bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Parental alcohol use disorders and alcohol use and disorders in offspring: a community study
Authors: LIEB R. , MERIKANGAS K. R. , HÖFLER M. , PFISTER H. , ISENSEE B. , WITTCHEN H.-U. 
Published: August 2008

Background. We examined the association between parental alcohol use disorders and patterns of alcohol consumption and DSM-IV alcohol use disorders in their offspring in a community-based sample of young adults.Methods. Data are based on baseline and 4-year follow-up data of 2427 respondents aged 14–24 at baseline. Alcohol use and disorders in respondents were assessed using the Munich-Composite-International-Diagnostic-Interview with DSM-IV algorithms. Diagnostic information about parents was collected by family history information from the respondents, and by direct interview with one parent (cohort aged 14 to 17 years only).Results. Although the association between maternal and paternal alcohol use disorders and non-problematical drinking in offspring was minimal, there was a strong effect for the transition to hazardous use and for alcohol abuse and dependence; the effect of parental concordance for transition into hazardous use was particularly striking. Maternal history was associated with a higher probability of progression from occasional to regular use, whereas paternal history was associated with progression from regular to hazardous use. Parental alcoholism increased the risk for first onset of hazardous use and alcohol dependence between the ages of 14–17, and for an earlier onset of the alcohol outcomes in offspring. The impact of parental alcohol use disorders was comparable for male and female offspring.Conclusions. Parental alcoholism predicts escalation of alcohol use, development of alcohol use disorders and onset of alcohol outcomes in offspring.
Evidence of an early information processing speed deficit in unipolar major depression
Authors: TSOURTOS G. , THOMPSON J. C. , STOUGH C. 
Published: August 2008

Background. Slowing of the speed of information processing has been reported in geriatric depression, but it is not clear if the impairment is present in younger patients, if motor retardation is responsible, or if antidepressant medications play a role.Method. Twenty unmedicated unipolar depressed inpatients were compared with 19 medicated depressed in-patients and 20 age-, sex- and verbal IQ-matched controls on inspection time (IT), a measure of speed of information processing that does not require a speeded motor response. We also examined the relationship between IT and current mood and length of depressive illness.Results. Unmedicated depressed patients showed slowing of information processing speed when compared to both medicated depressed patients and controls. The latter two groups were not significantly different from each other. Slowing of IT was not associated with current mood, but was negatively correlated with length of illness since first episode. No differences in IT were found between patients receiving medication with anticholinergic effects and patients receiving medication with no anticholinergic effects.Conclusions. The findings indicate that unipolar depression is associated with a slowing of speed of information processing in younger patients who have not received antidepressant medication. This does not appear to be a result of motor slowing.
Personality and the perception of health in the general population
Authors: GOODWIN RENEE , ENGSTROM GUNNAR 
Published: August 2008

Background. Several population-based studies have shown that self-perceived health is a powerful predictor of health outcomes. The extent to which self-perceived health is associated with personality characteristics is, however, largely unknown. We aimed to study the relationship between self-perceived health and personality among adults in the community.Method. Data were drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States Survey, a representative sample of adults age 25–74. MANOVA was used to determine the relationship between self-perception of health and personality using the five-factor model.Results. Personality factors were significantly associated with perception of poor health. Among those without self-reported medical problems (N = 834), openness to experience, extraversion and conscientiousness were associated with perception of good health, while neuroticism was associated with the perception of poor health. In subjects with self-reported medical problems (N = 2772), high scores on agreeableness, openness to experience, extraversion and conscientiousness, and low neuroticism scores were associated with perception of good health. These associations remained significant after adjustments for age, gender, race, marital status and education.Conclusions. Self-perceived health is strongly associated with personality characteristics, both in subjects with and without self-reported medical problems. It is suggested that personality characteristics could contribute to the previously reported associations between self-perceived health and health outcomes.
Mortality in psychiatric patients 5 to 21 years after hospital admission in Italy
Authors: POLITI P. , PICCINELLI M. , KLERSY C. , MADINI S. , SEGAGNI LUSIGNANI G. , FRATTI C. , BARALE F. 
Published: August 2008

