Developing hypnotic analogues of clinical delusions : Mirrored-self misidentification

Introduction. Despite current research interest in delusional beliefs, there are no viable models for studying delusions in the laboratory. However, hypnosis offers a technique for creating transient delusions that are resistant to challenge. The aim of this study was to develop an hypnotic analogue of one important delusion, mirrored-self misidentification. Methods. Twelve high hypnotisable participants received an hypnotic suggestion to see either a stranger in the mirror, a mirror as a window, or a mirror as a window with a view to a stranger. Participants' deluded beliefs were challenged, and following hypnosis, Sheehan and McConkey's (1982) Experiential Analysis Technique was used to explore participants' phenomenological experience of the delusion. Results. The majority of participants did not recognise their reflection in the mirror, described the person in the mirror as having different physical characteristics to themselves, and maintained their delusion when challenged. Conclusions. The hypnotic suggestion created a credible, compelling delusion with features strikingly similar to clinical cases of mirrored-self misidentification. Our findings suggest that Factor 2 within Langdon and Coltheart's (2000) two-factor framework may involve a lowering of the criteria used to accept or reject delusional hypotheses.PostprintPeer reviewe

Automatic visual-spatial perspective taking in alcohol-dependence: A study with happy emotional faces

Background: Understanding the world from another’s perspective is an important and potentially automatic human process which is crucial for efficient social interactions. However, whilst deficits have been repeatedly described for various interpersonal abilities in alcohol-dependence (AD), only one previous study has investigated perspective taking in this pathology. Aim: The aim of the current study was to explore further how AD affects visual-spatial perspective taking (VSPT) by examining the effect of positive emotional stimuli on VSPT in both an AD and non-AD sample. Methods: Reaction times (RT) for simple spatial judgements were measured. Participants made these judgements from their own perspective, but judgements were either congruent or incongruent with the perspective of another agent. The emotion conveyed by that agent (happy or neutral) was manipulated across trials. Results: Compared to baseline, both AD and non-AD groups displayed delayed RTs for spatial judgements when these were incongruent with the perspective of a happy agent (the expected VSPT RT cost, indicating automatic VSPT). The AD, but not the non-AD group, further displayed a VSPT RT cost when the agent expressed a neutral emotion. Conclusion: There was no evidence that automatic VSPT was compromised by AD. However, as in previous research, AD was associated with differences in the processing of emotional stimuli. Future research should explore which ‘real-world’ settings are likely to trigger social confusion and misunderstanding

Depression, Nutrition, and Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy in Men Who Have Sex With Men in Manila, Philippines

Introduction: Depression is the most frequently observed psychiatric disorder among HIV patients. The effect of depression on adherence among men who have sex with men (MSM) HIV patients has not been well studied in the Philippines. Depression is commonly undiagnosed and consequently untreated, which leads to a negative influence on antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. Other risk factors such as HIV-related stigma, self-body image satisfaction, and nutritional status are recognized as potential barriers to access HIV prevention and treatment services issues and poor adherence.Methods: Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) was used to screen depressive symptoms during scheduled clinic visits. ART adherence was self-reported using a visual analog scale questionnaire covering the last 30 days. Structured questionnaires were used for measuring risk factors and socio-demographic data. Anthropometry was conducted and body composition was assessed using bioelectrical impedance analysis.Results: One-hundred and ninety-three participants were recruited from the SHIP clinic between 7th March and 30th September 2018, of whom, 42 (21.8%) screened positive for depression (HADS score ≥ 8) and 24 (12.4%) were non-adherent to ART (<95% of medication taken as prescribed). The most common reported reason for non-adherence was simply forgotten (18 out of 42, 42.9%). Increasing depressive symptoms were associated with non-adherence [crude odds ratio (OR) = 1.13; 95% CI: 1.02–1.26]. Social family support (SFS) and body image (BI) scores were also associated with non-adherence, but were not statistically significant in multivariable models. Factors significantly associated with depressive symptoms (but not non-adherence) included the following: using intravenous drugs, being in a relationship, anxiety, self-esteem, and stigma scores.Conclusions: Increased depression symptoms, low social family support, and body image dissatisfaction may be interconnected risk factors for ART non-adherence among Filipino MSM HIV patients. Comprehensive mental health services beyond regular post-HIV testing counseling may increase adherence to ART and improve HIV treatment outcomes. Further prospective studies are needed to address the causal/reverse causal pathway between depression and non-adherence

Essential function for PDLIM2 in cell polarization in three-dimensional cultures by feedback regulation of the β1-Integrin–RhoA signaling axis

PDLIM2 is a cytoskeletal and nuclear PDZ-LIM domain protein that regulates the stability of Nuclear Factor kappa-B (NF kappa B) and other transcription factors, and is required for polarized cell migration. PDLIM2 expression is suppressed by methylation in different cancers, but is strongly expressed in invasive breast cancer cells that have undergone an Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT). PDLIM2 is also expressed in non-transformed breast myoepithelial MCF10A cells and here we asked whether it is important for maintaining the polarized, epithelial phenotype of these cells. Suppression of PDLIM2 in MCF10A cells was sufficient to disrupt cell polarization and acini formation with increased proliferation and reduced apoptosis in the luminal space compared to control acini with hollow lumina. Spheroids with suppressed PDLIM2 exhibited increased expression of cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion proteins including beta 1 (beta 1) integrin. Interestingly, levels of the Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1 R) and Receptor of activated protein kinase C 1 (RACK1), which scaffolds IGF-1R to beta 1 integrin, were also increased, indicating a transformed phenotype. Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) and cofilin phosphorylation, and RhoA Guanosine Triphosphatase (GTPase) activity were all enhanced in these spheroids compared to control acini. Importantly, inhibition of either FAK or Rho Kinase (ROCK) was sufficient to rescue the polarity defect. We conclude that PDLIM2 expression is essential for feedback regulation of the beta 1-integrin-RhoA signalling axis and integration of cellular microenvironment signals with gene expression to control the polarity of breast epithelial acini structures. This is a mechanism by which PDLIM2 could mediate tumour suppression in breast epithelium

