972 research outputs found
The effects of paranoia and dopamine on perception of cohesion and conspiracy: a pre-registered, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment
Paranoia is a common symptom of psychotic disorders but is also present on a spectrum of severity in the general population. Although paranoia is associated with an increased tendency to perceive cohesion and conspiracy within groups, the mechanistic basis of this variation remains unclear. One potential avenue involves the brain’s dopaminergic system, which is known to be altered in psychosis. In this study, we used large-N online samples to establish the association between trait paranoia and perceptions of cohesion and conspiracy. We further evaluated the role of dopamine on perceptions of cohesion and conspiracy using a double-blind, placebo-controlled laboratory experiment where participants received levodopa or a placebo control. Our results were mixed: group perceptions and perceptions of cohesion were higher among more paranoid individuals but were not altered under dopamine administration. We outline the potential reasons for these discrepancies and the broader implications for understanding paranoia in terms of dopamine dysregulation
Publisher Correction: Liquid phase blending of metal-organic frameworks
The original version of this Article contained an error in Figure 1b, where the blue ‘(ZIF-4-Zn)0.5 (ZIF-62)0.5 blend’ data curve was omitted from the enthalpy response plot. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article
Pseudogap temperature as a Widom line in doped Mott insulators
The pseudogap refers to an enigmatic state of matter with unusual physical
properties found below a characteristic temperature in hole-doped
high-temperature superconductors. Determining is critical for
understanding this state. Here we study the simplest model of correlated
electron systems, the Hubbard model, with cluster dynamical mean-field theory
to find out whether the pseudogap can occur solely because of strong coupling
physics and short nonlocal correlations. We find that the pseudogap
characteristic temperature is a sharp crossover between different
dynamical regimes along a line of thermodynamic anomalies that appears above a
first-order phase transition, the Widom line. The Widom line emanating from the
critical endpoint of a first-order transition is thus the organizing principle
for the pseudogap phase diagram of the cuprates. No additional broken symmetry
is necessary to explain the phenomenon. Broken symmetry states appear in the
pseudogap and not the other way around.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures and supplementary information; published versio
Glass groups, glass supply and recycling in late Roman Carthage
Carthage played an important role in maritime exchange networks during the Roman and late antique periods. One hundred ten glass fragments dating to the third to sixth centuries CE from a secondary deposit at the Yasmina Necropolis in Carthage have been analysed by electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) to characterise the supply of glass to the city. Detailed bivariate and multivariate data analysis identified different primary glass groups and revealed evidence of extensive recycling. Roman mixed antimony and manganese glasses with MnO contents in excess of 250 ppm were clearly the product of recycling, while iron, potassium and phosphorus oxides were frequent contaminants. Primary glass sources were discriminated using TiO2 as a proxy for heavy minerals (ilmenite/spinel), Al2O3 for feldspar and SiO2 for quartz in the glassmaking sands. It was thus possible to draw conclusions about the chronological and geographical attributions of the primary glass types. Throughout much of the period covered in this study, glassworkers in Carthage utilised glass from both Egyptian and Levantine sources. Based on their geochemical characteristics, we conclude that Roman antimony and Roman manganese glasses originated from Egypt and the Levant, respectively, and were more or less simultaneously worked at Carthage in the fourth century as attested by their mixed recycling (Roman Sb-Mn). In the later fourth and early fifth centuries, glasses from Egypt (HIMT) and the Levant (two Levantine I groups) continued to be imported to Carthage, although the Egyptian HIMT is less well represented at Yasmina than in many other late antique glass assemblages. In contrast, in the later fifth and sixth centuries, glass seems to have been almost exclusively sourced from Egypt in the form of a manganese-decolourised glass originally described and characterised by Foy and colleagues (2003). Hence, the Yasmina assemblage testifies to significant fluctuations in the supply of glass to Carthage that require further attention
The pseudogap: friend or foe of high Tc?
