Emotional abuse interacts with borderline personality in adolescent inpatients with binge-purging eating disorders

Purpose: Childhood abuse is associated with an increased risk of developing eating disorders (EDs) as well as personality disorders (PDs). However, their interaction is still uncertain, particularly in adolescents. This study investigates the correlations between childhood emotional neglect (CEN), childhood emotional abuse (CEA), and obsessive-compulsive and borderline personality styles in female adolescent inpatients with eating disorders (EDs). Methods: One hundred and twenty-eight inpatients (ages 14-18) were assessed, 54 were diagnosed with restricting-type anorexia nervosa (AN-R) and 33 with a binge-purging ED [BP-ED; comprising patients with binge-purging type anorexia nervosa (AN-BP), n = 15, and bulimia nervosa (BN), n = 18]. Fifty healthy participants made up the control group (CG). CEN and CEA were assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, while the Personality Style and Disorder Inventory was implemented to determine personality styles. Results: A MANOVA revealed a significant main effect of CEA on spontaneous-borderline personality style [F(8,119) = 17.1, p < 0.001, eta(2) = 0.126], as well as a main effect of ED group on spontaneous-borderline [F(2,119) = 3.1, p = 0.048, eta(2) = 0.050]. A significant interaction between ED group, CEA, and spontaneous-borderline was found [F(2,119) = 3.5, p = 0.034, eta(2) = 0.055] with BP-ED showing significantly higher scores in CEA (9.3 +/- 4.0) and in spontaneous-borderline (14.2 +/- 6.2). Conclusions: Considering CEA and borderline personality style in adolescent inpatients with BN or AN-BP may help improve the understanding of the etiology and maintenance of BP-ED and provide more effective treatment targets

Emotional abuse interacts with borderline personality in adolescent inpatients with binge-purging eating disorders

Purpose Childhood abuse is associated with an increased risk of developing eating disorders (EDs) as well as personality disorders (PDs). However, their interaction is still uncertain, particularly in adolescents. This study investigates the correlations between childhood emotional neglect (CEN), childhood emotional abuse (CEA), and obsessive-compulsive and borderline personality styles in female adolescent inpatients with eating disorders (EDs). Methods One hundred and twenty-eight inpatients (ages 14-18) were assessed, 54 were diagnosed with restricting-type anorexia nervosa (AN-R) and 33 with a binge-purging ED [BP-ED; comprising patients with binge-purging type anorexia nervosa (AN-BP), n = 15, and bulimia nervosa (BN), n = 18]. Fifty healthy participants made up the control group (CG). CEN and CEA were assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, while the Personality Style and Disorder Inventory was implemented to determine personality styles. Results A MANOVA revealed a significant main effect of CEA on spontaneous-borderline personality style [F(8,119) = 17.1, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.126], as well as a main effect of ED group on spontaneous-borderline [F(2,119) = 3.1, p = 0.048, η2 = 0.050]. A significant interaction between ED group, CEA, and spontaneous-borderline was found [F(2,119) = 3.5, p = 0.034, η2 = 0.055] with BP-ED showing significantly higher scores in CEA (9.3 ± 4.0) and in spontaneous-borderline (14.2 ± 6.2). Conclusions Considering CEA and borderline personality style in adolescent inpatients with BN or AN-BP may help improve the understanding of the etiology and maintenance of BP-ED and provide more effective treatment targets. Level of evidence Level III, case–control analytic study

LES-based Study of the Roughness Effects on the Wake of a Circular Cylinder from Subcritical to Transcritical Reynolds Numbers

This paper investigates the effects of surface roughness on the flow past a circular cylinder at subcritical to transcritical Reynolds numbers. Large eddy simulations of the flow for sand grain roughness of size k/D = 0.02 are performed (D is the cylinder diameter). Results show that surface roughness triggers the transition to turbulence in the boundary layer at all Reynolds numbers, thus leading to an early separation caused by the increased momentum deficit, especially at transcritical Reynolds numbers. Even at subcritical Reynolds numbers, boundary layer instabilities are triggered in the roughness sublayer and eventually lead to the transition to turbulence. The early separation at transcritical Reynolds numbers leads to a wake topology similar to that of the subcritical regime, resulting in an increased drag coefficient and lower Strouhal number. Turbulent statistics in the wake are also affected by roughness; the Reynolds stresses are larger due to the increased turbulent kinetic energy production in the boundary layer and separated shear layers close to the cylinder shoulders.We acknowledge “Red Española de Surpercomputación” (RES) for awarding us access to the MareNostrum III machine based in Barcelona, Spain (Ref. FI-2015-2-0026 and FI-2015-3-0011). We also acknowledge PRACE for awarding us access to Fermi and Marconi Supercomputers at Cineca, Italy (Ref. 2015133120). Oriol Lehmkuhl acknowledges a PDJ 2014 Grant by AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya). Ugo Piomelli acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada under the Discovery Grant Programme (Grant No. RGPIN-2016-04391). Ricard Borrell acknowledges a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral grant (IJCI-2014-21034). Ivette Rodriguez, Oriol Lehmkuhl, Ricard Borrell and Assensi Oliva acknowledge Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, Spain (ref. ENE2014-60577-R).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Quantitative reconstruction of precipitation changes on the NE Tibetan Plateau since the Last Glacial Maximum &ndash; extending the concept of pollen source area to pollen-based climate reconstructions from large lakes

