The rise of a native sun coral species on southern Caribbean coral reefs

In contrast with a general decline of Caribbean reef corals, a previously rare sun coral is increasing in abundance within shallow coral communities on Curaçao. This azooxanthellate scleractinian was identified as Cladopsammia manuelensis, which has an amphi‐Atlantic distribution. Over the last decade, C. manuelensis has increased abundance along the leeward coast of Curaçao (southern Caribbean) between depths of 4 and 30 m. This species was initially not noticed because it resembles the invasive coral Tubastraea coccinea, which was introduced to Curaçao from the Indo‐Pacific around 1940. However, in contrast to T. coccinea, C. manuelensis was previously only present on deeper reef sections (>70 m) of Caribbean reefs. Our observations illustrate how the sudden increase in abundance of a previously unnoticed, apparently cryptogenic species could result from natural dynamics on present‐day reefs, but also could easily be mistaken for an invasive species. The finding that deep reef sections can harbor species capable of colonizing shallower reef zones highlights the importance of thorough inventories of reef communities across large depth ranges, which can help us to discriminate between range increases of native species and the arrival of invasives

The effects of cognitive-behavioural therapy on mood-related ruminative response style in depressed adolescents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A mood-related ruminative response style increases the risk of onset and persistence of depression. This preliminary study investigated whether, in depressed adolescents, cognitive-behaviour therapy reduces mood-related ruminative response style. Whether specific factors within the rumination scale were differentially affected by CBT is also reported.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>26 depressed adolescents were randomised to receiving serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (SSRI) plus psychosocial treatment as usual or SSRI and psychosocial treatment as usual plus CBT. Ruminative response style and depressive symptoms were measured at baseline and after 30 weeks of treatment, with the Responses to Depression Questionnaire and Mood and Feelings Questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were significantly greater reductions in ruminations in the CBT group compared to the non-CBT group (<it>p </it>= .002). There was no significant difference in the reduction in self-reported depressive symptoms between the groups. Rumination was reduced to levels of never-depressed controls in adolescents who had recovered from depression and received CBT. There were greater falls in the CBT group in the more pathological 'brooding' factor of rumination.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that adding CBT to SSRI medication in the presence of active clinical care causes a greater reduction in mood-related ruminative response style in depressed adolescents. This may reduce the risk of future relapse.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials ISRCNT83809224.</p

Attachment styles and personal growth following romantic breakups: The mediating roles of distress, rumination, and tendency to rebound

© 2013 Marshall et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.The purpose of this research was to examine the associations of attachment anxiety and avoidance with personal growth following relationship dissolution, and to test breakup distress, rumination, and tendency to rebound with new partners as mediators of these associations. Study 1 (N = 411) and Study 2 (N = 465) measured attachment style, breakup distress, and personal growth; Study 2 additionally measured ruminative reflection, brooding, and proclivity to rebound with new partners. Structural equation modelling revealed in both studies that anxiety was indirectly associated with greater personal growth through heightened breakup distress, whereas avoidance was indirectly associated with lower personal growth through inhibited breakup distress. Study 2 further showed that the positive association of breakup distress with personal growth was accounted for by enhanced reflection and brooding, and that anxious individuals’ greater personal growth was also explained by their proclivity to rebound. These findings suggest that anxious individuals’ hyperactivated breakup distress may act as a catalyst for personal growth by promoting the cognitive processing of breakup-related thoughts and emotions, whereas avoidant individuals’ deactivated distress may inhibit personal growth by suppressing this cognitive work

Development of gelatin-alginate hydrogels for burn wound treatment

Hydrogels are interesting as wound dressing for burn wounds to maintain a moist environment. Especially gelatin and alginate based wound dressings show strong potential. Both polymers are modified by introducing photocrosslinkable functionalities and combined to hydrogel films (gel-MA/alg-MA). In one protocol gel-MA films are incubated in alg-MA solutions and crosslinked afterward into double networks. Another protocol involves blending both and subsequent photocrosslinking. The introduction of alginate into the gelatin matrix results in phase separation with polysaccharide microdomains in a protein matrix. Addition of alg(-MA) to gel-MA leads to an increased swelling compared to 100% gelatin and similar to the commercial Aquacel Ag dressing. In vitro tests show better cell adhesion for films which have a lower alginate content and also have superior mechanical properties. The hydrogel dressings exhibit good biocompatibility with adaptable cell attachment properties. An adequate gelatin-alginate ratio should allow application of the materials as wound dressings for several days without tissue ingrowth

Using ordinal logistic regression to evaluate the performance of laser-Doppler predictions of burn-healing time

