The role of co-parenting alliance as a mediator between trait anxiety, family system maladjustment, and parenting stress in a sample of non-clinical Italian parents

This study investigated the role of co-parenting alliance in mediating the influence of parents' trait anxiety on family system maladjustment and parenting stress. A sample of 1606 Italian parents (803 mothers and 803 fathers) of children aged one to 13 years completed measures of trait anxiety (State Trait Anxiety Inventory-Y), co-parenting alliance (Parenting Alliance Measure), family system maladjustment (Family Assessment Measure-III), and parenting stress (Parenting Stress Inventory-Short Form). These variables were investigated together comparing two structural equations model-fitting including both partners. A model for both mothers and fathers was empirically devised as a series of associations between parent trait anxiety (independent variable), family system maladjustment and parenting stress (dependent variables), mediated by coparenting alliance, with the insertion of cross predictions between mothers and fathers and correlations between dependent variables for both parents. Results indicated that the relation between mothers and fathers' trait anxiety, family system maladjustment and parenting stress was mediated by the level of co-parenting alliance. Understanding the role of couples' co-parenting alliance could be useful during the family assessment and/or treatment, since it is an efficient and effective tool to improve the family system maladjustment and stress

Structural and functional neuroimaging studies in generalized anxiety disorder: a systematic review

Objectives: Brain imaging studies carried out in patients suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have contributed to better characterize the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this disorder. The present study reviews the available functional and structural brain imaging evidence on GAD, and suggests further strategies for investigations in this field. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar, aiming to identify original research evaluating GAD patients with the use of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging as well as diffusion tensor imaging. Results: The available studies have shown impairments in ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, posterior parietal regions, and amygdala in both pediatric and adult GAD patients, mostly in the right hemisphere. However, the literature is often tentative, given that most studies have employed small samples and included patients with comorbidities or in current use of various medications. Finally, different methodological aspects, such as the type of imaging equipment used, also complicate the generalizability of the findings. Conclusions: Longitudinal neuroimaging studies with larger samples of both juvenile and adult GAD patients, as well as at risk individuals and unaffected relatives, should be carried out in order to shed light on the specific biological signature of GAD

Herschel Far-IR counterparts of SDSS galaxies: Analysis of commonly used Star Formation Rate estimates

We study a hundred of galaxies from the spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey with individual detections in the Far-Infrared Herschel PACS bands (100 or 160 $\mu$m) and in the GALEX Far-UltraViolet band up to z$\sim$0.4 in the COSMOS and Lockman Hole fields. The galaxies are divided into 4 spectral and 4 morphological types. For the star forming and unclassifiable galaxies we calculate dust extinctions from the UV slope, the H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ ratio and the $L_{\rm IR}/L_{\rm UV}$ ratio. There is a tight correlation between the dust extinction and both $L_{\rm IR}$ and metallicity. We calculate SFR$_{total}$ and compare it with other SFR estimates (H$\alpha$, UV, SDSS) finding a very good agreement between them with smaller dispersions than typical SFR uncertainties. We study the effect of mass and metallicity, finding that it is only significant at high masses for SFR$_{H\alpha}$. For the AGN and composite galaxies we find a tight correlation between SFR and L$_{IR}$ ($\sigma\sim$0.29), while the dispersion in the SFR - L$_{UV}$ relation is larger ($\sigma\sim$0.57). The galaxies follow the prescriptions of the Fundamental Plane in the M-Z-SFR space.Comment: 24 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Evidence for Cold-stream to Hot-accretion Transition as Traced by Ly alpha Emission from Groups and Clusters at 2 < z < 3.3

We present Keck Cosmic Web Imager observations of giant Ly alpha halos surrounding nine galaxy groups and clusters at 2 < z < 3.3, including five new detections and one upper limit. We find observational evidence for the cold-stream to hot-accretion transition predicted by theory by measuring a decrease in the ratio between the spatially extended Ly alpha luminosity and the expected baryonic accretion rate (BAR), with increasing elongation above the transition mass (M-stream). This implies a modulation of the share of BAR that remains cold, diminishing quasi-linearly (logarithmic slope of 0.97 +/- 0.19, 5 sigma significance) with the halo to M-stream mass ratio. The integrated star formation rates (SFRs) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) bolometric luminosities display a potentially consistent decrease, albeit significant only at 2.6 sigma and 1.3 sigma, respectively. The higher scatter in these tracers suggests the Ly alpha emission might be mostly a direct product of cold accretion in these structures rather than indirect, mediated by outflows and photoionization from SFR and AGNs; this is also supported by energetics considerations. Below M-stream (cold-stream regime), we measure L (Ly alpha) /BAR = 10(40.51 +/- 0.16) erg s(-1) M-circle dot(-1) yr, consistent with predictions, and SFR/BAR = 10(-0.54 +/- 0.23): on average, 30(-10)(+20) M-stream (hot-accretion regime), L-Ly alpha is set by M-stream (within 0.2 dex scatter in our sample), independent of the halo mass but rising 10-fold from z = 2 to 3.Peer reviewe

Social competitiveness and plasticity of neuroendocrine function in old age: influence of neonatal novelty exposure and maternal care reliability

