2,219 research outputs found
The mental health experiences and needs of methamphetamine users in Cape Town: A mixed-methods study
Background. South Africa (SA) has a burgeoning problem of methamphetamine use, particularly in the Western Cape Province. Although methamphetamine has been associated with elevated psychological distress, there has been little examination of the mental health needs of out-of-treatment methamphetamine users in SA.Objective. To describe the mental health experiences and needs of out-of-treatment methamphetamine users in Cape Town.Methods. Active methamphetamine users were recruited using respondent-driven sampling techniques. Eligible participants (N=360) completed a computer-assisted assessment and clinical interview, where they provided data on mental health symptoms and treatmentseeking behaviour. A subset of 30 participants completed qualitative in-depth interviews in which they provided narrative accounts of their mental health experiences and needs. Analysis of the mixed-methods data was conducted using a concurrent triangulation strategy whereby both methods contributed equally to the analysis and were used for cross-validation.Results. About half of the participants met screening criteria for depression and traumatic stress, and there were some indications of paranoia. Using substances to cope with psychological distress was common, with participants talking about using methamphetamine to numb their feelings or forget stressful memories. One-third of women and 13% of men had previously tried to commit suicide. Despite the huge mental health burden in this population, very few had ever received mental health treatment.Conclusion. The data indicate a need for integrated care that addresses both substance use and psychiatric needs in this population. Mental health and drug treatment services targeting methamphetamine users should include a concerted focus on suicide prevention
Black Holes in Quasi-topological Gravity
We construct a new gravitational action which includes cubic curvature
interactions and which provides a useful toy model for the holographic study of
a three parameter family of four- and higher-dimensional CFT's. We also
investigate the black hole solutions of this new gravity theory. Further we
examine the equations of motion of quasi-topological gravity. While the full
equations in a general background are fourth-order in derivatives, we show that
the linearized equations describing gravitons propagating in the AdS vacua
match precisely the second-order equations of Einstein gravity.Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures; two references adde
Holographic Lovelock Gravities and Black Holes
We study holographic implications of Lovelock gravities in AdS spacetimes.
For a generic Lovelock gravity in arbitrary spacetime dimensions we formulate
the existence condition for asymptotically AdS black holes. We consider small
fluctuations around these black holes and determine the constraint on Lovelock
parameters by demanding causality of the boundary theory. For the case of cubic
Lovelock gravity in seven spacetime dimensions we compute the holographic Weyl
anomaly and determine the three point functions of the stress energy tensor in
the boundary CFT. Remarkably, these correlators happen to satisfy the same
relation as the one imposed by supersymmetry. We then compute the energy flux;
requiring it to be positive is shown to be completely equivalent to requiring
causality of the finite temperature CFT dual to the black hole. These
constraints are not stringent enough to place any positive lower bound on the
value of viscosity. Finally, we conjecture an expression for the energy flux
valid for any Lovelock theory in arbitrary dimensions.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure, harvmac, references added, calculation of
viscosity/entropy ratio include
Lovelock theories, holography and the fate of the viscosity bound
We consider Lovelock theories of gravity in the context of AdS/CFT. We show
that, for these theories, causality violation on a black hole background can
occur well in the interior of the geometry, thus posing more stringent
constraints than were previously found in the literature. Also, we find that
instabilities of the geometry can appear for certain parameter values at any
point in the geometry, as well in the bulk as close to the horizon. These new
sources of causality violation and instability should be related to CFT
features that do not depend on the UV behavior. They solve a puzzle found
previously concerning unphysical negative values for the shear viscosity that
are not ruled out solely by causality restrictions. We find that, contrary to
previous expectations, causality violation is not always related to positivity
of energy. Furthermore, we compute the bound for the shear viscosity to entropy
density ratio of supersymmetric conformal field theories from d=4 till d=10 -
i.e., up to quartic Lovelock theory -, and find that it behaves smoothly as a
function of d. We propose an approximate formula that nicely fits these values
and has a nice asymptotic behavior when d goes to infinity for any Lovelock
gravity. We discuss in some detail the latter limit. We finally argue that it
is possible to obtain increasingly lower values for the shear viscosity to
entropy density ratio by the inclusion of more Lovelock terms.Comment: 42 pages, 17 figures, JHEP3.cls. v2: reference adde
New Kadampa Buddhists and Jungian psychological type
Building on previous studies on Canadian Anglicans and Catholics, this study examines and discusses the psychological type profile of 31 adherents to New Kadampa Buddhism. Like Anglicans and Catholics, Buddhists preferred introversion (I). Like Anglicans who preferred intuition (N) and unlike Catholics who preferred sensing (S), Buddhists displayed a preference for intuition (N). Unlike Anglicans and Catholics who both preferred feeling (F), Buddhists displayed a balance between feeling (F) and thinking (T). Like Anglicans and unlike Catholics, Buddhists preferred the Apollonian temperament (NF) over the Epimethean temperament (SJ). These data are discussed to interpret the psychological appeal of New Kadampa Buddhism
Pathologies in Asymptotically Lifshitz Spacetimes
There has been significant interest in the last several years in studying
possible gravitational duals, known as Lifshitz spacetimes, to anisotropically
scaling field theories by adding matter to distort the asymptotics of an AdS
spacetime. We point out that putative ground state for the most heavily studied
example of such a spacetime, that with a flat spatial section, suffers from a
naked singularity and further point out this singularity is not resolvable by
any known stringy effect. We review the reasons one might worry that
asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes are unstable and employ the initial data
problem to study the stability of such systems. Rather surprisingly this
question, and even the initial value problem itself, for these spacetimes turns
out to generically not be well-posed. A generic normalizable state will evolve
in such a way to violate Lifshitz asymptotics in finite time. Conversely,
enforcing the desired asymptotics at all times puts strong restrictions not
just on the metric and fields in the asymptotic region but in the deep interior
as well. Generically, even perturbations of the matter field of compact support
are not compatible with the desired asymptotics.Comment: 36 pages, 1 figure, v2: Enhanced discussion of singularity, including
relationship to Gubser's conjecture and singularity in RG flow solution, plus
minor clarification
Causality in AdS/CFT and Lovelock theory
We explore the constraints imposed on higher curvature corrections of the
Lovelock type due to causality restrictions in the boundary of asymptotically
AdS space-time. In the framework of AdS/CFT, this is related to positivity of
the energy constraints that arise in conformal collider physics. We present
explicit analytic results that fully address these issues for cubic Lovelock
gravity in arbitrary dimensions and give the formal analytic results that
comprehend general Lovelock theory. The computations can be performed in two
ways, both by considering a thermal setup in a black hole background and by
studying the scattering of gravitons with a shock wave in AdS. We show that
both computations coincide in Lovelock theory. The different helicities, as
expected, provide the boundaries defining the region of allowed couplings. We
generalize these results to arbitrary higher dimensions and discuss their
consequences on the shear viscosity to energy density ratio of CFT plasmas, the
possible existence of Boulware-Deser instabilities in Lovelock theory and the
extent to which the AdS/CFT correspondence might be valid for arbitrary
dimensions.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures; v2: minor amendments and clarifications
include
Sprint interval and sprint continuous training increases circulating CD34+ cells and cardio-respiratory fitness in young healthy women
The improvement of vascular health in the exercising limb can be attained by sprint interval training (SIT).
However, the effects on systemic vascular function and on circulating angiogenic cells (CACs) which may contribute to endothelial repair have not been investigated. Additionally, a comparison between SIT and sprint continuous training (SCT) which is less time committing has not been made
SeqAn An efficient, generic C++ library for sequence analysis
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The use of novel algorithmic techniques is pivotal to many important problems in life science. For example the sequencing of the human genome <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr></abbrgrp> would not have been possible without advanced assembly algorithms. However, owing to the high speed of technological progress and the urgent need for bioinformatics tools, there is a widening gap between state-of-the-art algorithmic techniques and the actual algorithmic components of tools that are in widespread use.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To remedy this trend we propose the use of SeqAn, a library of efficient data types and algorithms for sequence analysis in computational biology. SeqAn comprises implementations of existing, practical state-of-the-art algorithmic components to provide a sound basis for algorithm testing and development. In this paper we describe the design and content of SeqAn and demonstrate its use by giving two examples. In the first example we show an application of SeqAn as an experimental platform by comparing different exact string matching algorithms. The second example is a simple version of the well-known MUMmer tool rewritten in SeqAn. Results indicate that our implementation is very efficient and versatile to use.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We anticipate that SeqAn greatly simplifies the rapid development of new bioinformatics tools by providing a collection of readily usable, well-designed algorithmic components which are fundamental for the field of sequence analysis. This leverages not only the implementation of new algorithms, but also enables a sound analysis and comparison of existing algorithms.</p
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