Abstract Pathological changes occur in areas of CNS tissue remote from inflammatory lesions in multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). To determine ...if oxidative stress is a significant contributor to this non-inflammatory pathology, cortex tissues from mice with clinical signs of EAE were examined for evidence of inflammation and oxidative stress. Histology and gene expression analysis showed little evidence of immune/inflammatory cell invasion but reductions in natural antioxidant levels and increased protein oxidation that paralleled disease severity. Two-dimensional oxyblots and mass-spectrometry-based protein fingerprinting identified glutamine synthetase (GS) as a particular target of oxidation. Oxidation of GS was associated with reductions in enzyme activity and increased glutamate/glutamine levels. The possibility that this may cause neurodegeneration through glutamate excitotoxicity is supported by evidence of increasing cortical Ca2+ levels in cortex extracts from animals with greater disease severity. These findings indicate that oxidative stress occurs in brain areas that are not actively undergoing inflammation in EAE and that this can lead to a neurodegenerative process due to the susceptibility of GS to oxidative inactivation.
Poor adherence to pharmacotherapy negatively affects the course and the outcome of schizophreniaspectrum psychoses, enhancing the risk of relapse. Falloon and coworkers developed a Psychoeducation ...Program aimed at improving communication and problem-solving abilities in patients and their families. This study set out to evaluate changes in adherence to pharmacotherapy in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum psychoses, by comparing one group exposed to the Falloon Psychoeducation Program (FPP) with another group exposed to family supportive therapy with generic information on the disorders.
340 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and related disorders according to standardized criteria from 10 participating units distributed throughout the Italian National Health System (NHS), will be enrolled with 1:1 allocation by the method of blocks of randomized permutations. Patients will be reassessed at 6, 12 and 18 months after start of treatment (duration: 6 months).The primary objective is to evaluate changes in adherence to pharmacotherapy after psychoeducation. Adherence will be assessed at three-month intervals by measuring blood levels of the primary prescribed drug using high pressure liquid chromatography, and via the Medication Adherence Questionnaire and a modified version of the Adherence Interview. Secondary objectives are changes in the frequency of relapse and readmission, as the main indicator of the course of the disorder.Enrolled patients will be allocated to the FPP (yes/no) randomly, 1:1, in a procedure controlled by the coordinating unit; codes will be masked until the conclusion of the protocol (or the occurrence of a severe negative event). The raters will be blind to treatment allocation and will be tested for blinding after treatment completion. Intention-to-treat will be applied in considering the primary and secondary outcomes. Multiple imputations will be applied to integrate the missing data. The study started recruitment in February 2013; the total duration of the study is 27 months.
If the psychoeducation program proves effective in improving adherence to pharmacotherapy and in reducing relapse and readmissions, its application could be proposed as a standard adjunctive psychosocial treatment within the Italian NHS.
Protocol Registration System of ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01433094; registered on 20 August 2011; first patient was randomized on 12 February 2013.
This article reviews the literature on the relationship among parenting practices, parenting styles, and adolescent school achievement. The review of the empirical research indicates that parental ...involvement and monitoring are robust predictors of adolescent achievement. Several studies, however, indicate that parental involvement declines in adolescence, prompting the call for future research on the reasons for and associated consequences of this decline. Furthermore, the review indicates that authoritative parenting styles are often associated with higher levels of student achievement, although these findings are not consistent across culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Darling and Steinberg's contextual model of parenting provides a promising model to help resolve these discrepancies, however, further research is needed to examine the major linkages of the model. It is also argued that the contextual model should expand its notion of context towards the larger cultural and economic context in which families reside.
Abstract
The first four gravitational wave events detected by LIGO were all interpreted as merging black hole binaries (BHBs), opening a new perspective on the study of such systems. Here we use our ...new population-synthesis code mobse, an upgraded version of bse, to investigate the demography of merging BHBs. mobse includes metallicity-dependent prescriptions for mass-loss of massive hot stars. It also accounts for the impact of the electron-scattering Eddington factor on mass-loss. We perform >108 simulations of isolated massive binaries, with 12 different metallicities, to study the impact of mass-loss, core-collapse supernovae and common envelope on merging BHBs. Accounting for the dependence of stellar winds on the Eddington factor leads to the formation of black holes (BHs) with mass up to 65 M⊙ at metallicity Z ∼ 0.0002. However, most BHs in merging BHBs have masses ≲ 40 M⊙. We find merging BHBs with mass ratios in the 0.1–1.0 range, even if mass ratios >0.6 are more likely. We predict that systems like GW150914, GW170814 and GW170104 can form only from progenitors with metallicity Z ≤ 0.006, Z ≤ 0.008 and Z ≤ 0.012, respectively. Most merging BHBs have gone through a common envelope phase, but up to ∼17 per cent merging BHBs at low metallicity did not undergo any common envelope phase. We find a much higher number of mergers from metal-poor progenitors than from metal-rich ones: the number of BHB mergers per unit mass is ∼10−4 M$_{\odot }^{-1}$ at low metallicity (Z = 0.0002–0.002) and drops to ∼10−7 M$_{\odot }^{-1}$ at high metallicity (Z ∼ 0.02).
