Mental health and developmental disorders in infancy and early childhood. The PDM-2

We provide a general introduction to the theoretical and empirical sources informing the development of the Infancy and Early Childhood Section (IEC) of the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2). We offer a brief exploration of the evolution of developmental psychoanalysis and its applications to infant mental health, along with an example of applying the IEC framework to clinical and developmental data from a longitudinal study based on developmental and psychodynamic principles. This article illustrates the evolution of theory in the context of interdisciplinary integration and explores its implications for diagnosis and clinical formulatio

PPl 15: The First Brown Dwarf Spectroscopic Binary

PPl 15 is the first object to have been confirmed as a brown dwarf by the lithium test (in 1995), though its inferred mass was very close to the substellar limit. It is a member of the Pleiades open cluster. Its position in a cluster color-magnitude diagram suggested that it might be binary, and preliminary indications that it is a double-lined spectroscopic binary were reported by us in 1997. Here we report on the results of a consecutive week of Keck HIRES observations of this system, which yield its orbit. It has a period of about 5.8 days, and an eccentricity of 0.4+/-0.05. The rotation of the stars is slow for this class of objects. Because the system luminosity is divided between 2 objects with a mass ratio of 0.85, this renders each of them an incontrovertible brown dwarf, with masses between 60-70 jupiters. We show that component B is a little redder than A by studying their wavelength-dependent line ratios, and that this variation is compatible with the mass ratio. We confirm that the system has lithium, but cannot support the original conclusion that it is depleted (which would be surprising, given the new masses). This is a system of very close objects which, if they had combined, would have produced a low mass star. We discuss the implications of this discovery for the theories of binary formation and formation of very low mass objects.Comment: Latex, 18 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astron.

Near-infrared spectroscopy of the very low mass companion to the hot DA white dwarf PG1234+482

We present a near-infrared spectrum of the hot ($T_{\rm eff}$ $\approx$ 55,000 K) DA white dwarf PG 1234+482. We confirm that a very low mass companion is responsible for the previously recognised infrared photometric excess. We compare spectra of M and L dwarfs, combined with an appropriate white dwarf model, to the data to constrain the spectral type of the secondary. We find that uncertainties in the 2MASS $HK$ photometry of the white dwarf prevent us from distinguishing whether the secondary is stellar or substellar, and assign a spectral type of L0$\pm$1 (M9-L1).Therefore, this is the hottest and youngest ($\approx 10^6$ yr) DA white dwarf with a possible brown dwarf companion.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted by MNRA

Scanning micro-raman spectroscopy on carbon-rich residues of primitive chondrites: A tool for chondrite classification and stardust analysis

We present results obtained by Raman spectroscopy of various organic residues of primitive chondrites in order to better characterize the microstructural state of the organic matter. These results will be correlated with the petographic classification of the chondrites

Delineation of RAID1, the RACK1 interaction domain located within the unique N-terminal region of the cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase, PDE4D5

Background The cyclic AMP specific phosphodiesterase, PDE4D5 interacts with the β-propeller protein RACK1 to form a signaling scaffold complex in cells. Two-hybrid analysis of truncation and mutant constructs of the unique N-terminal region of the cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase, PDE4D5 were used to define a domain conferring interaction with the signaling scaffold protein, RACK1. Results Truncation and mutagenesis approaches showed that the RACK1-interacting domain on PDE4D5 comprised a cluster of residues provided by Asn-22/Pro-23/Trp-24/Asn-26 together with a series of hydrophobic amino acids, namely Leu-29, Val-30, Leu-33, Leu-37 and Leu-38 in a 'Leu-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Leu' repeat. This was done by 2-hybrid analyses and then confirmed in biochemical pull down analyses using GST-RACK1 and mutant PDE4D5 forms expressed in COS cells. Mutation of Arg-34, to alanine, in PDE4D5 attenuated its interaction with RACK1 both in 2-hybrid screens and in pull down analyses. A 38-mer peptide, whose sequence reflected residues 12 through 49 of PDE4D5, bound to RACK1 with similar affinity to native PDE4D5 itself (Ka circa 6 nM). Conclusions The RACK1 Interaction Domain on PDE4D5, that we here call RAID1, is proposed to form an amphipathic helical structure that we suggest may interact with the C-terminal β-propeller blades of RACK1 in a manner akin to the interaction of the helical G-γ signal transducing protein with the β-propeller protein, G-β