The psychological well-being of Norwegian adolescents exposed in utero to radiation from the Chernobyl accident

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>On 26 April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered an accident. Several areas of central Norway were heavily affected by far field radioactive fallout. The present study focuses on the psychological well-being of adolescents who were exposed to this radiation as fetuses.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The adolescents (n = 53) and their mothers reported their perceptions of the adolescents' current psychological health as measured by the Youth Self Report and Child Behaviour Checklist.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In spite of previous reports of subtle cognitive deficits in these exposed adolescents, there were few self-reported problems and fewer problems reported by the mothers. This contrasts with findings of studies of children from the former Soviet Union exposed in utero, in which objective measures are inconsistent, and self-reports, especially by mothers, express concern for adolescents' cognitive functioning and psychological well-being.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the current paper, we explore possible explanations for this discrepancy and suggest that protective factors in Norway, in addition to perceived physical and psychological distance from the disaster, made the mothers less vulnerable to Chernobyl-related anxiety, thus preventing a negative effect on the psychological health of both mother and child.</p

Nearshore Sediment Transport in a Changing Climate

The impact of changing wave climate on the most important nearshore process, longshore sediment transport (LST), along the central west coast of India is investigated. The main purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the meteo-marine climate of the central west coast of India, which is highly influenced by the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. To understand the contemporary evolution of the coastline, hindcast wave climate from ERA-Interim wave data (1979–2016) is used. The annual average significant wave height (Hs), wave period (Tp) and wave direction (α0) are obtained and used to estimate annual LST. This region receives oblique waves from the W-SW direction which induces a huge gross northerly transport. It experiences two types of waves, swell waves (remotely generated waves that travel thousands of kilometres before hitting the coastline) and wind waves (also known as seas, which are locally generated), both of which are responsible for coastal sediment transport. The swell waves are the major component of a total wave system. It has more strength than the locally generated wind waves and dictates the wave direction and significant wave height at any given point of time. Therefore, the swell wave-induced LST is an order of magnitude higher than the wind wave-induced LST. It was observed that the sediment transport has a seasonal nature due to the influence of monsoonal winds in this region. The total LST in the central west coast of India shows a decreasing trend due to the reduced swell generation in the lower latitudes of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean

Some markers of mirroring appear intact in schizophrenia: evidence from mu suppression

Although schizophrenia is associated with impairments in social cognition, the scope and neural correlates of these disturbances are largely unknown. In this study, we investigated whether schizophrenia patients show impaired functioning of the mirror neuron system (MNS), as indexed by electroencephalographic (EEG) mu (8-13 Hz) suppression, a hypothesized biomarker of MNS activity that is sensitive to the degree of social interaction depicted in visual stimuli. A total of 32 outpatients and 26 healthy controls completed an EEG paradigm that included six action observation or execution conditions that differed in their degrees of social interaction. Participants also completed a validated empathy questionnaire. Across both groups, we found a significant linear increase in mu suppression across the conditions involving greater levels of social engagement and interaction, but no significant group or interaction effects. Patients self-reported diminished empathic concern and perspective taking, which showed some moderate relations to mu suppression levels. Thus, the schizophrenia group showed generally intact modulation of MNS functioning at the electrophysiological level, despite self-reporting empathic disturbances. The disturbances commonly seen on self-report, performance, and neuroimaging measures of mentalizing in schizophrenia may largely reflect difficulties with higher-level inferential processes about others' emotions, rather than a basic incapacity to share in these experiences