Pollen records from large lakes have been used for quantitative palaeoclimate reconstruction, but the influences that lake size (as a result of species-specific variations in pollen dispersal patterns that smaller pollen grains are more easily transported to lake centre) and taphonomy have on these climatic signals have not previously been systematically investigated. We introduce the concept of pollen source area to pollen-based climate calibration using the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau as our study area. We present a pollen data set collected from large lakes in the arid to semi-arid region of central Asia. The influences that lake size and the inferred pollen source areas have on pollen compositions have been investigated through comparisons with pollen assemblages in neighbouring lakes of various sizes. Modern pollen samples collected from different parts of Lake Donggi Cona (in the north-eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau) reveal variations in pollen assemblages within this large lake, which are interpreted in terms of the species-specific dispersal and depositional patterns for different types of pollen, and in terms of fluvial input components. We have estimated the pollen source area for each lake individually and used this information to infer modern climate data with which to then develop a modern calibration data set, using both the multivariate regression tree (MRT) and weighted-averaging partial least squares (WA-PLS) approaches. Fossil pollen data from Lake Donggi Cona have been used to reconstruct the climate history of the north-eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The mean annual precipitation was quantitatively reconstructed using WA-PLS: extremely dry conditions are found to have dominated the LGM, with annual precipitation of around 100 mm, which is only 32% of present-day precipitation. A gradually increasing trend in moisture conditions during the Late Glacial is terminated by an abrupt reversion to a dry phase that lasts for about 1000 yr and coincides with "Heinrich event 1" in the North Atlantic region. Subsequent periods corresponding to the Bølling/Allerød interstadial, with annual precipitation (<i>P</i>_ann) of about 350 mm, and the Younger Dryas event (about 270 mm <i>P</i>_ann) are followed by moist conditions in the early Holocene, with annual precipitation of up to 400 mm. A drier trend after 9 cal. ka BP is followed by a second wet phase in the middle Holocene, lasting until 4.5 cal. ka BP. Relatively steady conditions with only slight fluctuations then dominate the late Holocene, resulting in the present climatic conditions. The climate changes since the LGM have been primarily driven by deglaciation and fluctuations in the intensity of the Asian summer monsoon that resulted from changes in the Northern Hemisphere summer solar insolation, as well as from changes in the North Atlantic climate through variations in the circulation patterns and intensity of the westerlies

Preamplification techniques for real-time RT-PCR analyses of endomyocardial biopsies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to the limited RNA amounts from endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) and low expression levels of certain genes, gene expression analyses by conventional real-time RT-PCR are restrained in EMBs. We applied two preamplification techniques, the TaqMan^®PreAmp Master Mix (T-PreAmp) and a multiplex preamplification following a sequence specific reverse transcription (SSRT-PreAmp).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>T-PreAmp encompassing 92 gene assays with 14 cycles resulted in a mean improvement of 7.24 ± 0.33 Ct values. The coefficients for inter- (1.89 ± 0.48%) and intra-assay variation (0.85 ± 0.45%) were low for all gene assays tested (<4%). The PreAmp uniformity values related to the reference gene CDKN1B for 91 of the investigated gene assays (except for CD56) were -0.38 ± 0.33, without significant differences between self-designed and ABI inventoried Taqman^®gene assays. Only two of the tested Taqman^®ABI inventoried gene assays (HPRT-ABI and CD56) did not maintain PreAmp uniformity levels between -1.5 and +1.5. In comparison, the SSRT-PreAmp tested on 8 self-designed gene assays yielded higher Ct improvement (9.76 ± 2.45), however was not as robust regarding the maintenance of PreAmp uniformity related to HPRT-CCM (-3.29 ± 2.40; p < 0.0001), and demonstrated comparable intra-assay CVs (1.47 ± 0.74), albeit higher inter-assay CVs (5.38 ± 2.06; p = 0.01). Comparing EMBs from each 10 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and inflammatory cardiomyopathy (DCMi), T-PreAmp real-time RT-PCR analyses revealed differential regulation regarding 27 (30%) of the investigated 90 genes related to both HPRT-CCM and CDKN1B. Ct values of HPRT and CDKN1B did not differ in equal RNA amounts from explanted DCM and donor hearts.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In comparison to the SSRT-PreAmp, T-PreAmp enables a relatively simple workflow, and results in a robust PreAmp of multiple target genes (at least 92 gene assays as tested here) by a mean Ct improvement around 7 cycles, and in a lower inter-assay variance in RNA derived from EMBs. Preliminary analyses comparing EMBs from DCM and DCMi patients, revealing differential regulation regarding 30% of the investigated genes, confirm that T-PreAmp is a suitable tool to perform gene expression analyses in EMBs, expanding gene expression investigations with the limited RNA/cDNA amounts derived from EMBs. CDKN1B, in addition to its function as a reference gene for the calculation of PreAmp uniformity, might serve as a suitable housekeeping gene for real-time RT-PCR analyses of myocardial tissues.</p