Background Laser-Doppler imaging (LDI) of cutaneous blood flow is beginning to be used by burn surgeons to predict the healing time of burn wounds; predicted healing time is used to determine wound treatment as either dressings or surgery. In this paper, we do a statistical analysis of the performance of the technique. Methods We used data from a study carried out by five burn centers: LDI was done once between days 2 to 5 post burn, and healing was assessed at both 14 days and 21 days post burn. Random-effects ordinal logistic regression and other models such as the continuation ratio model were used to model healing-time as a function of the LDI data, and of demographic and wound history variables. Statistical methods were also used to study the false-color palette, which enables the laser-Doppler imager to be used by clinicians as a decision-support tool. Results Overall performance is that diagnoses are over 90% correct. Related questions addressed were what was the best blood flow summary statistic and whether, given the blood flow measurements, demographic and observational variables had any additional predictive power (age, sex, race, % total body surface area burned (%TBSA), site and cause of burn, day of LDI scan, burn center). It was found that mean laser-Doppler flux over a wound area was the best statistic, and that, given the same mean flux, women recover slightly more slowly than men. Further, the likely degradation in predictive performance on moving to a patient group with larger %TBSA than those in the data sample was studied, and shown to be small. Conclusion Modeling healing time is a complex statistical problem, with random effects due to multiple burn areas per individual, and censoring caused by patients missing hospital visits and undergoing surgery. This analysis applies state-of-the art statistical methods such as the bootstrap and permutation tests to a medical problem of topical interest. New medical findings are that age and %TBSA are not important predictors of healing time when the LDI results are known, whereas gender does influence recovery time, even when blood flow is controlled for. The conclusion regarding the palette is that an optimum three-color palette can be chosen 'automatically', but the optimum choice of a 5-color palette cannot be made solely by optimizing the percentage of correct diagnoses

Mental Health of Parents and Life Satisfaction of Children: A Within-Family Analysis of Intergenerational Transmission of Well-Being

This paper addresses the extent to which there is an intergenerational transmission of mental health and subjective well-being within families. Specifically it asks whether parents’ own mental distress influences their child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa. Whilst the evidence on daily contagion of stress and strain between members of the same family is substantial, the evidence on the transmission between parental distress and children’s well-being over a longer period of time is sparse. We tested this idea by examining the within-family transmission of mental distress from parent to child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa, using rich longitudinal data on 1,175 British youths. Results show that parental distress at year t-1 is an important determinant of child’s life satisfaction in the current year. This is true for boys and girls, although boys do not appear to be affected by maternal distress levels. The results also indicated that the child’s own life satisfaction is related with their father’s distress levels in the following year, regardless of the gender of the child. Finally, we examined whether the underlying transmission correlation is due to shared social environment, empathic reactions, or transmission via parent-child interaction

Does rumination mediate the relationship between emotion regulation ability and posttraumatic stress disorder?

Background and objectives: Trauma-related rumination has been suggested to be involved in the maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This view has empirically been supported by extensive evidence using cross-sectional, prospective, and experimental designs. However, it is unclear why trauma survivors engage in rumination despite its negative consequences. The current study aimed to explore the hypothesis that low emotion regulation ability underlies trauma-related rumination. Methods: Emotion regulation ability and trauma-related rumination were assessed in 93 road traffic accident survivors 2 weeks post-trauma. In addition, symptom levels of PTSD were assessed at 2 weeks as well as 1, 3, and 6 months follow-up. Results: Emotion regulation ability was significantly related to trauma-related rumination as well as levels of PTSD symptoms. In addition, the association between low emotion regulation ability and PTSD was mediated by rumination. Conclusions: The findings support the view that rumination is used as a dysfunctional emotion regulation strategy by trauma survivors

Common Versus Unique Variance Across Measures of Worry and Rumination: Predictive Utility and Mediational Models for Anxiety and Depression

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) has been identified as a transdiagnostic construct. However, diagnosis- specific questionnaires have traditionally been used to measure RNT across emotional disorders, and thus the degree to which they assess shared versus unique aspects of RNT is unclear. Furthermore, the degree to which shared versus unique variance across these measures contributes to the prediction of anxiety and depression symptoms is yet to be fully understood. This study had three aims. First, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the degree to which two common, diagnosis-specific questionnaires assess common versus unique variance in RNT. One questionnaire measured worry whereas the other measured two aspects of rumination (brooding, reflection). Second, the contribution of the shared and unique variance in predicting symptoms of anxiety and depression was determined. Third, the role of shared and unique variance in mediating the relationships between the vulnerability factor of negative affectivity and symptoms of anxiety and depression was assessed

Global coordination and standardisation in marine biodiversity through the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and related databases

The World Register of Marine Species is an over 90% complete open-access inventory of all marine species names. Here we illustrate the scale of the problems with species names, synonyms, and their classification, and describe how WoRMS publishes online quality assured information on marine species.Within WoRMS, over 100 global, 12 regional and 4 thematic species databases are integrated with a common taxonomy. Over 240 editors from 133 institutions and 31 countries manage the content. To avoid duplication of effort, content is exchanged with 10 external databases. At present WoRMS contains 460,000 taxonomic names (from Kingdom to subspecies), 368,000 species level combinations of which 215,000 are currently accepted marine species names, and 26,000 related but non-marine species. Associated information includes 150,000 literature sources, 20,000 images, and locations of 44,000 specimens. Usage has grown linearly since its launch in 2007, with about 600,000 unique visitors to the website in 2011, and at least 90 organisations from 12 countries using WoRMS for their data management.By providing easy access to expert-validated content, WoRMS improves quality control in the use of species names, with consequent benefits to taxonomy, ecology, conservation and marine biodiversity research and management. The service manages information on species names that would otherwise be overly costly for individuals, and thus minimises errors in the application of nomenclature standards. WoRMS' content is expanding to include host-parasite relationships, additional literature sources, locations of specimens, images, distribution range, ecological, and biological data. Species are being categorised as introduced (alien, invasive), of conservation importance, and on other attributes. These developments have a multiplier effect on its potential as a resource for biodiversity research and management. As a consequence of WoRMS, we are witnessing improved communication within the scientific community, and anticipate increased taxonomic efficiency and quality control in marine biodiversity research and management