Reducing parental anxiety using a family based intervention for youth mental health : a randomized controlled trial

This paper presents findings on parent anxiety and attachment relationship style from the Deakin Family Options (DFO) pilot study, a randomized controlled pilot study comparing a family-based treatment (BEST Plus), versus a youth only treatment (CBT) versus a group who received both of these treatments (COMBINED). Eligible participants were families with a young person (aged 12 - 25 years) with a high prevalence mental health problem. Youth from participating families scored in the clinical or subclinical range for depression, anxiety and/or substance misuse symptoms on standardized measures during the initial assessment. The collected sample was drawn from regional and urban centers in Victoria, Australia and allocated to treatment condition using a simple randomization procedure (parallel design). It was hypothesized that families receiving the BEST Plus would experience greater reductions in youth and parent mental health symptoms, and improved parent-child relationships, compared with those in the CBT condition. This paper describes and discusses changes in parent anxiety and parent attachment, according to whether the parent participated in a treatment (BEST Plus) or did not (NONBEST Plus). Participants were blind to the study hypotheses. In total 71 parent participants returned pre data and were allocated to a treatment group. In this paper, data from parent participants who completed pre and post measures (n = 48) and pre, post, and 6-month follow-up measures (n = 28) on anxiety and attachment were analyzed by group (BEST Plus versus NONBEST Plus). The results of this study suggest that parent anxiety decreased significantly more following parent involvement in a group treatment, than for parents that did not receive treatment. Unexpectedly, avoidant attachment increased in the no treatment group, but remained relatively stable following the BEST Plus group. There were no significant findings in relation to compulsive traits and anxious attachment. These findings are discussed in light of the study limitations.<br /

Combined MW-IR Precipitation Evolving Technique (PET) of convective rain fields

This paper describes a new multi-sensor approach for convective rain cell continuous monitoring based on rainfall derived from Passive Microwave (PM) remote sensing from the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite coupled with Infrared (IR) remote sensing Brightness Temperature (TB) from the Geosynchronous (GEO) orbit satellite. The proposed technique, which we call Precipitation Evolving Technique (PET), propagates forward in time and space the last available rain-rate (RR) maps derived from Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSU) and Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) observations by using IR TB maps of water vapor (6.2 μm) and thermal-IR (10.8 μm) channels from a Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) radiometer. PET is based on two different modules, the first for morphing and tracking rain cells and the second for dynamic calibration IR-RR. The Morphing module uses two consecutive IR data to identify the motion vector to be applied to the rain field so as to propagate it in time and space, whilst the Calibration module computes the dynamic relationship between IR and RR in order to take into account genesis, extinction or size variation of rain cells. Finally, a combination of the Morphing and Calibration output provides a rainfall map at IR space and time scale, and the whole procedure is reiterated by using the last RR map output until a new MW-based rainfall is available. The PET results have been analyzed with respect to two different PM-RR retrieval algorithms for seven case studies referring to different rainfall convective events. The qualitative, dichotomous and continuous assessments show an overall ability of this technique to propagate rain field at least for 2–3 h propagation time

Newborns' preference for face-relevant stimuli: effects of contrast polarity

There is currently no agreement as to how specific or general are the mechanisms underlying newborns' face preferences. We address this issue by manipulating the contrast polarity of schematic and naturalistic face-related images and assessing the preferences of newborns. We find that for both schematic and naturalistic face images, the contrast polarity is important. Newborns did not show a preference for an upright face-related image unless it was composed of darker areas around the eyes and mouth. This result is consistent with either sensitivity to the shadowed areas of a face with overhead (natural) illumination and/or to the detection of eye contact

The zCOSMOS redshift survey : Influence of luminosity, mass and environment on the galaxy merger rate

