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Laser-driven neutron sources are routinely produced by the interaction of laser-accelerated protons with a converter. They present complementary characteristics to those of conventional accelerator-based neutron sources (e.g. short pulse durations, enabling novel applications like radiography). We present here results from an experiment aimed at performing a global characterization of the neutrons produced using the Titan laser at the Jupiter Laser Facility (Livermore, USA), where protons were accelerated from 23 $\mathrm {\mu }$m thick plastic targets and directed onto a LiF converter to produce neutrons. For this purpose, several diagnostics were used to measure these neutron emissions, such as CR-39, activation foils, time-of-flight detectors and direct measurement of $^7{\rm Be}$ residual activity in the LiF converters. The use of these different, independently operating diagnostics enables comparison of the various measurements performed to provide a robust characterization. These measurements led to a neutron yield of $2.0\times 10^{9}$ neutrons per shot with a modest angular dependence, close to that simulated.
The relevance of behavioral addictions (like gambling or internet gaming disorder) is growing constantly - not only in clinical practice, but also as a topic in addiction research. Furthermore, behavioral addictions were found to share similar neurobiological mechanisms with substance-use disorders like alcohol or drug addiction. Cue reactivity is a well-established concept to study an important concept in addiction: craving, which denotes the strong desire to consume the addictive substance. For instance, images of alcoholic beverages can induce a strong desire to drink alcohol in patients with alcohol addiction, reflected in brain activation in parts of the reward system and regions specifically involved in craving.
Objectives
In order to extend existing findings to the field of slot machine gambling, we focused on patients suffering from gambling disorder (GD) and who mainly played slot-machines. We investigated neural activation as a response to addiction-related cues (in comparison to neutral cues) using a cue reactivity paradigm.
Methods
To that end, participants with a diagnosis of GD (N = 10) and a group of healthy controls (N = 20) viewed pictures of gambling-related cues (slot machines) as well as neutral cues (ticket vending machines), while brain activation was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Direct comparisons of patients suffering from GD with healthy controls were analyzed for the two different image types (gambling-related vs. neutral) separately.
Results
We found stronger activation in the insular cortex for patients with GD only during presentation of the slot-machine images, but not for the neutral cues. Furthermore, for the slot-machine condition also stronger activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the supplementary motor area (SMA) was documented for the clinical population but not for the healthy controls.
Conclusions
In line with previous findings, the visual presentation of gambling cues led to stronger brain activations in parts of the reward system (dACC) and in the insula, which plays a crucial role in addictive disorders, especially in craving. Our results further add to the notion that brain areas involved in substance-use disorders might also play an important role in behavioral addictions. Specifically, our findings extend existing results to the research field of slot-machine gambling in the context of craving.
Colliding collisionless shocks appear in a great variety of astrophysical phenomena and are thought to be possible sources of particle acceleration in the Universe. We have previously investigated particle acceleration induced by single super-critical shocks (whose magnetosonic Mach number is higher than the critical value of 2.7) (Yao et al., Nat. Phys., vol. 17, issue 10, 2021, pp. 1177–1182; Yao et al., Matter Radiat. Extrem., vol. 7, issue 1, 2022, 014402), as well as the collision of two sub-critical shocks (Fazzini et al., Astron. Astrophys., vol. 665, 2022, A87). Here, we propose to make measurements of accelerated particles from interpenetrating super-critical shocks to observe the ‘phase-locking effect’ (Fazzini et al., Astron. Astrophys., vol. 665, 2022, A87) from such an event. This effect is predicted to significantly boost the energy spectrum of the energized ions compared with a single super-critical collisionless shock. We thus anticipate that the results obtained in the proposed experiment could have a significant impact on our understanding of one type of primary source (acceleration of thermal ions as opposed to secondary acceleration mechanisms of already energetic ions) of ion energization of particles in the Universe.
The many negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic especially on vulnerable groups like patients suffering from drug addiction have been anticipated by experts early on. While drug consumption patterns of patients in opioid substitution treatment (OST, N=24) seemed hardly influenced at the early stage of the pandemic in Austria, the impact on the mental health of this population remained unclear.
