35 research outputs found
VulnerabilitÀtsfaktoren der Depression: ZusammenhÀnge und prognostische Relevanz bei stationÀrer Therapie
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht ZusammenhĂ€nge zwischen verschiedenen VulnerabilitĂ€tsfaktoren der Depression und deren EinflĂŒsse auf den Krankheitsverlauf bei stationĂ€r behandelten, depressiven Patienten
Erweiterte Ăberlegungen zur integrativen Vermeidung von Umweltauswirkungen am Beispiel der Stickoxidemissionen aus Abfallverbrennungsanlagen (KIT Scientific Reports ; 7680)
Die europĂ€ische Richtlinie ĂŒber Industrieemissionen fordert die Anwendung der besten verfĂŒgbaren Technologien fĂŒr den Umweltschutz. Aufgrund dieser Entwicklungen wurden in Deutschland die Grenzwerte fĂŒr Abfallverbrennungsanlagen herabgesetzt. Am Beispiel der Stickoxidminderung wird ein sektorĂŒbergreifender Ansatz abgeleitet, der an Stelle einer AufrĂŒstung der Entstickungsverfahren an Abfallverbrennungsanlagen die Nutzung der effizienteren Technik an Kraftwerken als Dienstleistung vorsieht
Alexithymia Is Associated With Deficits in Visual Search for Emotional Faces in Clinical Depression
Background: The concept of alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and
describing oneâs emotions. Alexithymic individuals are impaired in the recognition of
othersâ emotional facial expressions. Alexithymia is quite common in patients suffering
from major depressive disorder. The face-in-the-crowd task is a visual search paradigm
that assesses processing of multiple facial emotions. In the present eye-tracking study,
the relationship between alexithymia and visual processing of facial emotions was
examined in clinical depression.
Materials and Methods: Gaze behavior and manual response times of 20 alexithymic
and 19 non-alexithymic depressed patients were compared in a face-in-the-crowd task.
Alexithymia was empirically measured via the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia-Scale. Angry,
happy, and neutral facial expressions of different individuals were shown as target and
distractor stimuli. Our analyses of gaze behavior focused on latency to the target face,
number of distractor faces fixated before fixating the target, number of target fixations,
and number of distractor faces fixated after fixating the target.
Results: Alexithymic patients exhibited in general slower decision latencies compared
to non-alexithymic patients in the face-in-the-crowd task. Patient groups did not differ
in latency to target, number of target fixations, and number of distractors fixated prior
to target fixation. However, after having looked at the target, alexithymic patients fixated
more distractors than non-alexithymic patients, regardless of expression condition.
Discussion: According to our results, alexithymia goes along with impairments in
visual processing of multiple facial emotions in clinical depression. Alexithymia appears
to be associated with delayed manual reaction times and prolonged scanning after
the first target fixation in depression, but it might have no impact on the early search
phase. The observed deficits could indicate difficulties in target identification and/or
decision-making when processing multiple emotional facial expressions. Impairments
of alexithymic depressed patients in processing emotions in crowds of faces seem not
limited to a specific affective valence. In group situations, alexithymic depressed patients
might be slowed in processing interindividual differences in emotional expressions
compared with non-alexithymic depressed patients. This could represent a disadvantage
in understanding non-verbal communication in groups
Criterion Validity of the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test: Prediction of Facial Affect Perception
This study focused on the criterion-related validity of the Implicit Positive and Negative
Affect Test (IPANAT). The IPANAT is thought to be a measure of automatic activation of
cognitive representations of affects. In this study, it was investigated whether implicit
affect scores differentially predict ratings of facial emotions over and above explicit
affectivity. Ninety-six young female participants completed the IPANAT, the Positive and
Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) as an explicit measure of state and trait affectivity,
and a task for the perception of facial emotions. Implicit negative affect predicted the
perception of negative but not positive facial emotions, whereas implicit positive affect
predicted the perception of positive but not negative facial emotions. The observed
double-dissociation in the correlational pattern strongly supports the validity of the
IPANAT as a measure of implicit affectivity and is indicative of the orthogonality and
thus functional distinctness of the two affect dimensions of the IPANAT. Moreover, such
affect-congruent correlations were absent for explicit affect scales, which additionally
supports the incremental validity of the IPANAT
Silicon CMOS photonics platform for enabling high-speed DQPSK transceivers