The contribution of major mergers to galaxy mass assembly along cosmic time is an important ingredient to the galaxy evolution scenario. We aim to measure the evolution of the merger rate for both luminosity/mass selected galaxy samples and investigate its dependence with the local environment. We use a sample of 10644 spectroscopically observed galaxies from the zCOSMOS redshift survey to identify pairs of galaxies destined to merge, using only pairs for which the velocity difference and projected separation of both components with a confirmed spectroscopic redshift indicate a high probability of merging. We have identified 263 spectroscopically confirmed pairs with r_p^{max} = 100 h^{-1} kpc. We find that the density of mergers depends on luminosity/mass, being higher for fainter/less massive galaxies, while the number of mergers a galaxy will experience does not depends significantly on its intrinsic luminosity but rather on its stellar mass. We find that the pair fraction and merger rate increase with local galaxy density, a property observed up to redshift z=1. We find that the dependence of the merger rate on the luminosity or mass of galaxies is already present up to redshifts z=1, and that the evolution of the volumetric merger rate of bright (massive) galaxies is relatively flat with redshift with a mean value of 3*10^{-4} (8*10^{-5} respectively) mergers h^3 Mpc^{-3} Gyr^{-1}. The dependence of the merger rate with environment indicates that dense environments favors major merger events as can be expected from the hierarchical scenario. The environment therefore has a direct impact in shapping-up the mass function and its evolution therefore plays an important role on the mass growth of galaxies along cosmic time.Comment: submitted to A&A, 17 pages, 12 figure

Extreme emission-line galaxies out to z∼\sim1 in zCOSMOS. I. Sample and characterization of global properties

We present a thorough characterization of a large sample of 183 extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs) at redshift 0.11 < z < 0.93 selected from the 20k zCOSMOS Bright Survey because of their unusually large emission line equivalent widths. We use multiwavelength COSMOS photometry, HST-ACS I-band imaging and optical zCOSMOS spectroscopy to derive the main global properties of EELGs, such as sizes, masses, SFRs, reliable metallicities from both "direct" and "strong-line" methods. The EELGs are compact (R_50 ~ 1.3 kpc), low-mass (log(M*/Msol)~7-10) galaxies forming stars at unusually high specific SFR (log(sSFR/yr) up to ~ -7) compared to main sequence SFGs of the same stellar mass and redshift. At UV wavelengths, the EELGs are luminous and show high surface brightness and include strong Ly$\alpha$ emitters, as revealed by GALEX spectroscopy. We show that zCOSMOS EELGs are high-ionization, low-metallicity systems, with median 12+log(O/H)=8.16, including a handful of extremely metal-deficient galaxies (<10% solar). While ~80% of the EELGs show non-axisymmetric morphologies, including clumpy and tadpole galaxies, we find that ~29% of them show additional low surface-brightness features, which strongly suggest recent or ongoing interactions. As star-forming dwarfs in the local Universe, EELGs are most often found in relative isolation. While only very few EELGs belong to compact groups, almost one third of them are found in spectroscopically confirmed loose pairs or triplets. We conclude that EELGs are galaxies caught in a transient and probably early period of their evolution, where they are efficiently building-up a significant fraction of their present-day stellar mass in an ongoing galaxy-wide starburst. Therefore, the EELGs constitute an ideal benchmark for comparison studies between low- and high-redshift low-mass star-forming galaxies.Comment: Accepted in A&A. Final replacement to match the version in press. It includes a minor change in the title and a new figur

The zCOSMOS redshift survey: how group environment alters global downsizing trends

Context. Groups of galaxies are a common environment, bridging the gap between starforming field galaxies and quiescent cluster galaxies. Within groups secular processes could be at play, contributing to the observed strong decrease of star formation with cosmic time in the global galaxy population. Aims. We took advantage of the wealth of information provided by the first ~10 000 galaxies of the zCOSMOS-bright survey and its group catalogue to study in detail the complex interplay between group environment and galaxy properties. Methods. The classical indicator F_(blue), i.e., the fraction of blue galaxies, proved to be a simple but powerful diagnostic tool. We studied its variation for different luminosity and mass selected galaxy samples, divided as to define groups/field/isolated galaxy subsamples. Results. Using rest-frame evolving B-band volume-limited samples, the groups galaxy population exhibits significant blueing as redshift increases, but maintains a systematic difference (a lower F_(blue)) with respect to the global galaxy population, and an even larger difference with respect to the isolated galaxy population. However moving to mass selected samples it becomes apparent that such differences are largely due to the biased view imposed by the B-band luminosity selection, being driven by the population of lower mass, bright blue galaxies for which we miss the redder, equally low mass, counterparts. By carefully focusing the analysis on narrow mass bins such that mass segregation becomes negligible we find that only for the lowest mass bin explored, i.e., log(M_*/M_☉) ≤ 10.6, does a significant residual difference in color remain as a function of environment, while this difference becomes negligible toward higher masses. Conclusions. Our results indicate that red galaxies of mass log(M_*/M_☉) ≥ 10.8 are already in place at z ~ 1 and do not exhibit any strong environmental dependence, possibly originating from so-called nature or internal mechanisms. In contrast, for lower galaxy masses and redshifts lower than z ~ 1, we observe the emergence in groups of a population of nurture red galaxies: slightly deviating from the trend of the downsizing scenario followed by the global galaxy population, and more so with cosmic time. These galaxies exhibit signatures of group-related secular physical mechanisms directly influencing galaxy evolution. Our analysis implies that these mechanisms begin to significantly influence galaxy evolution after z ~ 1, a redshift corresponding to the emergence of structures in which these mechanisms take place

