841 research outputs found
PTSD Symptom Interaction Among Victims of Interpersonal Violence: A Network Analysis
Along with numerous combinations of symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is linked to high dropout and non-response rates in treatment. Poor treatment response may be due to an inaccurate conceptualization of PTSD. One newer approach to the conceptualization of psychopathology is network theory. Network theory posits that symptoms both directly and indirectly reinforce each other, with connections between symptoms varying in strength. Previous studies of network theory and PTSD have found intrusive symptoms to be highly central, but have not included samples of individuals traumatized by interpersonal violence. Because trauma type has been shown to predict symptom presentations, this represents an important gap in the literature. The current study attempts to address this by analyzing the PTSD and depression network of 83 adult female participants meeting criteria for PTSD from interpersonal violence. PTSD symptoms were measured using the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale. Using the Extended Bayesian Information Criterion Graphical Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selector Operator (EBICglasso) method, and after bootstrapping the data with 95% confidence intervals based on 1000 bootstrap iterations, a partial correlation network was created to depict the network. PTSD network results showed feeling distant and intrusive symptoms to have the highest centrality. Further, anhedonia was shown to be a bridge symptom between PTSD and depressive symptoms. These results may better connect theory to impending therapeutic action by assisting in identifying specific targets for interventions when working with PTSD in victims of interpersonal violence
Tipping the Scales: Improving Utilization of Mental Health Care in Military Veterans
Veterans frequently endorse symptoms of mental illness while not utilizing mental healthcare to
its full extent. Previous studies have focused on barriers to veteran mental healthcare, but have
lacked analysis of what leads to the barriers themselves, as well as enroll sampling frames both
longitudinal and representative of the veteran population. This study contributes to the literature
in all of these ways, through multivariate regression and mediation analysis of a sample of 1090
veterans randomly selected from a database of over one million US veterans. The sample was
gathered in two waves, and consisted of a survey that asked a wide variety of questions.
Analyses revealed that PTSD symptoms (parameter estimate= 4.220, p<.0001), good social
support (parameter estimate= -1.344, p<.0001), and perceptions âitâs up to me to handle my own
problemsâ (parameter estimate= -.541, p<.0001) were strong indicators of number of visits to a
mental health professional in the next year. Mediation analysis showed PTSD to have a direct,
positive effect (ÎČ =5.679, t=9.702, p<.0001) on number of visits, but also an indirect, negative
effect on number of visits when the âits up to meâ barrier was used as a mediator. Additionally,
social support was also shown to have a direct, negative effect (ÎČ =-.372, t=-4.081, p<.0001) on
number of visits, but an indirect, positive effect when the âits up to meâ barrier was used as a
mediator. These results suggest a dual pathway in both PTSD and social support and their effects
on number of visits when the âitâs up to meâ barrier is considered. Implications include clinicians
and policy makers addressing the importance of belief systems and the role of social support to
increase mental health utilization.Bachelor of Scienc
Human monoclonal antibodies directed against toxins A and B prevent Clostridium difficile-induced mortality in hamsters
Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and recent outbreaks of strains with increased virulence underscore the importance of identifying novel approaches to treat and prevent relapse of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD). CDAD pathology is induced by two exotoxins, toxin A and toxin B, which have been shown to be cytotoxic and, in the case of toxin A, enterotoxic. In this report we describe fully human monoclonal antibodies (HuMAbs) that neutralize these toxins and prevent disease in hamsters. Transgenic mice carrying human immunoglobulin genes were used to isolate HuMAbs that neutralize the cytotoxic effects of either toxin A or toxin B in cell-based in vitro neutralization assays. Three anti-toxin A HuMAbs (3H2, CDA1, and 1B11) could all inhibit the enterotoxicity of toxin A in mouse intestinal loops and the in vivo toxicity in a systemic mouse model. Four anti-toxin B HuMAbs (MDX-1388, 103-174, 1G10, and 2A11) could neutralize cytotoxicity in vitro, although systemic toxicity in the mouse could not be neutralized. Anti-toxin A HuMAb CDA1 and anti-toxin B HuMAb MDX-1388 were tested in the well-established hamster model of C. difficile disease. CDA1 alone resulted in a statistically significant reduction of mortality in hamsters; however, the combination treatment offered enhanced protection. Compared to controls, combination therapy reduced mortality from 100% to 45% (P\u3c0.0001) in the primary disease hamster model and from 78% to 32% (P\u3c0.0001) in the less stringent relapse model
Tuft-cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic mediators of norovirus tropism regulate viral immunity
Murine norovirus (MNoV) is a model for human norovirus and for interrogating mechanisms of viral tropism and persistence. We previously demonstrated that the persistent strain MNo
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Ly{\alpha} forest of BOSS DR11 quasars
We report a detection of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the
flux-correlation function of the Ly{\alpha} forest of high-redshift quasars
with a statistical significance of five standard deviations. The study uses
137,562 quasars in the redshift range from the Data Release
11 (DR11) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of SDSS-III.
