Understanding the Role of Relationship Maintenance in Enduring Couple Partnerships in Later Adulthood

Intimate relationships in later adulthood are understudied despite their positive association with health and well-being. This cross-sectional mixed methods study sought to redress this gap by investigating relationship maintenance in later adulthood. Our international sub-sample comprised 1,565 participants aged 55 + and in an ongoing relationship. Results from hierarchical multiple regression indicated that overall happiness with the relationship had the largest effect size on relationship maintenance, with 53% of the variance explained. Content analyses of open-ended questions identified companionship and laughter as some of the “best liked” aspects of the relationship. Housework/cooking and saying “I love you” were among the behaviors that made participants feel appreciated. Results illustrated the types of maintenance behaviors adults in later adulthood who are in enduring partnerships employ

Cytokine Profiles of Stimulated Blood Lymphocytes in Asthmatic and Healthy Adolescents Cross the School Year

T cell cytokines play an important role in mediating airway inflammation in asthma. The predominance of a Th2 cytokine profile, particularly interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-5, is associated with the pathogenesis and course of asthma. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that a stressful life event alters the pattern of cytokine release in asthmatic individuals. Thirteen healthy controls and 21 asthmatic adolescents gave blood samples three times over a semester: midsemester, during the week of final examinations, and 2-3 weeks after examinations. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ), IL-2, IL-4, and IL-5 were measured from supernatants of cells stimulated with PHA/PMA for 24 h. Cells from asthmatic subjects released significantly more IL-5 during the examination and postexamination periods, whereas cells from healthy controls released significantly more IL-2 during the midsemester and examination periods, thereby indicating a bias for a Th2-like pattern in asthmatics and a Th 1-like pattern in healthy controls. IL-4 and IL-5 production showed a marked decrease during and after examinations in healthy controls, whereas this decline was absent in asthmatics. The ratios of IFN-γ:IL-4 and IFN-γ:IL-5 also revealed significant changes in the profile of cytokine release across the semester. These results indicate differential cytokine responses in asthmatics that may become pronounced during periods of cellular activation

Justifications in Constraint Handling Rules for Logical Retraction in Dynamic Algorithms

We present a straightforward source-to-source transformation that introduces justifications for user-defined constraints into the CHR programming language. Then a scheme of two rules suffices to allow for logical retraction (deletion, removal) of constraints during computation. Without the need to recompute from scratch, these rules remove not only the constraint but also undo all consequences of the rule applications that involved the constraint. We prove a confluence result concerning the rule scheme and show its correctness. When algorithms are written in CHR, constraints represent both data and operations. CHR is already incremental by nature, i.e. constraints can be added at runtime. Logical retraction adds decrementality. Hence any algorithm written in CHR with justifications will become fully dynamic. Operations can be undone and data can be removed at any point in the computation without compromising the correctness of the result. We present two classical examples of dynamic algorithms, written in our prototype implementation of CHR with justifications that is available online: maintaining the minimum of a changing set of numbers and shortest paths in a graph whose edges change.Comment: Pre-proceedings paper presented at the 27th International Symposium on Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR 2017), Namur, Belgium, 10-12 October 2017 (arXiv:1708.07854

Indistinguishable Particles in Quantum Mechanics: An Introduction

In this article, we discuss the identity and indistinguishability of quantum systems and the consequent need to introduce an extra postulate in Quantum Mechanics to correctly describe situations involving indistinguishable particles. This is, for electrons, the Pauli Exclusion Principle, or in general, the Symmetrization Postulate. Then, we introduce fermions and bosons and the distributions respectively describing their statistical behaviour in indistinguishable situations. Following that, we discuss the spin-statistics connection, as well as alternative statistics and experimental evidence for all these results, including the use of bunching and antibunching of particles emerging from a beam splitter as a signature for some bosonic or fermionic states.Comment: To appear in Contemp. Phy

A regulator of G Protein signaling, RGS3, inhibits gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-stimulated luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion

BACKGROUND: Luteinizing hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland regulates gonadal function. Luteinizing hormone secretion is regulated both by alterations in gonadotrope responsiveness to hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone and by alterations in gonadotropin releasing hormone secretion. The mechanisms that determine gonadotrope responsiveness are unknown but may involve regulators of G protein signaling (RGSs). These proteins act by antagonizing or abbreviating interaction of Gα proteins with effectors such as phospholipase Cβ. Previously, we reported that gonadotropin releasing hormone-stimulated second messenger inositol trisphosphate production was inhibited when RGS3 and gonadotropin releasing hormone receptor cDNAs were co-transfected into the COS cell line. Here, we present evidence for RGS3 inhibition of gonadotropin releasing hormone-induced luteinizing hormone secretion from cultured rat pituitary cells. RESULTS: A truncated version of RGS3 (RGS3T = RGS3 314–519) inhibited gonadotropin releasing hormone-stimulated inositol trisphosphate production more potently than did RSG3 in gonadotropin releasing hormone receptor-bearing COS cells. An RSG3/glutathione-S-transferase fusion protein bound more (35)S-Gqα than any other member of the G protein family tested. Adenoviral-mediated RGS3 gene transfer in pituitary gonadotropes inhibited gonadotropin releasing hormone-stimulated luteinizing hormone secretion in a dose-related fashion. Adeno-RGS3 also inhibited gonadotropin releasing hormone stimulated (3)H-inositol phosphate accumulation, consistent with a molecular site of action at the Gqα protein. CONCLUSIONS: RGS3 inhibits gonadotropin releasing hormone-stimulated second messenger production (inositol trisphosphate) as well as luteinizing hormone secretion from rat pituitary gonadotropes apparently by binding and suppressing the transduction properties of Gqα protein function. A version of RGS3 that is amino-terminally truncated is even more potent than intact RGS3 at inhibiting gonadotropin releasing hormone-stimulated inositol trisphosphate production