606 research outputs found
Conservatives moral foundations are more densely connected than liberalsâ moral foundations
We use network psychometrics to map a subsection of moral belief systems predicted by moral foundations theory (MFT). This approach conceptualizes moral systems as networks, with moral beliefs represented as nodes connected by direct relations. As such, it advances a novel test of MFTâs claim that liberals and conservatives have different systems of foundational moral values, which we test in three large datasets (N(Sample1) = 854; N(Sample2) = 679; N(Sample3) = 2,572), from two countries (the United States and New Zealand). Results supported our first hypothesis that liberalsâ moral systems show more segregation between individualizing and binding foundations than conservatives. Results showed only weak support for our second hypothesis, that this pattern would be more typical of higher educated than less educated liberals/conservatives. Findings support a systems approach to MFT and show the value of modeling moral belief systems as networks
The acute psychobiological impact of the intensive care experience on relatives.
There is a growing awareness amongst critical care practitioners that the impact of intensive care medicine extends beyond the patient to include the psychological impact on close family members. Several studies have addressed the needs of relatives within the intensive care context but the psychobiological impact of the experience has largely been ignored. Such impact is important in respect to health and well-being of the relative, with potential to influence patient recovery. The current feasibility study aimed to examine the acute psychobiological impact of the intensive care experience on relatives. Using a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously. Six relatives of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a District General Hospital, were assessed within 48 h of admission. Qualitative data were provided from semi-structured interviews analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Quantitative data were collected using a range of standardised self-report questionnaires measuring coping responses, emotion, trauma symptoms and social support, and through sampling of diurnal salivary cortisol as a biomarker of stress. Four themes were identified from interview: the ICU environment, emotional responses, family relationships and support. Questionnaires identified high levels of anxiety, depression and trauma symptoms; the most commonly utilised coping techniques were acceptance, seeking support through advice and information, and substance use. Social support emerged as a key factor with focused inner circle support relating to family and ICU staff. Depressed mood and avoidance were linked to greater mean cortisol levels across the day. Greater social network and coping via self-distraction were related to lower evening cortisol, indicating them as protective factors in the ICU context. The experience of ICU has a psychological and physiological impact on relatives, suggesting the importance of identifying cost-effective interventions with evaluations of health benefits to both relatives and patients
Invasion genetics of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas in the British Isles inferred from microsatellite and mitochondrial markers
The Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, native to northeast Asia, is one of the most important cultured shellfish species. In Europe, Pacific oysters first settled along the Atlantic coasts of France at the end of the 1960s but rapidly spread and are now widely established. Twenty-two sites in the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Denmark, France and Spain were sampled to assess genetic diversity and differentiation. Hatchery-propagated stocks from two hatcheries located in the UK also were included. Two main genetic clusters were identified from pairwise genetic differentiation indexes, Bayesian clustering methods or neighbour-joining analysis, based on 7 microsatellite loci: (1) a Northeast cluster (including feral samples from East England, Ireland and Denmark as well as UK hatchery stocks) and (2) a Southwest cluster (including samples from South Wales, South West England, France and Spain). The Southwest cluster had significantly higher allelic richness (A) and expected heterozygosity (He) (A: 45.68, He: 0.928) than in the Northeast (A: 26.58, He: 0.883); the two diverging by a small but significant FST value (FST=0.017, 95% CI: 0.014-0.021). A 739-bp fragment of the major noncoding region of the mitochondrial genome was sequenced in 248 oysters from 12 of the studied samples in Europe and in 25 oysters from Miyagi prefecture (Japan). A total of 81 haplotypes were found. Haplotype frequency analyses identified the same two clusters observed using microsatellites. This study highlights how the number and size of introduction events, aquaculture practices, genetic bottlenecks followed by genetic drift and natural dispersal can act concurrently to shape the genetic diversity and structure of introduced populations
The association between threat and politics simultaneously depends on the type of threat, the political domain, and the country
Theories link threat with right-wing political beliefs. We use the World Values Survey (60,378 participants) to explore how six types of threat (e.g., economic, violence, and surveillance) are associated with multiple political beliefs (e.g., cultural, economic, and ideological identification) in 56 countries/territories. Multilevel models with individuals nested in countries revealed that the threat-political belief association depends on the type of threat, the type of political beliefs, and the country. Economic-related threats tended to be associated with more left-wing economic political beliefs and violence-related threats tended to be associated with more cultural right-wing beliefs, but there were exceptions to this pattern. Additional analyses revealed that the associations between threat and political beliefs were different across countries. However, our analyses identified few country characteristics that could account for these cross-country differences. Our findings revealed that political beliefs and perceptions of threat are linked, but that the relationship is not simple. Keywords: Ideology, Belief Systems, Threat, Cultur
Low-energy quasiparticle excitations in dirty d-wave superconductors and the Bogoliubov-de Gennes kicked rotator
We investigate the quasiparticle density of states in disordered d-wave
superconductors. By constructing a quantum map describing the quasiparticle
dynamics in such a medium, we explore deviations of the density of states from
its universal form (), and show that additional low-energy
quasiparticle states exist provided (i) the range of the impurity potential is
much larger than the Fermi wavelength [allowing to use recently developed
semiclassical methods]; (ii) classical trajectories exist along which the
pair-potential changes sign; and (iii) the diffractive scattering length is
longer than the superconducting coherence length. In the classically chaotic
regime, universal random matrix theory behavior is restored by quantum
dynamical diffraction which shifts the low energy states away from zero energy,
and the quasiparticle density of states exhibits a linear pseudogap below an
energy threshold .Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTe
Particle Physics Approach to Dark Matter
We review the main proposals of particle physics for the composition of the
cold dark matter in the universe. Strong axion contribution to cold dark matter
is not favored if the Peccei-Quinn field emerges with non-zero value at the end
of inflation and the inflationary scale is superheavy since, under these
circumstances, it leads to unacceptably large isocurvature perturbations. The
lightest neutralino is the most popular candidate constituent of cold dark
matter. Its relic abundance in the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard
model can be reduced to acceptable values by pole annihilation of neutralinos
or neutralino-stau coannihilation. Axinos can also contribute to cold dark
matter provided that the reheat temperature is adequately low. Gravitinos can
constitute the cold dark matter only in limited regions of the parameter space.
