1,821 research outputs found
"optimism Is a Strategy for Making a Better Future": A Systematic Review on the Associations of Dispositional Optimism with Health-Related Quality of Life in Cancer Patients
Cancer is a deadly disease that can lead to psychological suffering and decreased quality of life (QoL). Personality has been proven to have an effect on QoL and, in particular, Dispositional Optimism (DO) has been studied in relation to overcoming health crisis. The aim of this systematic review is to deepen the state of art of the relationship between QoL and DO in cancer patients. PubMed and Embase databases were systematically searched. Fifteen studies were included with a total of 5,249 cancer patients. All of the studies consider the relationship between DO and QoL, some studies analyze the correlation between the two variables and found a positive association. The majority of the studies investigate the predictive power of DO over QoL and most of them found DO to be predictive of a higher QoL. Results confirmed the association between DO and QoL in a sample of cancer patients. These results could influence the clinical practice as DO has been proven to have a beneficial effect on mental and physical health
Optical and X-ray Rest-frame Light Curves of the BAT6 sample
We present the rest-frame light curves in the optical and X-ray bands of an
unbiased and complete sample of Swift long Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), namely the
BAT6 sample. The unbiased BAT6 sample (consisting of 58 events) has the highest
level of completeness in redshift ( 95%), allowing us to compute the
rest-frame X-ray and optical light curves for 55 and 47 objects, respectively.
We compute the X-ray and optical luminosities accounting for any possible
source of absorption (Galactic and intrinsic) that could affect the observed
fluxes in these two bands. We compare the behaviour observed in the X-ray and
in the optical bands to assess the relative contribution of the emission during
the prompt and afterglow phases. We unarguably demonstrate that the GRBs
rest-frame optical luminosity distribution is not bimodal, being rather
clustered around the mean value Log(L) = 29.9 0.8 when estimated at
a rest frame time of 12 hr. This is in contrast with what found in previous
works and confirms that the GRB population has an intrinsic unimodal luminosity
distribution. For more than 70% of the events the rest-frame light curves in
the X-ray and optical bands have a different evolution, indicating distinct
emitting regions and/or mechanisms. The X-ray light curves normalised to the
GRB isotropic energy (E), provide evidence for X-ray emission still
powered by the prompt emission until late times ( hours after the burst
event). On the other hand, the same test performed for the E-normalised optical light curves shows that the optical emission is a
better proxy of the afterglow emission from early to late times.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
Effective absorbing column density in the gamma-ray burst afterglow X-ray spectra
We investigate the scaling relation between the observed amount of absorption
in the X-ray spectra of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows and the absorber
redshift. Through dedicated numerical simulations of an ideal instrument, we
establish that this dependence has a power law shape with index 2.4. However,
for real instruments, this value depends on their low energy cut-off, spectral
resolution and on the detector spectral response in general. We thus provide
appropriate scaling laws for specific instruments. Finally, we discuss the
possibility to measure the absorber redshift from X-ray data alone. We find
that 10^5-10^6 counts in the 0.3-10 keV band are needed to constrain the
redshift with 10% accuracy. As a test case we discuss the XMM-Newton
observation of GRB 090618 at z=0.54. We are able to recover the correct
redshift of this burst with the expected accuracy.Comment: MNRAS accepted. 6 figures. 3 table
GRB orphan afterglows in present and future radio transient surveys
Orphan Afterglows (OA) are slow transients produced by Gamma Ray Bursts seen
off-axis that become visible on timescales of days/years at optical/NIR and
radio frequencies, when the prompt emission at high energies (X and gamma rays)
has already ceased. Given the typically estimated jet opening angle of GRBs
theta_jet ~ 3 deg, for each burst pointing to the Earth there should be a
factor ~ 700 more GRBs pointing in other directions. Despite this, no secure
OAs have been detected so far. Through a population synthesis code we study the
emission properties of the population of OA at radio frequencies. OAs reach
their emission peak on year-timescales and they last for a comparable amount of
time. The typical peak fluxes (which depend on the observing frequency) are of
few micro Jy in the radio band with only a few OA reaching the mJy level. These
values are consistent with the upper limits on the radio flux of SN Ib/c
observed at late times. We find that the OA radio number count distribution has
a typical slope -1.7 at high fluxes and a flatter (-0.4) slope at low fluxes
with a break at a frequency-dependent flux. Our predictions of the OA rates are
consistent with the (upper) limits of recent radio surveys and archive searches
for radio transients. Future radio surveys like VAST/ASKAP at 1.4 GHz should
detect ~ 3x10^-3 OA deg^-2 yr-1, MeerKAT and EVLA at 8.4 GHz should see ~
3x10^-1 OA deg-2 yr-1. The SKA, reaching the micro Jy flux limit, could see up
to ~ 0.2-1.5 OA deg^-2 yr^-1. These rates also depend on the duration of the OA
above a certain flux limit and we discuss this effect with respect to the
survey cadence.Comment: (10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table) Accepted for publication by PAS
When in doubt, Google it: distress-related information seeking in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic
Background: Psychological health has been one of the aspects affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to evaluate the patterns of Google search for mental distress symptoms of Italian citizens during the various phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We assessed Google searches for psychological-health related words. We gathered and analyzed data on daily search queries on depression, anxiety, and insomnia from Google Trends, in a time ranging from the Pre-COVID phase (beginning 25th January 2020) up to the second wave phase (ending 17th October 2020). We performed three general linear models on search trends of the three words and tested whether and to what extent official data about new cases of COVID-19, information searching on new cases, and the government health measures impacted on these trends. Results: Average daily search queries were higher for anxiety, followed by depression and insomnia. General linear models performed to assess differences in daily search queries for anxiety, depression and insomnia were significant, respectively [F(13, 253) = 6.80, P <.001]; [F(13, 253) = 10.25, P <.001]; [F(13, 253) = 6.61, P <.001]. Specifically, daily search queries differed among different phases of managing the COVID-19 outbreak: anxiety [F(5, 253) = 10.35, P <.001, np2 =.17]; depression [F(5, 253) = 13.59, P <.001, np2 =.21]; insomnia [F(5, 253) = 3.52, P =.004, np2 =.07]. Conclusions: Our study contributed to the investigation of online information-seeking behaviors of Italians regarding mental health throughout the entire phase of the pandemic and provides insights on the possible future trends of mental distress during upcoming pandemic phases
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