Bell nonlocality

Bell's 1964 theorem, which states that the predictions of quantum theory cannot be accounted for by any local theory, represents one of the most profound developments in the foundations of physics. In the last two decades, Bell's theorem has been a central theme of research from a variety of perspectives, mainly motivated by quantum information science, where the nonlocality of quantum theory underpins many of the advantages afforded by a quantum processing of information. The focus of this review is to a large extent oriented by these later developments. We review the main concepts and tools which have been developed to describe and study the nonlocality of quantum theory, and which have raised this topic to the status of a full sub-field of quantum information science.Comment: 65 pages, 7 figures. Final versio

Stress-induced alterations in resting-state functional connectivity among adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury.

BACKGROUND Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a major mental health problem among youth worldwide. Dysfunction in emotion regulation contributes to NSSI, but research on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of NSSI is limited. Adolescents with emotion regulation difficulties are vulnerable to stress, making them susceptible to maladaptive coping mechanisms such as NSSI. METHODS This study examined the functional neurocircuitry relevant to emotion regulation and stress coping in individuals with NSSI compared with healthy controls. This case-control study included 34 adolescents with NSSI (15.91 years) and 28 (16.0 years) unaffected controls. Participants underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan before and after completing a laboratory stress-induction paradigm (the Montreal Imaging Stress Test). The effects of stress induction were quantified by both physiological measures and self-reports. RESULTS Participants with NSSI showed distinctive alterations in functional resting-state following stress induction, which differentiated them from unaffected controls. Results show a reduction in functional connectivity between frontoparietal regions and the angular gyrus within the patient group compared to controls, as well as an increase in functional connectivity between visual regions, the insular cortex, the planum polare, and the central opercular cortex. After conditions of acute stress, adolescents with NSSI show changes in functional connectivity of regions associated with sensorimotor alertness, attention, and effortful emotion regulation. LIMITATIONS The patient group showed both NSSI and suicidal behavior, therefore results might be partly due to suicidality. CONCLUSION The findings emphasize the importance of targeting emotion regulation within therapeutic approaches to enhance stress coping capacity, which in turn may contribute to counteracting self-injurious behavior

Persönlichkeitsmodelle im Kontext der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie – Entwicklung, Veränderung, Stabilität und Forschungsperspektiven

Persönlichkeitsmodelle spielen für das ätiologische Verständnis von abweichender Entwicklung im klinischen Alltag eine wichtige Rolle. In diesem Überblicksartikel werden relevante Persönlichkeitsmodelle vorgestellt und insbesondere hinsichtlich ihrer Entwicklungsdynamik und ihrer Bedeutung für die Adaptationsfähigkeit über die Lebensspanne, beginnend in der Kindheit näher beleuchtet. Im Fokus steht dabei die entwicklungspsychopathologische Bedeutung von Prozessen der Ich-Flexibilität und Selbstregulationsfähigkeit im Spannungsfeld zwischen Disposition und sozialen Umgebungsbedingungen. Dies zeigt sich gerade in der Diskussion von Entwicklungspfadmodellen zu Persönlichkeitsfehlentwicklungen mit Misshandlungserleben bzw. Bindungsdesorganisation in der kindlichen Vorgeschichte. Psychopathologisch ergeben sich aus einer persönlichkeitsimmanenten Beeinträchtigung der Selbststeuerungsfähigkeit häufig stabile Fehlanpassungsmuster, die bei rein symptomatischer Behandlung meist nur zu temporären Verhaltensmodifikationen führen. Hingegen spricht die Veränderbarkeit pathologischer Persönlichkeitszüge durch den Einsatz gezielter Interventionsansätze für eine positive Entwicklungsmöglichkeit und widerspricht einer deterministischen Merkmalsstabilität. Für künftige entwicklungspsychopathologische Forschungsperspektiven werden verschiedene theoretische Persönlichkeitskonstrukte mit klinischen Beobachtungen in Verbindung gebracht und diskutiert

