Comparison of posttraumatic distress related to seasonal natural disasters in exposed and non-exposed children

Scope and Method of Study: This study was designed to assess and follow the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder symptomology in children exposed to a tornado and compare that to the same symptomology in demographically similar children who had not been exposed to a tornado. This was done to examine the differences between these groups, both of whom live in a disaster-prevalent area, inside and outside of tornado season. The study also examined the roles that re-exposure to environmental cues, exposure to disaster-related media, attributions, and other factors play in maintaining a child's level of distress, as well as the children's general behavioral and emotional functioning. Participants in the study were 95 exposed children and 70 non-exposed children ages 8-12. The exposed children had at least one tornado strike their hometown in late May or early June 2004, while the non-exposed children's hometown had not had a tornado within 10 miles of it in the past five years. Each participant and their parent completed a series of questionnaires designed to measure the above variables in November 2004 (6 months post tornado and outside tornado season) and May 2005 (12 months post tornado and inside tornado season).Findings and Conclusions: The current study supported the proposed stability of posttraumatic distress symptoms in tornado-exposed children, showing no decrease from six to 12 months post tornado. Also supported was the difference in posttraumatic distress symptom level between exposed and non-exposed children, with non-exposed children displaying significantly lower amounts of tornado-related PTSD symptoms both outside and inside tornado season than exposed children. The degree of difference between these two groups, while statistically significant, was not as large as expected, as the non-exposed children did show mild levels of posttraumatic distress. In contrast to expectations, results showed that tornado-specific distress was not related to more global behavioral or emotional functioning. The current study also supported the relationship between the factors of exposure, attributions, and distress

The Drosophila genome nexus: a population genomic resource of 623 Drosophila melanogaster genomes, including 197 from a single ancestral range population.

Hundreds of wild-derived Drosophila melanogaster genomes have been published, but rigorous comparisons across data sets are precluded by differences in alignment methodology. The most common approach to reference-based genome assembly is a single round of alignment followed by quality filtering and variant detection. We evaluated variations and extensions of this approach and settled on an assembly strategy that utilizes two alignment programs and incorporates both substitutions and short indels to construct an updated reference for a second round of mapping prior to final variant detection. Utilizing this approach, we reassembled published D. melanogaster population genomic data sets and added unpublished genomes from several sub-Saharan populations. Most notably, we present aligned data from phase 3 of the Drosophila Population Genomics Project (DPGP3), which provides 197 genomes from a single ancestral range population of D. melanogaster (from Zambia). The large sample size, high genetic diversity, and potentially simpler demographic history of the DPGP3 sample will make this a highly valuable resource for fundamental population genetic research. The complete set of assemblies described here, termed the Drosophila Genome Nexus, presently comprises 623 consistently aligned genomes and is publicly available in multiple formats with supporting documentation and bioinformatic tools. This resource will greatly facilitate population genomic analysis in this model species by reducing the methodological differences between data sets

Phase groups and the origin of non-locality for qubits

We describe a general framework in which we can precisely compare the structures of quantum-like theories which may initially be formulated in quite different mathematical terms. We then use this framework to compare two theories: quantum mechanics restricted to qubit stabiliser states and operations, and Spekkens's toy theory. We discover that viewed within our framework these theories are very similar, but differ in one key aspect - a four element group we term the phase group which emerges naturally within our framework. In the case of the stabiliser theory this group is Z4 while for Spekkens's toy theory the group is Z2 x Z2. We further show that the structure of this group is intimately involved in a key physical difference between the theories: whether or not they can be modelled by a local hidden variable theory. This is done by establishing a connection between the phase group, and an abstract notion of GHZ state correlations. We go on to formulate precisely how the stabiliser theory and toy theory are `similar' by defining a notion of `mutually unbiased qubit theory', noting that all such theories have four element phase groups. Since Z4 and Z2 x Z2 are the only such groups we conclude that the GHZ correlations in this type of theory can only take two forms, exactly those appearing in the stabiliser theory and in Spekkens's toy theory. The results point at a classification of local/non-local behaviours by finite Abelian groups, extending beyond qubits to finitary theories whose observables are all mutually unbiased.Comment: 24 pages, many picture

Use of Single Board Computers as Smart Sensors in the Manufacturing Industry

The continuously growing presence of cyber-physical systems in the industry, especially in the field of processes automation and control, represents the paradigm of the so called fourth industrial revolution, in which the systems are smarter, faster and more optimized by means of artificial intelligence, control systems and sensors networks. The presence of ICT and automation systems guarantees energy and other resources efficiency along the whole value chain of industrial processes. Especially important is the case of the smart sensors, in which a conventional sensor is equipped with interfacing methodologies for signal processing and decision making. In this article the capabilities of using a single board computer as a smart sensor are explored.Postprint (published version

Can sexual selection drive female life histories? A comparative study on Galliform birds

