Seasonal Affective Disorder: SAD or Fad?

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and phototherapy have recently been the subject of a great deal of interest in the psychiatric literature. First described in 1984 (I), SAD is now defined as a cyclic illness characterized by recurrent episodes of fall/winter depression alternating with periods of spring/summer euthymia (normal mood) or hypomania (mild elation and behavioral activation) (2) . Recent findings indicate that there may be at least two additional patterns of seasonal depressions, one characterized by annual summer depressions with euthyrnic, hypomanic or manic symptoms in the winter, and the other characterized by depressive episodes occurring in both winter and summer (3-6)

Superconducting diamagnetic fluctuations in ropes of carbon nanotubes

We report low-temperature magnetisation measurements on a large number of purified ropes of single wall carbon nanotubes. In spite of a large superparamagnetic contribution due to the small ferromagnetic catalytical particles still present in the sample, at low temperature ($T < 0.5K$) and low magnetic field ($H < 80 Oe$), a diamagnetic signal is detectable. This low temperature diamagnetism can be interpreted as the Meissner effect in ropes of carbon nanotubes which have previously been shown to exhibit superconductivity from transport measurements.Comment: 10 pages 3 figure

A Brief Report: Preliminary Findings for Pathways to Resilience among Critical Incident Stress Management Responders

Previous research by Burnett, Pichot, and Bailey (2019) found support for several innate well-being and behavioral action variables that contribute to Everly’s Psychological Body Armor’s (PBA) two unique interacting human protective pathways (proactive and reactive resilience) among a non-disaster mental health response population. However, research is limited regarding the unique proactive and reactive pathway variables that contribute to resilience capacity among trained disaster mental health responders. Participants (N = 63) were novice and experienced disaster mental health responders who attended a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) training conference in Michigan that completed the same 14 measures used in the original Burnett, Pichot, and Bailey study. Similar to the Burnett, Pichot, and Bailey study, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that for the proactive pathway, self-acceptance and subjective happiness were significant unique predictors for resilience capacity, while psychological distress and perceived stress were significant unique predictors for the reactive pathway. A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) found that all but one of the cases met the observation criteria for having high resilience. However, when the dataset for this study was combined with the original study (NCombined = 265), QCA revealed that overall; having professional CISM training contributed more to strong resilience making the proactive pathway irrelevant

Empowering Frontline Trauma Responders: Keys to Resilience

CISM teams and responders play a vital role in helping those who have been affected by traumatic to successfully manage their stress reactions. It is important that individual CISM responders, along with teams, take time to incorporate an active resilience-based approach which makes use of well-being traits

Molecular evidence for the natural production of homozygous Cupressus sempervirens L. lines by Cupressus dupreziana seed trees

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Pressure dependence of Raman modes in double wall carbon nanotubes filled with α-Fe.

The preparation of highly anisotropic one-dimensional (1D) structures confined into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in general is a key objective in CNTs research. In this work, the capillary effect was used to fill double wall carbon nanotubes with iron. The samples are characterized by Mössbauer and Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning area electron diffraction, and magnetization. In order to investigate their structural stability and compare it with that of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), elucidating the differences induced by the inner-outer tube interaction, unpolarized Raman spectra of tangential modes of double wall carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) filled with 1D nanocrystallin α-Fe excited with 514 nm were studied at room temperature and elevated pressure. Up to 16 GPa we find a pressure coefficient for the internal tube of 4.3 cm−1 GPa−1 and for the external tube of 5.5 cm−1 GPa−1. In addition, the tangential band of the external and internal tubes broadens and decreases in amplitude. All findings lead to the conclusion that the outer tube acts as a protection shield for the inner tubes (at least up 16 GPa). Structural phase transitions were not observed in this range of pressure