In this work we review the results obtained under the framework of FP7-HELIOS project for integrated DQPSK transceivers in silicon photonics. A differential DQPSK receiver with balanced zero biased Germanium photodiodes has been demonstrated at 10Gbit/s with an error floor around 10(-15). Furthermore, DPSK modulation up to 10Gbit/s with a bit error rate below 10(-9) is also demonstrated using a silicon push-pull operated dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) based on carrier depletion. The results indicate the potential of the silicon CMOS photonics platform for boosting next-generation optical networks based on advanced modulation formats
Associations between childhood maltreatment and emotion processing biases in major depression: results from a dot-probe task
Racial differences in systemic sclerosis disease presentation: a European Scleroderma Trials and Research group study
Objectives. Racial factors play a significant role in SSc. We evaluated differences in SSc presentations between white patients (WP), Asian patients (AP) and black patients (BP) and analysed the effects of geographical locations.Methods. SSc characteristics of patients from the EUSTAR cohort were cross-sectionally compared across racial groups using survival and multiple logistic regression analyses.Results. The study included 9162 WP, 341 AP and 181 BP. AP developed the first non-RP feature faster than WP but slower than BP. AP were less frequently anti-centromere (ACA; odds ratio (OR) = 0.4, P < 0.001) and more frequently anti-topoisomerase-I autoantibodies (ATA) positive (OR = 1.2, P = 0.068), while BP were less likely to be ACA and ATA positive than were WP [OR(ACA) = 0.3, P < 0.001; OR(ATA) = 0.5, P = 0.020]. AP had less often (OR = 0.7, P = 0.06) and BP more often (OR = 2.7, P < 0.001) diffuse skin involvement than had WP.AP and BP were more likely to have pulmonary hypertension [OR(AP) = 2.6, P < 0.001; OR(BP) = 2.7, P = 0.03 vs WP] and a reduced forced vital capacity [OR(AP) = 2.5, P < 0.001; OR(BP) = 2.4, P < 0.004] than were WP. AP more often had an impaired diffusing capacity of the lung than had BP and WP [OR(AP vs BP) = 1.9, P = 0.038; OR(AP vs WP) = 2.4, P < 0.001]. After RP onset, AP and BP had a higher hazard to die than had WP [hazard ratio (HR) (AP) = 1.6, P = 0.011; HR(BP) = 2.1, P < 0.001].Conclusion. Compared with WP, and mostly independent of geographical location, AP have a faster and earlier disease onset with high prevalences of ATA, pulmonary hypertension and forced vital capacity impairment and higher mortality. BP had the fastest disease onset, a high prevalence of diffuse skin involvement and nominally the highest mortality
VulnerabilitÀtsfaktoren der Depression: ZusammenhÀnge und prognostische Relevanz bei stationÀrer Therapie
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht ZusammenhĂ€nge zwischen verschiedenen VulnerabilitĂ€tsfaktoren der Depression und deren EinflĂŒsse auf den Krankheitsverlauf bei stationĂ€r behandelten, depressiven Patienten
VulnerabilitÀtsfaktoren der Depression: ZusammenhÀnge und prognostische Relevanz bei stationÀrer Therapie
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht ZusammenhĂ€nge zwischen verschiedenen VulnerabilitĂ€tsfaktoren der Depression und deren EinflĂŒsse auf den Krankheitsverlauf bei stationĂ€r behandelten, depressiven Patienten
Predicting symptoms in major depression after inpatient treatment: the role of alexithymia
Alexithymia has been considered to have a negative influence on the course of symptoms in various psychiatric disorders. Only a few studies of depressed patients have examined whether alexithymia predicts the outcome of therapeutic interventions or the course of symptoms in naturalistic settings. This prospective study investigated whether alexithymia is associated with depressive symptoms after a multimodal inpatient treatment. Forty-five inpatients suffering from acute major depression were examined in the initial phase of treatment and then again after seven weeks. Patients took part in a multimodal treatment programme comprising psychodynamic-interactional oriented individual and group therapy. The majority of patients were taking antidepressants during study participation. To assess alexithymia and depressive symptoms, the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) were administered at baseline and follow-up. When controlling for baseline depressive symptoms along with trait anxiety, high scores in the externally oriented thinking (EOT) facet of alexithymia at baseline predicted high severity of depressive symptoms at follow-up (for self-reported as well as interviewer-based scores). Inpatients suffering from major depression with a more pronounced external cognitive style might benefit less from a routine multimodal treatment approach (including psychodynamic interactional therapy, antidepressant medication, and complementary therapies). Intervention programmes might modify or account for alexithymic characteristics to improve the course of depressive symptoms in these patients