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Recent changes to US research funding are having far-reaching consequences that imperil the integrity of science and the provision of care to vulnerable populations. Resisting these changes, the BJPsych Portfolio reaffirms its commitment to publishing mental science and advancing psychiatric knowledge that improves the mental health of one and all.
Drag has a long history in the LGBTQ community as a means of political engagement, activism, protest, and community building. Today, drag is popular in the LGBTQ community and in the rest of society. At the same time, it is routinely a target of conservative backlash against the LGBTQ community. Despite drag’s inherently political nature, political science has failed to engage substantially with the influence of drag. This article offers a justification and research agenda to bring drag into the mainstream of political science.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy, and spacetime.
This article explores the growing interface between social media and academic publishing. We discuss how the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJPsych) and other scientific journals are engaging with social media to communicate in a digital world. A growing body of evidence suggests that public visibility and constructive conversation on social media networks can be beneficial for researchers and clinicians, influencing research in a number of key ways. This engagement presents new opportunities for more widely disseminating information, but also carries risks. We note future prospects and ask where BJPsych should strategically place itself in this rapidly changing environment.
Declaration of interest
J.R.H., J.F.H. and D.T. are on the editorial board of the BJPsych. D.T. runs its social media arm.
Leaf colour characteristics of 730 sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. (Convolvulaceae), plant introduction (PI) accessions from the USDA sweetpotato germplasm collection were evaluated during 2012–2014. Colorimetry data for the abaxial and adaxial leaf surfaces were recorded using a tristimulus colorimeter and the CIE 1976 L*a*b* and CIE L*C*h* colour spaces. Most accessions (725 of 730 PIs) had dark-to-medium green leaves, but two PIs had totally purple leaves, and three PIs had yellow or yellow-green (chartreuse) leaves. For mature, field-grown green leaves, values for the red-green coordinate (a*) averaged −12.4 for the adaxial and −10.4 for the abaxial leaf surface. Values for the blue-yellow coordinate (b*) averaged 17.2 for the adaxial and 17.3 for the abaxial leaf surface. Hue angle (h*) for green leaves averaged 120.9° for the adaxial and 126.2° for the abaxial leaf surface. Colour saturation (Chroma, C*) averaged 21.3 for the adaxial and 20.2 for the abaxial leaf surface. Lightness (L*) averaged 35.4 for the adaxial and 47.2 for the abaxial leaf surface of green leaves. Late in the season, over one-half (53.9%) of the 730 PIs showed some level of purple pigmentation in the leaf lamina. Late-season purple leaves were collected and colour coordinates were recorded for 118 PIs grown in the field. For purple leaves, values for a*, b*, C*, L* and h* averaged 2.3, 6.2, 7.9, 28.2 and 64.4° for the adaxial surface and −1.0, 12.7, 13.9, 43.1 and 87.0° for the abaxial leaf surface, respectively.
Effective integrated weed management in agricultural landscapes depends on the ability to identify and manage processes that drive weed dynamics. The current study reports the effects of grazing management and crop rotation strategies on the seedbank and emerged weed flora in an integrated crop-livestock system (ICLS) experiment during a 12-year period under no-tillage in sub-tropical southern Brazil. During winter, Italian ryegrass cover crops were grazed by sheep: grazing management treatments included two stocking methods (continuous and rotational) and two forage allowances (10 and 20 kg of herbage dry matter available per 100 kg animal live weight). During summer, the crop rotation treatments involved either soybean-maize or soybean-soybean in succession with winter-grazed cover crops. The treatments were part of a factorial randomized complete block design. Treatment effects were evaluated on the weed seedbank and emerged weed flora populations during winter-grazed cover crop and summer crop growth as well as during the harvest phase. The current results demonstrate that crop rotation and grazing management exhibited interactive effects on the determination of weed outcomes in an ICLS. However, overall, compared with moderate forage allowance, high forage allowance during the winter-grazed cover crop caused lower emerged weed flora in subsequent crops (20% reduction during crop growth and 90% reduction at crop harvest) and 48% reduction in seedbank size. High forage allowance promoted more residue from winter-grazed cover crop biomass, which remained during the summer crop phases and probably resulted in a physical barrier to weed emergence.