Integrated and dynamical oceanographic data management - IDOD

The goal of the IDOD project was to provide the federal government, the scientific community and other users with an up-to-date tool for collecting, managing and analysing marine scientific data.The resulting “marine information system” is hosted by the Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC), a team within the Management Unit of the Mathematical Mode's of the North Sec (MUMM). The BMDC committed itself to keep the IDOD information system alive and evolving. A remote user interface is available online at http:/ /www.mumm.ac.be/ datacentre.The project faced all the aspects of modern scientific data management. A major challenge was to establish a fruitful dialog with the data providers. This has been done through extensive discussions in the Users committee and during bilateral meetings. The topics that have then been clarified range from the principles (in order to write down a standard common “Rights and duties" agreement) to the very technical and scientific details, specific to each data set .A substantial effort has been put on the definition of guidelines for ensuring the data quality throughout their way from the field to the data centre. This has resulted, for instance, in the development of a “On-board registration of samples" computer programme, in a check list of meta-information to document the data or in the definition of a “common layout" for reporting data sets to the data centre.On the technical side, the variety and complexity of the data to be stored and made available for further use lead us to elaborate a complex and robust data base scheme, after an in-depth conceptual analysis. The database itself is implemented using the ORACLE technology.In parallel, a set of dedicated analysis and visualisation tools has been developed. They help the users and the data managers to tackle the data in their space and time dimensions and also allow cross-analysis between different parameters.The primary providers of data for the information system were the various teams participating in the (first) Programme for a sustainable development of the North Sea, financed by the Belgian Federal Office for scientific, technical and cultural affairs. These data are being complemented by data from other (earlier) scientific programmes and from governmental surveys.The project has been performed by MUMM, in partnership with the SURFACES laboratory (University of Liege) and the University Centre of Statistics (University of Leuven)

Defining the role of extended saphenofemoral junction ligation: A prospective comparative study

AbstractObjective: This study explores the added effect of extended saphenofemoral junction (SFJ) ligation when the greater saphenous vein (GSV) has been eliminated from participating in thigh reflux by means of endovenous obliteration. GSV obliteration, unlike surgical stripping, can be done with or without SFJ ligation to isolate and study SFJ ligation’s specific contribution to treatment results. Methods: Sixty limbs treated with SFJ ligation and 120 limbs treated without high ligation were selected from an ongoing, multicenter, endovenous obliteration trial on the basis of their having primary varicose veins, GSV reflux, and early treatment dates. Results: Five (8%) high-ligation limbs and seven (6%) limbs without high ligation with patent veins at 6 weeks or less were excluded as unsuccessful obliterations. Treatment significantly reduced symptoms and CEAP clinical class in both groups (P =.0001). Recurrent reflux developed in one (2%) of 49 high-ligation limbs and eight (8%) of 97 limbs without high ligation by 6 months (P =.273). New instances of reflux did not appear thereafter in 57 limbs followed to 12 months. Recurrent varicose veins occurred in three high-ligation limbs and four limbs without high ligation by 6 months and in one additional high-ligation limb and two additional limbs without high ligation by 12 months. Actuarial recurrence curves were not statistically different with or without SFJ ligation (P >.156), predicting greater than 90% freedom from recurrent reflux and varicosities at 1 year for both groups. Conclusion: These early results suggest that extended SFJ ligation may add little to effective GSV obliteration, but our findings are not sufficiently robust to warrant abandonment of SFJ ligation as currently practiced in the management of primary varicose veins associated with GSV vein reflux. (J Vasc Surg 2000;32:941-53.

Study of cationic N-isopropylacrylamide-styrene copolymer latex particles using fluorescent probes

Monodisperse cationically charged core-shell poly[styrene/N-isopropylacrylamide] latexes, differing in their shell structure, were studied at temperatures around the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of poly[N-isopropylacrylamide]. Near the LCST, a transition on the latex dimensions was observed by quasi-elastic light scattering measurements. The same transition could also be detected using the intensity ratio of the pyrene fluorescence vibronic bands, I1/I3, and the excimer to monomer fluorescence intensity ratio of 1,10-bis(1-pyrenyl)decane. The fluorescence spectra and decay curve measurements of 1,10-bis-(1-pyrenyl)decane provided a better understanding of both the hydrophilic-hydrophobic variation and the conformational changes occurring in the poly[N-isopropylacrylamide] shell of the latex particles upon temperature variation.J. M. G. Martinho is grateful for the support of this work from FCT. E. M. S. Castanheira acknowledges FCT for a grant (PRAXIS XXI/BPD/9968/96)

On the diffraction pattern of C60 peapods

We present detailed calculations of the diffraction pattern of a powder of bundles of C$_{60}$ peapods. The influence of all pertinent structural parameters of the bundles on the diffraction diagram is discussed, which should lead to a better interpretation of X-ray and neutron diffraction diagrams. We illustrate our formalism for X-ray scattering experiments performed on peapod samples synthesized from 2 different technics, which present different structural parameters. We propose and test different criteria to solve the difficult problem of the filling rate determination.Comment: Sumitted 19 May 200