Social interactions of chronic psychiatric patients in organized ward recreational programs

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Comparison of RANS, DES and DDES Results for ONERA M-6 Wing at Transonic Flow Speed Using an In-House Parallel Code

The very first thought that comes to the mind with the application area of the DES and DDES schemes is a massively separated flow with highly unsteady flowfield. However, for various complex three dimensional cases, there is no prior knowledge of the flowfield in the domain and it may have mild separation or no separation at all with a steady domain. This study is carried out to see that what will be the behaviour of the DES and DDES schemes in comparison with the URANS scheme if they are applied to a steady state case. An in-house mpi code DG-DES is used for the present study. Three different flux computational schemes named Roe, AUSM and HLLC schemes within DES formulation are compared to check the response for the flows without massive separation and unsteadiness. The cases are run in both single and double precision mode for DES formulation using Roe flux computational scheme to appreciate the accuracy of the solver. A good comparison of pressure distribution with the experimental data is obtained for all URANS, DES and DDES simulations. The pressure distribution results for DES scheme using single and double precision agree well with the experimental data. The pressure distribution predicted by DES using Roe, AUSM and HLLC schemes agree well with the experimental data. The computed values of Cl and Cd are also in close approximity to the other studies. The drag predicted by all DES and DDES simulations is lower than the URANS scheme. It indicates that the DES and DDES schemes generate lower dissipation due to switching to the LES mode and hence result in lower drag prediction as compared with the URANS solution. There is no anomaly observed in the flow due to the use of DES or DDES for steady flow case

Advancing the Understanding of Behavior in Social-Ecological Systems: Results from Lab and Field Experiments

Experiments have made important contributions to our understanding of human behavior, including behavior relevant for understanding social-ecological systems. When there is a conflict between individual and group interests in social-ecological systems, social dilemmas occur. From the many types of social-dilemma formulations that are used to study collective action, common-pool resource and public-good dilemmas are most relevant for social-ecological systems. Experimental studies of both common-pool resource and public-good dilemmas have shown that many predictions based on the conventional theory of collective action, which assumes rational, self-interested behavior, do not hold. More cooperation occurs than predicted (Ledyard 1995), “cheap talk” increases cooperation (Ostrom 2006), and participants are willing to invest in sanctioning free riders (Yamagishi 1986, Ostrom et al. 1992, Fehr and Gächter 2000, Chaudhuri 2011). Experiments have also demonstrated a diversity of motivations, which affect individual decisions about cooperation and sanctioning (see Fehr and Fischbacher 2002 and Sobel 2005 for reviews, and Bowles 2008 for policy implications)

Mechanisms of stimulus-response coupling in platelet-activating factor stimulated platelets

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX170464 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

(De)Constructing 'Body Love' Discourses in Young Women's Magazines

This thesis is about the recent emergence of ‘love your body’ messages and discourse in mainstream women’s magazines available to New Zealand audiences. It is situated culturally and historically, in a time when media discourses about women and their bodies are dominated by post-feminist and neo-liberal conceptualisations of bodies as commodity objects of production, representative of successful femininity and an inflexible natural order. This thesis contributes to the existing feminist research literature about magazines by investigating an apparently ‘new’ textual feature of young women’s magazines, and through adding to an emerging literature about the production of magazine content. Methodologically, the thesis draws upon critical, feminist, and post-structuralist approaches as the basis of its own understanding of bodies and the undertaking of research. The research upon which this thesis is based has two parts. First, an in-depth investigation of the text and image content of magazine ’body love messages’ in two different titles – Cleo (New Zealand) and Cosmopolitan (Australia) – employed thematic and discourse analysis to explore the kinds of discursive ideas made available through the magazine’s communication of positive body messages to their readers. The analyses presented illustrate how ‘body love’ magazine content i) is framed within heavily dualistic discourses of the woman and her body, using obsessively repetitive images to illustrate its point, ii) constructs women’s bodies as essentially difficult to love, and then in turn constructs love itself as a visually evidential practice, and finally iii) introduces a heterosexual (male) partner as an accomplice / audience for this visual practice. The second study involved a discursive analysis of interviews undertaken with magazine editorial staff based in New Zealand and Australia, asking participants about the production of positive body messages in the title(s) they work for. Drawing upon this work, the latter analytical chapters of my thesis address i) how various discourses are used by magazine employees to simultaneously legitimate the limits around positive body content in their magazines, and at the same time construct their practices as those of a ‘good magazine’, and ii) the centrality of ‘images’ as a carefully managed topic in these interviews, and what this implies about how ‘love your body’ content is conceptualised within the industry which produces it. In undertaking this work, my intention was to provide a basis upon which feminist questions about the use and purpose of magazines as cultural-discursive spaces might be revisited in light of the new ‘body love’ content. The concluding chapter to the thesis comprises a dialogue in response to these questions about contemporary magazine body messages; weighing arguments of hope and promise against more conservative concerns about misrepresentation and appropriation. It also reconsiders the implications of the analyses with a view towards evaluating what, if anything, has changed about the way young women’s magazines address their readers’ bodies through the production of body love discourse