Abstract Early experience is known to have a profound impact on brain and behavioral function later in life. Relatively few studies, however, have examined whether the effects of early experience remain detectable in the aging animal. Here, we examined the effects of neonatal novelty exposure, an early stimulation procedure, on late senescent rats&apos; ability to win in social competition. During the first 3 weeks of life, half of each litter received daily 3-min exposures to a novel environment while the other half stayed in the home cage. At 24 months of age, pairs of rats competed against each other for exclusive access to chocolate rewards. We found that novelty-exposed rats won more rewards than home-staying rats, indicating that early experience exerts a life-long effect on this aspect of social dominance. Furthermore, novelty-exposed but not home-staying rats exhibited habituation of corticosterone release across repeated days of social competition testing, suggesting that early experience permanently enhances plasticity of the stress response system. Finally, we report a surprising finding that across individual rat families, greater effects of neonatal novelty exposure on stress response plasticity were found among families whose dams provided more reliable, instead of a greater total quantity of, maternal care

"Even if the test result is negative, they should be able to tell us what is wrong with us": a qualitative study of patient expectations of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria.

BACKGROUND: The debate on rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria has begun to shift from whether RDTs should be used, to how and under what circumstances their use can be optimized. This has increased the need for a better understanding of the complexities surrounding the role of RDTs in appropriate treatment of fever. Studies have focused on clinician practices, but few have sought to understand patient perspectives, beyond notions of acceptability. METHODS: This qualitative study aimed to explore patient and caregiver perceptions and experiences of RDTs following a trial to assess the introduction of the tests into routine clinical care at four health facilities in one district in Ghana. Six focus group discussions and one in-depth interview were carried out with those who had received an RDT with a negative test result. RESULTS: Patients had high expectations of RDTs. They welcomed the tests as aiding clinical diagnoses and as tools that could communicate their problem better than they could, verbally. However, respondents also believed the tests could identify any cause of illness, beyond malaria. Experiences of patients suggested that RDTs were adopted into an existing system where patients are both physically and intellectually removed from diagnostic processes and where clinicians retain authority that supersedes tests and their results. In this situation, patients did not feel able to articulate a demand for test-driven diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in communication between the health worker and patient, particularly to explain the capabilities of the test and management of RDT negative cases, may both manage patient expectations and promote patient demand for test-driven diagnoses

Compton Thick AGN in the XMM-COSMOS survey

Heavily obscured, Compton Thick (CT, NH>10^24 cm^-2) AGN may represent an important phase in AGN/galaxy co-evolution and are expected to provide a significant contribution to the cosmic X-ray background (CXB). Through direct X-ray spectra analysis, we selected 39 heavily obscured AGN (NH>3x10^23 cm^-2) in the 2 deg^2 XMM-COSMOS survey. After selecting CT AGN based on the fit of a simple absorbed two power law model to the XMM data, the presence of CT AGN was confirmed in 80% of the sources using deeper Chandra data and more complex models. The final sample of CT AGN comprises 10 sources spanning a large range of redshift and luminosity. We collected the multi-wavelength information available for all these sources, in order to study the distribution of SMBH and host properties, such as BH mass (M_BH), Eddington ratio (\lambda_Edd), stellar mass (M*), specific star formation rate (sSFR) in comparison with a sample of unobscured AGN. We find that highly obscured sources tend to have significantly smaller M_BH and higher \lambda_edd with respect to unobscured ones, while a weaker evolution in M* is observed. The sSFR of highly obscured sources is consistent with the one observed in the main sequence of star forming galaxies, at all redshift. We also present optical spectra, spectral energy distribution (SED) and morphology for the sample of 10 CT AGN: all the available optical spectra are dominated by the stellar component of the host galaxy, and a highly obscured torus component is needed in the SED of the CT sources. Exploiting the high resolution Hubble-ACS images available, we conclude that these highly obscured sources have a significantly larger merger fraction with respect to other X-ray selected samples of AGN. Finally we discuss implications in the context of AGN/galaxy co-evolutionary models, and compare our results with the predictions of CXB synthesis models.Comment: Revised version after referee comments. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics on 25 November 2014. 23 pages, 2 tables, 16 figure

The evolving AGN duty cycle in galaxies since z ∼ 3 as encoded in the X-ray luminosity function

We present a new modeling of the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) out to z ~ 3, dissecting the contributions of main-sequence (MS) and starburst (SB) galaxies. For each galaxy population, we convolved the observed galaxy stellar mass (M sstarf) function with a grid of M sstarf-independent Eddington ratio (λ EDD) distributions, normalized via empirical black hole accretion rate (BHAR) to star formation rate (SFR) relations. Our simple approach yields an excellent agreement with the observed XLF since z ~ 3. We find that the redshift evolution of the observed XLF can only be reproduced through an intrinsic flattening of the λ EDD distribution and with a positive shift of the break λ*, consistent with an antihierarchical behavior. The AGN accretion history is predominantly made by massive (1010 44.36 + 1.28 × (1 + z). We infer that the probability of finding highly accreting (λ EDD > 10%) AGNs significantly increases with redshift, from 0.4% (3.0%) at z = 0.5%–6.5% (15.3%) at z = 3 for MS (SB) galaxies, implying a longer AGN duty cycle in the early universe. Our results strongly favor a M sstarf-dependent ratio between BHAR and SFR, as BHAR/SFR ∝ ${M}_{\star }^{0.73[+0.22,-0.29]}$, supporting a nonlinear BH buildup relative to the host. Finally, this framework opens potential questions on super-Eddington BH accretion and different λ EDD prescriptions for understanding the cosmic BH mass assembly