Background. Mental disorders have an increased mortality risk. However, most data have been provided by few countries, some mental disorders have received little attention, long-term studies of large samples are scarce, and insufficient control for confounding variables has lead to artefactual inconsistencies across studies. The aims of this study were: to quantify the mortality risk in psychiatric patients 5 to 21 years after hospital admission and to investigate temporal trends in mortality risk and predictive factors associated with mortality.Method. All patients admitted to an in-patient psychiatric unit in Italy between 1978 and 1994 were included and vital status and death causes were determined up to 21 years after admission. The observed number of deaths in the sample was compared with the expected number of deaths in the general population. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted to identify predictors of mortality.Results. Mortality from natural and unnatural causes was higher than expected across all mental disorders. Standardized mortality risk was higher in males (SMR = 4·55; 95% CI 4·17–4·97) than in females (SMR = 3·43; 95% CI 3·07–3·83). Individuals aged less than 40 years were at higher risk in both sexes. The first several years following admission were characterized by a faster decline in survival. Several demographic and clinical factors were predictors of mortality.Conclusions. Mortality is high in individuals with mental disorders. Prevention of unnatural death causes is an important goal though insufficient to abate excess mortality, since natural death causes account for it to a larger extent.
Psychiatric, demographic and personality characteristics of elderly sex offenders
Authors: FAZEL S. , HOPE T. , O’DONNELL I. , JACOBY R. 
Published: August 2008

Background. Psychiatric disorders are purported to play a role in the aetiology of violent crime, but evidence for their role in sexual offending is less clear. The authors investigated the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and personality disorders in elderly incarcerated sex offenders compared with elderly non-sex offenders.Method. One hundred and one sex offenders and 102 non-sex offenders aged over 59 years were interviewed using standardized semi-structured interviews for psychiatric illness (the Geriatric Mental State) and the personality disorder (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV personality disorders). Data on demographic, offence and victim characteristics were collected.Results. Six per cent of the elderly sex offenders had a psychotic illness, 7% a DSM-IV major depressive episode and 33% a personality disorder; and 1% had dementia. These prevalence figures were not different from the elderly non-sex offenders interviewed in this study. Differences emerged at the level of personality traits with sex offenders having more schizoid, obsessive–compulsive, and avoidant traits, and fewer antisocial traits compared with non-sex offenders.Conclusions. Elderly sex offenders and non-sex-offenders have similar prevalence rates of mental illness. However, elderly sex offenders have increased schizoid, obsessive–compulsive, and avoidant personality traits, supporting the view that sex offending in the elderly is associated more with personality factors than mental illness or organic brain disease.
Categoric overgeneral autobiographical memory in adolescents with major depressive disorder
Authors: PARK R. J. , GOODYER I. M. , TEASDALE J. D. 
Published: August 2008

Background. Categoric, overgeneral autobiographical memory is more common in depressed adults than controls and predicts persistence of depression. This cross-sectional study investigated whether, compared with non-depressed psychiatric cases and community controls, first episode major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents is associated with categoric overgeneral memory retrieval.Methods. Ninety-six clinically referred adolescents (aged 12–17 years) with MDD, 26 non-depressed psychiatric cases and a sample of 33 community controls were recruited. All subjects were assessed using the Kiddie-Schedule for Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, and completed Williams' cued Autobiographical Memory Test and the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. Hamilton Depression Rating Scales were completed with MDD subjects, as an index of depression severity.Results. Adolescents with current first episode MDD retrieved more categoric overgeneral memories than controls, but not than non-depressed psychiatric cases. Adolescents in full remission from a recent episode of MDD retrieved more categoric memories to positive cues than controls. Categoric memory in MDD was related to observer-rated and self-reported severity, but not to the pattern of co-morbid diagnoses. There were negative correlations between IQ and categoric memories in both clinical cases and controls. A positive correlation between categoric memory to negative cues and self-reported depressive symptoms was found in clinical cases (but not controls).Conclusions. In adolescents, increased categoric overgeneral memory is associated with, but not specific to first episode MDD. Positive categoric memories are also increased in fully remitted MDD as compared to controls.
The impact of personality disorder in UK primary care: a 1-year follow-up of attenders
Authors: MORAN P. , RENDU A. , JENKINS R. , TYLEE A. , MANN A. 
Published: August 2008

Background. The usefulness of the concept of personality disorder has not been properly tested outside psychiatric services. We set out to examine this in primary care, by examining the ability of the diagnosis to predict health status and patterns of service use.Method. A cohort of consecutive attenders, who had previously been rated for the presence of personality disorder using a standardized assessment, was followed-up at 1 year. The participating general practitioners also rated the personalities of, and their attitudes towards, a proportion of this sample of attenders.Results. After adjusting for the effects of all covariates, a rating of personality disorder (generated by the standardized assessment) was associated with frequent attendance to general practice and fewer referrals to secondary care. A GP rating of personality disorder was associated with the prescription of psychotropic medication. The level of agreement between a GP rating of personality disorder and the standardized assessment was poor. GPs rated personality disorder more frequently in participants who were perceived to be less compliant, less likeable and more stressful to deal with. Participants with a psychiatric rating of personality disorder did not attract these negative perceptions.Conclusions. Personality disorder, as rated by a research interview, is a predictor of health service usage. There is a significant disparity between a research rating of personality disorder and the diagnostic ratings made by GPs. The GP ratings of personality disorder were strongly associated with adverse perceptions of the patient's consulting behaviour.
Role of DNA sequence in nucleosome stability and dynamics
Authors: Widom J. 
Published: August 2008

1. Introduction 2701.1 Overview of nucleosome structure 2712. Relative equilibrium stability (affinity) of histone–DNA interactions in
nucleosomes 2722.1 Relative affinity equals relative equilibrium stability 2722.2 Competition assays for relative free-energy measurements 2732.3 Technical issues in relative free-energy measurements 2752.4 Range of affinities 2783. Relation of nucleosome stability to nucleosome positioning 2793.1 Translational nucleosome positioning 2793.2 Rotational positioning 2803.3 Unfavorable positioning 2813.4 Experiments 2814. Physical basis of DNA sequence preferences 2824.1 Free-energy cost of DNA bending 2834.2 Molecular mechanics of DNA bending and bendability 2844.3 Bent and bendable DNA sequences 2864.4 Parameter sets for prediction of DNA bending and bendability 2884.5 DNA twisting 2904.6 Energetics of nucleosomal DNA packaging 2915. DNA sequence motifs for nucleosome packaging 2925.1 Natural and designed nucleosomal DNAs 2935.2 New rules and reagents from physical selection studies 2945.3 Molecular basis of DNA sequence preferences 2995.4 Special properties of the TA step 3005.5 Unfavorable sequences 3025.6 Natural genomes 3035.7 Evolutionary approach toward an optimal sequence 3055.8 Optimization by design 3056. Dynamic nucleosome instability 3086.1 Site-exposure equilibria 3086.2 DNA sequence-dependence to site-exposure equilibria 3126.3 Nucleosome translocation 3156.4 Action of processive enzymes 3197. Conclusions 3198. Acknowledgements 3209. References 320The nucleosome core particle is the fundamental repeating subunit of chromatin. It consists
of two molecules each of the four ‘core histone’ proteins, H2A, H2B, H3 and H4, and a
147 bp stretch of DNA. The lowest level of chromatin organization consists of a repeated
array of nucleosome core particles separated by variable lengths of ‘linker DNA’. In many,
but not all, cases, each core particle plus its linker DNA is associated with one molecule of
a fifth ‘linker’ histone protein, H1. The complex of the core particle plus its linker DNA and
H1 (when present) is called a ‘nucleosome’.
Empires, systems and states: great transformations in international politics
Authors: Cox Michael , Dunne Tim , Booth Ken 
Published: August 2008