Corrigendum to "Quantitative reconstruction of precipitation changes on the NE Tibetan Plateau since the Last Glacial Maximum &ndash; extending the concept of pollen source area to pollen-based climate reconstructions from large lakes" published in Clim. Past, 10, 21&ndash;39, 2014

No abstract available

What do dust sinks tell us about their sources and past environmental dynamics? A case study for oxygen isotope stages 3–2 in the Middle Rhine Valley, Germany

The study of geological archives of dust is of great relevance as they are directly linked to past atmospheric circulation and bear the potential to reconstruct dust provenance and flux relative to climate changes. Among the dust sinks, loess–palaeosol sequences (LPSs) represent the only continental and non-aquatic archives that are predominantly built up by dust deposits close to source areas, providing detailed information on Quaternary climatic and terrestrial environmental changes. Upper Pleistocene LPSs of western central Europe have been investigated in great detail showing their linkage to millennial-scale northern hemispheric climate oscillations, but comprehensive data on dust composition and potential source–sink relationships as well as inferred past atmospheric circulation patterns for this region are still fragmentary. Here, we present an integrative approach that systematically combines sedimentological, rock magnetic, and bulk geochemical data, as well as information on Sr and Nd isotope composition, enabling a synthetic interpretation of LPS formation. We focus on the Schwalbenberg RP1 profile in the Middle Rhine Valley in Germany and integrate our data into a robust age model that has recently been established based on high-resolution radiocarbon dating of earthworm calcite granules. We show that Schwalbenberg RP1 is subdivided into a lower section corresponding to late oxygen isotope stage 3 (OIS; ∼ 40–30 ka) and an upper section dating into the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ∼ 24–22 ka), separated by a major stratigraphic unconformity. Sedimentological proxies of wind dynamics (U ratio) and pedogenesis (finest clay) of the lower section attest to comparable and largely synchronous patterns of northern hemispheric climatic changes supporting the overall synchronicity of climatic changes in and around the North Atlantic region. The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) reveals a clear correlation between finer grain size and increasing AMS foliation within interstadials, possibly owing to continuous accumulation of dust during pedogenic phases. Such a clear negative correlation has so far not been described for any LPS on stadial–interstadial scales. Distinct shifts in several proxy data supported by changes in isotope composition (87Sr/86Sr and εNd) within the lower section are interpreted as changes in provenance and decreasing weathering simultaneously with an overall cooling and aridification towards the end of OIS 3 (after ∼ 35 ka) and enhanced wind activity with significant input of coarse-grained material recycled from local sources related to increased landscape instability (after ∼ 31.5 ka). We find that environmental conditions within the upper section, most likely dominated by local to regional environmental signals, significantly differ from those in the lower section. In addition, AMS-based reconstructions of near-surface wind trends may indicate the influence of north-easterly winds beside the overall dominance of westerlies. The integrative approach contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of LPS formation including changes in dust composition and associated circulation patterns during Quaternary climate changes.</p

River histories : A thematic review

Peer reviewe

Self-esteem in adolescent patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder during open-label atomoxetine treatment: psychometric evaluation of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and clinical findings

To report on (1) psychometric properties of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) studied in adolescents with ADHD, (2) correlations of SES with ADHD scale scores, and (3) change in patient-reported self-esteem with atomoxetine treatment. ADHD patients (12–17 years), treated in an open-label study for 24 weeks. Secondary analyses on ADHD symptoms (assessed with ADHD-RS, CGI, GIPD scales) and self-esteem (SES) were performed. One hundred and fifty-nine patients were treated. A dichotomous structure of the SES could be confirmed. Reliability and internal consistency were moderate to excellent. Highest coefficients were found for the correlation between SES and GIPD scores. Self-esteem significantly increased over time, accompanied by an improvement of ADHD symptoms and related perceived difficulties. The Rosenberg SES was shown to be internally consistent, reliable, and sensitive to treatment-related changes of self-esteem. According to these findings, self-esteem may be an important individual patient outcome beyond the core symptoms of ADHD