2,230 research outputs found
The Association of Cigarette Smoking with Depression and Anxiety:A Systematic Review
BACKGROUND: Many studies report a positive association between smoking and mental illness. However, the literature remains mixed regarding the direction of this association. We therefore conducted a systematic review evaluating the association of smoking and depression and/or anxiety in longitudinal studies. METHODS: Studies were identified by searching PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science and were included if they: (1) used human participants, (2) were longitudinal, (3) reported primary data, (4) had smoking as an exposure and depression and/or anxiety as an outcome, or (5) had depression and/or anxiety as the exposure and smoking as an outcome. RESULTS: Outcomes from 148 studies were categorized into: smoking onset, smoking status, smoking heaviness, tobacco dependence, and smoking trajectory. The results for each category varied substantially, with evidence for positive associations in both directions (smoking to later mental health and mental health to later smoking) as well as null findings. Overall, nearly half the studies reported that baseline depression/anxiety was associated with some type of later smoking behavior, while over a third found evidence that a smoking exposure was associated with later depression/anxiety. However, there were few studies directly supporting a bidirectional model of smoking and anxiety, and very few studies reporting null results. CONCLUSIONS: The literature on the prospective association between smoking and depression and anxiety is inconsistent in terms of the direction of association most strongly supported. This suggests the need for future studies that employ different methodologies, such as Mendelian randomization (MR), which will allow us to draw stronger causal inferences. IMPLICATIONS: We systematically reviewed longitudinal studies on the association of different aspects of smoking behavior with depression and anxiety. The results varied considerably, with evidence for smoking both associated with subsequent depression and anxiety, and vice versa. Few studies supported a bidirectional relationship, or reported null results, and no clear patterns by gender, ethnicity, clinical status, length to follow-up, or diagnostic test. Suggesting that despite advantages of longitudinal studies, they cannot alone provide strong evidence of causality. Therefore, future studies investigating this association should employ different methods allowing for stronger causal inferences to be made, such as MR
Bayesian Ordinal Quantile Regression with a Partially Collapsed Gibbs Sampler
Unlike standard linear regression, quantile regression captures the
relationship between covariates and the conditional response distribution as a
whole, rather than only the relationship between covariates and the expected
value of the conditional response. However, while there are well-established
quantile regression methods for continuous variables and some forms of discrete
data, there is no widely accepted method for ordinal variables, despite their
importance in many medical contexts. In this work, we describe two existing
ordinal quantile regression methods and demonstrate their weaknesses. We then
propose a new method, Bayesian ordinal quantile regression with a partially
collapsed Gibbs sampler (BORPS). We show superior results using BORPS versus
existing methods on an extensive set of simulations. We further illustrate the
benefits of our method by applying BORPS to the Fragile Families and Child
Wellbeing Study data to tease apart associations with early puberty among both
genders. Software is available at: GitHub.com/igrabski/borps
The use of cosmic muons in detecting heterogeneities in large volumes
The muon intensity attenuation method to detect heterogeneities in large
matter volumes is analyzed. Approximate analytical expressions to estimate the
collection time and the signal to noise ratio, are proposed and validated by
Monte Carlo simulations. Important parameters, including point spread function
and coordinate reconstruction uncertainty are also estimated using Monte Carlo
simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, submetted to NIM
The Development of an Embedded Figures Test for the Detection of Feigned Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adulthood
