The mental health impact of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war six months after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine on the mental health of Ukrainians, focusing on war-induced trauma, disturbances in self-organization, post-traumatic stress disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, stress, and depression. Method: Data was collected from 703 participants six months after the full-scale invasion using a structured questionnaire that included sections on socio-demographic information, trauma-related issues, and mental health. Results: The study found that levels of depression and anxiety were relatively low, while stress and resilience were relatively high among Ukrainians affected by the war. However, those who were directly exposed to military actions, physical violence, or severe human suffering had higher levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma-related symptoms. The war experience varied by gender, age, and living conditions. Participants who stayed in Ukraine had significantly lower anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma-related symptoms compared to those who moved abroad. Anxiety, depression, stress, low resilience, and subjective satisfaction with living conditions were predictors of trauma-related symptoms, including PTSD and CPTSD. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the mental health of Ukrainians affected by the war was impacted differently depending on their level of exposure to violence and their living conditions. Additionally, the study identified several predictors of trauma-related symptoms, including PTSD and CPTSD, such as anxiety, depression, stress, low resilience, and subjective satisfaction with living conditions. Future research should further explore the relationships between trauma type, sociodemographic factors, resilience, stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD and CPTSD to better understand the mediation mechanisms underlying these relationships and to develop effective interventions to support the well-being of Ukrainians during this difficult time

Linear Koszul Duality

In this paper we construct, for F_1 and F_2 subbundles of a vector bundle E, a "Koszul duality" equivalence between derived categories of G_m-equivariant coherent (dg-)sheaves on the derived intersection of F_1 and F_2 inside E, and the corresponding derived intersection of the orthogonals of F_1 and F_2 inside the dual vector bundle E^*. We also propose applications to Hecke algebras.Comment: 26 pages, final version, to appear in Compositio Mathematic

Participacija građana u vanjskoj politici

Članak analizira proces donošenja odluka u vanjskoj politici. Sastoji se od dva dijela: prvi dio usmjeren je na usporedbu procesa donošenja odluka i donositelje odluka u vanjskoj politici nasuprot unutarnje politike. Zamjetno je nekoliko trendova: nestanak „javnih službenika” i leadera u korist managera, pri čemu manageri slijede javno mišljenje, dok leaderi njime upravljaju; promjene u ulozi medija masovne komunikacije u društvu gdje odnosi s javnošću zamjenjuju istraživačko novinarstvo, a populizam zamjenjuje demokraciju. Živimo u doba dekadencije i duboke intelektualne i kulturne depresije. Anti-intelektualna i anti-kulturna klima određuje epohu, usprkos enormnom razvoju tehnologije masovnih medija i novim medijima. Uloga pojedinca u donošenju vanjsko-političkih odluka je istražena, da bi se zaključilo da je uloga javnosti vrlo ograničena, ako uopće postoji. Drugi dio članka izvještava o terenskom istraživanju, provedenom na slučajnom uzorku od 793 hrvatska građana o istoj temi. Istraživanje je provedeno kao obrazovni proces na smjerovima Međunarodni odnosi i Međunarodno poslovanje sveučilišta Libertas. Istraživanje je zaključilo da se hrvatski građani ne doživljavaju kao aktivni sudionici u kreiranju vanjske politike, da imaju malo interesa u sudjelovanju u kreiranju vanjske politike te da postoji nesrazmjer u angažiranju hrvatskih građana u sudjelovanju u političkom odlučivanju u području unutarnje politike i području vanjske politike. Unutarnja politika doživljava se kao nešto za njih važno, dok se vanjska politika doživljava kao nešto nevažno i daleko. U članku se zaključuje da postoje dva kontradiktorna procesa: dok je Hrvatska povezana s Europom i svijetom u smislu formalne vanjske politike, njezini građani sve su udaljeniji od Europe i svijeta. U kontekstu zajedničkog tržišta i gospodarske migracije, zaključeno je da se hrvatski građani ne doživljavaju kao dio tog tržišta. Njihova emigracija iz Hrvatske nema karakter privremene selidbe na mjesta gdje su bolji radni uvjeti, nego stalne emigracije

On the Amortized Complexity of Zero-knowledge Protocols

We propose a general technique that allows improving the complexity of zero-knowledge protocols for a large class of problems where previously the best known solution was a simple cut-and-choose style protocol, i.e., where the size of a proof for problem instance $x$ and error probability $2^{-n}$ was $O(|x| n)$ bits. By using our technique to prove $n$ instances simultaneously, we can bring down the proof size per instance to $O(|x| + n)$ bits for the same error probability while using no computational assumptions. Examples where our technique applies include proofs for quadratic residuosity, proofs of subgroup membership and knowledge of discrete logarithms in groups of unknown order, interval proofs of the latter, and proofs of plaintext knowledge for various types of homomorphic encryption schemes. We first propose our protocols as $\Sigma$-protocols and extend them later to zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge

Gas-induced segregation in Pt-Rh alloy nanoparticles observed by in-situ Bragg coherent diffraction imaging

Bimetallic catalysts can undergo segregation or redistribution of the metals driven by oxidizing and reducing environments. Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) was used to relate displacement fields to compositional distributions in crystalline Pt-Rh alloy nanoparticles. 3D images of internal composition showed that the radial distribution of compositions reverses partially between the surface shell and the core when gas flow changes between O2 and H2. Our observation suggests that the elemental segregation of nanoparticle catalysts should be highly active during heterogeneous catalysis and can be a controlling factor in synthesis of electrocatalysts. In addition, our study exemplifies applications of BCDI for in situ 3D imaging of internal equilibrium compositions in other bimetallic alloy nanoparticles

Survey of Long-Term Experiences of Sperm Cryopreservation in Oncological and Non-Oncological Patients: Usage and Reproductive Outcomes of a Large Monocentric Cohort

Progress in oncological treatment has led to an improved long-term survival of young male cancer patients over the last decades. However, standard cancer treatments frequently implicate fertility-damaging potential. Cryopreservation of sperm is the current standard option to preserve patient's fertility after treatment, yet long-term data on usage and reproductive experiences is still limited. Natural fertility after treatment and especially in relation to the type of treatment has been poorly analyzed so far. Therefore, we performed a retrospective survey including male patients with an indication for gonadotoxic treatment who cryopreserved reproductive material at our institution between 1994 and 2017. Study questionnaires regarding treatment, material usage, and reproductive outcomes were sent to eligible patients. Additionally, semen analyses of study participants from the time of cryopreservation were evaluated. A total of 99 patients were included in the study. Respondents' median age was 38.0 years. Most frequent diagnoses were testicular cancer (29.3%) and lymphoma (26.3%). A further 8.1% suffered from autoimmune diseases. Testicular cancer patients had a significantly lower pre-treatment median sperm concentration (18.0 million/ml) compared to non-testicular cancer patients (54.2 million/ml). Until November 2020, the determined sperm usage and cumulative live-birth rate per couple were 17.2% and 58.8%, respectively. Most sperm users received treatments with high (40.0%) or intermediate (33.3%) gonadotoxic potential. 20.7% of all patients reported to had fathered at least one naturally conceived child after treatment, this being the case especially if they had been treated with less or potentially gonadotoxic therapies. In conclusion, our findings emphasize the importance of sperm cryopreservation in the context of male fertility preservation. Furthermore, they indicate that the gonadotoxic potential of patients' treatments could represent a predictive factor for sperm usage

Scalable adaptive label propagation in Grappa

Nodes of a social graph often represent entities with specific labels, denoting properties such as age-group or gender. Design of algorithms to assign labels to unlabeled nodes by leveraging node-proximity and a-priori labels of seed nodes is of significant interest. A semi-supervised approach to solve this problem is termed ``LPA-Label Propagation Algorithm'' where labels of a subset of nodes are iteratively propagated through the network to infer yet unknown node labels. While LPA for node labelling is extremely fast and simple, it works well only with an assumption of node-homophily -- connected nodes are connected because they must deserve a similar label -- which can often be a misnomer. In this paper we propose a novel algorithm ``Adaptive Label Propagation'' that dynamically adapts to the underlying characteristics of homophily, heterophily, or otherwise, of the connections of the network, and applies suitable label propagation strategies accordingly. Moreover, our adaptive label propagation approach is scalable as demonstrated by its implementation in Grappa, a distributed shared-memory system. Our experiments on social graphs from Facebook, YouTube, Live Journal, Orkut and Netlog demonstrate that our approach not only improves the labelling accuracy but also computes results for millions of users within a few seconds

Alkoxy Hydrosilanes As Surrogates of Gaseous Silanes for Hydrosilylation of Alkenes

Me2SiH2, MeSiH3, and SiH4 are gaseous and flammable silanes that are inconvenient to use in chemical reactions. Catalytic amounts of a nickel pincer complex and NaO'Bu are reported to allow the synthesis of alkyl hydrosilanes from alkenes and alkoxy hydrosilanes, leading to the replacement of Me2SiH2, MeSiH3, and SiH4 by Me-2(MeO)SiH, Me(EtO)(2)SiH, and (MeO)(3)SiH in hydrosilylation reactions of alkenes. The scope and mechanism of the reactions are also described