1,913 research outputs found
Prevalence of purging at age 16 and associations with negative outcomes among girls in three community-based cohorts.
The comorbidity of purging behaviours, such as vomiting, inappropriate use of laxatives, diuretics or slimming medications, has been examined in literature. However, most studies do not include adolescents, individuals who purge in the absence of binge eating, or those purging at subclinical frequency. This study examines the prevalence of purging among 16-year-old girls across three countries and their association with substance use and psychological comorbidity
Self-hypnosis for anxiety associated with severe asthma: a case report
BACKGROUND: Management of asthma can be complicated by both medical and psychiatric conditions, such as gastroesophageal reflux, chronic sinusitis, and anxiety. When symptoms of asthma are interpreted without regard to such conditions treatment may yield a suboptimal outcome. For example, anxiety-associated dyspnea, tachypnea, and chest tightness can be mistakenly interpreted as resulting from an exacerbation of asthma. Medical treatment directed only for asthma may thus lead to overuse of asthma medications and increased hospitalizations. CASE PRESENTATION: The described case illustrates how a systemic steroid-dependent patient with asthma benefited from receiving care from a pediatric pulmonologist who also was well versed in the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety. By using self-hypnosis, the patient was able to reduce her dependence on bronchodilators. Following modification of her medical therapy under supervision of the pulmonologist, and regular use of hypnosis, the patient ultimately was weaned off her systemic steroid therapy. CONCLUSIONS: This report emphasizes that anxiety must be considered as a comorbid condition in the treatment of asthma. Self-hypnosis can be a useful skill in the treatment of a patient with anxiety and asthma
Probing Shadowed Nuclear Sea with Massive Gauge Bosons in the Future Heavy-Ion Collisions
The production of the massive bosons and could provide an
excellent tool to study cold nuclear matter effects and the modifications of
nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) relative to parton distribution
functions (PDFs) of a free proton in high energy nuclear reactions at the LHC
as well as in heavy-ion collisions (HIC) with much higher center-of mass
energies available in the future colliders. In this paper we calculate the
rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of the vector boson and their
nuclear modification factors in p+Pb collisions at TeV and in
Pb+Pb collisions at TeV in the framework of perturbative QCD
by utilizing three parametrization sets of nPDFs: EPS09, DSSZ and nCTEQ. It is
found that in heavy-ion collisions at such high colliding energies, both the
rapidity distribution and the transverse momentum spectrum of vector bosons are
considerably suppressed in wide kinematic regions with respect to p+p reactions
due to large nuclear shadowing effect. We demonstrate that in the massive
vector boson productions processes with sea quarks in the initial-state may
give more contributions than those with valence quarks in the initial-state,
therefore in future heavy-ion collisions the isospin effect is less pronounced
and the charge asymmetry of W boson will be reduced significantly as compared
to that at the LHC. Large difference between results with nCTEQ and results
with EPS09 and DSSZ is observed in nuclear modifications of both rapidity and
distributions of and in the future HIC.Comment: 13 pages, 21 figures, version accepted for publication in Eur. Phys.
J.
Fluctuations, Saturation, and Diffractive Excitation in High Energy Collisions
Diffractive excitation is usually described by the Good--Walker formalism for
low masses, and by the triple-Regge formalism for high masses. In the
Good--Walker formalism the cross section is determined by the fluctuations in
the interaction. In this paper we show that by taking the fluctuations in the
BFKL ladder into account, it is possible to describe both low and high mass
excitation by the Good--Walker mechanism. In high energy collisions the
fluctuations are strongly suppressed by saturation, which implies that pomeron
exchange does not factorise between DIS and collisions. The Dipole Cascade
Model reproduces the expected triple-Regge form for the bare pomeron, and the
triple-pomeron coupling is estimated.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure
Male Eating Disorder Symptom Patterns and Health Correlates From 13 to 26 Years of Age
Objective: Research on the manifestations and health correlates of eating disorder symptoms among males is lacking. This study identified patterns of appearance concerns and eating disorder behaviors from adolescence through young adulthood and their health correlates. / Method: Participants were 7,067 males from the prospective Growing Up Today Study. Surveys from 1999 to 2007 (spanning ages 13â26 years) provided repeated measures data on muscularity and leanness concerns, eating disorder behaviors (purging, overeating, binge eating, use of muscle-building products), and health correlates (obesity, non-marijuana drug use, binge drinking, and depressive symptoms). / Results: Latent class analyses of observations at ages 13 to 15, 16 to 18, 19 to 22, and 23 to 26 years identified 1 large Asymptomatic class and 4 symptomatic patterns: Body Image Disturbance (high appearance concerns, low eating disorder behaviors; 1.0%â6.0% per age period); Binge Eating/Purging (binge eating and purging, use of muscle-building products, low appearance concerns; 0.1%â2.5%); Mostly Asymptomatic (low levels of muscularity concern, product use, and overeating; 3.5%â5.0%); and Muscularity Concerns (high muscularity concerns and use of products; 0.6%â1.0%). The Body Image Disturbance class was associated with high estimated prevalence of depressive symptoms. Males in the Binge Eating/Purging and Muscularity Concerns classes had high prevalence of binge drinking and drug use. Despite exhibiting modestly greater appearance concerns and eating disorder behaviors than the Asymptomatic class, being in the Mostly Asymptomatic class was prospectively associated with adverse health outcomes. / Conclusion: Results underscore the importance of measuring concerns about leanness, muscularity, and use of muscle-building products when assessing eating disorder presentations among males in research and clinical settings
Quantitative test of the barrier nucleosome model for statistical positioning of nucleosomes up- and downstream of transcription start sites
The positions of nucleosomes in eukaryotic genomes determine which parts of
the DNA sequence are readily accessible for regulatory proteins and which are
not. Genome-wide maps of nucleosome positions have revealed a salient pattern
around transcription start sites, involving a nucleosome-free region (NFR)
flanked by a pronounced periodic pattern in the average nucleosome density.