This sample contains three times the number of quasars used in previous
studies. The measured position of the BAO peak determines the angular distance,
and expansion rate, , both on a scale set by the sound
horizon at the drag epoch, . We find
and
where . The optimal
combination, is determined with a precision of
. For the value , consistent with the CMB power
spectrum measured by Planck, we find
and . Tests with mock
catalogs and variations of our analysis procedure have revealed no systematic
uncertainties comparable to our statistical errors. Our results agree with the
previously reported BAO measurement at the same redshift using the
quasar-Ly{\alpha} forest cross-correlation. The auto-correlation and
cross-correlation approaches are complementary because of the quite different
impact of redshift-space distortion on the two measurements. The combined
constraints from the two correlation functions imply values of and
that are, respectively, 7% low and 7% high compared to the
predictions of a flat CDM cosmological model with the best-fit Planck
parameters. With our estimated statistical errors, the significance of this
discrepancy is .Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 17 pages, 18 figure
Europeanization and the soft law process of EU corporate governance: how has the 2003 action plan impacted on national corporate governance codes?
This study explores Europeanization, the interrelationship between domestic and EU-level policy activity. Specifically, it asks how domestic policy is affected by EU-level (soft-law) policy processes. This contrasts with the hard-law focus of most Europeanization research. Our empirical analysis seeks to determine the extent to which the European Commission's 2003 plan to enhance corporate governance delivered on its aim of 'co-ordinating corporate governance efforts of member states'. This study thus differs from most others on convergence in corporate governance regimes, which look for evidence of convergence perse, rather than convergence towards a specified set of principles. Applying content analysis and econometric tests to 95 corporate governance codes issued between 1992 and mid-2010, we find that the Action Plan has influenced member states' corporate governance policies. However, the degree of national policy alignment to the Action Plan's priorities depends on when the corporate governance code was issued, here, and by whom
Prognostic and predictive effect of KRAS gene copy number and mutation status in early stage non-small cell lung cancer patients
Background: In the current analysis, we characterize the prognostic significance of
Methods: Clinical and genomic data from the LACE (Lung Adjuvant Cisplatin Evaluation)-Bio consortium was utilized. CNAs were categorized as Gain (CN â„2) or Neutral (Neut)/Loss;
Results: Of the 946 (399 adenocarcinoma) NSCLC patients, 41 [30] had MUT + Gain, 145 [99] MUT + Neut/Loss, 125 [16] WT + Gain, and 635 [254] WT + Neut/Loss. A non-significant trend towards worse lung cancer-specific survival (LCSS; HR =1.34; 95% CI, 0.83-2.17, P=0.232), DFS (HR =1.34; 95% CI, 0.86-2.09, P=0.202) and OS (HR =1.59; 95% CI, 0.99-2.54, P=0.055) was seen in
Conclusions: A small prognostic effect o
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Isolation of Angola-like Marburg virus from Egyptian rousette bats from West Africa.