Although nineteen years have passed since the discovery of high temperature
superconductivity, there is still no consensus on its physical origin. This is
in large part because of a lack of understanding of the state of matter out of
which the superconductivity arises. In optimally and underdoped materials, this
state exhibits a pseudogap at temperatures large compared to the
superconducting transition temperature. Although discovered only three years
after the pioneering work of Bednorz and Muller, the physical origin of this
pseudogap behavior and whether it constitutes a distinct phase of matter is
still shrouded in mystery. In the summer of 2004, a band of physicists gathered
for five weeks at the Aspen Center for Physics to discuss the pseudogap. In
this perspective, we would like to summarize some of the results presented
there and discuss its importance in the context of strongly correlated electron
systems.Comment: expanded version, 20 pages, 11 figures, to be published, Advances in
Physic
Switching of magnetic domains reveals evidence for spatially inhomogeneous superconductivity
The interplay of magnetic and charge fluctuations can lead to quantum phases
with exceptional electronic properties. A case in point is magnetically-driven
superconductivity, where magnetic correlations fundamentally affect the
underlying symmetry and generate new physical properties. The superconducting
wave-function in most known magnetic superconductors does not break
translational symmetry. However, it has been predicted that modulated triplet
p-wave superconductivity occurs in singlet d-wave superconductors with
spin-density wave (SDW) order. Here we report evidence for the presence of a
spatially inhomogeneous p-wave Cooper pair-density wave (PDW) in CeCoIn5. We
show that the SDW domains can be switched completely by a tiny change of the
magnetic field direction, which is naturally explained by the presence of
triplet superconductivity. Further, the Q-phase emerges in a common
magneto-superconducting quantum critical point. The Q-phase of CeCoIn5 thus
represents an example where spatially modulated superconductivity is associated
with SDW order
Time to tweak the TTO: results from a comparison of alternative specifications of the TTO
Abstract This article examines the effect that different
specifications of the time trade-off (TTO) valuation task
may have on values for EQ-5D-5L health states. The new
variants of the TTO, namely lead-time TTO and lag-time
TTO, along with the classic approach to TTO were compared
using two durations for the health states (15 and
20 years). The study tested whether these methods yield
comparable health-state values. TTO tasks were administered
online. It was found that lag-time TTO produced
lower values than lead-time TTO and that the difference
was larger in the longer time frame. Classic TTO values
most resembled those of the lag-time TTO in a 20-year
time frame in terms of mean absolute difference. The relative
importance of different domains of health was systematically
affected by the duration of the health state. In
the tasks with a 10-year health-state duration, anxiety/
depression had the largest negative impact on health-state
values; in the tasks with a 5-year duration, the pain/discomfort
domain had the largest negative impact
Secondary contact and admixture between independently invading populations of the Western corn rootworm, diabrotica virgifera virgifera in Europe
The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is one of the most destructive pests of corn in North America and is currently invading Europe. The two major invasive outbreaks of rootworm in Europe have occurred, in North-West Italy and in Central and South-Eastern Europe. These two outbreaks originated from independent introductions from North America. Secondary contact probably occurred in North Italy between these two outbreaks, in 2008. We used 13 microsatellite markers to conduct a population genetics study, to demonstrate that this geographic contact resulted in a zone of admixture in the Italian region of Veneto. We show that i) genetic variation is greater in the contact zone than in the parental outbreaks; ii) several signs of admixture were detected in some Venetian samples, in a Bayesian analysis of the population structure and in an approximate Bayesian computation analysis of historical scenarios and, finally, iii) allelic frequency clines were observed at microsatellite loci. The contact between the invasive outbreaks in North-West Italy and Central and South-Eastern Europe resulted in a zone of admixture, with particular characteristics. The evolutionary implications of the existence of a zone of admixture in Northern Italy and their possible impact on the invasion success of the western corn rootworm are discussed
Garden and landscape-scale correlates of moths of differing conservation status: significant effects of urbanization and habitat diversity
Moths are abundant and ubiquitous in vegetated terrestrial environments and are pollinators, important herbivores of wild plants, and food for birds, bats and rodents. In recent years, many once abundant and widespread species have shown sharp declines that have been cited by some as indicative of a widespread insect biodiversity crisis. Likely causes of these declines include agricultural intensification, light pollution, climate change, and urbanization; however, the real underlying cause(s) is still open to conjecture. We used data collected from the citizen science Garden Moth Scheme (GMS) to explore the spatial association between the abundance of 195 widespread British species of moth, and garden habitat and landscape features, to see if spatial habitat and landscape associations varied for species of differing conservation status. We found that associations with habitat and landscape composition were species-specific, but that there were consistent trends in species richness and total moth abundance. Gardens with more diverse and extensive microhabitats were associated with higher species richness and moth abundance; gardens near to the coast were associated with higher richness and moth abundance; and gardens in more urbanized locations were associated with lower species richness and moth abundance. The same trends were also found for species classified as increasing, declining and vulnerable under IUCN (World Conservation Union) criteria
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