The walls of gated communities in Brazil and Turkey: security, separation or status?

Gated communities are common types of housing estates found in many countries. They are based on strictly controlled access of people. Houses, and at times high-rise apartment blocks, are built behind a common wall, along private internal streets. Both in Brazil and in Turkey these types of residential neighborhoods can be found mainly on the outskirts of large urban areas. This paper investigates the reasons for the increase of such residential areas, in relation to the two countries urban problems. In Brazil the dominant reason for the proliferation of gated communities, found in the literature and in advertisement of such estates, is security, in view of the countries high crime rates. In Turkey the main reason for a family to choose to live in such residential areas is status and privacy. Although Brazil and Turkey have very different cultural backgrounds, in both countries gated communities are increasingly popular. The attraction of these so-called communities must therefore be analyzed. Are people more vulnerable in large mega-cities? Also, the impact on urban prospects as a whole must be discussed. Socio-cultural and psychological concepts such as territoriality, security, privacy, which can be represented by a pattern of behavior of an individual or group, as based on control of space, are thus touched on in the paper. Conclusions confirm that the reasons for preferences for gated communities are the feeling of belonging to a special place, fear of crime and a sense security and determine decision making of families in their homeownership choices

Using coordinate-based meta-analyses to explore structural imaging genetics

Imaging genetics has become a highly popular approach in the field of schizophrenia research. A frequently reported finding is that effects from common genetic variation are associated with a schizophrenia-related structural endophenotype. Genetic contributions to a structural endophenotype may be easier to delineate, when referring to biological rather than diagnostic criteria. We used coordinate-based meta-analyses, namely the anatomical likelihood estimation (ALE) algorithm on 30 schizophrenia-related imaging genetics studies, representing 44 single-nucleotide polymorphisms at 26 gene loci investigated in 4682 subjects. To test whether analyses based on biological information would improve the convergence of results, gene ontology (GO) terms were used to group the findings from the published studies. We did not find any significant results for the main contrast. However, our analysis enrolling studies on genotype × diagnosis interaction yielded two clusters in the left temporal lobe and the medial orbitofrontal cortex. All other subanalyses did not yield any significant results. To gain insight into possible biological relationships between the genes implicated by these clusters, we mapped five of them to GO terms of the category “biological process” (AKT1, CNNM2, DISC1, DTNBP1, VAV3), then five to “cellular component” terms (AKT1, CNNM2, DISC1, DTNBP1, VAV3), and three to “molecular function” terms (AKT1, VAV3, ZNF804A). A subsequent cluster analysis identified representative, non-redundant subsets of semantically similar terms that aided a further interpretation. We regard this approach as a new option to systematically explore the richness of the literature in imaging genetics

Lack of Meta-Analytic Evidence for an Impact of COMT Val158Met Genotype on Brain Activation During Working Memory Tasks

Imaging genetics, that is, the investigation of neuroimaging correlates for genetic variation, have been highly popular over the last decade. Within this framework, schizophrenia risk genes and, in particular, the effect of the Val158Met (rs4680) single nucleotide polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene on activations related to working memory have been studied extensively. COMT mediates the degradation of dopamine in the synaptic cleft, and its Val allele is associated with lower working memory performance ( 1). It is assumed that these effects are due to increased enzymatic activity in Val allele carriers leading to decreased prefrontal dopamine concentration, causing changes in regional activity during working memory tasks. However, is there reliable evidence to support this conclusion?To investigate whether there is converging evidence from imaging genetics studies for COMT genotype effects on working memory-related activation, we performed a quantitative coordinate-based meta-analysis using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach ( 2). Relevant studies were retrieved through PubMed and Google Scholar, review articles, and reference tracing. Inclusion criteria are reported in the legend to Table 1. In total, 14 studies published between 2004 and 2014 met inclusion criteria ( Table 1). Together, these studies enrolled a total of 995 subjects (920 healthy subjects and 75 schizophrenia patients). Although most studies tested for linear effects of increasing or decreasing Val alleles, not all publications used this contrast (cf. Table 1). To establish a standardized classification for assessing the convergence of results despite methodical heterogeneity of the original studies, we summarized different contrasts by focusing on the number of Val alleles. In the following, we thus refer to hyper- or hypoactivation associated with a higher number of Val alleles in the original contrast (e.g., Met/Met > Val/Met > Val/Val, but also, e.g., Met allele carriers > Val/Val). Among the included studies, eight studies reported only hyperactivations, whereas three studies reported only hypoactivation, and four studies reported both hyper- and hypoactivation with higher numbers of Val alleles. To determine whether genotype effects showed convergent results regardless of diagnosis, both the healthy controls and the schizophrenia patients were included in a first analysis. We also conducted a subanalysis that included only the healthy controls

