Development of the PSYCHS: Positive SYmptoms and Diagnostic Criteria for the CAARMS Harmonized with the SIPS

Aim: To harmonize two ascertainment and severity rating instruments commonly used for the clinical high risk syndrome for psychosis (CHR-P): the Structured Interview for Psychosis-risk Syndromes (SIPS) and the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS). Methods: The initial workshop is described in the companion report from Addington et al. After the workshop, lead experts for each instrument continued harmonizing attenuated positive symptoms and criteria for psychosis and CHR-P through an intensive series of joint videoconferences. Results: Full harmonization was achieved for attenuated positive symptom ratings and psychosis criteria, and modest harmonization for CHR-P criteria. The semi-structured interview, named Positive SYmptoms and Diagnostic Criteria for the CAARMS Harmonized with the SIPS (PSYCHS), generates CHR-P criteria and severity scores for both CAARMS and SIPS. Conclusions: Using the PSYCHS for CHR-P ascertainment, conversion determination, and attenuated positive symptom severity rating will help in comparing findings across studies and in meta-analyses

Termite sensitivity to temperature affects global wood decay rates.

Deadwood is a large global carbon store with its store size partially determined by biotic decay. Microbial wood decay rates are known to respond to changing temperature and precipitation. Termites are also important decomposers in the tropics but are less well studied. An understanding of their climate sensitivities is needed to estimate climate change effects on wood carbon pools. Using data from 133 sites spanning six continents, we found that termite wood discovery and consumption were highly sensitive to temperature (with decay increasing >6.8 times per 10°C increase in temperature)-even more so than microbes. Termite decay effects were greatest in tropical seasonal forests, tropical savannas, and subtropical deserts. With tropicalization (i.e., warming shifts to tropical climates), termite wood decay will likely increase as termites access more of Earth's surface

Incentives and Opportunities : A Complexity-oriented Explanation of Violent Ethnic Conflict

Existing research on the causes of violent ethnic conflict is characterized by an enduring debate on whether theseconflicts are the result of deeply felt grievances or the product of an opportunity structure in which rebellion isan attractive and/or viable option. This article argues that the question of whether incentive- or opportunity-based explanations of conflict have more explanatory power is fundamentally misguided, as conflict is more likelythe result of a complex interaction of both. The fact is, however, that there is little generalized knowledge about theseinteractions. This study aims to fill this gap and applies crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in order toidentify constellations of risk factors that are conducive to ethnic conflict. The results demonstrate the explanatoryleverage gained by taking causal complexity in the form of risk patterns into account. It takes no more than fourdifferent configurations of a total of eight conditions to reliably explain almost two-thirds of all ethnic conflict onsetsbetween 1990 and 2009. Moreover, these four configurations are quasi-sufficient for onset, leading to conflictin 88% of all cases covered. The QCA model generated in this article also fares well in predicting conflictsin-sample and out-of-sample, with the in-sample predictions being more precise than those generated by a simplebinary logistic regression