‘History is too important to be left to the historians”.The relationship between history, international history and international relations has never been an easy or a particularly amicable one. To talk of a cold war may be something of an exaggeration, but it does capture something about the way in which the various subjects tended to regard the other for the greater part of the post-war period. Thus practising historians and international historians appeared to have little time for each other, and together had even less for those seeking to establish the new discipline of International Relations.
Who are we talking to? An addendum to recent RIS contributions on discourse ethics
Authors: BÜHLER UTE 
Published: August 2008

In the class of political sciences, they invited us to speak. We told them about what we are living in our villages, about why we decided to struggle, we talked about what we know. And they told us that although they are students and have read a lot, these things that we were telling them they had never heard, what we have lived they have never lived. Afterwards we told them, ’but we have not come just to talk, also to listen, we want to listen to what you have to tell us’.(Lucio and Argel, delegates of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) to the Universities in Mexico City in the EZLNÕs consultation with civil society, March 19992)
Analysis and control of redundant manipulator dynamics based on an
extended operational space
Authors: Park Ki Cheol , Chang Pyung-Hun , Lee Sukhan 
Published: August 2008

In this paper a new concept, named the
Extended Operational Space (EXOS), has been proposed for the effective
analysis and the real-time control of the robot manipulators with
kinematic redundancy. The EXOS consists of the operational space (OS)
and the optimal null space (NS): the operational space is
used to describe manipulator end-effector motion; whereas the optimal null
space, described by the minimum number of NS vectors, is
used to express the self motion.Based upon the EXOS formulation,
the kinematics, statics, and dynamics of redundant manipulators have been
analyzed, and control laws based on the dynamics have been
proposed. The inclusion of only the minimum number of NS
vectors has changed the resulting dynamic equations into a very
compact form, yet comprehensive enough to describe: not only the
dynamic behavior or the end effector, but also that of
the self motion; and at the same time the interaction
of these two motions. The comprehensiveness is highlighted by the
demonstration of the dynamic couplings between OS dynamics and NS
dynamics, which are quite elusive in other approaches.Using the proposed
dynamic controls, one can optimize a performance measure while tracking
a desired end-effector trajectory with a better computational efficiency than
the conventional methods. The effectiveness of the proposed method has
been demonstrated by simulations and experiments.
The effects of parameter variation on the gaits of passive walking models: simulations and experiments
Authors: Ning Liu , Junfeng Li , Tianshu Wang 
Published: August 2008

SUMMARYWe have made a systematic study of the gait of a straight leg planar passive walking model through simulations and experiments. Three normalised parameters, which represent the foot radius, the position of the mass centre and the moment of inertia, are used to characterise the walking model.In the simulation, we have obtained the fixed points and the basins of attraction of the walking models with different parameter combinations by the aid of the cell mapping method. With the results of fixed points, we investigated the effects of parameter variations on the gait descriptors, including step length, period, average speed and energy inefficiency. A model that has a large basin of attraction has been obtained, and it can start walking far from its fixed point. However, the size of the basin of attraction is not a good measurement of robustness. Thus, we proposed floors with random slope angles or stairs with random heights to test robustness. Five hundred times of simulations with 100 non-dimensional time units were implemented for each parameter combination. The times that the walker failed to arrive at the end were recorded. The simulation results showed that the model with a larger foot radius and higher position of mass centre has a lower possibility of falling on uneven floors. A large moment of inertia is helpful for walking on a random slope angle floor, while low values of moment of inertia are good for navigating random stairs.Prototype experiments have validated the simulation results, which showed that models with larger feet have a longer step length and high speed. However, period differences were difficult to obtain in the experiments since the differences were very small. We have tested the sensitivity with the initial conditions of the models with different foot radii on a flat floor, and have also tested the robustness of the models on a floor with random slope angles. The times that the model reached the end of the floor were recorded. The experimental results showed that a large foot radius is good for improving the basin of attraction and robustness on uneven floors. Finally, the exceptions of the experiment are explained.
Demography of the Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa) in the Bolivian Amazon: impact of seed extraction on recruitment and population dynamics
Authors: ZUIDEMA PIETER A. , BOOT RENÉ G. A. 
Published: August 2008

