2,454 research outputs found
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
Maximizing nearest neighbour entanglement in finitely correlated qubit--chains
We consider translationally invariant states of an infinite one dimensional
chain of qubits or spin-1/2 particles. We maximize the entanglement shared by
nearest neighbours via a variational approach based on finitely correlated
states. We find an upper bound of nearest neighbour concurrence equal to
C=0.434095 which is 0.09% away from the bound C_W=0.434467 obtained by a
completely different procedure. The obtained state maximizing nearest neighbour
entanglement seems to approximate the maximally entangled mixed states (MEMS).
Further we investigate in detail several other properties of the so obtained
optimal state.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 2nd version minor change
Prevalence and Comorbidity of Alcohol Dependence, Depression, and Anxiety Disorders in their Association with the Serotonin Transporter Gene
Introduction: Depression and anxiety disorders have been found to be highly comorbid in epidemiologic studies. Furthermore, the presence of the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene (5HTT) has been found to be associated with an increased prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, as well as personality disorders.
Aims: To examine the association of the 5HTT and the risk of prevalence and comorbidity for, Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, as well as several anxiety disorders in a sample of the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Survey Follow-up Study.
Methods: We estimated lifetime prevalence and the risk of comorbidity for Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Social Phobia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Simple Phobia, Dysthymic Disorder. All subjects were evaluated by a psychiatrist using the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry. In addition, we assessed the impact of the carrier status into the prevalence and comorbidity estimates of the aforementioned disorders.
Results: A significant association was found between an increased risk for the lifetime prevalence of Panic Disorder and the 5-HTT “s” polymorphism (OR (95% CI): 3.10 (1.33; 7.27). A higher risk for lifetime prevalence of Panic Disorder and the 5-HTT “s” polymorphism was found in women carriers as compared to men(OR (95% CI): 3.54 (1.41; 8.91)). Panic Disorder had significant comorbidities with Alcohol Dependence, Alcohol Abuse, MDD, Bipolar Disorder, Agoraphobia, Social Phobia, OCD, Simple Phobia and Adjustment Disorder. These associations were higher in women as compared to men carriers. Comorbidities for Simple Phobia were highly significant in males for most anxiety disorders and MDD.
Conclusions: There was a high prevalence of comorbidity amongst most of the anxiety disorders in this population. The effect of the 5HTT carrier status was only associated with an increment in the risk of having a Panic Disorder
Prismane C_8: A New Form of Carbon?
Our numerical calculations on small carbon clusters point to the existence of
a metastable three-dimensional eight-atom cluster C which has a shape of a
six-atom triangular prism with two excess atoms above and below its bases. We
gave this cluster the name "prismane". The binding energy of the prismane
equals to 5.1 eV/atom, i.e., is 0.45 eV/atom lower than the binding energy of
the stable one-dimensional eight-atom cluster and 2.3 eV/atom lower than the
binding energy of the bulk graphite or diamond. Molecular dynamics simulations
give evidence for a rather high stability of the prismane, the activation
energy for a prismane decay being about 0.8 eV. The prismane lifetime increases
rapidly as the temperature decreases indicating a possibility of experimental
observation of this cluster.Comment: 5 pages (revtex), 3 figures (eps
Absolute instruments and perfect imaging in geometrical optics
We investigate imaging by spherically symmetric absolute instruments that
provide perfect imaging in the sense of geometrical optics. We derive a number
of properties of such devices, present a general method for designing them and
use this method to propose several new absolute instruments, in particular a
lens providing a stigmatic image of an optically homogeneous region and having
a moderate refractive index range.Comment: 20 pages, 9 image
Influence of the Soret effect on convection of binary fluids
Convection in horizontal layers of binary fluids heated from below and in
particular the influence of the Soret effect on the bifurcation properties of
extended stationary and traveling patterns that occur for negative Soret
coupling is investigated theoretically. The fixed points corresponding to these
two convection structures are determined for realistic boundary conditions with
a many mode Galerkin scheme for temperature and concentration and an accurate
one mode truncation of the velocity field. This solution procedure yields the
stable and unstable solutions for all stationary and traveling patterns so that
complete phase diagrams for the different convection types in typical binary
liquid mixtures can easily be computed. Also the transition from weakly to
strongly nonlinear states can be analyzed in detail. An investigation of the
concentration current and of the relevance of its constituents shows the way
for a simplification of the mode representation of temperature and
concentration field as well as for an analytically manageable few mode
description.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figure
On two problems in graph Ramsey theory
We study two classical problems in graph Ramsey theory, that of determining
the Ramsey number of bounded-degree graphs and that of estimating the induced
Ramsey number for a graph with a given number of vertices.