Abstract
The cosmic merger rate density of black hole binaries (BHBs) can give us an essential clue to constraining the formation channels of BHBs, in light of current and forthcoming gravitational ...wave detections. Following a Monte Carlo approach, we couple new population-synthesis models of BHBs with the Illustris cosmological simulation, to study the cosmic history of BHB mergers. We explore six population-synthesis models, varying the prescriptions for supernovae, common envelope and natal kicks. In most considered models, the cosmic BHB merger rate follows the same trend as the cosmic star formation rate. The normalization of the cosmic BHB merger rate strongly depends on the treatment of common envelope and on the distribution of natal kicks. We find that most BHBs merging within LIGO's instrumental horizon come from relatively metal-poor progenitors (<0.2 Z⊙). The total masses of merging BHBs span a large range of values, from ∼6 to ∼82 M⊙. In our fiducial model, merging BHBs consistent with GW150914, GW151226 and GW170104 represent ∼6, 3 and 12 per cent of all BHBs merging within the LIGO horizon, respectively. The heavy systems, like GW150914, come from metal-poor progenitors (<0.15 Z⊙). Most GW150914-like systems merging in the local Universe appear to have formed at high redshift, with a long delay time. In contrast, GW151226-like systems form and merge all the way through the cosmic history, from progenitors with a broad range of metallicities. Future detections will be crucial to put constraints on common envelope, on natal kicks, and on the BHB mass function.
The mass spectrum of stellar mass black holes (BHs) is highly uncertain. Dynamical mass measurements are available only for few (∼10) BHs in X-ray binaries, while theoretical models strongly depend ...on the hydrodynamics of supernova (SN) explosions and on the evolution of massive stars. In this paper, we present and discuss the mass spectrum of compact remnants that we obtained with sevn, a new public population-synthesis code, which couples the parsec stellar evolution tracks with up-to-date recipes for SN explosion (depending on the carbon–oxygen mass of the progenitor, on the compactness of the stellar core at pre-SN stage and on a recent two-parameter criterion based on the dimensionless entropy per nucleon at pre-SN stage). sevn can be used both as a stand-alone code and in combination with direct-summation N-body codes (starlab, higpus). The parsec stellar evolution tracks currently implemented in sevn predict significantly larger values of the carbon–oxygen core mass with respect to previous models. For most of the SN recipes we adopt, this implies substantially larger BH masses at low metallicity (≤2 × 10−3), than other population synthesis codes. The maximum BH mass found with sevn is ∼25, 60 and 130 M⊙ at metallicity Z = 2 × 10−2, 2 × 10−3 and 2 × 10−4, respectively. Mass loss by stellar winds plays a major role in determining the mass of BHs for very massive stars (≥90 M⊙), while the remnant mass spectrum depends mostly on the adopted SN recipe for lower progenitor masses. We discuss the implications of our results for the transition between neutron star and BH mass, and for the expected number of massive BHs (with mass >25 M⊙) as a function of metallicity.
We present a detailed overview of classical molecular simulation studies examining the self-diffusion coefficient of water. The self-diffusion coefficient is directly associated with the calculations ...of tracer or mutual diffusion coefficient of mixtures and, therefore, is a fundamental transport property, essential for an accurate description of mass transfer processes in biological, geological (i.e. energy or environmentally related), and chemical systems. In the current review we explore two distinct research areas. Namely, we discuss the self-diffusion of water in the bulk phase and under confinement. Different aspects that affect the diffusion process, including the molecular models, the system-size effects, the temperature and pressure conditions and the type of confinement are discussed. Finally, possible directions for future research are outlined.
Food security and climate change are two pressing issues shaping the future of tropical land use. Brazil, home to abundant land that is rich in carbon, water, and biodiversity and often cleared for ...agropastoral and renewable energy purposes, is the ideal location for studying socioeconomic and environmental trade-offs of land use dynamics. Here, I use recent (2000–2016) land-use land-cover change dynamics in the established agricultural states of Mato Grosso and Goiás to demonstrate how incentivizing intensive agricultural practices and improving degraded pastures may be a means by which Brazil can increase agricultural production while conserving the remainder of the Cerrado. I then discuss these outcomes with regard to agricultural expansion in the agricultural frontier region of Matopiba and briefly highlight contextual elements that need to be considered by other developing tropical countries looking toward Brazil as a model for agricultural and economic development.
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