La Consonancia Cultural, la Religion, y los Trastornos Psicologicos en una Comunidad Urbana

Consonância cultural é o grau em que os indivíduos se aproximam dos protótipos codificados nos modelos culturais. Consonância cultural baixa é associada a sofrimento psicológico. A religião pode moderar a associação entre consonância cultural e sofrimento psicológico. O Brasil apresenta uma diversidade religiosa, sendo, portanto, uma sociedade importante para examinar esta hipótese. Este estudo, realizado em Ribeirão Preto, Brasil, utilizou delineamento de métodos mistos. As medidas de consonância cultural foram derivadas de métodos etnográficos e aplicadas em um estudo de levantamento realizado com 271 participantes, selecionados de quatro estratos socias. Consonância cultural baixa mostrou-se associada a sofrimento psicológico alto em análise de regressão múltipla ( B = - 0,430, p < 0,001). Membros de igrejas protestantes pentecostais relataram menor sofrimento psicológico independente dos efeitos da consonância cultural ( B = - 0,409, p < 0,05). A religião não moderou o efeito da consonância. São discutidas as implicações desses resultados para o estudo da relação entre religião e saúde.Consonancia cultural es el grado en que individuos se acercan a prototipos codificados en modelos culturales. Consonancia cultural baja está asociada con alto nivel de trastornos psicológicos. La religión puede moderar la relación entre consonancia cultural y trastornos psicológicos. Brasil, con variación religiosa considerable, es una sociedad importante para examinar esta hipótesis. La investigación fue realizada en Ribeirão Preto, Brasil, utilizando un diseño de métodos mixtos. Medidas de consonancia cultural se obtuvieron utilizando métodos etnográficos y luego se aplican en una encuesta de 271 personas procedentes de cuatro estratos sociales. Consonancia cultural baja se asoció con una mayor angustia psicológica en el análisis de regresión múltiple ( B = -.430, p < .001). Los miembros de las iglesias protestantes pentecostales manifiestan una menor angustia psicológica independientemente del efecto de la consonancia cultural ( B = -.409, p < .05). La religión no moderó el efecto de la consonancia. Las implicaciones de estos resultados para el estudio de la relación entre religión y salud se discuten.Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals approximate prototypes encoded in cultural models. Low cultural consonance is associated with higher psychological distress. Religion may moderate the association between cultural consonance and psychological distress. Brazil, with substantial variation in religion, is an important society for the examination of this hypothesis. Research was conducted in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, using a mixed-methods design. Measures of cultural consonance were derived using ethnographic methods and then applied in a survey of 271 individuals drawn from four distinct social strata. Low cultural consonance was associated with higher psychological distress in multiple regression analysis ( B = -.430, p < .001). Members of Pentecostal Protestant churches reported lower psychological distress independently of the effect of cultural consonance ( B = -.409, p < .05). There was no buffering effect of religion. Implications of these results for the study of religion and health are discussed

Manual Hippocampal Subfield Segmentation Using High-Field MRI: Impact of Different Subfields in Hippocampal Volume Loss of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Patients

In patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), presurgical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) often reveals hippocampal atrophy, while neuropathological assessment indicates the different types of hippocampal sclerosis (HS). Different HS types are not discriminated in MRI so far. We aimed to define the volume of each hippocampal subfield on MRI manually and to compare automatic and manual segmentations for the discrimination of HS types. The T2-weighted images from 14 formalin-fixed age-matched control hippocampi were obtained with 4.7T MRI to evaluate the volume of each subfield at the anatomical level of the hippocampal head, body, and tail. Formalin-fixed coronal sections at the level of the body of 14 control cases, as well as tissue samples from 24 TLE patients, were imaged with a similar high-resolution sequence at 3T. Presurgical three-dimensional (3D) T1-weighted images from TLE went through a FreeSurfer 6.0 hippocampal subfield automatic assessment. The manual delineation with the 4.7T MRI was identified using Luxol Fast Blue stained 10-μm-thin microscopy slides, collected at every millimeter. An additional section at the level of the body from controls and TLE cases was submitted to NeuN immunohistochemistry for neuronal density estimation. All TLE cases were classified according to the International League Against Epilepsy's (ILAE's) HS classification. Manual volumetry in controls revealed that the dentate gyrus (DG)+CA4 region, CA1, and subiculum accounted for almost 90% of the hippocampal volume. The manual 3T volumetry showed that all TLE patients with type 1 HS (TLE-HS1) had lower volumes for DG+CA4, CA2, and CA1, whereas those TLE patients with HS type 2 (TLE-HS2) had lower volumes only in CA1 (p ≤ 0.038). Neuronal cell densities always decreased in CA4, CA3, CA2, and CA1 of TLE-HS1 but only in CA1 of TLE-HS2 (p ≤ 0.003). In addition, TLE-HS2 had a higher volume (p = 0.016) and higher neuronal density (p &lt; 0.001) than the TLE-HS1 in DG + CA4. Automatic segmentation failed to match the manual or histological findings and was unable to differentiate TLE-HS1 from TLE-HS2. Total hippocampal volume correlated with DG+CA4 and CA1 volumes and neuronal density. For the first time, we also identified subfield-specific pathology patterns in the manual evaluation of volumetric MRI scans, showing the importance of manual segmentation to assess subfield-specific pathology patterns

The I405V and Taq1B polymorphisms of the CETP gene differentially affect sub-clinical carotid atherosclerosis

Background: Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) plays a major role in lipid metabolism, but studies on the association of CETP polymorphisms with risks of cardiovascular disease are inconsistent. This study investigated whether the CETP gene I405V and Taq1B polymorphisms modified subclinical atherosclerosis in an asymptomatic Brazilian population sample. Methods: The polymorphisms were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction in 207 adult volunteers. Serum lipid profiles, oxLDL Ab titers, C-reactive protein and tumor necrosis factor-a concentrations and CETP and phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) activities were determined, and common carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) was measured using ultrasonography. Results: No differences in cIMT were observed between the presence or absence of the minor B2 and V alleles in either polymorphism. However, inverse correlations between mean cIMT and CETP activity in the presence of these polymorphisms were observed, and positive correlations of these polymorphisms with PLTP activity and oxLDL Ab titers were identified. Moreover, logistic multivariate analysis revealed that the presence of the B2 allele was associated with a 5.1-fold (CI 95%, OR: 1.26 - 21.06) increased risk for cIMT, which was equal and above the 66th percentile and positively interacted with age. However, no associations with the V allele or CETP and PLTP activities were observed. Conclusions: None of the studied parameters, including CETP activity, explained the different relationships between these polymorphisms and cIMT, suggesting that other non-determined factors were affected by the genotypes and related to carotid atherosclerotic disease.The authors thank “Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São\ud Paulo- FAPESP” (grant number 2006/60585-9) and “Coordenação de\ud Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior- CAPES” for the financial\ud support; Mirian Danelon, from the Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, and\ud Aparecida Sousa from the Lipids Laboratory/Núcleo de Medicina e Cirurgia\ud Experimental of the School of Medical Sciences (FCM)/Unicamp for the\ud technical support; Helymar Machado from FCM´s Research Chamber for the\ud statistical analysis

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file

Forward-central two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles in the forward pseudorapidity range (2.5 2GeV/c. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B. V.Peer reviewe

Event-shape engineering for inclusive spectra and elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV

Peer reviewe