The interface between chronic fatigue syndrome and depression:A psychobiological and neurophysiological conundrum

The chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) remains a contentious and controversial presentation despite decades of systematic research from a variety of medical specialties and associated disciplines. Variously championed as a condition of immunological, neurological, neurophysiological, psychiatric or psychological origin, consensus on a cogent and evidenced-based pathway has yet to be achieved. Irrespective of the ambiguity regarding aetiology, what is incontrovertible is the experience of significant depression, which often accompanies this most distressing clinical presentation. The current paper examines the potential underlying mechanisms, which may determine and explain this relationship between CFS and depression. In doing so, it offers some insights, which may be of value in the development of evidence-based and scientifically-anchored interventions in individuals experiencing this diagnosis, to improve outcomes in relation to depression specifically and quality of life more generally

Commentary on Phillipou et al., Anorexia Nervosa: Eating Disorder or Body Image Disorder?

Phillipou et al. (2018) assert that anorexia nervosa (AN) should be thought of as a body image disorder (BID), and not as it is currently categorized as an eating disorder (ED, American Psychiatric Association, 2013). They propose that the change in description may serve as a more valuable and accurate portrayal of the illness, and suggest that conceptualizing AN as an ED is too simplistic and thus misleading. Phillipou et al. (2018) examine the view that AN is somehow different from other eating disorders such as pica, rumination disorder, avoidance/restricted food intake disorder, binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa, because at its core AN is fundamentally an illness of ‘body image’. A parallel objective of Phillipou et al. (2018) is to alter the general public’s perception of AN, from one in which the public believe the AN patient is principally driven by disordered eating behaviour in order to reduce body fat, to one in which the patients’ overriding stimulus is actually body image

Upper critical field divergence induced by mesoscopic phase separation in the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2ReO4

Due to the competition of two anion orders, (TMTSF)2ReO4, presents a phase coexistence between semiconducting and metallic (superconducting) regions (filaments or droplets) in a wide range of pressure. In this regime, the superconducting upper critical field for H parallel to both c* and b' axes present a linear part at low fields followed by a divergence above a cross-over field. This cross-over corresponds to the 3D-2D decoupling transition expected in filamentary or granular superconductors. The sharpness of the transition also demonstrates that all filaments are of similar sizes and self organize in a very ordered way. The distance between the filaments and their cross-section are estimated.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

When winners need help: Mental health in elite sport

What connects these individuals Frank Bruno, Dame Kelly Holmes, Marcus Trescothick and Clarke Carlisle? If you said are all are winners you would be correct, if you said all are elite sports individuals you would also be correct, but there is something else that connects these elitelevel athletes. They have all reported having mental health concerns either whilst performing or shortly after retiring. Boxer Frank Bruno has bipolar disorder and depression and has been admitted to psychiatric wards 3 times in the last 12 years. Dame Kelly Holmes was battling depression in the lead up to the 2004 Olympics. Marcus Trescothick was playing cricket for England when depression forced his retirement. In 2014, Clarke Carlisle attempted to take his own life by jumping in front of an oncoming lorry and was later admitted to a psychiatric unit for depression. These elite sportspeople are not alone, the list could have included Gary Speed, footballer and Manager who took his own life in November 2012 after battling with depression or Terry Newton, Rugby league player, who also sadly took his own life in 2010, after being sacked and being found to have used performance-enhancing drugs

Sunbeams from Space Mirrors Feeding Solar Farms on the Ground at Dusk and Dawn

For 40 years, the systems designers of space solar power have given their greatest attention to wireless power as microwave transmission from space to earth. The approach taken in this application is to place space satellites in lower sunsyncronous orbits for the purpose of gathering and focusing sun’s rays into a beam of reflected sunlight. The simple idea and application of this design is to extend the solar day of terrestrial solar farms, thereby increasing solar production capacity to 60 percent and reducing solar electricity costs to under 6 cents/kWh by delivering sunlight to a given location some 14 (rather than 6 or 7) hours per day. Advisors: Lewis Fraas, Prof. Don Flournoy, Kyle Perkins Reflected Sunlight from Space Journal on Vimeo

Woman's Experience of Childbirth: Qualitative Analysis from Data Derived from the 30-Item-Birth-Satisfaction-Scale

Background: The 30-Item-Birth-Satisfaction-Scale (30-item-BSS) was developed to evaluate women’s experiences ofchildbirth.Objective: To thematically analyse the qualitative responses to questions comprising the 30-item BSS questionnaire, to identify whether the qualitative responses are in anyway harmonized with experiences reported within the quantitative portion of the 30-item-BSS.Study design: The focus of our enquiry was the analysis of secondary data from (n = 115) completed 30-item-BSSquestionnaires in which respondents provided textual comments to the quantitative questions in order to draw separate qualitative analysis of birth satisfaction. Line-by-line thematic coding was conducted to classify each written comment into a theme. Themes representing birth satisfaction were subsequently analysed using constant comparative analysis to differentiate birth satisfaction classifications that range from high to low, Exceptional, Good, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory.Participants: The completed questionnaires (30-tem-BSS) from a convenience sample of postnatal women (< 10 days postpartum) who had delivered a healthy term infant.Findings: The experiences for childbirth were ultimately classified as Exceptional for 4 women, Good for 39 women, Satisfactory for 55 women, and Unsatisfactory for 17 women.Key conclusions: We found that qualitative data synchronized favorably with data from the quantitative aspect of the BSS.Implications for practice: Two versions of the BSS are available: (1) The psychometrically valid and reliable 10-item-BSS from which scores can be correlated with other validated measures, and (2) The 30-item-BSS designed to assess individual women’s experiences prior to in-depth qualitative work. Both scales are available from the second autho

Systematic nomenclature for the PLUNC/PSP/BSP30/SMGB proteins as a subfamily of the BPI fold-containing superfamily

We present the BPIFAn/BPIFBn systematic nomenclature for the PLUNC (palate lung and nasal epithelium clone)/PSP (parotid secretory protein)/BSP30 (bovine salivary protein 30)/SMGB (submandibular gland protein B) family of proteins, based on an adaptation of the SPLUNCn (short PLUNCn)/LPLUNCn (large PLUNCn) nomenclature. The nomenclature is applied to a set of 102 sequences which we believe represent the current reliable data for BPIFA/BPIFB proteins across all species, including marsupials and birds. The nomenclature will be implemented by the HGNC (HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee)