Implicit measures of association in psychopathology research

Studies obtaining implicit measures of associations in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., Text Revision; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) Axis I psychopathology are organized into three categories: (a) studies comparing groups having a disorder with controls, (b) experimental validity studies, and (c) incremental and predictive validity studies. In the first category, implicit measures of disorder-relevant associations were consistent with explicit beliefs for some disorders (e.g., specific phobia), but for other disorders evidence was either mixed (e.g., panic disorder) or inconsistent with explicit beliefs (e.g., pain disorder). For substance use disorders and overeating, expected positive and unexpected negative associations with craved substances were found consistently. Contrary to expectation, implicit measures of self-esteem were consistently positive for patients with depressive disorder, social phobia, and body dysmorphic disorder. In the second category, short-term manipulations of disorder-relevant states generally affected implicit measures as expected. Therapeutic interventions affected implicit measures for one type of specific phobia, social phobia, and panic disorder, but not for alcohol use disorders or obesity. In the third category, implicit measures had predictive value for certain psychopathological behaviors, sometimes moderated by the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., for alcohol and food, only when cognitive resources were limited). The strengths of implicit measures include (a) converging evidence for dysfunctional beliefs regarding certain disorders and consistent new insights for other disorders and (b) prediction of some psychopathological behaviors that explicit measures cannot explain. Weaknesses include (a) that findings were inconsistent for some disorders, raising doubts about the validity of the measures, and (b) that understanding of the concept "implicit" is incomplete

The scientific potential of space-based gravitational wave detectors

The millihertz gravitational wave band can only be accessed with a space-based interferometer, but it is one of the richest in potential sources. Observations in this band have amazing scientific potential. The mergers between massive black holes with mass in the range 10 thousand to 10 million solar masses, which are expected to occur following the mergers of their host galaxies, produce strong millihertz gravitational radiation. Observations of these systems will trace the hierarchical assembly of structure in the Universe in a mass range that is very difficult to probe electromagnetically. Stellar mass compact objects falling into such black holes in the centres of galaxies generate detectable gravitational radiation for several years prior to the final plunge and merger with the central black hole. Measurements of these systems offer an unprecedented opportunity to probe the predictions of general relativity in the strong-field and dynamical regime. Millihertz gravitational waves are also generated by millions of ultra-compact binaries in the Milky Way, providing a new way to probe galactic stellar populations. ESA has recognised this great scientific potential by selecting The Gravitational Universe as its theme for the L3 large satellite mission, scheduled for launch in ~2034. In this article we will review the likely sources for millihertz gravitational wave detectors and describe the wide applications that observations of these sources could have for astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, contribution to Gravitational Wave Astrophysics, the proceedings of the 2014 Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics; v2 includes one additional referenc

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Models of peer support to remediate post-intensive care syndrome: A report developed by the SCCM Thrive International Peer Support Collaborative

Objective: Patients and caregivers can experience a range of physical, psychological, and cognitive problems following critical care discharge. The use of peer support has been proposed as an innovative support mechanism. Design: We sought to identify technical, safety and procedural aspects of existing operational models of peer support, among the Society of Critical Care Medicine Thrive Peer Support Collaborative. We also sought to categorize key distinctions between these models and elucidate barriers and facilitators to implementation. Subjects: 17 Thrive sites from the USA, UK, and Australia were represented by a range of healthcare professionals. Interventions: Via an iterative process of in-person and email/conference calls, members of the Collaborative, defined the key areas on which peer support models could be defined and compared; collected detailed self-reports from all sites; reviewed the information and identified clusters of models. Barriers and challenges to implementation of peer support models were also documented. Results: Within the Thrive Collaborative, six general models of peer support were identified: Community based, Psychologist-led outpatient, Models based within ICU follow-up clinics, Online, Groups based within ICU and Peer mentor models. The most common barriers to implementation were: recruitment to groups, personnel input and training: sustainability and funding, risk management and measuring success. Conclusion: A number of different models of peer support are currently being developed to help patients and families recover and grow in the post-critical care setting

Interaction of convective organisation with monsoon precipitation, atmosphere, surface and sea: the 2016 INCOMPASS field campaign in India

The INCOMPASS field campaign combines airborne and ground measurements of the 2016 Indian monsoon, towards the ultimate goal of better predicting monsoon rainfall. The monsoon supplies the majority of water in South Asia, but forecasting from days to the season ahead is limited by large, rapidly developing errors in model parametrizations. The lack of detailed observations prevents thorough understanding of the monsoon circulation and its interaction with the land surface: a process governed by boundary‐layer and convective‐cloud dynamics. INCOMPASS used the UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe‐146 aircraft for the first project of this scale in India, to accrue almost 100 h of observations in June and July 2016. Flights from Lucknow in the northern plains sampled the dramatic contrast in surface and boundary‐layer structures between dry desert air in the west and the humid environment over the northern Bay of Bengal. These flights were repeated in pre‐monsoon and monsoon conditions. Flights from a second base at Bengaluru in southern India measured atmospheric contrasts from the Arabian Sea, over the Western Ghats mountains, to the rain shadow of southeast India and the south Bay of Bengal. Flight planning was aided by forecasts from bespoke 4 km convection‐permitting limited‐area models at the Met Office and India's NCMRWF. On the ground, INCOMPASS installed eddy‐covariance flux towers on a range of surface types, to provide detailed measurements of surface fluxes and their modulation by diurnal and seasonal cycles. These data will be used to better quantify the impacts of the atmosphere on the land surface, and vice versa. INCOMPASS also installed ground instrumentation supersites at Kanpur and Bhubaneswar. Here we motivate and describe the INCOMPASS field campaign. We use examples from two flights to illustrate contrasts in atmospheric structure, in particular the retreating mid‐level dry intrusion during the monsoon onset

Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age: Secondary Distance Indicators

The formal division of the distance indicators into primary and secondary leads to difficulties in description of methods which can actually be used in two ways: with, and without the support of the other methods for scaling. Thus instead of concentrating on the scaling requirement we concentrate on all methods of distance determination to extragalactic sources which are designated, at least formally, to use for individual sources. Among those, the Supernovae Ia is clearly the leader due to its enormous success in determination of the expansion rate of the Universe. However, new methods are rapidly developing, and there is also a progress in more traditional methods. We give a general overview of the methods but we mostly concentrate on the most recent developments in each field, and future expectations. © 2018, The Author(s)

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Contribution of plasma cells and B cells to hidradenitis suppurativa pathogenesis

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a debilitating chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by chronic abscess formation and development of multiple draining sinus tracts in the groin, axillae, and perineum. Using proteomic and transcriptomic approaches, we characterized the inflammatory responses in HS in depth, revealing immune responses centered on IFN-γ, IL-36, and TNF, with lesser contribution from IL-17A. We further identified B cells and plasma cells, with associated increases in immunoglobulin production and complement activation, as pivotal players in HS pathogenesis, with Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) and spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) pathway activation as a central signal transduction network in HS. These data provide preclinical evidence to accelerate the path toward clinical trials targeting BTK and SYK signaling in moderate-to-severe HS