We present a supersymmetric grand unified model leading to violation of Yukawa
unification and, thus, allowing an acceptable b-quark mass within the
constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model with mu>0. The model
possesses a wide range of parameters consistent with the data on the cold dark
matter abundance as well as other phenomenological constraints. Also, it leads
to a new version of shifted hybrid inflation.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figures, uses svmult.cls, some clarifications
added, lectures given at the Third Aegean Summer School "The Invisible
Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy", 26 September-1 October 2005, Karfas,
Island of Chios, Greece (to appear in the proceedings
Coeliac disease-associated risk variants in TNFAIP3 and REL implicate altered NF-kappaB signalling
Objective: Our previous coeliac disease genome-wide association study (GWAS) implicated risk variants in the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) region and eight novel risk regions. To identify more coeliac disease loci, we selected 458 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that showed more modest association in the GWAS for genotyping and analysis in four independent cohorts. Design: 458 SNPs were assayed in 1682 cases and 3258 controls from three populations (UK, Irish and Dutch). We combined the results with the original GWAS cohort (767 UK cases and 1422 controls); six SNPs showed association with p Results: We identified two novel coeliac disease risk regions: 6q23.3 (OLIG3-TNFAIP3) and 2p16.1 (REL), both of which reached genome-wide significance in the combined analysis of all 2987 cases and 5273 controls (rs2327832 p= 1.3x10(-08), and rs842647 p= 5.26x10(-07)). We investigated the expression of these genes in the RNA isolated from biopsies and from whole blood RNA. We did not observe any changes in gene expression, nor in the correlation of genotype with gene expression. Conclusions: Both TNFAIP3 (A20, at the protein level) and REL are key mediators in the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) inflammatory signalling pathway. For the first time, a role for primary heritable variation in this important biological pathway predisposing to coeliac disease has been identified. Currently, the HLA risk factors and the 10 established non-HLA risk factors explain similar to 40% of the heritability of coeliac disease
Dark matter and Colliders searches in the MSSM
We study the complementarity between dark matter experiments (direct
detection and indirect detections) and accelerator facilities (the CERN LHC and
a TeV Linear Collider) in the framework of the
constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We show how
non--universality in the scalar and gaugino sectors can affect the experimental
prospects to discover the supersymmetric particles. The future experiments will
cover a large part of the parameter space of the MSSM favored by WMAP
constraint on the relic density, but there still exist some regions beyond
reach for some extreme (fine tuned) values of the supersymmetric parameters.
Whereas the Focus Point region characterized by heavy scalars will be easily
probed by experiments searching for dark matter, the regions with heavy
gauginos and light sfermions will be accessible more easily by collider
experiments. More informations on both supersymmetry and astrophysics
parameters can be thus obtained by correlating the different signals.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, corrected typos and reference adde
Cosmological consequences of a Chaplygin gas dark energy
A combination of recent observational results has given rise to what is
currently known as the dark energy problem. Although several possible
candidates have been extensively discussed in the literature to date the nature
of this dark energy component is not well understood at present. In this paper
we investigate some cosmological implications of another dark energy candidate:
an exotic fluid known as the Chaplygin gas, which is characterized by an
equation of state , where is a positive constant. By assuming
a flat scenario driven by non-relativistic matter plus a Chaplygin gas dark
energy we study the influence of such a component on the statistical properties
of gravitational lenses. A comparison between the predicted age of the universe
and the latest age estimates of globular clusters is also included and the
results briefly discussed. In general, we find that the behavior of this class
of models may be interpreted as an intermediary case between the standard and
CDM scenarios.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
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