Sexual selection is an important driver of many of the most spectacular morphological traits that we find in the animal kingdom (for example see Andersson, 1994). As such, sexual selection is most often emphasized as

Three qubit entanglement within graphical Z/X-calculus

The compositional techniques of categorical quantum mechanics are applied to analyse 3-qubit quantum entanglement. In particular the graphical calculus of complementary observables and corresponding phases due to Duncan and one of the authors is used to construct representative members of the two genuinely tripartite SLOCC classes of 3-qubit entangled states, GHZ and W. This nicely illustrates the respectively pairwise and global tripartite entanglement found in the W- and GHZ-class states. A new concept of supplementarity allows us to characterise inhabitants of the W class within the abstract diagrammatic calculus; these method extends to more general multipartite qubit states.Comment: In Proceedings HPC 2010, arXiv:1103.226

Depleted uranium is not toxic to rat brain endothelial (RBE4) cells

Abstract: Studies on Gulf War veterans with depleted uranium (DU) fragments embedded in their soft tissues have led to suggestions of possible DU-induced neurotoxicity. We investigated DU uptake into cultured rat brain endothelial cells (RBE4). Following the determination that DU readily enters RBE4 cells, cytotoxic effects were analyzed using assays for cell volume increase, heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) expression, 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) reduction, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity. The results of these studies show that uptake of the U 3 O 8 uranyl chloride form of DU into RBE4 cells is efficient, but there are little or no resulting cytotoxic effects on these cells as detected by common biomarkers. Thus, the present experimental paradigm is rather reassuring and provides no indication for overt cytotoxicity in endothelial cells exposed to DU. Index Entries: Depleted uranium (DU); heavey metal toxicity; blood-brain barrier; endothelium. Article: INTRODUCTION Depleted uranium (DU) is a component of military munitions and is therefore the subject of important toxicity studies. Specifically, the possibility of DU neurotoxicity is under investigation. DU is a dense heavy metal used without reserve in many military applications. Chemically similar to natural uranium, but depleted of much of the radioactivity of the 235 U and 234 U isotopes, DU is a low-specific-activity metal that has several advantages for use as weapons material. Neurotoxicity could potentially arise from the chemical or radioactive properties of DU, and the level of neurotoxicity is as yet undetermined (1-3). Gulf War veterans with DU fragments embedded in their soft tissues were studied and the results suggested that there might be DU-associated effects on behavior and cognition (1-4). Rats embedded with DU fragments accumulated uranium in a range of tissues, with early levels highest in the kidney and a gradual increase in bone accumulation. Brain tissues were found to have far lower levels, with the hippocampus showing high levels among the brain regions following physiologically relevant exposures and cerebellum accumulating the highest levels upon extremely high exposure levels For a blood-borne contaminant to cause neurotoxicity, it must first cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This barrier protects the central nervous system (CNS) from toxicants in the blood, and its ability to protect against metal neurotoxicity was reviewed by Zheng et al. (7). The capillaries of the brain are lined with endothelial cells acting as the first line of defense in the BBB. The high degree of tightness of the junctions that link the endothelial cells virtually prevents any paracellular passage from occurring in physiological conditions. In addition, several transport proteins can increase the brain-to-blood efflux of various compounds (e.g., Pglycoproteins or multidrug resistance proteins [MDR] of the ATP-binding cassette [ABC]) (7). The molecula

The GHZ/W-calculus contains rational arithmetic

Graphical calculi for representing interacting quantum systems serve a number of purposes: compositionally, intuitive graphical reasoning, and a logical underpinning for automation. The power of these calculi stems from the fact that they embody generalized symmetries of the structure of quantum operations, which, for example, stretch well beyond the Choi-Jamiolkowski isomorphism. One such calculus takes the GHZ and W states as its basic generators. Here we show that this language allows one to encode standard rational calculus, with the GHZ state as multiplication, the W state as addition, the Pauli X gate as multiplicative inversion, and the Pauli Z gate as additive inversion.Comment: In Proceedings HPC 2010, arXiv:1103.226

The Serre spectral sequence of a noncommutative fibration for de Rham cohomology

For differential calculi on noncommutative algebras, we construct a twisted de Rham cohomology using flat connections on modules. This has properties similar, in some respects, to sheaf cohomology on topological spaces. We also discuss generalised mapping properties of these theories, and relations of these properties to corings. Using this, we give conditions for the Serre spectral sequence to hold for a noncommutative fibration. This might be better read as giving the definition of a fibration in noncommutative differential geometry. We also study the multiplicative structure of such spectral sequences. Finally we show that some noncommutative homogeneous spaces satisfy the conditions to be such a fibration, and in the process clarify the differential structure on these homogeneous spaces. We also give two explicit examples of differential fibrations: these are built on the quantum Hopf fibration with two different differential structures.Comment: LaTeX, 33 page