1,198 research outputs found
A systematic review of qualitative studies capturing the subjective experiences of Gay and Lesbian individualsâ of faith or religious affiliation
Individuals identifying as religious tend to report better health and happiness regardless of affiliation, work and family social support or financial status. Evidence suggests that cultural factors are intertwined with these concepts. Exploration of sexual minoritiesâ experiences has been neglected in previous years. Recently, a body of evidence is developing concerning this population, with theoretical speculation for changes of âstressorsâ for future generations and implications, particularly, on mental health outcomes. Lesbian and Gay individuals of faith (or spirituality), are susceptible to unique âstressorsâ, whilst others suggest religion can provide a support network providing protective health benefits. This review systematically explores the existing published evidence for the subjective experiences and accounts of LG people of faith. Sexual minority individuals who follow a religion or faith can experience good social support, reducing the risk of negative health outcomes, while for others, potentially serious, negative mental and physical health consequences are experienced (e.g., internalised homophobia, anxiety, rejection and suicidal ideation)
Ostracods from freshwater and brackish environments of the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley of Scotland : the early colonization of terrestrial water bodies
The Mississippian Strathclyde Group of the Midland Valley of Scotland yields some of the earliest non-marine ostracods. The succession records shallow marine, deltaic, estuarine, lagoonal, lacustrine, fluvial and swamp environments representing a series of staging-posts between fully marine and limnetic settings. Macrofossils and ostracods are assigned to marine, marginal marine, brackish and freshwater environments based on their faunal assemblage patterns. Key brackish to freshwater ostracods are Geisina arcuata, Paraparchites circularis n. sp., Shemonaella ornata n. sp. and Silenites sp. A, associated with the bivalves Anthraconaia, Carbonicola, Cardiopteridium, Curvirimula, Naiadites, the microconchid âSpirorbisâ, Spinicaudata and fish. Many Platycopina and Paraparchiticopina ostracods are interpreted as euryhaline, which corresponds with their occurrence in marine to coastal plain water bodies, and supports the âestuary effectâ hypothesis of non-marine colonization. The success of non-marine colonization by ostracods was dependent on the intrinsic adaptations of ostracod species to lower salinities, such as new reproductive strategies and the timing of extrinsic mechanisms to drive non-marine colonization, such as sea-level change. The genus Carbonita is the oldest and most common freshwater ostracod, and went on to dominate freshwater environments in the Late Palaeozoic
Conservation of structure and mechanism in primary and secondary transporters exemplified by SiaP, a sialic acid binding virulence factor from Haemophilus influenzae
Extracytoplasmic solute receptors (ESRs) are important components of solute uptake systems in bacteria, having been studied extensively as parts of ATP binding cassette transporters. Herein we report the first crystal structure of an ESR protein from a functionally characterized electrochemical ion gradient-dependent secondary transporter. This protein, SiaP, forms part of a tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic transporter specific for sialic acid in Haemophilus influenzae. Surprisingly, the structure reveals an overall topology similar to ATP binding cassette ESR proteins, which is not apparent from the sequence, demonstrating that primary and secondary transporters can share a common structural component. The structure of SiaP in the presence of the sialic acid analogue 2,3-didehydro-2-deoxyN-acetylneuraminic acid reveals the ligand bound in a deep cavity with its carboxylate group forming a salt bridge with a highly conserved Arg residue. Sialic acid binding, which obeys simple bimolecular association kinetics as determined by stopped-flow fluorescence spectroscopy, is accompanied by domain closure about a hinge region and the kinking of an alpha-helix hinge component. The structure provides insight into the evolution, mechanism, and substrate specificity of ESR-dependent secondary transporters that are widespread in prokaryotes
Inference for SDE models via Approximate Bayesian Computation
Models defined by stochastic differential equations (SDEs) allow for the
representation of random variability in dynamical systems. The relevance of
this class of models is growing in many applied research areas and is already a
standard tool to model e.g. financial, neuronal and population growth dynamics.
