P104 White coat hypertension is associated with increased small vessel disease in the brain

Objective: Small vessel disease, measured by brain white matter hyperintensity (WMH), is associated with increased stroke risk and cognitive impairment. This study aimed to explore the relationship between WMH on computerised tomography (CT) and white coat hypertension (WCH) in patients with recent transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or lacunar stroke (LS). Methods: Ninety-six patients recruited for the ASIST trial (Arterial Stiffness in Lacunar Stroke and TIA) underwent measurement of clinic blood pressure (BP) and ambulatory BP monitoring (APBM) within two weeks of TIA or LS. Patients were grouped by BP phenotypes. Twenty-three patients had normotension (clinic BP 140/90 mmHg and day-time ABPM <135/85 mmHg). CT brain images were scored for WMH using the four-point Fazekas visual rating scale. Patients were grouped into no-mild WMH (scores 0–1) or moderate-severe (scores 2–3) groups. The relationship between BP and WMH was explored with chi-square and logistic regression accounting for known cardiovascular risk factors (age, gender, smoking, diabetes and hyperlipidaemia). Results: 44% of WCH patients had moderate-severe WMH compared to 17% of normotensives (p = 0.047). Logistical regression incorporating WCH as the independent factor and cardiovascular risk factors as independent variables showed WCH to be the only independent significant factor contributing to WMH (p = 0.024). Conclusion: Patients with WCH were more likely to have moderate-severe WMH on CT brain than normotensives. WCH was associated with increased WMH, independent of other cardiovascular risk factors. This study suggests that WCH is associated with increased small vessel disease in the brain and may benefit from treatment

The relation between psychological flexibility and mental health stigma in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A preliminary process investigation.

The present study examined the relation between changes in psychological flexibility and changes in mental health stigma in the context of a 2.5-hour long Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group workshop for reducing mental health stigma. Of 27 college undergraduates who attended the workshop, 22 completed one-month follow-up assessments, and their data were used for analyses. Results revealed that mental health stigma reduced significantly at post-treatment, and these reductions were maintained at one-month follow-up. The degree of improvement in psychological flexibility from pre to follow-up was found to be significantly correlated with the degree of reduction in mental health stigma from pre to follow-up. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are discussed

Uniqueness Theorem for Static Black Hole Solutions of sigma-models in Higher Dimensions

We prove the uniqueness theorem for self-gravitating non-linear sigma-models in higher dimensional spacetime. Applying the positive mass theorem we show that Schwarzschild-Tagherlini spacetime is the only maximally extended, static asymptotically flat solution with non-rotating regular event horizon with a constant mapping.Comment: 5 peges, Revtex, to be published in Class.Quantum Gra

The impact of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus education on stigma toward people with psychological disorders

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has previously been shown to alter stigmatizing attitudes and to be relatively useful for psychologically inflexible participants. The present study is the first to bring those two findings together by comparing ACT to an education intervention for reducing stigma toward people with psychological disorders, and examining whether results differ for psychologically inflexible versus flexible individuals. A sample of college students (N = 95) was randomly assigned to a 2 ½ hour ACT or educational workshop. Measures were taken before and after the workshop and at a one-month follow-up. ACT reduced mental health stigma significantly regardless of participants’ pre-treatment levels of psychological flexibility, but education reduced stigma only among participants who were relatively flexible and non-avoidant to begin with. Acceptance could be an important avenue of exploration for stigma researcher

Black hole uniqueness theorems and new thermodynamic identities in eleven dimensional supergravity

We consider stationary, non-extremal black holes in 11-dimensional supergravity having isometry group $\mathbb{R} \times U(1)^8$. We prove that such a black hole is uniquely specified by its angular momenta, its electric charges associated with the various 7-cycles in the manifold, together with certain moduli and vector valued winding numbers characterizing the topological nature of the spacetime and group action. We furthermore establish interesting, non-trivial, relations between the thermodynamic quantities associated with the black hole. These relations are shown to be a consequence of the hidden $E_{8(+8)}$ symmetry in this sector of the solution space, and are distinct from the usual "Smarr-type" formulas that can be derived from the first law of black hole mechanics. We also derive the "physical process" version of this first law applicable to a general stationary black hole spacetime without any symmetry assumptions other than stationarity, allowing in particular arbitrary horizon topologies. The work terms in the first law exhibit the topology of the horizon via the intersection numbers between cycles of various dimensions.Comment: 50pp, 3 figures, v2: references added, correction in appendix B, conclusions added, v3: reference section edited, typos removed, minor changes in appendix