Objectives
The main goal was to investigate long-term consequences of the pandemic in terms of PTSD and clinical symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among patients in OST between December 2020 and February 2021.
Methods
In a cross-sectional survey study (N=123) an adapted version of the impact of event scale (IES-R) was applied to evaluate PTSD symptoms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical symptoms were assessed by the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21), and respective changes due to the pandemic were documented. Sociodemographic and COVID-19 related factors, as well as data on drug consumption patterns were collected.
Results
A binary logistic regression analysis confirmed the negative long-term consequences of psychological and economic COVID-19 related factors on a higher risk for PTSD due to the pandemic. The high-risk PTSD group also demonstrated higher levels and a deterioration of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms since the pandemic.
Conclusions
Among our sample of patients in OST, 27% were at risk of PTSD due to the pandemic, and 30 to 50% reported concerning levels of depression, anxiety and stress. Health care facilities might use these findings as a valuable source of information, when special attention is needed.
Immune mediated inflammatory processes are involved in the aetiopathogenesis of bipolar disorder (BD) and weight associated comorbidities. Tryptophan breakdown via indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-1 (IDO-1) along the kynurenine axis concomitant with a pro-inflammatory state was found more active in BD but also associated with overweight/obesity.
Objectives
Aims of our study were to investigate 1.) the tryptophan metabolism in BD compared to mentally healthy controls, 2.) differences in weight classes, 3.) in a longitudinal setting, dependent on the incidence of BD episodes and euthymia.
Methods
At the Medical University Graz anthropometric and clinical data as well as peripheral tryptophan and kynurenine were assessed in serum samples of 226 individuals with BD and 142 controls. For 75 individuals with BD a longitudinal assessment with three samples was performed. Serum concentrations of tryptophan and kynurenine were determined by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The kynurenine/tryptophan was used as a proxy for IDO-1 activity.
Results
showed a higher kynurenine/tryptophan ratio in BD compared to controls and in overweight compared to normal weight persons. Levels remained stable over time. In the longitudinal course, no differences were found between individuals who were constantly euthymic or not as well who had an illness episode or none.
Conclusions
Findings indicate that IDO-1 activity might constitute more a trait and not a state marker of BD. Accelerated tryptophan breakdown along the kynurenine axis may be further facilitated by overweight. This may increase the risk of accumulation of neurotoxic metabolites which impacts BD symptomatology, cognition, and somatic comorbidities.
Vulnerable groups like patients suffering from alcohol use disorders (AUD) are expected to be particularly affected by the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a prior study (N=127), we found that psychosocial COVID-19 factors and living alone elevated the probability for relapse during the initial stage of the pandemic, whereas long-term effects on mental health have yet to be investigated.
Objectives
Here we aimed to investigate the risk of PTSD, as well as levels and developments in depression, anxiety and stress symptomatology as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic among patients with AUD.
Methods
Data was collected from a clinical sample of patients with AUD (N=136) in late 2020 and early 2021. PTSD symptoms due to the pandemic were assessed using an adapted version of the impact of event scale (IES-R). Levels in clinical symptoms were collected on the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21), and changes since the onset of the pandemic were assessed additionally.
Results
The high-risk PTSD-group showed higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress, and reported more severe deteriorations in these symptoms, when compared to the low-risk group. A binary logistic regression model revealed psychological and social aspects of the pandemic to increase the probability for PTSD, whereas sociodemographic and other COVID-19 related factors showed no significant effects.
Conclusions
About 30% of patients with AUD indicated an elevated risk of PTSD due to the pandemic, as well as deteriorations in levels of depression, anxiety and stress. These concerning findings should be especially considered in current and future treatment settings.
