Half the World: Refugees Transform the City of Trees

Nearly 1 out of every 100 people worldwide is a person displaced and seeking asylum, imperiled by persecution and war. Half the World takes measure of that staggering crisis in stories from a city transformed.https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1481/thumbnail.jp

Semiclassical Time Evolution and Trace Formula for Relativistic Spin-1/2 Particles

We investigate the Dirac equation in the semiclassical limit \hbar --> 0. A semiclassical propagator and a trace formula are derived and are shown to be determined by the classical orbits of a relativistic point particle. In addition, two phase factors enter, one of which can be calculated from the Thomas precession of a classical spin transported along the particle orbits. For the second factor we provide an interpretation in terms of dynamical and geometric phases.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Maternally responsive neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and medial preoptic area: Putative circuits for regulating anxiety and reward

Postpartum neuropsychiatric disorders are a major source of morbidity and mortality and affect at least 10% of childbearing women. Affective dysregulation within this context has been identified in association with changes in reproductive steroids. Steroids promote maternal actions and modulate affect, but can also destabilize mood in some but not all women. Potential brain regions that mediate these effects include the medial preoptic area (mPOA) and ventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (vBNST). Herein, we review the regulation of neural activity in the mPOA/vBNST by environmental and hormonal concomitants in puerperal females. Such activity may influence maternal anxiety and motivation and have significant implications for postpartum affective disorders. Future directions for research are also explored, including physiological circuit-level approaches to gain insight into the functional connectivity of hormone-responsive maternal circuits that modulate affect

Oxytocin and HPA stress axis reactivity in postpartum women

Lactation is thought to buffer stress reactivity via oxytocin (OT). Dysregulation of the HPA axis has been reported in women with postpartum depression (PPD). The co-occurrence of PPD and lactation failure suggests that abnormalities in OT signaling may play a role in PPD. We hypothesized that abnormal OT signaling is implicated in dysregulated HPA axis reactivity among postpartum women with mood symptoms. In a prospective perinatal cohort, we tested associations between OT levels during breastfeeding and stress reactivity

Current and lifetime psychiatric illness in women with Turner syndrome

Abnormalities in quality of life and cognitive measures have been observed in women with Turner syndrome (TS), and a relationship between these phenomena and chromosomal constitution has been suggested. In contrast, few studies have systematically evaluated the presence of mood and behavioral syndromes in these women. In this study, 100 TS women were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV after a two-week period during which their hormone replacement had been discontinued. The majority of women who met criteria for a psychiatric condition had a mood or anxiety disorder. Overall, 52 (52%) of the TS women met criteria for a current or a past depressive or anxiety disorder. Eighteen of the women with TS met criteria for a current Axis I psychiatric disorder [Depression--major (n = 5), minor (n = 5), dysthymia (n = 1); Anxiety (n = 9)]. Forty-six of the women with TS met criteria for a past Axis I psychiatric illness [Depression: unipolar (n = 41), bipolar (n = 3); Anxiety (n= 7); eating disorder (n =6); substance dependence (n = 3)]. Five women with TS met criteria for an Axis II personality disorder. Women with TS reported a higher rate of lifetime depression compared with rates observed in community-based studies but similar to those obtained from gynecologic clinic samples

Incorporating prior knowledge improves detection of differences in bacterial growth rate

BACKGROUND: Robust statistical detection of differences in the bacterial growth rate can be challenging, particularly when dealing with small differences or noisy data. The Bayesian approach provides a consistent framework for inferring model parameters and comparing hypotheses. The method captures the full uncertainty of parameter values, whilst making effective use of prior knowledge about a given system to improve estimation. RESULTS: We demonstrated the application of Bayesian analysis to bacterial growth curve comparison. Following extensive testing of the method, the analysis was applied to the large dataset of bacterial responses which are freely available at the web-resource, ComBase. Detection was found to be improved by using prior knowledge from clusters of previously analysed experimental results at similar environmental conditions. A comparison was also made to a more traditional statistical testing method, the F-test, and Bayesian analysis was found to perform more conclusively and to be capable of attributing significance to more subtle differences in growth rate. CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated that by making use of existing experimental knowledge, it is possible to significantly improve detection of differences in bacterial growth rate

Hormonal gain control of a medial preoptic area social reward circuit

Neural networks that control reproduction must integrate social and hormonal signals, tune motivation, and invigorate social interactions. However, the neurocircuit mechanisms for these processes remain unresolved. The medial preoptic area (mPOA), an essential node for social behaviors and is comprised of molecularly-diverse neurons with widespread projections. Here, we identify a steroid-responsive subset of neurotensin (Nts) expressing mPOA neurons that interface with the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to form a socially-engaged reward circuit. Using in vivo 2-photon imaging in female mice, we show that mPOANts neurons preferentially encode attractive male cues compared to non-social appetitive stimuli. Ovarian hormone signals regulate both the physiological and cue encoding properties of these cells. Furthermore, optogenetic stimulation of mPOANts-VTA circuitry promotes rewarding phenotypes, social approach, and striatal dopamine release. Collectively, these data demonstrate that steroid-sensitive mPOA neurons encode ethologically-relevant stimuli and co-opt midbrain reward circuits to promote prosocial behavior critical for species survival

Symptom patterns in women with premenstrual syndrome complaints: a prospective assessment using a marker for ovulation and screening criteria for adequate ovarian function

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72929/1/j.1365-2648.1991.tb01727.x.pd

Relation of dissociative phenomena to levels of cerebrospinal fluid monoamine metabolites and beta-endorphin in patients with eating disorders: A pilot study

Dissociation is made manifest by a failure to integrate thoughts, feelings, memories, and actions into a unified sense of consciousness. Although dissociation is presumed to be a special state of consciousness manifested by state-dependent memory and physiology, the psychobiology of dissociation is poorly understood. In this study, we examined cerebrospinal fluid levels of the major monoamine metabolites and [beta]-endorphin in patients with eating disorders (11 with anorexia nervosa, 16 with bulimia nervosa), while they were acutely ill. Dissociative capacity was measured using the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). We provide evidence that neurochemical changes in dopaminergic, serotonergic, and opioid systems may be associated with the clinical expression of dissociation in patients with eating disorders during the acute phase of their illness. These preliminary results are compatible with previous studies of neurochemical disturbances in the eating disorders and suggest that future work in dissociation should specifically include examination of these neurobiologic systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30521/1/0000152.pd

Abnormalities of Dorsolateral Prefrontal Function in Women With Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: A Multimodal Neuroimaging Study

To investigate the neural substrate of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), the authors used [15O]H2O positron emission tomography (PET) regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) signal measurements during working memory in conjunction with a 6-month hormone manipulation protocol