews with 18 participants who had completed a return to work (RTW) intervention based on emotion-focused therapy (EFT) that had predetermined time limits. The analysis identified four experiential trajectories through therapy with predetermined time limits, representing four narrative themes: Trajectory A: It is ok to stop here—Not wanting more therapy; Trajectory B: Seeing the benefits of continued therapy, but ready to give life a go without treatment; Trajectory C: Being on one’s own too early—Economic obstacles hindering the continuation of therapy; and Trajectory D: I need more than this—Securing continued therapy. Having the therapist communicate the timeframes for therapy clearly, while leaving room for individual tailoring of therapy, was experienced as very important by clients receiving psychotherapy with predetermined time limits.publishedVersio

DeepWAS: Multivariate genotype-phenotype associations by directly integrating regulatory information using deep learning

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identify genetic variants associated with traits or diseases. GWAS never directly link variants to regulatory mechanisms. Instead, the functional annotation of variants is typically inferred by post hoc analyses. A specific class of deep learning-based methods allows for the prediction of regulatory effects per variant on several cell type-specific chromatin features. We here describe \textquotedblDeepWAS\textquotedbl, a new approach that integrates these regulatory effect predictions of single variants into a multivariate GWAS setting. Thereby, single variants associated with a trait or disease are directly coupled to their impact on a chromatin feature in a cell type. Up to 61 regulatory SNPs, called dSNPs, were associated with multiple sclerosis (MS, 4,888 cases and 10,395 controls), major depressive disorder (MDD, 1,475 cases and 2,144 controls), and height (5,974 individuals). These variants were mainly non-coding and reached at least nominal significance in classical GWAS. The prediction accuracy was higher for DeepWAS than for classical GWAS models for 91% of the genome-wide significant, MS-specific dSNPs. DSNPs were enriched in public or cohort-matched expression and methylation quantitative trait loci and we demonstrated the potential of DeepWAS to generate testable functional hypotheses based on genotype data alone. DeepWAS is available at https://github.com/cellmapslab/DeepWAS

The effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on risk and protective factors of depressive relapse – a randomized wait-list controlled trial

Background The aim of this randomized wait-list controlled trial was to explore the effects of Mindfulness–Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on risk and protective factors for depressive relapse within the domains of cognition, emotion and self-relatedness. Methods Sixty-eight individuals with recurrent depressive disorder were randomized to MBCT or a wait-list control condition (WLC). Results Completers of MBCT (N = 26) improved significantly on measures assessing risk and protective factors of recurrent depression compared to WLC (N = 30) on measures of rumination (d = 0.59, p = .015), emotion regulation (d = 0.50, p = .028), emotional reactivity to stress (d = 0.32, p = .048), self-compassion (d = 1.02, p < .001), mindfulness (d = 0.59, p = .010), and depression (d = 0.40, p = .018). In the Intention To Treat sample, findings were attenuated, but there were still significant results on measures of rumination, self-compassion and depression. Conclusions Findings from the present trial contribute to evidence that MBCT can lead to reduction in risk factors of depressive relapse, and strengthening of factors known to be protective of depressive relapse. The largest changes were found in the domain of self-relatedness, in the form of large effects on the participants’ ability to be less self-judgmental and more self-compassionate.publishedVersio