The chemical composition oft he natural arsenate-apatite mineral johnbaumite [nominally Ca10(AsO4)6(OH)2] and its alteration product hedyphane [Ca4Pb6(AsO4)6Cl2] have been determined by electron microprobe analysis and the structures ofjohnbaumite and synthetic Sr-, Ba- and Pbarsenate apatites have been studied by As K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. All samples belong to the holosymmetric apatite space group P63/m with As5+ substituted for P5+ in the tetrahedral structural site. Johnbaumite contains small amounts ofF and Pb (~0.9 and ~4.4 wt.% respectively) and hedyphane has the ideal composition (formula given above); the compositions of these coexisting phases define the two limbs ofa solvus occurring between Ca- and Pb-arsenate apatite end members. The unit-cell parameters and cation–oxygen bond lengths for the arsenate apatites studied are discussed alongside published data for end-member Ca-, Sr-, Ba- and Pbphosphate apatite analogues with (OH), F, Cl or Br as the anions at the centres of the channels in the apatite structure. This discussion rationalizes the relationships between the two structural sites A(1) and A(2) occupied by divalent cations in terms of the size of the A–O polyhedra and the distortion of the A(1)–O polyhedron as measured by the metaprism twist angle [O(1)–A(1)–O(2) projected onto (001)].
Fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus and the cingulum may be biomarkers for bipolar disorder and may even be distinctly affected in different subtypes of bipolar disorder, an area in need of further research.
Aims
This study aims to establish if fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus and cingulum shows differences between healthy controls, patients with bipolar disorder type I (BD-I) and type II (BD-II), and their unaffected siblings.
Method
Fractional anisotropy measures from the uncinate fasciculus, cingulum body and parahippocampal cingulum were compared with tractography methods in 40 healthy controls, 32 patients with BD-I, 34 patients with BD-II, 17 siblings of patients with BD-I and 14 siblings of patients with BD-II.
Results
The main effects were found in both the right and left uncinate fasciculus, with patients with BD-I showing significantly lower fractional anisotropy than both patients with BD-II and healthy controls. Participants with BD-II did not differ from healthy controls. Siblings showed similar effects in the left uncinate fasciculus. In a subsequent complementary analysis, we investigated the association between fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus and polygenic risk for bipolar disorder and psychosis in a large cohort (n = 570) of healthy participants. However, we found no significant association.
Conclusions
Fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus differs significantly between patients with BD-I and patients with BD-II and healthy controls. This supports the hypothesis of differences in the physiological sub-tract between bipolar disorder subtypes. Similar results were found in unaffected siblings, suggesting the potential for this biomarker to represent an endophenotype for BD-I. However, fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus seems unrelated to polygenic risk for bipolar disorder or psychosis.
Children of parents with psychiatric disorders are at risk of poor outcomes. However, there is limited evidence regarding the relationship between parental psychiatric disorders and child school readiness, which is linked to later academic achievement. This study aims to investigate these relationships and broaden the evidence underlying the rationale for family-focused interventions for parental psychiatric disorders.
Method.
This study used linked administrative data. Children's school readiness in multiple developmental domains (physical, social, emotional, communicative, cognitive) was measured by the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) for 19 071 Western Australian children (mean age 5.5 years). Children scoring in the bottom 25% on any AEDC domain were considered developmentally vulnerable, or at risk of vulnerability, on that domain. Biological child–parent pairs were identified using birth records. Parents with psychiatric disorders were identified from hospital records, which included information on diagnosis and frequency/duration of psychiatric admissions. Logistic regressions, adjusted for parent age, mother's marital status, child Aboriginality, child English language status, local community remoteness and socioeconomic index, estimated the odds of children being vulnerable/at-risk on each of the AEDC domains.
Results.
A total of 719 mothers and 417 fathers had a psychiatric hospitalisation during the study period (12 months prior to the child's birth, up to the end of 2009). Children whose parents had psychiatric disorders had increased odds of being classified as vulnerable/at-risk for school readiness. This increase in odds was evident for both maternal (adjusted odds ratio, aOR 1.37– 1.51) and paternal psychiatric disorders (aOR 1.38–1.50); and for a single admission of one day (aOR 1.32–1.59), a single admission of multiple days (aOR 1.30–1.47), and multiple admissions (aOR 1.35–1.63). Some variability in child outcome was found depending on the parents’ psychiatric diagnosis (mood, anxiety, substance abuse or comorbid disorder).
