Use and disclosure of complementary health approaches in US adults with cardiovascular disease

Evidence indicates that use of Complementary Health Approaches (CHAs) is common in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and has benefits and risks. Yet, disclosure of CHA use to physicians is not uniformly high. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence and patterns of CHA use and disclosure in patients with CVD in a nationally representative US sample. Use of specific CHA modalities and the predictors and reasons for nondisclosure were examined. In the 2012 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative sample of adults aged 18+ was used, and 12,364 patients who reported being diagnosed with CVD were analyzed using weighted bivariate and logistic regression. Analyses revealed that 34.75% of patients with CVD had used CHA in the previous year. Women, those with higher education and income, who had functional limitations, greater mental distress, and healthier lifestyles were significantly more likely to use CHA. Nonvitamin, nonmineral supplements was the most prevalent CHA used (19.22%). Rates of nondisclosure were highest among younger and better educated CHA users. In patients with CVD who did not disclose CHA use to their physician (33.67%), 45.51% said the reason was because physician did not ask; 8.75% said the reason was because they were not using CHA at the time. In conclusion, over 1/3 of patients with CVD used CHA in the previous year, and nonvitamin, nonmineral supplements were the most commonly used modality. The findings underscore the importance of provider-initiated communication about CHA use in patients with CVD to minimize the potentially harmful consequences of nondisclosure

Effects of female mating status and age on fecundity, longevity and sex ratio in Trichogramma minutum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Effects of female mating status and age of Trichogramma minutum Riley on its fecundity, longevity and offspring sex ratio were detennined in the laboratory, using eggs of the variegated cutworm as hosts. Although the mating status of female T. minutum did not affect their total fecundity significantly (P > 0.05), mated and unmated females showed different allocations of progeny. Mated females deposited significantly more eggs (P < 0.05) than those unmated on the first day of exposure to hosts. On subsequent days, however, unmated females parasitized significantly more hosts (P < 0.05) than those mated. Mated females laid 82.4% of their total fecundity on the first day of oviposition, whereas unmated females laid 58.3%. The number of eggs parasitized by both groups of females decreased significantly (P < 0.05) with parasitoid age. Unmated females lived longer (P < 0.05) than their mated counterparts. No significant differences (P> 0.05) in clutch size (the number of parasitoid offspring produced per parasitized host) and emergence rate were found between the offspring of mated and unmated female parasitoids. The sex ratio of the offspring of mated females changed significantly (P < 0.05) with maternal age: younger females produced a higher proportion of daughters than did older parasitoids. Unmated females produced male offspring only

Circuit QED scheme for realization of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model

We propose a scheme in which the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model is realized within a circuit QED system. An array of N superconducting qubits interacts with a driven cavity mode. In the dispersive regime, the cavity mode is adiabatically eliminated generating an effective model for the qubits alone. The characteristic long-range order of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model is here mediated by the cavity field. For a closed qubit system, the inherent second order phase transition of the qubits is reflected in the intensity of the output cavity field. In the broken symmetry phase, the many-body ground state is highly entangled. Relaxation of the qubits is analyzed within a mean-field treatment. The second order phase transition is lost, while new bistable regimes occur.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Tripartite interactions between two phase qubits and a resonant cavity

The creation and manipulation of multipartite entangled states is important for advancements in quantum computation and communication, and for testing our fundamental understanding of quantum mechanics and precision measurements. Multipartite entanglement has been achieved by use of various forms of quantum bits (qubits), such as trapped ions, photons, and atoms passing through microwave cavities. Quantum systems based on superconducting circuits have been used to control pair-wise interactions of qubits, either directly, through a quantum bus, or via controllable coupling. Here, we describe the first demonstration of coherent interactions of three directly coupled superconducting quantum systems, two phase qubits and a resonant cavity. We introduce a simple Bloch-sphere-like representation to help one visualize the unitary evolution of this tripartite system as it shares a single microwave photon. With careful control and timing of the initial conditions, this leads to a protocol for creating a rich variety of entangled states. Experimentally, we provide evidence for the deterministic evolution from a simple product state, through a tripartite W-state, into a bipartite Bell-state. These experiments are another step towards deterministically generating multipartite entanglement in superconducting systems with more than two qubits

A Search for WIMPs with the First Five-Tower Data from CDMS

We report first results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) experiment running with its full complement of 30 cryogenic particle detectors at the Soudan Underground Laboratory. This report is based on the analysis of data acquired between October 2006 and July 2007 from 15 Ge detectors (3.75 kg), giving an effective exposure of 121.3 kg-d (averaged over recoil energies 10--100 keV, weighted for a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) mass of 60 \gev). A blind analysis, incorporating improved techniques for event reconstruction and data quality monitoring, resulted in zero observed events. This analysis sets an upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section of 6.6$\times10^{-44}$ cm$^2$ (4.6$\times10^{-44}$ cm$^2$ when combined with previous CDMS Soudan data) at the 90% confidence level for a WIMP mass of 60 \gev. By providing the best sensitivity for dark matter WIMPs with masses above 42 GeV/c$^2$, this work significantly restricts the parameter space for some of the favored supersymmetric models.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL 28 March 200

