Testing the Paleolithic-human-warfare hypothesis of blood-injectiion phobia in the Balitmore ECA Follow-up Study-Towards a more etiologically-based conceptualization for DSM-V

Objective: The research agenda for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) has emphasized the need for a more etiologically-based classification system, especially for stress-induced and fear-circuitry disorders. Testable hypotheses based on threats to survival during particular segments of the human era of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA) may be useful in developing a brain-evolution-based classification for the wide spectrum of disorders ranging from disorders which are mostly overconsolidationally such as PTSD, to fear-circuitry disorders which are mostly innate such as specific phobias. The recently presented Paleolithic-human-warfare hypothesis posits that blood–injection phobia can be traced to a “survival (fitness) enhancing” trait, which evolved in some females of reproductive-age during the millennia of intergroup warfare in the Paleolithic EEA. The study presented here tests the key a priori prediction of this hypothesis—that current blood–injection phobia will have higher prevalence in reproductive-age women than in post-menopausal women. Method: The Diagnostic Interview Schedule (version III-R) , which included a section on blood and injection phobia, was administered to 1920 subjects in the Baltimore ECA Follow-up Study. Results: Data on BII phobia was available on 1724 subjects (1078 women and 646 males) . The prevalence of current blood– injection phobia was 3.3% in women aged 27–49 and 1.1% in women over age 50 (OR 3.05, 95% CI 1.20–7.73) . [The corresponding figures for males were 0.8% and 0.7% (OR 1.19, 95% CI 0.20–7.14)] . Conclusions: This epidemiological study provides one source of support for the Paleolithic-human-warfare (Paleolithic-threat) hypothesis regarding the evolutionary (distal) etiology of bloodletting-related phobia, and may contribute to a more brain- evolution-based re-conceptualization and classification of this fear circuitry-related trait for the DSM-V. In addition, the finding reported here may also stimulate new research directions on more proximal mechanisms which can lead to the development of evidence-based psychopharmacological preventive interventions for this common and sometimes disabling fear-circuitry disorder

Organic Arable Systems at ADAS Terrington OF0112

Project OF0112 contributes to MAFF's main policy focus of encouraging conversion to organic farming methods. It is part of a long term rotational study that began in 1990 as OF0102 and has recently been extended to 2001 as OF0145. The overall objective of these three projects is to evaluate the cost of conversion to organic arable production on a fertile soil, to assess the physical and financial performance of the organic rotation, to identify and overcome limitations to sustainabilty and to compare the results with conventional arable production. The project comprises a field-scale unreplicated systems comparison and associated replicated experiments at ADAS Terrington, and a financial analysis of ten commercial 'linked' organic farms. The silty clay loam soil at Terrington has proved ideal for organic production, primarily because it has very good water and nutrient and retention. As expected, organic crop yields have been less than conventional, averaging 70% for winter wheat; yields have been, on average, double that of the linked farms, and reached a peak of 10 t/ha in 1996. Variable costs have been lower and organic prices have been twice or more that for conventionally grown potatoes and wheat. Crop grossmargins (i.e. the value of the crop harvested minus the drect variable costs of growing it) have been consistently higher from organic than conventional. Even allowing for the lower value of the other three crops in the rotation, i.e. beans, spring cereal and clover (Set aside), overall gross margin from organic was higher than from conventional (average from 1993 to 1997 was 1,878 v 1,290 #/ha). Crop yields and gross margins were generally lower on the linked farms, probably mainly because they were on lighter soils more prone to leaching losses. However, all were viable businesses and had similar profitabilities to conventional farms of their size. The most profitable rotations in cluded potatoes and/or vegetables. In the absence of animal manures and synthetic fertilisers, the main driver of crop yield and key to sucess, will be the fixation of sufficient atmospheric nitrogen by the Rhizobium bacteria in the root nodules of legumes. Replicated experiments comparing a range of species have shown that in terms of gross accumulation of nitrogen in the cut foliage, and in the yield of a following wheat crop, red clover, lucerne and white clover are all very effective fertility builders, with red clover on average just the best. A second experiment has compared wheat, barley and oats as the cover crops for the undersowing of red clover. In 1997 clover dry matter at harvest uder oats was only 4.5kg/ha compared with 88 under wheat and 74 under barley. Baley was also the most profitable crop, however this was affected by relative grain prices which vary between years. A third experiment tested timing of manure application across the rotation. The modest quantity applied (30 t/ha per rotation) was chosen as what could have been produced from animals fed on crops grown within the rotation. There was only one isolated response in crop yield over four different crops. This was probably a reflection of the high inherent fertility and nitrogen retention capacity of the silty clay loam soil at Terrington. There are real current business opportunities for conversion to arable production. The linked farms, mostly with mixed arable livestock rotations, show profitability comparable with conventional; stockless arable production was consistently more profitable than conventional on the fertile nutrient retentive soil at Terrington. However there remain questions about the longer term sustainability of a stockless arable rotation, even on such a well suited soil. The next phase of the project (OF0145), which has just started, will focus on sustainability studying potential threats from perennial weeds, nutrient supply and soil-borne pests and diseases. The use of manure will be discontinued and, in that part of the study area, vegetables will be introduced in place of potatoes to test an alternative rotation

The Bee, A Natural History, by Noah Wilson-Rich (2014, Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691161358. US$27.95)

(excerpt) Upon receiving “The Bee, A Natural History”, by Noah Wilson Rich, I was drawn in by the title and the beautiful rust and grey front cover featuring a nearly 3-D photo of a honey bee. I immediately felt twinges of excitement—this is the book I have always wanted to have available for my university course, Apiculture and Honey Bee Biology—and disappointment—I did not write it! The “bee”— singular—accompanied by the high-resolution photo, suggested that this book focused on the world’s best understood insect that my course is centered around, Apis mellifera

Review on Master Patient Index

In today's health care establishments there is a great diversity of information systems. Each with different specificities and capacities, proprietary communication methods, and hardly allow scalability. This set of characteristics hinders the interoperability of all these systems, in the search for the good of the patient. It is vulgar that, when we look at all the databases of each of these information systems, we come across different registers that refer to the same person; records with insufficient data; records with erroneous data due to errors or misunderstandings when inserting patient data; and records with outdated data. These problems cause duplicity, incoherence, discontinuation and dispersion in patient data. With the intention of minimizing these problems that the concept of a Master Patient Index is necessary. A Master Patient Index proposes a centralized repository, which indexes all patient records of a given set of information systems. Which is composed of a set of demographic data sufficient to unambiguously identify a person and a list of identifiers that identify the various records that the patient has in the repositories of each information system. This solution allows for synchronization between all the actors, minimizing incoherence, out datedness, lack of data, and a decrease in duplicate registrations. The Master Patient Index is an asset to patients, the medical staff and health care providers

Ingested placenta blocks the effect of morphine on gut transit in Long–Evans rats

Opioids produce antinociception, and ingested placenta or amniotic fluid modifies that antinociception. More specifically, ingested placenta enhances the antinociception produced by selective activation of central n-opioid or y-opioid receptors but attenuates that produced by activation of central A-opioid receptors. Opioids also slow gut transit by acting on central or peripheral A-opioid receptors. Therefore, we hypothesized that ingested placenta would reverse the slowing of gut transit that is produced by morphine, a preferential A-opioid-receptor agonist. Rats were injected with morphine either centrally or systemically and fed placenta, after which gastrointestinal transit was evaluated. We report here that ingested placenta reversed the slowing of gut transit produced by centrally administered morphine but did not affect the slowing of gut transit produced by systemically administered morphine. These results suggest another likely consequence of placentophagia at parturition in mammals—reversal of opioid-mediated, pregnancy-based disruption of gastrointestinal function—as well as an important consideration in opioid-based treatments for pain in humans—enhancement of desirable effects with attenuation of adverse effects

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY

Modelling the impacts of organic production up-scaled to regional and global levels gives an initial quan-tification of the potential extent of changes that large-scale conversion might induce. Optimistic estimates of change with respect to organic yield potential lead to modest impacts on global commodity prices, production, and trade. Conversion in high-input regions in Europe and North America to certified organic decreases production and increases commodity prices. Hunger in this scenario slightly worsens. Transition of low-input areas in Sub-Saharan Africa to non-certified organic leads to in-creased production and decreased prices. Food secu-rity improves slightly in this scenario. The switch for low-input regions helps decrease trade dependency in some commodities. Achievement of productivity levels in these scenarios is dependent on many factors that introduce a significant amount of uncertainty in the results. The extent of these impacts can be improved if concerted effort in research and development for yield and productivity enhancement is supported

The face, beauty, and symmetry: Perceiving asymmetry in beautiful faces

The relationship between bilateral facial symmetry and beauty remains to be clarified. Here, straight head-on photographs of “beautiful” faces from the collections of professional modeling agencies were selected. First, beauty ratings were obtained for these faces. Then, the authors created symmetrical left-left and right-right composites of the beautiful faces and asked a new group of subjects to choose the most attractive pair member. “Same” responses were allowed. No difference between the left-left and right-right composites was revealed but significant differences were obtained between “same” and the left-left or right-right. These results show that subjects detected asymmetry in beauty and suggest that very beautiful faces can be functionally asymmetrical

Influence of a fluorobenzene nucleobase analogue on the conformational flexibility of RNA studied by molecular dynamics simulations

Chemically modified bases are frequently used to stabilize nucleic acids, to study the driving forces for nucleic acid structure formation and to tune DNA and RNA hybridization conditions. In particular, fluorobenzene and fluorobenzimidazole base analogues can act as universal bases able to pair with any natural base and to stabilize RNA duplex formation. Although these base analogues are compatible with an A-form RNA geometry, little is known about the influence on the fine structure and conformational dynamics of RNA. In the present study, nano-second molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed to characterize the dynamics of RNA duplexes containing a central 1'-deoxy-1'-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-ß-D-ribofuranose base pair or opposite to an adenine base. For comparison, RNA with a central uridine:adenine pair and a 1'-deoxy-1'-(phenyl)-ß-D-ribofuranose opposite to an adenine was also investigated. The MD simulations indicate a stable overall A-form geometry for the RNAs with base analogues. However, the presence of the base analogues caused a locally enhanced mobility of the central bases inducing mainly base pair shear and opening motions. No stable ‘base-paired’ geometry was found for the base analogue pair or the base analogue:adenine pairs, which explains in part the universal base character of these analogues. Instead, the conformational fluctuations of the base analogues lead to an enhanced accessibility of the bases in the major and minor grooves of the helix compared with a regular base pair

Neural coding strategies and mechanisms of competition

A long running debate has concerned the question of whether neural representations are encoded using a distributed or a local coding scheme. In both schemes individual neurons respond to certain specific patterns of pre-synaptic activity. Hence, rather than being dichotomous, both coding schemes are based on the same representational mechanism. We argue that a population of neurons needs to be capable of learning both local and distributed representations, as appropriate to the task, and should be capable of generating both local and distributed codes in response to different stimuli. Many neural network algorithms, which are often employed as models of cognitive processes, fail to meet all these requirements. In contrast, we present a neural network architecture which enables a single algorithm to efficiently learn, and respond using, both types of coding scheme