Conclusions.
Children of parents who have been hospitalised with psychiatric disorders are at risk for poor school readiness. These findings add support to recommendations that mental health professionals consider dependent children in discharge and treatment planning for adult psychiatric inpatients. It is also important to ensure that the impact of psychiatric illness in fathers is not overlooked in assessment and intervention. Family-based approaches to adult psychiatric care could meet the dual needs of intervention for parents and preventative measures for children. These findings can inform policy regarding the importance of integrating and coordinating services to meet the needs of families.
Measurement of geometry, motion, and mass balance from Variegated Glacier, Alaska portray conditions in this surge-type glacier close to the mid-point of its 20 year surge cycle. Comparison of longitudinal profiles of ice depth, surface slope, and surface speed indicate that the motion occurs largely by internal deformation assuming the ice deforms according to the experimental law of Glen. Surface speed is not noticeably affected by local surface slope on the scale of the ice thickness or smaller, but correlates well with slope determined on a longitudinal averaging scale about one order of magnitude larger than the ice depth. The rate of motion on Variegated Glacier agrees well with rates on non-surge type temperate glaciers which have similar depth and slope. Although the (low regime at the time of the measurements is apparently typical of temperate glaciers, a large discrepancy between the balance flux needed for steady state and the actual flux is indicative of a rapidly changing surface elevation profile and internal stress distribution.
Glacial calving is a poorly understood process. This study tests the influence of local environmental variables on the magnitude and frequency distributions of calving behaviour at Glaciar San Rafael, Chile. Near the terminus of the glacier, surface speeds average 17 m d −1 in summer and calving is profuse and continual. The size, location and characteristics of over 7000 calving events were recorded during 32d in 1991 and 1992, together with meteorological, bathymetric and oceanographic data. Mean daily calving exceeds 400 events per day and the mean calving flux is more than 2 Mm3d1. Mean annual calving speed and calving flux are about 4500 m a −1 and 2.0 km3 a−1, respectively. This calving speed is higher than that predicted by the established empirical relationship between tide-water calving speed and water depth. This is surprising, given the low salinity of Laguna San Rafael and that fresh-water calving speeds are commonly much lower than those in ride water. Daily patterns of calving frequency and flux correlate poorly or not at all with meteorological variables, but tidal stage may have some control over the timing of large submarine calving events. Submarine calving produced the largest bergs. However, the relatively small total flux recorded from the submerged pars of the ice cliff may imply unusually rapid melt rates.
In North America, terrestrial records of biodiversity and climate change that span Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 are rare. Where found, they provide insight into how the coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system is manifested in biotic and environmental records and how the biosphere responds to climate change. In 2010–2011, construction at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) revealed a nearly continuous, lacustrine/wetland sedimentary sequence that preserved evidence of past plant communities between ~140 and 55 ka, including all of MIS 5. At an elevation of 2705 m, the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site also contained thousands of well-preserved bones of late Pleistocene megafauna, including mastodons, mammoths, ground sloths, horses, camels, deer, bison, black bear, coyotes, and bighorn sheep. In addition, the site contained more than 26,000 bones from at least 30 species of small animals including salamanders, otters, muskrats, minks, rabbits, beavers, frogs, lizards, snakes, fish, and birds. The combination of macro- and micro-vertebrates, invertebrates, terrestrial and aquatic plant macrofossils, a detailed pollen record, and a robust, directly dated stratigraphic framework shows that high-elevation ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado are climatically sensitive and varied dramatically throughout MIS 5.
Public opinion tends to be stable. Once formed, attitudes are persistent and endure over time at both the individual and the aggregate levels. Attitudes toward marriage equality, however, have changed rapidly in recent years. This article posits that this is partly due to people learning that other members of their in-groups are supporters; they then alter their own opinions to be consistent with those of other in-group members. The authors tested this theory using a set of randomized survey experiments that shared identities as fans of professional football. When fans learn—sometimes unexpectedly—that other fans or athletes are supporters of marriage equality, they are motivated to agree in order to further normalize their membership in those sports-fan groups.