The zCOSMOS survey: the role of the environment in the evolution of the luminosity function of different galaxy types

Aims. An unbiased and detailed characterization of the galaxy luminosity function (LF) is a basic requirement in many astrophysical issues: it is of particular interest in assessing the role of the environment in the evolution of the LF of different galaxy types. Methods. We studied the evolution in the B band LF to redshift z ~ 1 in the zCOSMOS 10k sample, for which both accurate galaxy classifications (spectrophotometric and morphological) and a detailed description of the local density field are available. Results. The global B band LF exhibits a brightening of ~0.7 mag in M^* from z ~ 0.2 to z ~ 0.9. At low redshifts (z -20), while the bright end is populated mainly by spectrophotometric early types. At higher redshift, spectrophotometric late-type galaxies evolve significantly and, at redshift z ~ 1, the contribution from the various types to the bright end of the LF is comparable. The evolution for spectrophotometric early-type galaxies is in both luminosity and normalization: M* brightens by ~0.6 mag but φ^∗ decreases by a factor ~1.7 between the first and the last redshift bin. A similar behaviour is exhibited by spectrophotometric late-type galaxies, but with an opposite trend for the normalization: a brightening of ~0.5 mag is present in M^*, while φ^∗ increases by a factor ~1.8.
Studying the role of the environment, we find that the global LF of galaxies in overdense regions has always a brighter M^* and a flatter slope. In low density environments, the main contribution to the LF is from blue galaxies, while for high density environments there is an important contribution from red galaxies to the bright end.
The differences between the global LF in the two environments are not due to only a difference in the relative numbers of red and blue galaxies, but also to their relative luminosity distributions: the value of M^* for both types in underdense regions is always fainter than in overdense environments. These results indicate that galaxies of the same type in different environments have different properties.
We also detect a differential evolution in blue galaxies in different environments: the evolution in their LF is similar in underdense and overdense regions between z ~ 0.25 and z ~ 0.55, and is mainly in luminosity. In contrast, between z ~ 0.55 and z ~ 0.85 there is little luminosity evolution but there is significant evolution in φ^∗, that is, however, different between the two environments: in overdense regions φ^∗ increases by a factor ~1.6, while in underdense regions this increase reaches a factor ~2.8. Analyzing the blue galaxy population in more detail, we find that this evolution is driven mainly by the bluest types. Conclusions. The “specular” evolution of late- and early-type galaxies is consistent with a scenario where a part of blue galaxies is transformed in red galaxies with increasing cosmic time, without significant changes in the fraction of intermediate-type galaxies. The bulk of this tranformation in overdense regions probably happened before z ~ 1, while it is still ongoing at lower redshifts in underdense environments