However inference for multidimensional SDE models is still very challenging,
both computationally and theoretically. Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC)
allow to perform Bayesian inference for models which are sufficiently complex
that the likelihood function is either analytically unavailable or
computationally prohibitive to evaluate. A computationally efficient ABC-MCMC
algorithm is proposed, halving the running time in our simulations. Focus is on
the case where the SDE describes latent dynamics in state-space models; however
the methodology is not limited to the state-space framework. Simulation studies
for a pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics model and for stochastic chemical
reactions are considered and a MATLAB package implementing our ABC-MCMC
algorithm is provided.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Journal of Computational &
Graphical Statistic
Phylogenetic relationships of African Caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona): insights from mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences
Africa (excluding the Seychelles) has a diverse caecilian fauna, including the endemic family Scolecomorphidae and six endemic genera of the more cosmopolitan Caeciliidae. Previous molecular phylogenetic studies have not included any caecilians from the African mainland. Partial 12S and 16S mitochondrial gene sequences were obtained for two species of the endemic African Scolecomorphidae and five species and four genera of African Caeciliids, aligned against previously reported sequences for 16 caecilian species, and analysed using parsimony, maximum likelihood, Bayesian and distance methods. Results are in agreement with traditional taxonomy in providing support for the monophyly of the African Caeciliid genera Boulengerula and Schistometopum and for the Scolecomorphidae. They disagree in indicating that the Caeciliidae is paraphyletic with respect to the Scolecomorphidae. Although more data from morphology and/or molecules will be required to resolve details of the interrelationships of the African caecilian genera, the data provide strong support for at least two origins of caecilians in which the eye is reduced and covered with bone, and do not support the hypotheses that the caecilian assemblages of Africa, and of East and of West Africa are monophyletic
Vortex dissipation and level dynamics for the layered superconductors with impurities
We study parametric level statistics of the discretized excitation spectra
inside a moving vortex core in layered superconductors with impurities. The
universal conductivity is evaluated numerically for the various values of
rescaled vortex velocities from the clean case to the dirty limit
case. The random matrix theoretical prediction is verified numerically in the
large regime. On the contrary in the low velocity regime, we observe
which is consistent with the theoretical
result for the super-clean case, where the energy dissipation is due to the
Landau-Zener transition which takes place at the points called ``avoided
crossing''.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX3.
Altered frontal and insular functional connectivity as pivotal mechanisms for apathy in Alzheimerâs disease
Background: Apathy is a common and early symptom in Alzheimerâs disease (AD) and is linked to poorer prognosis. Theoretical interpretations of apathy implicate alterations of connections amongst fronto-striatal and limbic regions.
Objective: To test the association between presence of apathy and patterns of brain functional connectivity in patients with clinically-established AD.
Methods: Seventy AD patients were included. Thirty-five patients experienced apathy as defined by the screening question of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, and thirty-five did not. All patients agreed to undergo an MRI protocol inclusive of resting-state acquisitions. The hemodynamic-dependent signal was extracted bilaterally from five regions of interest: ventromedial prefrontal cortices, anterior cingulate cortices, dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, insulae and amygdalae. t tests were run to compare connectivity maps of apathetic and non-apathetic patients. Age, education, Mini Mental State Examination score, gray matter volumes and gray matter fractions served as covariates.
Results: At a pFWE < 0.05 threshold, apathetic patients had reduced connectivity between the left insula and right superior parietal cortex. Apathetic patients had also increased connectivity between the right dorsolateral prefrontal seed and the right superior parietal cortex. Patients with apathy were significantly more likely to experience other psychiatric symptoms.
Conclusion: Our findings support a role of frontal and insular connections in coordinating value-based decisions in AD. Both down-regulation and maladaptive up-regulation mechanisms appear to be at play in these regions
Classical and quantum pumping in closed systems
Pumping of charge (Q) in a closed ring geometry is not quantized even in the
strict adiabatic limit. The deviation form exact quantization can be related to
the Thouless conductance. We use Kubo formalism as a starting point for the
calculation of both the dissipative and the adiabatic contributions to Q. As an
application we bring examples for classical dissipative pumping, classical
adiabatic pumping, and in particular we make an explicit calculation for
quantum pumping in case of the simplest pumping device, which is a 3 site
lattice model.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. The long published version is cond-mat/0307619.
This is the short unpublished versio
Finite temperature mobility of a particle coupled to a fermion environment
We study numerically the finite temperature and frequency mobility of a
particle coupled by a local interaction to a system of spinless fermions in one
dimension. We find that when the model is integrable (particle mass equal to
the mass of fermions) the static mobility diverges. Further, an enhanced
mobility is observed over a finite parameter range away from the integrable
point. We present a novel analysis of the finite temperature static mobility
based on a random matrix theory description of the many-body Hamiltonian.Comment: 11 pages (RevTeX), 5 Postscript files, compressed using uufile
Fluctuation Relations for Diffusion Processes
The paper presents a unified approach to different fluctuation relations for
classical nonequilibrium dynamics described by diffusion processes. Such
relations compare the statistics of fluctuations of the entropy production or
work in the original process to the similar statistics in the time-reversed
process. The origin of a variety of fluctuation relations is traced to the use
of different time reversals. It is also shown how the application of the
presented approach to the tangent process describing the joint evolution of
infinitesimally close trajectories of the original process leads to a
multiplicative extension of the fluctuation relations.Comment: 38 page
- âŠ