ObjectivesIt has been shown that an increasing number of adults deliberately feign attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which demonstrates the need for new tests designed to detect feigned ADHD.MethodsAn Embedded Figures Test ( EFT) was developed for the detection of feigned ADHD in adulthood. EFT performance of 51 adults with ADHD was compared to the performance of 52 matched healthy individuals, as well as to 268 undergraduate students who were randomly allocated in a simulation design to one of four experimental conditions, i.e. a control group, a naive simulation group, a symptom-coached simulation group or a test-coached simulation group. Furthermore, an independent sample of 11 adults with ADHD as well as a sample of 17 clinicians experienced in the work with adults with ADHD were assessed for further validation of the EFT.ResultsThe EFT was relatively easy to perform for both patients with ADHD and healthy comparisons as shown by low error rates and non-significant group differences. However, simulation groups differed from patients with ADHD by significant and large effects. An EFT index for the prediction of feigned ADHD was derived based on logistic regression coefficients. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) demonstrated good classification accuracy of feigned ADHD relative to ADHD (AUC = 94.8%), i.e. high sensitivity (88%) and specificity (90%).ConclusionsThis study supports the utility of the EFT for the detection of feigned adult ADHD.</p
Measurement of the Cross Section Asymmetry of the Reaction gp-->pi0p in the Resonance Energy Region Eg = 0.5 - 1.1 GeV
The cross section asymmetry Sigma has been measured for the photoproduction
of pi0-mesons off protons, using polarized photons in the energy range Eg = 0.5
- 1.1 GeV. The CM angular coverage is Theta = 85 - 125 deg with energy and
angle steps of 25 MeV and 5 deg, respectively. The obtained Sigma data, which
cover the second and third resonance regions, are compared with existing
experimental data and recent phenomenological analyses. The influence of these
measurements on such analyses is also considered
Asymptotic Expansions for Stationary Distributions of Perturbed Semi-Markov Processes
New algorithms for computing of asymptotic expansions for stationary
distributions of nonlinearly perturbed semi-Markov processes are presented. The
algorithms are based on special techniques of sequential phase space reduction,
which can be applied to processes with asymptotically coupled and uncoupled
finite phase spaces.Comment: 83 page
The Sensitivity of HAWC to High-Mass Dark Matter Annihilations
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a wide field-of-view
detector sensitive to gamma rays of 100 GeV to a few hundred TeV. Located in
central Mexico at 19 degrees North latitude and 4100 m above sea level, HAWC
will observe gamma rays and cosmic rays with an array of water Cherenkov
detectors. The full HAWC array is scheduled to be operational in Spring 2015.
In this paper, we study the HAWC sensitivity to the gamma-ray signatures of
high-mass (multi- TeV) dark matter annihilation. The HAWC observatory will be
sensitive to diverse searches for dark matter annihilation, including
annihilation from extended dark matter sources, the diffuse gamma-ray emission
from dark matter annihilation, and gamma-ray emission from non-luminous dark
matter subhalos. Here we consider the HAWC sensitivity to a subset of these
sources, including dwarf galaxies, the M31 galaxy, the Virgo cluster, and the
Galactic center. We simulate the HAWC response to gamma rays from these sources
in several well-motivated dark matter annihilation channels. If no gamma-ray
excess is observed, we show the limits HAWC can place on the dark matter
cross-section from these sources. In particular, in the case of dark matter
annihilation into gauge bosons, HAWC will be able to detect a narrow range of
dark matter masses to cross-sections below thermal. HAWC should also be
sensitive to non-thermal cross-sections for masses up to nearly 1000 TeV. The
constraints placed by HAWC on the dark matter cross-section from known sources
should be competitive with current limits in the mass range where HAWC has
similar sensitivity. HAWC can additionally explore higher dark matter masses
than are currently constrained.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, version to be published in PR
VAMOS: a Pathfinder for the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
VAMOS was a prototype detector built in 2011 at an altitude of 4100m a.s.l.
in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The aim of VAMOS was to finalize the design,
construction techniques and data acquisition system of the HAWC observatory.
HAWC is an air-shower array currently under construction at the same site of
VAMOS with the purpose to study the TeV sky. The VAMOS setup included six water
Cherenkov detectors and two different data acquisition systems. It was in
operation between October 2011 and May 2012 with an average live time of 30%.
Besides the scientific verification purposes, the eight months of data were
used to obtain the results presented in this paper: the detector response to
the Forbush decrease of March 2012, and the analysis of possible emission, at
energies above 30 GeV, for long gamma-ray bursts GRB111016B and GRB120328B.Comment: Accepted for pubblication in Astroparticle Physics Journal (20 pages,
10 figures). Corresponding authors: A.Marinelli and D.Zaboro
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