Hydrodynamics of Core-Collapse Supernovae at the Transition to Explosion. I. Spherical Symmetry

We study the transition to runaway expansion of an initially stalled core-collapse supernova shock. The neutrino luminosity, mass accretion rate, and neutrinospheric radius are all treated as free parameters. In spherical symmetry, this transition is mediated by a global non-adiabatic instability that develops on the advection time and reaches non-linear amplitude. Here we perform high-resolution, time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations of stalled supernova shocks with realistic microphysics to analyze this transition. We find that radial instability is a sufficient condition for runaway expansion if the neutrinospheric parameters do not vary with time and if heating by the accretion luminosity is neglected. For a given unstable mode, transition to runaway occurs when fluid in the gain region reaches positive specific energy. We find approximate instability criteria that accurately describe the behavior of the system over a wide region of parameter space. The threshold neutrino luminosities are in general different than the limiting value for a steady-state solution. We hypothesize that multidimensional explosions arise from the excitation of unstable large-scale modes of the turbulent background flow, at threshold luminosities that are lower than in the laminar case.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Added an appendix describing implementation and testing of a grid of variable spacing in FLASH3.2. Minor changes otherwis

Have Anglo-Catholics lost their vision for mission agencies? : an empirical enquiry among newly ordained clergy in Britain

Attitude toward Christian mission agencies was investigated in a sample of 827 Anglican clergy ordained in the UK from 2002 to 2006. The Scale of Attitude Toward Mission Agencies (SATMA) consisted of six items related to the work that agencies do, and whether clergy wished to engage with this work. It had a high internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.80). After controlling for theological liberalism or conservatism, attitudes were most positive among evangelicals and least positive among Anglo-Catholics. Both liberal and conservative Anglo-Catholic clergy showed less positive attitudes toward mission agencies than did other clergy

Comparing the impact of environmental factors during very high gravity brewing fermentations

The impact of the initial dissolved oxygen, fermentation temperature, wort concentration and yeast pitching rate on the major fermentation process responses were evaluated by full factorial design and statistical analysis by JMP 5.01 (SAS software) software. Fermentation trials were carried out in 2L-EBC tall tubes using an industrial lager brewing yeast strain. The yeast viability, ethanol production, apparent extract and real degree of fermentation were monitored. The results obtained demonstrate that very high gravity worts at 22°P can be fermented in the same period of time as a 15°P wort, by raising the temperature to 18°C, the oxygen level to about 22 ppm, and increasing the pitching rate to 22 × 106 cell/mL. When diluting to obtain an 11.5°P beer extract, the volumetric brewing capacity increased 91% for the 22°P wort fermentation and 30% using the 15°P wort. After dilution, the fermentation of the 22°P wort resulted in a beer with higher esters levels, primarily the compound ethyl acetate.(undefined

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids status and cognitive function in young women

© 2019 The Author(s). Background: Research indicates that low omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA) may be associated with decreased cognitive function. This study examined the association between n-3 PUFA status and cognitive function in young Australian women. Methods: This was a secondary outcome analysis of a cross-sectional study that recruited 300 healthy women (18-35 y) of normal weight (NW: BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m2) or obese weight (OB: BMI ≥30.0 kg/m2). Participants completed a computer-based cognition testing battery (IntegNeuro™) evaluating the domains of impulsivity, attention, information processing, memory and executive function. The Omega-3 Index (O3I) was used to determine n-3 PUFA status (percentage of EPA (20:5n-3) plus DHA (22:6n3) in the red cell membrane) and the participants were divided into O3I tertile groups: T1 6.75%. Potential confounding factors of BMI, inflammatory status (C-reactive Protein), physical activity (total MET-min/wk), alpha1-acid glycoprotein, serum ferritin and hemoglobin, were assessed. Data reported as z-scores (mean ± SD), analyses via ANOVA and ANCOVA. Results: Two hundred ninety-nine women (26.9 ± 5.4 y) completed the study (O3I data, n = 288). The ANOVA showed no overall group differences but a significant group × cognition domain interaction (p < 0.01). Post hoc tests showed that participants in the low O3I tertile group scored significantly lower on attention than the middle group (p = 0.01; ES = 0.45 [0.15-0.74]), while the difference with the high group was borderline significant (p = 0.052; ES = 0.38 [0.09-0.68]). After confounder adjustments, the low group had lower attention scores than both the middle (p = 0.01) and high (p = 0.048) groups. These findings were supported by univariate analyses which found significant group differences for the attention domain only (p = 0.004). Conclusions: Cognitive function in the attention domain was lower in women with lower O3I, but still within normal range. This reduced but normal level of cognition potentially provides a lower baseline from which cognition would decline with age. Further investigation of individuals with low n-3 PUFA status is warranted