Between asylum and independence : toward a system of community care for people with long-term mental illness

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1988.Includes bibliographical references.by Elizabeth T. Murphy.M.C.P

Genome-wide DNA methylation meta-analysis in the brains of suicide completers

Suicide is the second leading cause of death globally among young people representing a significant global health burden. Although the molecular correlates of suicide remains poorly understood, it has been hypothesised that epigenomic processes may play a role. The objective of this study was to identify suicide-associated DNA methylation changes in the human brain by utilising previously published and unpublished methylomic datasets. We analysed prefrontal cortex (PFC, n = 211) and cerebellum (CER, n = 114) DNA methylation profiles from suicide completers and non-psychiatric, sudden-death controls, meta-analysing data from independent cohorts for each brain region separately. We report evidence for altered DNA methylation at several genetic loci in suicide cases compared to controls in both brain regions with suicide-associated differentially methylated positions enriched among functional pathways relevant to psychiatric phenotypes and suicidality, including nervous system development (PFC) and regulation of long-term synaptic depression (CER). In addition, we examined the functional consequences of variable DNA methylation within a PFC suicide-associated differentially methylated region (PSORS1C3 DMR) using a dual luciferase assay and examined expression of nearby genes. DNA methylation within this region was associated with decreased expression of firefly luciferase but was not associated with expression of nearby genes, PSORS1C3 and POU5F1. Our data suggest that suicide is associated with DNA methylation, offering novel insights into the molecular pathology associated with suicidality.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.NA/Fondation Brain Canada (Fondation Neuro Canada) MR/K013807/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom NIMH 1R21MH094771/U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) MR/K013807/1/Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (Brain & Behavior Research Foundation) MR/K013807/1/RCUK | MRC | Medical Research Foundation NA/Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture (FRQSC) R21 MH094771/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United Statespublished version, accepted version, submitted versio

White matter microstructure in 22q11 deletion syndrome: a pilot diffusion tensor imaging and voxel-based morphometry study of children and adolescents

Young people with 22q11 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) are at substantial risk for developing psychosis and have significant differences in white matter (WM) volume. However, there are few in vivo studies of both WM microstructural integrity (as measured using Diffusion Tensor (DT)-MRI) and WM volume in the same individual. We used DT-MRI and structural MRI (sMRI) with voxel based morphometry (VBM) to compare, respectively, the fractional anisotropy (FA) and WM volume of 11 children and adolescents with 22q11DS and 12 controls. Also, within 22q11DS we related differences in WM to severity of schizotypy, and polymorphism of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene. People with 22q11DS had significantly lower FA in inter-hemispheric and brainstem and frontal, parietal and temporal lobe regions after covarying for IQ. Significant WM volumetric increases were found in the internal capsule, anterior brainstem and frontal and occipital lobes. There was a significant negative correlation between increased schizotypy scores and reduced WM FA in the right posterior limb of internal capsule and the right body and left splenium of corpus callosum. Finally, the Val allele of COMT was associated with a significant reduction in both FA and volume of WM in the frontal lobes, cingulum and corpus callosum. Young people with 22q11DS have significant differences in both WM microstructure and volume. Also, there is preliminary evidence that within 22q11DS, some regional differences in FA are associated with allelic variation in COMT and may perhaps also be associated with schizotypy

Genome-wide DNA Methylation Meta-Analysis in the Brains of Suicide Completers

Suicide is the second leading cause of death globally among young people representing a significant global health burden. Although the molecular correlates of suicide remains poorly understood, it has been hypothesised that epigenomic processes may play a role. The objective of this study was to identify suicide-associated DNA methylation changes in the human brain by utilising previously published and unpublished methylomic datasets. We analysed prefrontal cortex (PFC, n = 211) and cerebellum (CER, n = 114) DNA methylation profiles from suicide completers and non-psychiatric, sudden-death controls, meta-analysing data from independent cohorts for each brain region separately. We report evidence for altered DNA methylation at several genetic loci in suicide cases compared to controls in both brain regions with suicide-associated differentially methylated positions enriched among functional pathways relevant to psychiatric phenotypes and suicidality, including nervous system development (PFC) and regulation of long-term synaptic depression (CER). In addition, we examined the functional consequences of variable DNA methylation within a PFC suicide-associated differentially methylated region (PSORS1C3 DMR) using a dual luciferase assay and examined expression of nearby genes. DNA methylation within this region was associated with decreased expression of firefly luciferase but was not associated with expression of nearby genes, PSORS1C3 and POU5F1. Our data suggest that suicide is associated with DNA methylation, offering novel insights into the molecular pathology associated with suicidality