1,331 research outputs found
Impact of Gene-Gender Effects of Adrenergic Polymorphisms on Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Activity in Depressed Patients
Objective: There is overwhelming evidence that activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system plays a major role in depression and cardiovascular disease in genetically susceptible individuals. We hypothesized that due to the multiple interactions between the sympathetic and the HPA systems via adrenoceptors, polymorphisms in these genes could have an impact on HPA axis activity in major depression. Methods: Using the dexamethasone/corticotrophin-releasing hormone (DEX/CRH) test, we investigated the association of alpha 2-adrenoceptor (ADRA2A -1291C -> G) and the beta 2-adrenoceptor gene (ADRB2 Arg16Gly) in 189 patients with major depression during the acute state of the disease and after remission. Results: Male ADRA2A -1291G allele homozygotes showed significant pretreatment HPA axis hyperactivity, with increased adrenocorticotropin (ACTH; F = 4.9, d.f. = 2, p = 0.009) and cortisol responses (F = 6.4, d.f. = 2, p = 0.003). In contrast, female ADRB2 Arg/Arg homozygotes had increased pretreatment ACTH (F = 7.17, d.f. = 2, p = 0.001) and cortisol (F = 8.95, d.f. = 2, p = 0.000) levels. Interestingly, in the respective genotypes, the stress hormones remained elevated in the second DEX/CRH test, despite a reduction in depressive symptoms. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that, depending on gender and polymorphisms, there is continuous HPA axis overdrive in a proportion of patients irrespective of the status of depression. Considering the importance of stress hormones for cardiovascular disorders, our data might suggest that these patients are at high risk of comorbidity between depression and cardiovascular disorders. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Base
Size reconstructibility of graphs
The deck of a graph is given by the multiset of (unlabelled) subgraphs
. The subgraphs are referred to as the cards of .
Brown and Fenner recently showed that, for , the number of edges of a
graph can be computed from any deck missing 2 cards. We show that, for
sufficiently large , the number of edges can be computed from any deck
missing at most cards.Comment: 15 page
Cholecystokinin evokes secretion of oxytocin and vasopressin from rat neural lobe independent of external calcium.
The ‘Ombuds Watchers’: Collective Dissent and Legal Protest Among Users of Public Services Ombuds
This article examines the phenomenon of the ‘ombuds watchers’. These are groups of dissatisfied users of public service ombuds schemes who engage in legal protest against the current system of redress for citizen-state complaints. Through the lens of legal consciousness scholarship we propose a framework that conceptualizes the collectivized protest of the ombuds watchers. Based on an empirical dataset, our analysis has shown that the ombuds watchers meet each of the defining characteristics of dissenting collectivism and demonstrates the existence of forms of legal consciousness which present ‘opportunities to build alternative imaginaries and institutions’ (Morgan and Kutch 2015, p. 567). Our case study provides an insight into the potential for dissenting collectives to challenge the hegemonic structures of state law, while at the same time emphasising the continuing power of legal ideology in shaping popular understandings of justice. The article also suggests a pathway for future empirical research into ombuds
The generalized 3-edge-connectivity of lexicographic product graphs
The generalized -edge-connectivity of a graph is a
generalization of the concept of edge-connectivity. The lexicographic product
of two graphs and , denoted by , is an important graph
product. In this paper, we mainly study the generalized 3-edge-connectivity of
, and get upper and lower bounds of .
Moreover, all bounds are sharp.Comment: 14 page
Inductive Construction of 2-Connected Graphs for Calculating the Virial Coefficients
In this paper we give a method for constructing systematically all simple
2-connected graphs with n vertices from the set of simple 2-connected graphs
with n-1 vertices, by means of two operations: subdivision of an edge and
addition of a vertex. The motivation of our study comes from the theory of
non-ideal gases and, more specifically, from the virial equation of state. It
is a known result of Statistical Mechanics that the coefficients in the virial
equation of state are sums over labelled 2-connected graphs. These graphs
correspond to clusters of particles. Thus, theoretically, the virial
coefficients of any order can be calculated by means of 2-connected graphs used
in the virial coefficient of the previous order. Our main result gives a method
for constructing inductively all simple 2-connected graphs, by induction on the
number of vertices. Moreover, the two operations we are using maintain the
correspondence between graphs and clusters of particles.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, 3 table
A Hybrid Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for Graph 3-Coloring
The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) is the name of an optimization algorithm that
was inspired by the intelligent behavior of a honey bee swarm. It is widely
recognized as a quick, reliable, and efficient methods for solving optimization
problems. This paper proposes a hybrid ABC (HABC) algorithm for graph
3-coloring, which is a well-known discrete optimization problem. The results of
HABC are compared with results of the well-known graph coloring algorithms of
today, i.e. the Tabucol and Hybrid Evolutionary algorithm (HEA) and results of
the traditional evolutionary algorithm with SAW method (EA-SAW). Extensive
experimentations has shown that the HABC matched the competitive results of the
best graph coloring algorithms, and did better than the traditional heuristics
EA-SAW when solving equi-partite, flat, and random generated medium-sized
graphs
Tur\'an numbers for -free graphs: topological obstructions and algebraic constructions
We show that every hypersurface in contains a large grid,
i.e., the set of the form , with . We use this to
deduce that the known constructions of extremal -free and
-free graphs cannot be generalized to a similar construction of
-free graphs for any . We also give new constructions of
extremal -free graphs for large .Comment: Fixed a small mistake in the application of Proposition
Characterising the Performance of XOR Games and the Shannon Capacity of Graphs
In this paper we give a set of necessary and sufficient conditions such that
quantum players of a two-party {\sc xor} game cannot perform any better than
classical players. With any such game, we associate a graph and examine its
zero-error communication capacity. This allows us to specify a broad new class
of graphs for which the Shannon capacity can be calculated. The conditions also
enable the parametrisation of new families of games which have no quantum
advantage, for arbitrary input probability distributions up to certain
symmetries. In the future, these might be used in information-theoretic studies
on reproducing the set of quantum non-local correlations.Comment: 5 pages. Clarified proof of theorem 1, typos correcte
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