Marburg virus (MARV) causes sporadic outbreaks of severe Marburg virus disease (MVD). Most MVD outbreaks originated in East Africa and field studies in East Africa, South Africa, Zambia, and Gabon identified the Egyptian rousette bat (ERB; Rousettus aegyptiacus) as a natural reservoir. However, the largest recorded MVD outbreak with the highest case-fatality ratio happened in 2005 in Angola, where direct spillover from bats was not shown. Here, collaborative studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Njala University, University of California, Davis USAID-PREDICT, and the University of Makeni identify MARV circulating in ERBs in Sierra Leone. PCR, antibody and virus isolation data from 1755 bats of 42 species shows active MARV infection in approximately 2.5% of ERBs. Phylogenetic analysis identifies MARVs that are similar to the Angola strain. These results provide evidence of MARV circulation in West Africa and demonstrate the value of pathogen surveillance to identify previously undetected threats
Low-Level Environmental Lead Exposure and Childrenâs Intellectual Function: An International Pooled Analysis
Lead is a confirmed neurotoxin, but questions remain about lead-associated intellectual deficits at blood lead levels < 10 ÎŒg/dL and whether lower exposures are, for a given change in exposure, associated with greater deficits. The objective of this study was to examine the association of intelligence test scores and blood lead concentration, especially for children who had maximal measured blood lead levels < 10 ÎŒg/dL. We examined data collected from 1,333 children who participated in seven international population-based longitudinal cohort studies, followed from birth or infancy until 5â10 years of age. The full-scale IQ score was the primary outcome measure. The geometric mean blood lead concentration of the children peaked at 17.8 ÎŒg/dL and declined to 9.4 ÎŒg/dL by 5â7 years of age; 244 (18%) children had a maximal blood lead concentration < 10 ÎŒg/dL, and 103 (8%) had a maximal blood lead concentration < 7.5 ÎŒg/dL. After adjustment for covariates, we found an inverse relationship between blood lead concentration and IQ score. Using a log-linear model, we found a 6.9 IQ point decrement [95% confidence interval (CI), 4.2â9.4] associated with an increase in concurrent blood lead levels from 2.4 to 30 ÎŒg/dL. The estimated IQ point decrements associated with an increase in blood lead from 2.4 to 10 ÎŒg/dL, 10 to 20 ÎŒg/dL, and 20 to 30 ÎŒg/dL were 3.9 (95% CI, 2.4â5.3), 1.9 (95% CI, 1.2â2.6), and 1.1 (95% CI, 0.7â1.5), respectively. For a given increase in blood lead, the lead-associated intellectual decrement for children with a maximal blood lead level < 7.5 ÎŒg/dL was significantly greater than that observed for those with a maximal blood lead level â„7.5 ÎŒg/dL (p = 0.015). We conclude that environmental lead exposure in children who have maximal blood lead levels < 7.5 ÎŒg/dL is associated with intellectual deficits
Dynamical dark energy in light of the latest observations
A flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe dominated by a cosmological constant (Î) and cold dark matter (CDM) has been the working model preferred by cosmologists since the discovery of cosmic acceleration1,2. However, tensions of various degrees ofsignificance are known to be present among existing datasets within the ÎCDM framework3-11. In particular, the Lyman-α forest measurement of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey3 prefers a smaller value of the matter density fraction ΩM than that preferred by cosmic microwave background (CMB). Also, the recently measured value of the Hubble constant, H0 = 73.24 ±1.74 km s-1 Mpc-1 (ref. 12), is 3.4Ï higher than the 66.93 ± 0.62 km s-1Mpc-1 inferred from the Planck CMB data7. In this work, we investigate whether these tensions can be interpreted as evidence for a non-constant dynamical dark energy. Using the Kullback-Leibler divergence13 to quantify the tension between datasets, we find that the tensions are relieved by an evolving dark energy, with the dynamical dark energy model preferred at a 3.5Ï significance level based on the improvement in the fit alone. While, at present, the Bayesian evidence for the dynamical dark energy is insufficient to favour it over ÎCDM, we show that, if the current best-fit dark energy happened to be the true model, it would be decisively detected by the upcoming Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey14.PostprintPeer reviewe
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