Italian translation and cross cultural comparison with the Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS)

Background: The Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS) is a computer-administered survey designed to assess retrospectively the socio-ecological context in which instances of child abuse may have occurred. To date, studies supporting the validity of the CARTS have only been undertaken in English-speaking North American populations. Validation projects in other countries and cross-cultural comparisons are therefore warranted. Objective: Develop and preliminarily evaluate the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the CARTS on college students and compare such observations to data acquired from Canadian students. Method: Seventy-nine undergraduate students from the University of Padua (Italy) completed an Italian translation of the CARTS as well as measures of childhood experiences, mental health and attachment, responses to which were compared to those obtained in 288 Canadian students who completed the CARTS in English. Results: Internal consistency and convergent validity with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and Parental Bonding Instrument were found to be acceptable for the Italian translation. Within the Italian sample, correlation analyses suggested that CARTS Mother ratings referring to attachment and abuse were associated with romantic attachment, whereas CARTS Father ratings were significantly correlated to PTSD symptoms and other symptoms of psychopathology-distress. Significant differences between Italian and Canadian students across the relationship types for the CARTS abuse and attachment scales were found, indicating that Italian students rated their mothers and fathers as simultaneously less abusive, but also less as a source of secure attachment. Conclusions: The results of this preliminary study seem to suggest convergent validity of the Italian CARTS and the association between childhood attachment-related experiences and romantic attachment. Cultural variations were identified between Canadian and Italian students in both attachment and abuse scales. Future studies to investigate cross-cultural variations in the relational context of childhood abuse and in order to boost Italian CARTS psychometric features are warranted

Universality-breaking effects in e+e−e^+e^- hadronic production processes

Recent BELLE measurements provide the cross section for single hadron production in $e^+e^-$ annihilations, differential in thrust and in the hadron transverse momentum with respect to the thrust axis. Universality breaking effects due to process-dependent soft factors make it very difficult to relate this cross sections to those corresponding to hadron-pair production in $e^+e^-$ annihilations, where transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization can be applied. The correspondence between these two cross sections is examined in the framework of the Collins-Soper-Sterman factorization, in the collinear as well as in the TMD approach. We propose a scheme that allows to relate the TMD parton densities defined in 1-hadron and in 2-hadron processes, neatly separating, within the soft and collinear parts, the non-perturbative terms from the contributions that can be calculated perturbatively. The regularization of rapidity divergences introduces cut-offs, the arbitrariness of which will be properly reabsorbed by means of a mechanism closely reminiscent of a gauge transformation. In this way, we restore the possibility to perform global phenomenological studies of TMD physics, simultaneously analyzing data belonging to different hadron classes.Comment: 60 pages, 15 figures, revised argument in section 6 - results unchanged, 1 figure added in section 3, references added, typos correcte

Kinematic regions in the e+e− → hX factorized cross section in a 2-jet topology with thrust

Factorization theorems allow to separate out the universal, non-perturbative content of the hadronic cross section from its perturbative part, which can be computed in perturbative QCD, up to the desired order. In this paper, we derive a rigorous proof of factorization of the $e^+ e^- \to h\,X$ cross section, sensitive to the transverse momentum of the detected hadron with respect to the thrust axis, in a completely general framework, based on the Collins-Soper-Sterman approach. The results are explicitly computed to NLO-NLL accuracy and subsequently generalized to all orders in perturbation theory. This procedure naturally leads to a partition of the $e^+ e^- \to h\,X$ kinematics into three different regions, each associated to a different factorization theorem. In one of these regions, which covers the central and widest range, the factorization theorem has a new structure, which shares the features of both TMD and collinear factorization schemes. In the corresponding cross section, the role of the rapidity cut-off is investigated, as its physical meaning becomes increasingly evident. An algorithm to identify these three kinematic regions, based on ratios of observable quantities, is provided.Comment: 78 pages, 23 figure

Full Treatment of the Thrust Distribution in Single Inclusive e⁺e⁻ → h X Processes