Resilience in patients with complex regional pain syndrome 1-a cross-sectional analysis of patients participating in a cross-sectional cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To assess the degree of resilience in patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) 1, to explore the relationship between resilience and patient-related outcome measurements and to describe a pattern of clinical manifestations associated with low resilience. METHODS: This study presents a cross-sectional analysis of baseline information collected from patients enrolled in a single center study between February 2019 and June 2021. Participants were recruited from the outpatient clinic of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rheumatology of the Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. We used linear regression analysis to explore association of resilience with patient reported outcomes at baseline. Furthermore, we explored the impact of significant variables on the low degree resilience using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-one patients (females 90.1%, mean age 51.2 ± 12.9 years) were enrolled. There was no association between CRPS severity and the level of resilience. Quality of Life was positively correlated with resilience, as was pain self-efficacy. Pain catastrophizing was inversely correlated with the level of resilience. We observed a significant inverse association between anxiety, depression and fatigue and the level of resilience. The proportion of patients with a low resilience increased with higher level of anxiety, depression and fatigue on the PROMIS-29, without reaching statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Resilience seems to be an independent factor in CRPS 1 and is associated with relevant parameters of the condition. Therefore, caretakers may screen the current resilience status of CRPS 1 patients to offer a supplementary treatment approach. Whether specific resilience training modifies CRPS 1 course, requires further investigations

Transferability of radiomic signatures from experimental to human interstitial lung disease

BACKGROUND Interstitial lung disease (ILD) defines a group of parenchymal lung disorders, characterized by fibrosis as their common final pathophysiological stage. To improve diagnosis and treatment of ILD, there is a need for repetitive non-invasive characterization of lung tissue by quantitative parameters. In this study, we investigated whether CT image patterns found in mice with bleomycin induced lung fibrosis can be translated as prognostic factors to human patients diagnosed with ILD. METHODS Bleomycin was used to induce lung fibrosis in mice (n_control = 36, n_experimental = 55). The patient cohort consisted of 98 systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients (n_ILD = 65). Radiomic features (n_histogram = 17, n_texture = 137) were extracted from microCT (mice) and HRCT (patients) images. Predictive performance of the models was evaluated with the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC). First, predictive performance of individual features was examined and compared between murine and patient data sets. Second, multivariate models predicting ILD were trained on murine data and tested on patient data. Additionally, the models were reoptimized on patient data to reduce the influence of the domain shift on the performance scores. RESULTS Predictive power of individual features in terms of AUC was highly correlated between mice and patients (r = 0.86). A model based only on mean image intensity in the lung scored AUC = 0.921 ± 0.048 in mice and AUC = 0.774 (CI95% 0.677-0.859) in patients. The best radiomic model based on three radiomic features scored AUC = 0.994 ± 0.013 in mice and validated with AUC = 0.832 (CI95% 0.745-0.907) in patients. However, reoptimization of the model weights in the patient cohort allowed to increase the model's performance to AUC = 0.912 ± 0.058. CONCLUSION Radiomic signatures of experimental ILD derived from microCT scans translated to HRCT of humans with SSc-ILD. We showed that the experimental model of BLM-induced ILD is a promising system to test radiomic models for later application and validation in human cohorts

Chandra X-Ray Observations of Two Unusual BAL Quasars

We report sensitive Chandra X-ray non-detections of two unusual, luminous Iron Low-Ionization Broad Absorption Line Quasars (FeLoBALs). The observations do detect a non-BAL, wide-binary companion quasar to one of the FeLoBAL quasars. We combine X-ray-derived column density lower limits (assuming solar metallicity) with column densities measured from ultraviolet spectra and CLOUDY photoionization simulations to explore whether constant density slabs at broad line region densities can match the physical parameters of these two BAL outflows, and find that they cannot. In the "overlapping-trough" object SDSS J0300+0048, we measure the column density of the X-ray absorbing gas to be N_H >= 1.8 x 1024 cm-2. From the presence of Fe II UV78 absorption but lack of Fe II UV195/UV196 absorption, we infer the density in that part of the absorbing region to be n_e ~ 106 cm-3. We do find that a slab of gas at that density might be able to explain this object's absorption. In the Fe III-dominant object SDSS J2215-0045, the X-ray absorbing column density of N_H >= 3.4 x 1024 cm-2 is consistent with the Fe III-derived N_H >= 2 x 1022 cm-2 provided the ionization parameter is log U > 1.0 for both the n_e = 1011 cm-3 and n_e = 1012 cm-3 scenarios considered (such densities are required to produce Fe III absorption without Fe II absorption). However, the velocity width of the absorption rules out its being concentrated in a single slab at these densities. Instead, this object's spectrum can be explained by a low density, high ionization and high temperature disk wind that encounters and ablates higher density, lower ionization Fe III-emitting clumps.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Alexithymia as a mediator between adverse childhood events and the development of psychopathology: a meta-analysis