A Meta-analytic and Conceptual Update on the Associations Between Procrastination and Multidimensional Perfectionism

The equivocal and debated findings from a 2007 meta-analysis, which viewed perfectionism as a unidimensional construct, suggested that perfectionism was unrelated to procrastination. The present meta-analysis aimed to provide a conceptual update and re-analysis of the procrastination-perfectionism association guided by both a multi-dimensional view of perfectionism and self-regulation theory. The random effects meta-analyses revealed a small-to-medium, positive average effect size (r = .23; k = 43, N = 10,000; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) [0.19, 0.27]) for trait procrastination and perfectionistic concerns, and a small-to-medium, negative average effect size (r = -.22; k = 38, N = 9,544; 95% CI: [-0.26, -0.18]) for procrastination and perfectionistic strivings. The average correlations remained significant after statistically accounting for the joint variance between the two perfectionism dimensions via semi-partial correlations. For perfectionistic concerns, but not perfectionistic strivings, the effects depended on the perfectionism measure used. All effects did not vary by the trait procrastination measure used or the respondent’s sex. Our findings confirm that from a multi-dimensional perspective, trait procrastination is both positively and negatively associated with higher order perfectionism dimensions, and further highlight the value of a self-regulation perspective for understanding the cognitive, affective, and behavioural dynamics that characterise these traits

Self-compassion and bedtime procrastination: an emotion regulation perspective

The current study extended previous research on self-compassion and health behaviours by examining the associations of self-compassion to bedtime procrastination, an important sleep-related behaviour. We hypothesized that lower negative affect and adaptive emotion regulation would explain the proposed links between self-compassion and less bedtime procrastination. Two cross-sectional online studies were conducted. Study 1 included 134 healthy individuals from the community (mean age 30.22, 77.4% female). Study 2 included 646 individuals from the community (mean age 30.74, 68.9% female) who were screened for the absence of clinical insomnia. Participants in both studies completed measures of self-compassion, positive and negative affect and bedtime procrastination. Participants in study 2 also completed a measure of cognitive reappraisal. Multiple mediation analysis in study 1 revealed the expected indirect effects of self-compassion on less bedtime procrastination through lower negative affect [b = − .09, 95% CI = (− .20, − .02), but not higher positive affect. Path analysis in study 2 replicated these findings and further demonstrated that cognitive reappraisal explained the lower negative affect linked to self-compassion [b = − .011; 95% CI = (− .025; − .003)]. The direct effect of self-compassion on less bedtime procrastination remained significant. Our novel findings provide preliminary evidence that self-compassionate people are less likely to engage in bedtime procrastination, due in part to their use of healthy emotion regulation strategies that downregulate negative mood

Measurements of Transverse Energy Flow in Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Measurements of transverse energy flow are presented for neutral current deep-inelastic scattering events produced in positron-proton collisions at HERA. The kinematic range covers squared momentum transfers Q^2 from 3.2 to 2,200 GeV^2, the Bjorken scaling variable x from 8.10^{-5} to 0.11 and the hadronic mass W from 66 to 233 GeV. The transverse energy flow is measured in the hadronic centre of mass frame and is studied as a function of Q^2, x, W and pseudorapidity. A comparison is made with QCD based models. The behaviour of the mean transverse energy in the central pseudorapidity region and an interval corresponding to the photon fragmentation region are analysed as a function of Q^2 and W.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys.

Multi-Jet Event Rates in Deep Inelastic Scattering and Determination of the Strong Coupling Constant

Jet event rates in deep inelastic ep scattering at HERA are investigated applying the modified JADE jet algorithm. The analysis uses data taken with the H1 detector in 1994 and 1995. The data are corrected for detector and hadronization effects and then compared with perturbative QCD predictions using next-to-leading order calculations. The strong coupling constant alpha_S(M_Z^2) is determined evaluating the jet event rates. Values of alpha_S(Q^2) are extracted in four different bins of the negative squared momentum transfer~\qq in the range from 40 GeV2 to 4000 GeV2. A combined fit of the renormalization group equation to these several alpha_S(Q^2) values results in alpha_S(M_Z^2) = 0.117+-0.003(stat)+0.009-0.013(syst)+0.006(jet algorithm).Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, this version to appear in Eur. Phys. J.; it replaces first posted hep-ex/9807019 which had incorrect figure 4