While the periodic pattern clearly reflects well-positioned nucleosomes, the
positioning mechanism is less clear. A recent experimental study by Mavrich et
al. argued that the pattern observed in S. cerevisiae is qualitatively
consistent with a `barrier nucleosome model', in which the oscillatory pattern
is created by the statistical positioning mechanism of Kornberg and Stryer. On
the other hand, there is clear evidence for intrinsic sequence preferences of
nucleosomes, and it is unclear to what extent these sequence preferences affect
the observed pattern. To test the barrier nucleosome model, we quantitatively
analyze yeast nucleosome positioning data both up- and downstream from NFRs.
Our analysis is based on the Tonks model of statistical physics which
quantifies the interplay between the excluded-volume interaction of nucleosomes
and their positional entropy. We find that although the typical patterns on the
two sides of the NFR are different, they are both quantitatively described by
the same physical model, with the same parameters, but different boundary
conditions. The inferred boundary conditions suggest that the first nucleosome
downstream from the NFR (the +1 nucleosome) is typically directly positioned
while the first nucleosome upstream is statistically positioned via a
nucleosome-repelling DNA region. These boundary conditions, which can be
locally encoded into the genome sequence, significantly shape the statistical
distribution of nucleosomes over a range of up to ~1000 bp to each side.Comment: includes supporting materia
Optimal measurement of visual motion across spatial and temporal scales
Sensory systems use limited resources to mediate the perception of a great
variety of objects and events. Here a normative framework is presented for
exploring how the problem of efficient allocation of resources can be solved in
visual perception. Starting with a basic property of every measurement,
captured by Gabor's uncertainty relation about the location and frequency
content of signals, prescriptions are developed for optimal allocation of
sensors for reliable perception of visual motion. This study reveals that a
large-scale characteristic of human vision (the spatiotemporal contrast
sensitivity function) is similar to the optimal prescription, and it suggests
that some previously puzzling phenomena of visual sensitivity, adaptation, and
perceptual organization have simple principled explanations.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 2 appendices; in press in Favorskaya MN and
Jain LC (Eds), Computer Vision in Advanced Control Systems using Conventional
and Intelligent Paradigms, Intelligent Systems Reference Library,
Springer-Verlag, Berli
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State of the California current 2012-13: No such thing as an âaverageâ year
This report reviews the state of the California Current System (CCS) between winter 2012 and spring 2013, and includes observations from Washington State to Baja California. During 2012, large-scale climate modes indicated the CCS remained in a cool, productive phase present since 2007. The upwelling season was delayed north of 42°N, but regions to the south, especially 33° to 36°N, experienced average to above average upwelling that persisted throughout the summer. Contrary to the indication of high production suggested by the climate indices, chlorophyll observed from surveys and remote sensing was below average along much of the coast. As well, some members of the forage assemblages along the coast experienced low abundances in 2012 surveys. Specifically, the concentrations of all lifestages observed directly or from egg densities of Pacific sardine, Sardinops sagax, and northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax, were less than previous yearsâ survey estimates. However, 2013 surveys and observations indicate an increase in abundance of northern anchovy. During winter 2011/2012, the increased presence of northern copepod species off northern California was consistent with stronger southward transport. Krill and small-fraction zooplankton abundances, where examined, were generally above average. North of 42°N, salps returned to typical abundances in 2012 after greater observed concentrations in 2010 and 2011. In contrast, salp abundance off central and southern California increased after a period of southward transport during winter 2011/2012. Reproductive success of piscivorous Brandtâs cormorant, Phalacrocorax penicillatus, was reduced while planktivorous Cassinâs auklet, Ptychoramphus aleuticus was elevated. Differences between the productivity of these two seabirds may be related to the available forage assemblage observed in the surveys. California sea lion pups from San Miguel Island were undernourished resulting in a pup mortality event perhaps in response to changes in forage availability. Limited biological data were available for spring 2013, but strong winter upwelling coastwide indicated an early spring transition, with the strong upwelling persisting into early summer
Seismically induced landslide hazard and exposure modelling in Southern California based on the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake event
Quantitative modelling of landslide hazard, as opposed to landslide susceptibility, as a function of the earthquake trigger is vital in understanding and assessing future potential exposure to landsliding. Logistic regression analysis is a method commonly used to assess susceptibility to landsliding; however, estimating probability of landslide hazard as a result of an earthquake trigger is rarely undertaken. This paper utilises a very detailed landslide inventory map and a comprehensive dataset on peak ground acceleration for the 1994 Mw6.7 Northridge earthquake event to fit a landslide hazard logistic regression model. The model demonstrates a high success rate for estimating probability of landslides as a result of earthquake shaking. Seven earthquake magnitude scenarios were simulated using the Open Source Seismic Hazard Analysis (OpenSHA) application to simulate peak ground acceleration, a covariate of landsliding, for each event. The exposure of assets such as population, housing and roads to high levels of shaking and high probabilities of landsliding was estimated for each scenario. There has been urban development in the Northridge region since 1994, leading to an increase in prospective exposure of assets to the earthquake and landslide hazards in the event of a potential future earthquake. As the earthquake scenario magnitude increases, the impact from earthquake shaking initially increases then quickly levels out, but potential losses from landslides increase at a rapid rate. The modelling approach, as well as the specific model, developed in this paper can be used to estimate landslide probabilities as a result of an earthquake event for any scenario where the peak ground acceleration variable is available
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