This chapter provides historical context for China’s evolution into a development banker during the 21st century. The People’s Republic of China has been involved with development finance—as both a recipient and donor of foreign aid and other development flows—since its founding in 1949. This chapter describes earlier efforts by researchers to track Chinese-financed development projects around the world. It then outlines basic shifts in China’s approach to development finance over time, and separates China’s approach to development finance into four stages. During the “Early Years” (1949–1959), revolutionary foreign policy under Mao (1960–1977), and the “Reform Era Recalibration” (1978–1998), important building blocks were set in place that help understand the nature of contemporary Chinese development finance. During the fourth and current phase, beginning with the “Going Out” strategy, China’s government has made the transition from an aid donor to a global development banker. The chapter shows how the benefactor-to-banker shift was a product of China’s long history as a development financier. It also provides an historical framework to help readers disentangle novel features of contemporary Chinese development finance from preexisting motivations, institutions, policies, and practices.
In this chapter we focus on the intended and unintended side effects of Chinese development finance, which we address from two different angles, both at the country level and at subnational scales. In the first part of this chapter, we investigate whether and to what extent Chinese-financed aid and debt affect recipient countries’ propensity for civil conflict and environmental degradation. We then turn to the question of how Chinese-funded projects might affect the quality of governance in recipient countries and regions. China claims to follow a policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign governments, which implies that its allocation decisions are made without considering the quality of governance, so that Chinese funds might prop up rogue regimes and delay much-needed governance reforms. The second part of this chapter turns to the popular claim that significant financial support from China impairs the effectiveness of aid from Western donors and lenders. Specifically, we investigate whether the effects of World Bank aid differ in countries or subnational regions that receive large volumes of Chinese support compared to other recipients.
This chapter reviews the first six years of implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a major Chinese foreign policy initiative introduced in 2013. The authors explain how China’s transition from benefactor to banker, in con- junction with its push for expanded influence on the global stage, led to the adoption of the BRI. They then consider whether and why China might choose to ‘multilateralize’ the BRI. The authors conclude that if Beijing wants to multilateralize the BRI, it will need to either comply with—or help redesign— international development finance rules and standards. At the same time, the establishment of an inclusive and revitalized development finance regime does not rest solely on the shoulders of Beijing. If OECD-DAC and multilateral donors and creditors wish to avert a crisis of confidence and relevance, they will need to rewrite international development finance rules and norms in ways that accommodate Beijing’s interests and more effectively account for the preferences of low-income and middle-income countries.
This chapter investigates the motivations of recipient governments who seek out Chinese development projects. We examine how host country leaders shape the ways that Chinese development finance is allocated across subnational jurisdictions. First, we evaluate whether China’s allocation of aid and debt within countries flows to areas with higher levels of socioeconomic need. Second, we explore whether political leaders manipulate incoming financial flows from China to advance their own political interests. We do so by examining whether and when funds from Beijing favor the home provinces of political leaders. Finally, we compare and contrast the ways in which Chinese and World Bank development projects are subnationally distributed. To do so, we assign latitude and longitude coordinates to the specific locations where China implemented its de- velopment projects.Our findings indicate that Chinese development finance does not go to the geographic areas within recipient countries where it is most needed: much of it ends up in wealthier provinces. In addition, Chinese development projects favor politically privileged jurisdictions: the home provinces of political leaders receive substantially more Chinese development finance in countries with competitive elections, and even more at election time. This is a problem from a development perspective because the average home province of a political leader is significantly wealthier than the rest of the country.
This chapter introduces the central argument of the book: that China’s 21st- century transition from a “benefactor” to a “banker” has had far-reaching im- pacts in low-income and middle-income countries that are not yet widely understood. Beijing’s growing use of debt rather than aid to bankroll big-ticket infrastructure projects has created new opportunities for developing countries to achieve rapid socioeconomic gains, but it has also introduced major risks, including corruption, conflict, and environmental degradation. Some countries are more effective than others at managing these risks and rewards. This chapter “zooms in” on two countries—Sri Lanka and Tanzania—to illustrate the tension between efficacy and safety confronted by developing countries banking on Chinese development finance. It also provides a roadmap for the rest of the book.