The Ramsey number r(H) of a graph H is the least positive integer N such that
every two-coloring of the edges of the complete graph contains a
monochromatic copy of H. A famous result of Chv\'atal, R\"{o}dl, Szemer\'edi
and Trotter states that there exists a constant c(\Delta) such that r(H) \leq
c(\Delta) n for every graph H with n vertices and maximum degree \Delta. The
important open question is to determine the constant c(\Delta). The best
results, both due to Graham, R\"{o}dl and Ruci\'nski, state that there are
constants c and c' such that 2^{c' \Delta} \leq c(\Delta) \leq 2^{c \Delta
\log^2 \Delta}. We improve this upper bound, showing that there is a constant c
for which c(\Delta) \leq 2^{c \Delta \log \Delta}.
The induced Ramsey number r_{ind}(H) of a graph H is the least positive
integer N for which there exists a graph G on N vertices such that every
two-coloring of the edges of G contains an induced monochromatic copy of H.
Erd\H{o}s conjectured the existence of a constant c such that, for any graph H
on n vertices, r_{ind}(H) \leq 2^{c n}. We move a step closer to proving this
conjecture, showing that r_{ind} (H) \leq 2^{c n \log n}. This improves upon an
earlier result of Kohayakawa, Pr\"{o}mel and R\"{o}dl by a factor of \log n in
the exponent.Comment: 18 page
Bounds for graph regularity and removal lemmas
We show, for any positive integer k, that there exists a graph in which any
equitable partition of its vertices into k parts has at least ck^2/\log^* k
pairs of parts which are not \epsilon-regular, where c,\epsilon>0 are absolute
constants. This bound is tight up to the constant c and addresses a question of
Gowers on the number of irregular pairs in Szemer\'edi's regularity lemma.
In order to gain some control over irregular pairs, another regularity lemma,
known as the strong regularity lemma, was developed by Alon, Fischer,
Krivelevich, and Szegedy. For this lemma, we prove a lower bound of
wowzer-type, which is one level higher in the Ackermann hierarchy than the
tower function, on the number of parts in the strong regularity lemma,
essentially matching the upper bound. On the other hand, for the induced graph
removal lemma, the standard application of the strong regularity lemma, we find
a different proof which yields a tower-type bound.
We also discuss bounds on several related regularity lemmas, including the
weak regularity lemma of Frieze and Kannan and the recently established regular
approximation theorem. In particular, we show that a weak partition with
approximation parameter \epsilon may require as many as
2^{\Omega(\epsilon^{-2})} parts. This is tight up to the implied constant and
solves a problem studied by Lov\'asz and Szegedy.Comment: 62 page
Region of Excessive Flux of PeV Cosmic Rays in the Direction Toward Pulsars PSR J1840+5640 and LAT PSR J1836+5925
An analysis of arrival directions of extensive air showers (EAS) registered
with the EAS MSU and EAS-1000 prototype arrays has revealed a region of
excessive flux of PeV cosmic rays in the direction toward pulsars PSR
J1840+5640 and LAT PSR J1836+5925 at significance level up to 4.5sigma. The
first of the pulsars was discovered almost 30 years ago and is a well-studied
old radio pulsar located at the distance of 1.7pc from the Solar system. The
second pulsar belongs to a new type of pulsars, discovered by the space
gamma-ray observatory Fermi, pulsations of which are not observed in optical
and radio wavelengths but only in the gamma-ray range of energies
(gamma-ray-only pulsars). In our opinion, the existence of the region of
excessive flux of cosmic rays registered with two different arrays provides a
strong evidence that isolated pulsars can give a noticeable contribution to the
flux of Galactic cosmic rays in the PeV energy range.Comment: 14 pages; v.2: a few remarks to match a version accepted for
Astronomy Letters added. They can be found by redefining the \NEW command in
the preamble of the LaTeX fil
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