A demographic study was carried out on Bertholletia excelsa, the Brazil nut tree, in two primary forest

sites in Northern Bolivia where Brazil nuts have been harvested for several decades. In spite of the large proportion

(93%) of seeds that are harvested, reasonable densities of recently emerged seedlings were found. Seeds of Bertholletia

are contained in woody fruits that are primarily opened by agoutis. Most fruits are left untouched on the forest floor

for 1–2 y before they are opened, possibly due to high energetic costs of fruit opening just after fruit fall. However,

the proportion of viable seeds is strongly reduced in older fruits.Growth in diameter at breast height (dbh) was low for pole-sized trees (< 15 cm dbh) and adult trees (> 100 cm

dbh) and peaked for intermediate-sized trees (30–60 cm). These trees often attained a growth rate of > 1.5 cm y−1,

which is high compared with other non-pioneer tropical trees. This, and the strong growth response to increased light

availability found for seedlings and saplings, suggest that Bertholletia excelsa can be classified as a gap-dependent

species. Matrix population models were constructed for both study populations. Population growth rates (λ) were close

to one, and were most sensitive to persistence in one size category. Age estimates revealed that age at first reproduction

(at dbh > 60 cm) amounts to over 120 y, and age in the last category (dbh > 160 cm) to almost 300 y. Given the

continuous rejuvenation of the population, the stable population size, the high age at maturity and the long reproductive

period, it is concluded that current levels of Brazil nut extraction may be sustained at least for several decades and

perhaps for even longer periods.
A Radon–Nikodým theorem for completely positive invariant
multilinear maps and its applications
Authors: HEO JAESEONG 
Published: August 2008

Noncommutative Radon–Nikodým theorems have attracted a great deal of
attention in the theory of operator algebras. There has been considerable work on
non-commutative Radon–Nikodým theorems not only for C*-algebras but also for
algebras of unbounded operators [3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13]. In this paper, we will develop
a Radon–Nikodým type theorem for completely bounded and completely positive
invariant multilinear maps.The concept of matricial order has turned out to be very important to understand
the infinite-dimensional non-commutative structure of operator algebras. As
the natural ordering attached to this structure, completely positive maps and completely
bounded maps have been studied extensively. Results concerning completely
bounded maps have many applications: cohomology of operator algebras, multipliers
on group algebras, dilation theory, similarity theory, free product representations,
and abstract characterizations of operator algebras.
Homotopy classification of line fields and of Lorentz metrics on
closed manifolds
Authors: KOSCHORKE ULRICH 
Published: August 2008

The problem of classifying line fields or, equivalently, Lorentz metrics up to
homotopy is studied. Complete solutions are obtained in many cases, e.g. for all closed
smooth manifolds N, orientable or not, of dimension n ≡ 0(4) and, in particular, in
the classical space-time dimension 4.Our approach is based on the singularity method which allows us to classify the
monomorphisms u from a given (abstract) line bundle α over N into the tangent
bundle. The analysis of the transition to the image line field u(α) then centers around
the notion of ‘antipodality’.We express our classification results in terms of standard (co-)homology and
characteristic classes. Moreover, we illustrate them for large families of concrete sample
manifolds by explicit bijections or by calculating the number of line fields.