Introduction: Victims of child abuse have an elevated risk of developing mental health issues later in life. Several variables have been suggested as mediators of this correlation, but little is known about the possible influence of alexithymia. Alexithymia is a sub-clinical personality trait that manifests as difficulties recognizing and verbalizing emotions. Methods: In this study, two separate meta-analyses were conducted using questionnaire data, and Pearson correlations for overall effects were estimated. Results: The correlation between child abuse and alexithymia showed to be significant (r = .26), as did the correlation between alexithymia and general psychopathology (r = .44). Further analyses revealed no indication for possible publication bias. When investigating differences between various subtypes of child maltreatment, each subtype significantly correlated with alexithymia. Emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect had stronger correlations than physical and sexual abuse. Discussion: These results suggest that alexithymia plays a mediating role, at least in part, in the relationship between experiences of child abuse and general psychopathology in adulthood. Therefore, alexithymia may be relevant to further research and deserves attention in the prevention of and therapy for mental health issues in victims of child abuse

Non-suicidal self-injury and emotional burden among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional online survey

Owing to restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased stress is evident in university students with a lifetime history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Therefore, we examined two groups of university students (n = 174) in an online survey, one that exhibited early NSSI in adolescence (n = 51) and another that exhibited continuous NSSI beyond the age of 18 (n = 123) (German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00023731). We compared the two groups in terms of depressive symptoms in the previous 2 weeks as well as self-perceived changes in emotional burden, urge to self-injure and NSSI frequency in the first year of the pandemic compared with the year before (pre-pandemic). Among other findings, both groups showed an increase in emotional burden and urge to self-injure

Anorexia nervosa during COVID-19: loss of personal control and alexithymia as important contributors to symptomatology in adolescent girls

Background In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, a steady increase in adolescent anorexia nervosa admissions has been observed. Contributing factors may have been uncontrollable changes in school attendance due to lockdowns and social restrictions. However, patients’ reports on the impact of these factors have not been assessed in detail as of yet. Furthermore, alexithymia, the difficulty to identify and describe one’s own emotions, has increased during the pandemic and is known to be heightened in eating disorders. Thus, it may have contributed to symptom severity in anorexia nervosa during the pandemic. Methods The present study examined pandemic-related changes in social media use, body satisfaction, and perceived loss of control and their impact on depressive, anxious, and eating disorder symptomatology in a sample of adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa (n = 29) and healthy controls (n = 23). Additionally, the influence of current alexithymia as a cross-diagnostic risk factor was assessed. Adolescents answered questionnaires once shortly after admission to inpatient, outpatient, or daycare treatment. Results An increase in perceived loss of control during the pandemic and heightened alexithymia explained a significant portion of variance in present depressive symptomatology, which in turn contributed to eating disorder symptomatology. Conclusions These relationships emphasize alexithymia and perceived loss of control as valuable constructs for early screenings and interventions

Suicidality Presented to a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Emergency Service: Increasing Rate and Changing Characteristics

Background: Children and adolescents who present to child and adolescent psychiatric emergency departments show a variety of reasons for their presentations. Suicidality, in particular suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, as well as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) play a large and important role. In this context, inpatient admissions frequently serve as crisis intervention. Methods: In this study, face-to-face emergency presentations to the emergency department at our Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) were analyzed over the years 2014-2018, the 4th quarter (October-December) of each year. Data from 902 emergency presentations were evaluated, primarily with regard to suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and NSSI as reasons for presentation. Results: Data demonstrated that the number of emergency presentations increased in general and especially for suicidal thoughts and NSSI as reasons for presentation. In addition, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and NSSI as reasons for emergency presentation were more likely to result in crisis-related inpatient admissions. Furthermore, reporting suicide attempts at emergency presentation was associated with longer inpatient stays. Finally, cases with multiple diagnoses increased independent of the general increase in emergency presentations. Conclusion: The increase of utilization of clinics with CAP outpatient emergency patients and following admissions to the inpatient units for crisis intervention poses a major challenge for the future. It is important to prepare for the assessment and treatment of suicidality, which is of extraordinary importance in the care of emergency patients