Extending the transverse momentum dependent factorization to thrust dependent observables entails a series of difficulties, ultimately associated to the behavior of soft radiation. As a consequence, the definition of the transverse momentum dependent functions has to be revised, while preserving (and possibly extending) their universality properties. Moreover, the regularization of the rapidity divergences generates non trivial correlations between rapidity and thrust. In this paper, we show how to deal with these correlations in a consistent treatment of the thrust dependence of e+e− → h X cross section, where the hadron transverse momentum is measured with respect to the thrust axis. In this framework all results obtained in the past few years properly fit together, leading to a remarkable phenomenological description of the experimental measurements

Is “Unconsummated Marriage” still an appropriate term? A snapshot of reality

The most shared definition of Unconsummated Marriage (UM) refers to “the failure to perform successful sexual intercourse at the beginning of the marriage. UM usually occurs in the first few nights of marriage and so it is frequently referred to as “honeymoon impotence” or “wedding night impotence”. In the Middle-Eastern (MES) and Western (WS) societies, sexuality follows different patterns in terms of meaning and rules. Moreover the evolution of societies all around the world created new contexts and kinds of relationship. This could hamper a correct taxonomy of such sexual dysfunction where a social variable seems crucial. Aim: To analyze and review data on UM all around the world, to understand if in different societies it refers to the same situation. Method: A review of published literature on UM from 1970 to date, was conducted. Results: Substantial difference emerged from MES to WS. In MES, sexuality is allowable only in marriage, while in WS sexuality and relationship are not strongly linked. This could suggest that the term “marriage” is unable to cover the phenomenon in such different countries. Moreover, the average time before the consultation, causal attribution and prevalence are very different in Western and Middle Eastern countries. Conclusion: We found that the term “first attempts dysfunction” could be better used to describe male, female or both difficulties related to ignorance about sexuality or state/performance anxiety. On the other hand over the individual category of sexual dysfunctions, we suggest a new term as “Unconsummated relationship”, where individual difficulties toward sexuality are involved creating a couple’s dysfunction. Keywords: Unconsummated marriage; Honeymoon impotence; White marriage; Vaginismus; Infertilit

How Do Maternal Subclinical Symptoms Influence Infant Motor Development during the First Year of Life?

An unavoidable reciprocal influence characterizes the mother-child dyad. Within this relationship, the presence of depression, somatization, hostility, paranoid ideation, and interpersonal sensitivity symptoms at a subclinical level and their possible input on infant motor competences has not been yet considered. Bearing in mind that motor abilities represent not only an indicator of the infant\u2019s health-status, but also the principal field to infer his/her needs, feelings and intentions, in this study the quality of infants\u2019 movements were assessed and analyzed in relationship with the maternal attitudes. The aim of this research was to investigate if/how maternal symptomatology may pilot infant\u2019s motor development during his/her first year of life by observing the characteristics of motor development in infants aged 0\u201311 months. Participants included 123 mothers and their infants (0\u201311 months-old). Mothers\u2019 symptomatology was screened with the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), while infants were tested with the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale-Second Edition. All dyads belonged to a non-clinical population, however, on the basis of SCL-90-R scores, the mothers\u2019 sample was divided into two groups: normative and subclinical. Descriptive, t-test, correlational analysis between PDMS-2 scores and SCL-90-R results are reported, as well as regression models results. Both positive and negative correlations were found between maternal perceived symptomatology, Somatization (SOM), Interpersonal Sensitivity (IS), Depression (DEP), Hostility (HOS), and Paranoid Ideation (PAR) and infants\u2019 motor abilities. These results were further verified by applying regression models to predict the infant\u2019s motor outcomes on the basis of babies\u2019 age and maternal status. The presence of positive symptoms in the SCL-90-R questionnaire (subclinical group) predicted good visual-motor integration and stationary competences in the babies. In particular, depressive and hostility feelings in mothers seemed to induce an infant motor behavior characterized by a major control of the environmental space. When mothers perceived a higher level of hostility and somatization, their babies showed difficulties in sharing action space, such as required in the development of stationary positions and grasping abilities. In a completely different way, when infants can rely on a mother with low-perceived symptoms (normative group) his/her motor performances develop with a higher degree of freedom/independence. These findings suggest, for the first time, that even in a non- clinical sample, mother\u2019s perceived-symptoms can produce important consequences not in infant motor development as a whole, but in some specific areas, contributing to shape the infant\u2019s motor ability and his/her capability to act in the world

