Group-based Relaxation Response Skills Training for pharmacologically-resistant depressed and anxious patients

Background: Drug-resistance for depression and anxiety is a major limitation in the treatment of these common disorders, and adjunct support interventions may be beneficial in the treatment of these patients. Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a short-term (8 session) Relaxation Response Skills Training (RRST) programme for a population of psychiatric outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders who were unresponsive to drug treatment, and to test the feasibility of this intervention as complementary treatment for a psychiatric setting. Method: Forty patients were measured for overall psychopathological symptoms, depression, and anxiety, and were then given an 8-week course of RRST, while continuing their pharmacological treatment. Following the RRST intervention, participants were again assessed. Results: The results demonstrated reductions in overall symptoms (large effect size and reasonable clinically significant change), and also in depression and anxiety (medium effect sizes and clinically significant change). Conclusions: These results suggest that this short-term RRT offers a simple and cost-effective way to augment drug management for participants with common psychiatric disorders who are less responsive to the drug treatment

Induced Disjoint Paths in Circular-Arc Graphs in Linear Time

The Induced Disjoint Paths problem is to test whether a graph G with k distinct pairs of vertices (si,ti) contains paths P1,…,Pk such that Pi connects si and ti for i=1,…,k, and Pi and Pj have neither common vertices nor adjacent vertices (except perhaps their ends) for 1≤

On Feedback Vertex Set: New Measure and New Structures

We present a new parameterized algorithm for the {feedback vertex set} problem ({\sc fvs}) on undirected graphs. We approach the problem by considering a variation of it, the {disjoint feedback vertex set} problem ({\sc disjoint-fvs}), which finds a feedback vertex set of size $k$ that has no overlap with a given feedback vertex set $F$ of the graph $G$. We develop an improved kernelization algorithm for {\sc disjoint-fvs} and show that {\sc disjoint-fvs} can be solved in polynomial time when all vertices in $G \setminus F$ have degrees upper bounded by three. We then propose a new branch-and-search process on {\sc disjoint-fvs}, and introduce a new branch-and-search measure. The process effectively reduces a given graph to a graph on which {\sc disjoint-fvs} becomes polynomial-time solvable, and the new measure more accurately evaluates the efficiency of the process. These algorithmic and combinatorial studies enable us to develop an $O^*(3.83^k)$-time parameterized algorithm for the general {\sc fvs} problem, improving all previous algorithms for the problem.Comment: Final version, to appear in Algorithmic

Highly conserved gene order and numerous novel repetitive elements in genomic regions linked to wing pattern variation in Heliconius butterflies

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.BACKGROUND: With over 20 parapatric races differing in their warningly colored wing patterns, the butterfly Heliconius erato provides a fascinating example of an adaptive radiation. Together with matching races of its co-mimic Heliconius melpomene, H. erato also represents a textbook case of Müllerian mimicry, a phenomenon where common warning signals are shared amongst noxious organisms. It is of great interest to identify the specific genes that control the mimetic wing patterns of H. erato and H. melpomene. To this end we have undertaken comparative mapping and targeted genomic sequencing in both species. This paper reports on a comparative analysis of genomic sequences linked to color pattern mimicry genes in Heliconius. RESULTS: Scoring AFLP polymorphisms in H. erato broods allowed us to survey loci at approximately 362 kb intervals across the genome. With this strategy we were able to identify markers tightly linked to two color pattern genes: D and Cr, which were then used to screen H. erato BAC libraries in order to identify clones for sequencing. Gene density across 600 kb of BAC sequences appeared relatively low, although the number of predicted open reading frames was typical for an insect. We focused analyses on the D- and Cr-linked H. erato BAC sequences and on the Yb-linked H. melpomene BAC sequence. A comparative analysis between homologous regions of H. erato (Cr-linked BAC) and H. melpomene (Yb-linked BAC) revealed high levels of sequence conservation and microsynteny between the two species. We found that repeated elements constitute 26% and 20% of BAC sequences from H. erato and H. melpomene respectively. The majority of these repetitive sequences appear to be novel, as they showed no significant similarity to any other available insect sequences. We also observed signs of fine scale conservation of gene order between Heliconius and the moth Bombyx mori, suggesting that lepidopteran genome architecture may be conserved over very long evolutionary time scales. CONCLUSION: Here we have demonstrated the tractability of progressing from a genetic linkage map to genomic sequence data in Heliconius butterflies. We have also shown that fine-scale gene order is highly conserved between distantly related Heliconius species, and also between Heliconius and B. mori. Together, these findings suggest that genome structure in macrolepidoptera might be very conserved, and show that mapping and positional cloning efforts in different lepidopteran species can be reciprocally informative.The work was funded by U.S. National Science Foundation grants IOB 0344705 and DEB 0715096 to WOM. The H. erato BAC library was constructed by C. Wu, H. Zhang (TAMU), and M. R. Goldsmith (URI) under NSF Grant IBN-0208388. In addition, the Computational Biology Service Unit at Cornell University, which is partially funded by Microsoft Corporation, provided bioinformatics support for our analysis of genomic repeat structure. AFLP analysis and sequencing of PCR products was carried out at the Sequencing and Genotyping Center at the University of Puerto RicoRio Piedras. We thank Nicola Flanagan, Alexandra Tobler, Karla Maldonado, Jenny Acevedo Gonzales, Hector Alejandro Merchan, Yhadi Cotto, Kelitt Santiago and Felix Araujo Perez for help in rearing and maintaining butterfly stocks. Finally, a special thanks to Daniel P. Lindstrom for his support and helpful suggestions during manuscript preparation

A survey of statistics in three UK general practice journal

Background Many medical specialities have reviewed the statistical content of their journals. To our knowledge this has not been done in general practice. Given the main role of a general practitioner as a diagnostician we thought it would be of interest to see whether the statistical methods reported reflect the diagnostic process. Methods Hand search of three UK journals of general practice namely the British Medical Journal (general practice section), British Journal of General Practice and Family Practice over a one-year period (1 January to 31 December 2000). Results A wide variety of statistical techniques were used. The most common methods included t-tests and Chi-squared tests. There were few articles reporting likelihood ratios and other useful diagnostic methods. There was evidence that the journals with the more thorough statistical review process reported a more complex and wider variety of statistical techniques. Conclusions The BMJ had a wider range and greater diversity of statistical methods than the other two journals. However, in all three journals there was a dearth of papers reflecting the diagnostic process. Across all three journals there were relatively few papers describing randomised controlled trials thus recognising the difficulty of implementing this design in general practice

Parameterized vertex deletion problems for hereditary graph classes with a block property

For a class of graphs P, the Bounded P-Block Vertex Deletion problem asks, given a graph G on n vertices and positive integers k and d, whether there is a set S of at most k vertices such that each block of G − S has at most d vertices and is in P. We show that when P satisfies a natural hereditary property and is recognizable in polynomial time, Bounded P-Block Vertex Deletion can be solved in time 2O(k log d)nO(1), and this running time cannot be improved to 2o(k log d)nO(1), in general, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis fails. On the other hand, if P consists of only complete graphs, or only K1,K2, and cycle graphs, then Bounded P-Block Vertex Deletion admits a cknO(1)-time algorithm for some constant c independent of d. We also show that Bounded P-Block Vertex Deletion admits a kernel with O(k2d7) vertices. © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2016