Five cases of STEC O157 phage type (PT) 21/28 reported consumption of raw cows' drinking milk (RDM) produced at a dairy farm in the South West of England. STEC O157 PT21/28 was isolated from faecal specimens from milking cows on the implicated farm. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) showed that human and cattle isolates were the same strain. Further analysis of WGS data confirmed that sequences of isolates from an additional four cases (who did not report consumption of RDM when first questioned) fell within the same five single nucleotide polymorphism cluster as the initial five cases epidemiologically linked to the consumption of RDM. These four additional cases identified by WGS were investigated further and were, ultimately, associated with the implicated farm. The RDM outbreak strain encoded stx2a, which is associated with increased pathogenicity and severity of symptoms. Further epidemiological analysis showed that 70% of isolates within a wider cluster containing the outbreak strain were from cases residing in, or linked to, the same geographical region of England. During this RDM outbreak, use of WGS improved case ascertainment and provided insights into the evolution of a highly pathogenic clade of STEC O157 PT21/28 stx2a associated with the South West of England.
Although severe hoarding symptoms have been considered rare among obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) samples, the prevalence of animal hoarding in OCD is unknown. To help clarifying this issue, we searched for cases of animal hoarding among patients attending a university OCD clinic (n=420).
Methods
Chart review.
Results
Only two patients from our sample exhibited animal hoarding (<0.5%) and only one of them presented additional obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Both cases also collected inanimate objects, presented low insight, exhibited poor response to serotonin reuptake inhibitors and did not adhere to therapy.
Conclusions
There seems to be a lack of relationship between animal hoarding and OCD. However, further studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to better define their psychopathological profile and more appropriate nosological insertion.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in response to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster of 11 September 2001 (9/11) is one of the most prevalent and persistent health conditions among both professional (e.g. police) and non-traditional (e.g. construction worker) WTC responders, even several years after 9/11. However, little is known about the dimensionality and natural course of WTC-related PTSD symptomatology in these populations.
Method
Data were analysed from 10 835 WTC responders, including 4035 police and 6800 non-traditional responders who were evaluated as part of the WTC Health Program, a clinic network in the New York area established by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were used to evaluate structural models of PTSD symptom dimensionality; and autoregressive cross-lagged (ARCL) panel regressions were used to examine the prospective interrelationships among PTSD symptom clusters at 3, 6 and 8 years after 9/11.
Results
CFAs suggested that five stable symptom clusters best represent PTSD symptom dimensionality in both police and non-traditional WTC responders. This five-factor model was also invariant over time with respect to factor loadings and structural parameters, thereby demonstrating its longitudinal stability. ARCL panel regression analyses revealed that hyperarousal symptoms had a prominent role in predicting other symptom clusters of PTSD, with anxious arousal symptoms primarily driving re-experiencing symptoms, and dysphoric arousal symptoms primarily driving emotional numbing symptoms over time.
Conclusions
Results of this study suggest that disaster-related PTSD symptomatology in WTC responders is best represented by five symptom dimensions. Anxious arousal symptoms, which are characterized by hypervigilance and exaggerated startle, may primarily drive re-experiencing symptoms, while dysphoric arousal symptoms, which are characterized by sleep disturbance, irritability/anger and concentration difficulties, may primarily drive emotional numbing symptoms over time. These results underscore the importance of assessment, monitoring and early intervention of hyperarousal symptoms in WTC and other disaster responders.
A community outbreak of legionellosis occurred in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, during July and August 2002. A descriptive study and active case-finding were instigated and all known wet cooling systems and other potential sources were investigated. Genotypic and phenotypic analysis, and amplified fragment length polymorphism of clinical human and environmental isolates confirmed the air-conditioning unit of a council-owned arts and leisure centre to be the source of infection. Subsequent sequence-based typing confirmed this link. One hundred and seventy-nine cases, including seven deaths [case fatality rate (CFR) 3·9%] were attributed to the outbreak. Timely recognition and management of the incident very likely led to the low CFR compared to other outbreaks. The outbreak highlights the responsibility associated with managing an aerosol-producing system, with the potential to expose and infect a large proportion of the local population and the consequent legal ramifications and human cost.