The morphologies and masses of extremely red galaxies in the Groth Strip survey

We present a new cataloge of EROs from the Groth strip and study the relation between their morphology and mass. We find 102 EROs (F814W-K=>4, K<=21.0), over a survey area of 155 arcmin^2. The photometric data include U,B,F606W,F814W,J,K bands. Morphologies are based on a by eye classification and we distinguish between 3 basic classes: compact objects, targets with a disc and/or a bulge component and irregular or merger candidates. The majority of our targets has either a very compact morphology (33+-6%), or show more or less distinct disc components (41+-6%). 14+-4% are merger or irregulars and 7 objects could not be classified. We also study the dependence of structural parameters on morphological appearance. EROs that are either compact or show a distinct bulge component have smaller median effective radii (1.22+-0.14 kpc and 3.31+-0.53 kpc) than disc dominated (5.50+-0.51 kpc) or possible irregular galaxies or merger candidates (4.92+-0.14 kpc). The Sersic index changes from 2.30+-0.34 and 3.24+-0.55, to 1.03+-0.24 and 1.54+-0.40 respectively. Most the EROs in our sample have redshifts between z=1 and z=2; however, compact EROs in our sample are found at redshifts as low as z=0.4 and as high as z=2.8; the latter qualify as well as DRGs. Disc-like EROs are also found up to z=2.8; however those with a bulge-disc structure are only seen at z<1.5. For each of these EROs we determined the stellar mass and mean population age by fitting synthetic Bruzual (2007) spectra to the SED. Mass estimates were obtained by assuming an exponentially declining star formation rate. Total stellar masses are in the range 9.1<log(M/M_sun)<11.6. We cannot detect significant differences between the stellar mass distribution of the morphological classes. EROs with masses of log(M/M_sun)>11.0 dominantly show compact morphologies, but also include a significant number of sources with a disc morphology.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Why do dogs (Canis familiaris) select the empty container in an observational learning task?

Many argue that dogs show unique susceptibility to human communicative signals that make them suitable for being engaged in complex co-operation with humans. It has also been revealed that socially provided information is particularly effective in influencing the behaviour of dogs even when the human’s action demonstration conveys inefficient or mistaken solution of task. It is unclear, however, how the communicative nature of the demonstration context and the presence of the human demonstrator affect the dogs’ object-choice behaviour in observational learning situations. In order to unfold the effects of these factors, 76 adult pet dogs could observe a communicative or a non-communicative demonstration in which the human retrieved a tennis ball from under an opaque container while manipulating another distant and obviously empty (transparent) one. Subjects were then allowed to choose either in the presence of the demonstrator or after she left the room. Results showed a significant main effect of the demonstration context (presence or absence of the human’s communicative signals), and we also found some evidence for the response-modifying effect of the presence of the human demonstrator during the dogs’ choice. That is, dogs predominantly chose the baited container, but if the demonstration context was communicative and the human was present during the dogs’ choice, subjects’ tendency to select the baited container has been reduced. In agreement with the studies showing sensitivity to human’s communicative signals in dogs, these findings point to a special form of social influence in observational learning situations when it comes to learning about causally opaque and less efficient (compared to what comes natural to the dog) action demonstrations

The 10k zCOSMOS: morphological transformation of galaxies in the group environment since z~1

We study the evolution of galaxies inside and outside of the group environment since z=1 using a large well defined set of groups and galaxies from the zCOSMOS-bright redshift survey in the COSMOS field. The fraction of galaxies with early-type morphologies increases monotonically with M_B luminosity and stellar mass and with cosmic epoch. It is higher in the groups than elsewhere, especially at later epochs. The emerging environmental effect is superposed on a strong global mass-driven evolution, and at z~0.5 and log(M*/Msol)~10.2, the "effect" of group environment is equivalent to (only) about 0.2 dex in stellar mass or 2 Gyr in time. The stellar mass function of galaxies in groups is enriched in massive galaxies. We directly determine the transformation rates from late to early morphologies, and for transformations involving colour and star formation indicators. The transformation rates are systematically about twice as high in the groups as outside, or up to 3-4 times higher correcting for infall and the appearance of new groups. The rates reach values, for masses around the crossing mass 10^10.5 Msol, as high as (0.3-0.7)/Gyr in the groups, implying transformation timescales of 1.4-3 Gyr, compared with less than 0.2/Gyr, i.e. timescales >5 Gyr, outside of groups. All three transformation rates decrease at higher stellar masses, and must decrease also at the lower masses below 10^10 Msol which we cannot well probe. The rates involving colour and star formation are consistently higher than those for morphology, by a factor of about 50%. Our conclusion is that the transformations which drive the evolution of the overall galaxy population since z~1 must occur at a rate 2-4 times higher in groups than outside of them.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Ap