The role of striatal dopamine D2/3 receptors in cognitive performance in drug-free patients with schizophrenia

Objective: A considerable body of research links cognitive function to dopaminergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex, but less is known about cognition in relation to striatal dopamine D2/3 receptors in unmedicated patients with psychosis. Methods: We investigated this association by obtaining PET recordings with the high-affinity D2/3 antagonist ligand [18F] fallypride in 15 medication-free patients with schizophrenia and 11 healthy controls. On the day of PET scanning, we undertook comprehensive neuropsychological testing and assessment of psychopathology using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results: The patients’ performance in cognitive tests was significantly impaired in almost all domains. Irrespective of medication history, the mean [18F] fallypride binding potential (BPND) in the patient group tended to be globally 5–10% higher than that of the control group, but without reaching significance in any brain region. There were significant positive correlations between individual patient performance in the Trail Making Test (TMT(A) and TMT(B)) and Digit-Symbol-Substitution-Test with regional [18F] fallypride BPND, which remained significant after Bonferroni correction for the TMT(A) in caudate nucleus (CN) and for the TMT(B) in CN and putamen. No such correlations were evident in the control group. Discussion: The association between better cognitive performance and greater BPND in schizophrenia patients may imply that relatively lower receptor occupancy by endogenous dopamine favors better sparing of cognitive function. Absence of comparable correlations in healthy controls could indicate a greater involvement of signaling at dopamine D2/3 receptors in certain cognitive functions in schizophrenia patients than in healthy controls

Расчет энергетических параметров гидромеханического разрушения структуры нефтяных систем

A technique of determination of specific amount of mechanical energy necessary to destruct the supermolecular structure of paraffinic crude oils using the experimental rheological curves of laminar flow has been given. A cross-platform application capable of calculating the mechanical energy was designed as a result of this work

Peripheral nerve field stimulation for facial pain

Rationale Many aspects of the neurobiology of schizophrenia, especially the physiological basis of the negative symptoms and associated cognitive deficits, remain inadequately understood. Tandon and Greden (1989) postulated a central role of dopaminergic/cholinergic imbalance in schizophrenia. Objective/Methods In light of this hypothesis, we elected to investigate the effects of anticholinergic challenge on psychopathology, cognition and attention in 12 unmedicated patients with schizophrenia and 12 healthy controls. The first examination occurred before any pharmacological intervention; the second examination was carried out immediately following an intravenous infusion of 5 mg biperiden, a centrally acting antimuscarinergic agent. Results The biperiden challenge provoked a considerable increase in PANSS scores in both groups which was significantly more pronounced in patients (repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) (rmANOVA): F(df) = 6.4(1,22); p = 0.019). The increase in the PANSS scores showed a significant negative correlation with age in patients. Biperiden caused considerable cognitive impairments in both groups. A significant group difference (rmANOVA) could be observed for TMT-B (F(df) = 11.29(1,22); p = 0.003). Conclusions The anticholinergic intervention caused more pronounced psychopathological and cognitive deteriorating effects in patients suffering from schizophrenia than in healthy volunteers. This could be related to the disrupted cholinergic transmission in schizophrenia. Our findings speak on behalf of the need of a more restrictive use of anticholinergics in psychiatric patients. The age-related attenuation of PANSS score increases in patients could be related to the age-dependent changes in dopamine dynamics and also to the age-associated decline of the availability of muscarinic receptors. Our results emphasise the need for further investigation of cholinergic disturbances in schizophrenia