Complexity of transcriptional regulation within the Rag locus: identification of a second Nwc promoter region within the Rag2 intron

Nwc represents a mysterious third evolutionarily conserved gene within the Rag locus. Here, we analyzed the phenotype of Nwctmpro1 mice, in which the Rag2 intragenic region containing the previously identified promoter responsible for initiating transcription of Nwc in all cells except lymphocytes was deleted by homologous recombination. Despite strong nonlymphocyte-specific inhibition of Nwc transcription which runs through the regulatory region of Rag genes, their expression remained suppressed, and no developmental, morphological, anatomical, functional, physiological, or cellular defects in Nwctmpro1 mice could be observed. However, careful analysis of the Rag2 intergenic region uncovered a second evolutionarily conserved Nwc promoter region from which a previously unknown Nwc transcript can be generated in nonlymphocytes of Nwctmpro1 and normal mice. The above results reveal an unexpected additional complexity of transcriptional regulation within the Rag/Nwc locus and show that strong inhibition of Nwc transcription in nonlymphoid cells is well tolerated. Complete inactivation of Nwc is necessary to get insight into its function at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels

Uniqueness and non-uniqueness of static vacuum black holes in higher dimensions

We prove the uniqueness theorem for asymptotically flat static vacuum black hole solutions in higher dimensional space-times. We also construct infinitely many non-asymptotically flat regular static black holes on the same spacetime manifold with the same spherical topology.Comment: to appear in Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement No. 14

Cardiovascular disease in a cohort exposed to the 1940-45 Channel Islands occupation

BACKGROUND To clarify the nature of the relationship between food deprivation/undernutrition during pre- and postnatal development and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in later life, this study examined the relationship between birth weight (as a marker of prenatal nutrition) and the incidence of hospital admissions for CVD from 1997–2005 amongst 873 Guernsey islanders (born in 1923–1937), 225 of whom had been exposed to food deprivation as children, adolescents or young adults (i.e. postnatal undernutrition) during the 1940–45 German occupation of the Channel Islands, and 648 of whom had left or been evacuated from the islands before the occupation began. METHODS Three sets of Cox regression models were used to investigate (A) the relationship between birth weight and CVD, (B) the relationship between postnatal exposure to the occupation and CVD and (C) any interaction between birth weight, postnatal exposure to the occupation and CVD. These models also tested for any interactions between birth weight and sex, and postnatal exposure to the occupation and parish of residence at birth (as a marker of parish residence during the occupation and related variation in the severity of food deprivation). RESULTS The first set of models (A) found no relationship between birth weight and CVD even after adjustment for potential confounders (hazard ratio (HR) per kg increase in birth weight: 1.12; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.70 – 1.78), and there was no significant interaction between birth weight and sex (p = 0.60). The second set of models (B) found a significant relationship between postnatal exposure to the occupation and CVD after adjustment for potential confounders (HR for exposed vs. unexposed group: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.54 – 4.13), as well as a significant interaction between postnatal exposure to the occupation and parish of residence at birth (p = 0.01), such that those born in urban parishes (where food deprivation was worst) had a greater HR for CVD than those born in rural parishes. The third model (C) found no interaction between birth weight and exposure to the occupation (p = 0.43). CONCLUSION These findings suggest that the levels of postnatal undernutrition experienced by children, adolescents and young adults exposed to food deprivation during the 1940–45 occupation of the Channel Islands were a more important determinant of CVD in later life than the levels of prenatal undernutrition experienced in utero prior to the occupatio

Pollen productivity estimates of key European plant taxa for quantitative reconstruction of past vegetation: a review

International audienceInformation on the spatial distribution of past vegetation on local, regional and global scales is increasingly used within climate modelling, nature conservancy and archaeology. It is possible to obtain such information from fossil pollen records in lakes and bogs using the landscape reconstruction algorithm (LRA) and its two models, REVEALS and LOVE. These models assume that reliable pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) are available for the plant taxa involved in the quantitative reconstruc -tions of past vegetation, and that PPEs are constant through time. This paper presents and discusses the PPEs for 15 tree and 18 herb taxa obtained in nine study areas of Europe. Observed differences in PPEs between regions may be explained by methodological issues and environmental variables, of which climate and related factors such as reproduction strategies and growth forms appear to be the most important. An evaluation of the PPEs at hand so far suggests that they can be used in modelling applications and quantitative reconstructions of pastvegetation, provided that consideration of past environmental variability within the region is used to inform selection of PPEs, and bearing in mind that PPEs might have changed through time as a response to climate change. Application of a range of possible PPEs will allow a better evaluation of the results