The impact of PTSD, depression, and substance use disorders on disease burden and health care utilization among OEF/OIF veterans.

Growing evidence suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with poorer health status (e.g., more medical disease, physical symptoms, and sick visits to health care professionals) among veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Iraq. We investigated whether PTSD, depression, and substance use disorders independently predicted health status over time among OEF/OIF veterans. Information regarding psychiatric and medical conditions and health care utilization was culled for 4,463 OEF/OIF veterans enrolled in Veterans Administration primary care for a period of 6 years. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling and generalized estimating equations. Results suggest that PTSD, depression, and substance use disorders are independently associated with increased medical disease burden and mental health care utilization but not increased medical health care utilization. The association between PTSD and medical disease burden strengthened over time. These data suggest that OEF/OIF veterans with PTSD may be at risk for increasingly poorer physical health in terms of medical disease burden over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feasibility of CHP-plants with thermal stores in the German spot market

The European Energy Exchange (EEX) day ahead spot market for electricity in Germany shows significant variations in prices between peak and off-peak hours. Being able to shift electricity production from off-peak hours to peak hours improves the profit from CHP-plant operation significantly. Installing a big thermal store at a CHP-plant makes it possible to shift production of electricity and heat to hours where electricity prices are highest especially on days with low heat demand. Consequently, these conditions will have to influence the design of new CHP-plants. In this paper, the optimal size of a CHP-plant with thermal store under German spot market conditions is analyzed. As an example the possibility to install small size CHP-plant instead of only boilers at a Stadtwerke delivering 30,000 MW h-heat for district heating per year is examined using the software energyPRO. It is shown that, given the economic and technical assumptions made, a CHP-plant of 4 MW-el with a thermal store participating in the spot market will be the most feasible plant to build. A sensitivity analysis shows to which extent the optimal solution will vary by changing the key economic assumptions.     

Integrating private transport into renewable energy policy: The strategy of creating intelligent recharging grids for electric vehicles

A new business model for accelerating the introduction of electric vehicles into private transport systems involves the provision by an Electric Recharge Grid Operator (ERGO) of an intelligent rechargeable network in advance of the vehicles themselves. The ERGO business model creates a market for co-ordinated production and consumption of renewable energy. The innovative contribution of the model rests in its ability to combine two problems and thereby solve them in a fresh way. One problem derives from utilizing power grids with a substantial increase in renewable electric energy production (as witnessed in the Danish case with wind energy) and managing the resulting fluctuating supply efficiently. The other problem concerns finding ways to reduce CO₂ emissions in the transport sector. The ERGO business model effectively solves both problems, by transforming EVs into distributed storage devices for electricity, thus enabling a fresh approach to evening out of fluctuating and unpredictable energy sources, while drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This integrated solution carries many other associated benefits, amongst which are the possibility of introducing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) distributed power generation; introducing IT intelligence to the grid, and creating virtual power plants from distributed sources; and providing new applications for carbon credits in the decarbonisation of the economy. The countries and regions that have signed on to this model and are working to introduce it in 2009–2011 include Israel, Denmark, Australia, and in the US, the Bay Area cities and the state of Hawaii.     

Accurate and efficient simulation of antennas using hierarchicalmixed-order tangential vector finite elements for tetrahedra

Hierarchical mixed-order tangential vector finite elements (TVFEs) for tetrahedral elements are attractive for accurate and efficient finite-element method simulation of complicated electromagnetic problems. They provide versatility in the geometric modeling of physical structures, guarantee solutions free of spurious modes, and allow local increase of resolution by selective expansion of the unknown electromagnetic field, i.e., by combination of mixed-order TVFEs of different orders within a computational domain. For a realistic antenna radiation problem, this paper demonstrates that field expansion using lowest and higher order hierarchical mixed-order TVFEs selectively is vastly superior [in terms of accuracy, memory, as well as central processing unit (CPU)-time] to field expansion using a lowest order mixed-order TVFE only     

Political attitudes and cognitive convictions among Danish social science researchers

Interview data from a survey among Danish researchers, mainly from social sciences (all disciplines, about on third of all) are used to examine connections between researcher political attitudes and their disciplinary cognitive paradigms. Included are researchers’ convictions concerning world view hypotheses, their basic assumptions regarding the subject matter in their fields of study, e.g., individuals, social action, and society as a whole, and their epistemic ideals and goals. Political attitude is indicated by researchers’ voting in the 1994 general election of the Danish Parliament. The results show big differences between social science disciplines regarding voting pattern. The analysis also clearly demonstrates connections between disciplinary cognitive convictions and political attitudes. The connections are interpreted as expressions of hermeneutic, historical links between political discourse formations and disciplinary paradigms.     

Age-related differences in collision detection during deceleration.

Observers were presented with displays simulating a 3-D environment with obstacles in the path of motion. During the trial, observer motion decelerated at a constant rate and was followed by a blackout prior to the end of the display. On some trials the rate of deceleration resulted in stopping before the collision, whereas on other trials the rate of deceleration resulted in a collision with the obstacles. The observer's task was to detect which trials simulated an impending collision. Proportion of collision judgments was greater for older as compared with younger observers when a collision was not simulated. Older observers showed less sensitivity to detect collisions than younger observers did, particularly at high speeds. The age-dependent results are discussed in terms of analyses based on τ? and constant deceleration. The results suggest that increased accident rates for older drivers may be due to an inability to detect collisions at high speeds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Controlled prospective longitudinal study of women with cancer: II. Psychological outcomes.

The incidence and etiology of major life difficulties for women with survivable cancer were studied. Women with early stage cancer (n?=?65) were assessed after diagnosis but prior to treatment and reassessed at 4, 8, and 12 mo posttreatment. Two matched comparison groups, women diagnosed and treated for benign disease (n?=?22) and healthy women (n?=?60), were also assessed longitudinally. Results for 4 life areas are reported: (a) Emotional response to the life-threatening diagnosis and anticipation of treatment was characterized by depressed, anxious, and confused moods, whereas the response for women with benign disease was anxious only; these responses were transitory. (b) There was no evidence for a higher incidence of relationship dissolution or poorer marital adjustment; however, 30% of the women treated for disease reported that their partners may have had some sexual difficulty. (c) There was no evidence for impaired social adjustment. (d) Women treated for cancer retained their employment; however, their involvement was significantly reduced during recovery. Data suggest "islands" of significant life disruption following cancer, which do not appear to portend global adjustment vulnerability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Controlled prospective longitudinal study of women with cancer: I. Sexual functioning outcomes.

The incidence and etiology of sexual difficulties for women with survivable cancer were studied. Women with early stage gynecologic cancer (n?=?47) were assessed after diagnosis but prior to treatment and then reassessed at 4, 8, and 12 mo posttreatment. Sexual and medical outcomes were compared with data from members of 2 matched comparison groups who were also assessed longitudinally: women diagnosed and treated for benign gynecologic disease (n?=?8) and gynecologically healthy women (n?=?57). Global sexual behavior disruption did not occur, but the frequency of intercourse declined for women treated for disease, whether malignant or benign. In relation to the sexual response cycle, diminution of sexual excitement is pronounced for women with disease; however, this difficulty is more severe and distressing for women with cancer, possibly due to significant coital and postcoital pain, premature menopause, treatment side effects, or a combination. Changes in desire, orgasm, and resolution phases of the sexual response cycle may also occur, but they are of lesser magnitude or duration or both. 30% of the women treated for cancer were diagnosed with a sexual dysfunction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)