Isotope effect on the E2g phonon and mesoscopic phase separation near the electronic topological transition in Mg1-xAlxB2

We report the boron isotope effect on the E2g phonon mode by micro-Raman spectroscopy on the ternary Mg1-xAlxB2 system, synthesized with pure isotopes 10B and 11B. The isotope coefficient on the phonon frequency is near 0.5 in the full range decreasing near x = 0. The intraband electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling, for the electrons in the sigma band, has been extracted from the E2g line-width and frequency softening. Tuning the Fermi energy near the electronic topological transition (ETT), where the sigma Fermi surface changes from 2D to 3D topology the E2g mode, shows the known Kohn anomaly on the 2D side of the ETT and a splitting of the E2g phonon frequency into a hard and soft component from x = 0 to x = 0.28. The results suggest a minor role of the intraband phonon mediated pairing in the control of the high critical temperature in Mg1-xAlxB2. The common physical features of diborides with the novel multigap FeAs-based superconductors and cuprates is discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Local structure of REFeAsO (RE=La, Pr, Nd, Sm) oxypnictides studied by Fe K-edge EXAFS

Local structure of REOFeAs (RE=La, Pr, Nd, Sm) system has been studied as a function of chemical pressure varied due to different rare-earth size. Fe K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements in the fluorescence mode has permitted to compare systematically the inter-atomic distances and their mean square relative displacements (MSRD). We find that the Fe-As bond length and the corresponding MSRD hardly show any change, suggesting the strongly covalent nature of this bond, while the Fe-Fe and Fe-RE bond lengths decrease with decreasing rare earth size. The results provide important information on the atomic correlations that could have direct implication on the superconductivity and magnetism of REOFeAs system, with the chemical pressure being a key ingredient

Cloning of the SOX2 gene from Diplosoma listerianum

Diplosoma listerianum is an invasive tunicate species that can reproduce asexually by pyloric budding. Tunicates, more commonly known as “sea squirts” or ascidians, are filter feeding marine invertebrates. Pyloric budding is a unique form of asexual reproduction among tunicate species in which the esophagus of a single animal will form two buds, each of which develops into parts of a new genetically identical animal. The overall goal of my research is to better understand the genes that are important for this organism’s asexual development. More specifically, this project examines the role of the SOX2 gene in Diplosoma, to find out whether this gene is expressed in the budding tissue of the organism using a method known as in situ hybridization, which uses a labeled complementary RNA strand to see where a specific gene sequence is being expressed in a fixed tissue sample. I know from my own past research that the SOX2 gene is expressed in Diplosoma, but the role it plays in this organism has not been previously studied. In humans, SOX2 is an important transcription factor in embryonic stem cells that is essential for stem cell pluripotency, which is the ability of stem cells to differentiate into specific tissue types. Our hypothesis is that the asexual buds develop from stem cells, and that Sox2 will be expressed in those cells. Thus, researching the role that SOX2 plays in Diplosoma could have implications for stem cell research and regenerative medicine in humans. From past research, I have extracted Diplosoma RNA and used this to make cDNA. I was then able to successfully make many copies of the SOX2 fragment through PCR, and determined the exact sequence of the gene in Diplosoma. For this project, I ligated the SOX2 gene into the puc18 plasmid vector, and sequenced it. This can be used to create the labeled RNA probe for the in situ, enabling future research to be done to conclusively determine where SOX2 gene expression occurs in Diplosoma

De-excitation spectroscopy of strongly interacting Rydberg gases

We present experimental results on the controlled de-excitation of Rydberg states in a cold gas of Rb atoms. The effect of the van der Waals interactions between the Rydberg atoms is clearly seen in the de-excitation spectrum and dynamics. Our observations are confirmed by numerical simulations. In particular, for off-resonant (facilitated) excitation we find that the de-excitation spectrum reflects the spatial arrangement of the atoms in the quasi one-dimensional geometry of our experiment. We discuss future applications of this technique and implications for detection and controlled dissipation schemes.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure