Neuroendocrine activity and memory-related impairments in posttraumatic stress disorder

This article reviews memory-related impairments in trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder and their possible association to neuroendocrine alterations seen in this disorder. The neuroendocrine profile in PTSD first described in chronically ill combat veterans is characterized by lower basal cortisol levels, higher glucocorticoid receptor number, enhanced sensitivity to exogenous steroids, and increased variation in basal cortisol levels over the diurnal cycle. The generalizability and time course of these neuroendocrine alterations are explored in longitudinal studies and studies in other traumatized populations. These studies suggest that at least some aspects of this neuroendocrine profile can also be seen in other populations, including women, children, and victims of childhood trauma. Additionally, the alterations may be present early in the course of illness, perhaps even in the immediate aftermath of trauma, and may continue to be manifest in elderly trauma survivors. The mechanisms by which these neuroendocrine alterations may influence the formation and processing of traumatic memories are discussed.     

Can You Explain This？ Personality and Willingness to Commit Various Acts of Academic Misconduct

The rapid development of IT has created a problematic situation in higher education by providing individuals with a greater opportunity to engage in academic dishonesty especially in online courses, in contrast to traditional classroom courses. There are various factors that were used in research to explain the phenomenon of academic dishonesty. Among them are personality traits that were found to be effective in explaining unethical behaviors. Therefore, this study explores students＇ personality traits as predictors of academic dishonesty in the context of traditional and distance-learning courses in higher education. Data from 1,365 students enrolled in academic institutes in the U.S.A and Israel were surveyed to assess their personality and their willingness to commit various acts of academic misconduct. The findings indicate that in both countries dishonest behaviors are greater in face-to-face than in online courses. In addition, both American and Israeli students identified with the personality trait of agreeableness showed a negative correlation with academic dishonesty, Furthermore, Israeli students identified with the personality traits of conscientiousness and emotional stability demonstrated a negative correlation with academic dishonesty. In contrast, the personality trait of extraversion among American students was positively correlated with academic misconduct. Implications for further research are discussed.     

Flow pattern transition for downward inclined two phase flow; horizontal to vertical

Data on the flow pattern transition for gas liquid flow in pipes for downward 0–90° inclination was collected. Mathematical models were developed to predict the flow pattern in the whole range of downward inclination.     

Fast Garbling of Circuits Under Standard Assumptions

Protocols for secure computation enable mutually distrustful parties to jointly compute on their private inputs without revealing anything, but the result. Over recent years, secure computation has become practical and considerable effort has been made to make it more and more efficient. A highly important tool in the design of two-party protocols is Yao’s garbled circuit construction (Yao 1986), and multiple optimizations on this primitive have led to performance improvements in orders of magnitude over the last years. However, many of these improvements come at the price of making very strong assumptions on the underlying cryptographic primitives being used (e.g., that AES is secure for related keys, that it is circular-secure, and even that it behaves like a random permutation when keyed with a public fixed key). The justification behind making these strong assumptions has been that otherwise it is not possible to achieve fast garbling and thus fast secure computation. In this paper, we take a step back and examine whether it is really the case that such strong assumptions are needed. We provide new methods for garbling that are secure solely under the assumption that the primitive used (e.g., AES) is a pseudorandom function. Our results show that in many cases, the penalty incurred is not significant, and so a more conservative approach to the assumptions being used can be adopted.     

On the hydrodynamic limit of long rod penetration

According to the quasi-steady-state approximation of long rod penetration, the total penetration efficiency should approach the so called hydrodynamic limit at high impact velocities. However, both experiments and computer simulations show that this is not the case. The total penetration efficiency usually overshoots the hydrodynamic limit at velocities above approximately 3 km/s. We ran computer simulations to investigate the significance of the hydrodynamic limit. We found that the overshoot occurs during the end (or terminal) phase. The end phase starts upon completion of the rod erosion. The kinetic energy trapped in the residual rod and in the target at this stage can cause significant additional deepening of the crater. As the overshoot of the hydrodynamic limit is an edge effect, it is expected to decrease as the aspect ratio of the rod increases.     

Wavelet-based analysis of transient electromagnetic wave propagation in photonic crystals

Photonic crystals and optical bandgap structures, which facilitate high-precision control of electromagnetic-field propagation, are gaining ever-increasing attention in both scientific and commercial applications. One common photonic device is the distributed Bragg reflector (DBR), which exhibits high reflectivity at certain frequencies. Analysis of the transient interaction of an electromagnetic pulse with such a device can be formulated in terms of the time-domain volume integral equation and, in turn, solved numerically with the method of moments. Owing to the frequency-dependent reflectivity of such devices, the extent of field penetration into deep layers of the device will be different depending on the frequency content of the impinging pulse. We show how this phenomenon can be exploited to reduce the number of basis functions needed for the solution. To this end, we use spatiotemporal wavelet basis functions, which possess the multiresolution property in both spatial and temporal domains. To select the dominant functions in the solution, we use an iterative impedance matrix compression (IMC) procedure, which gradually constructs and solves a compressed version of the matrix equation until the desired degree of accuracy has been achieved. Results show that when the electromagnetic pulse is reflected, the transient IMC omits basis functions defined over the last layers of the DBR, as anticipated.     

Viruses and bacteriophages

Many of the enteric viruses which are transmitted from person to person by thefecal-oral route are found in raw and treated wastewater, and because of their persistence under adverse conditions may also be found in slightly polluted waters.There is no routine examination procedure of water and wastewater for entero-viruses,mainly because of the cumbersome isolation techniques, high cost and the need for highly skilled laboratory personnel.Phages are specific to single species of bacteria, are known for many entericbacteria, and are very often used for final identification of enteric pathogenic bacteria.Coliphages are provalent in raw and treated sewage as well as in polluted water, where enteric viruses may also be found.Coliphages were often mentioned as possible viral indicators in polluted water.To be a perfect indicator, they should comply with minimum criteria as follows: (a) they should be present wherever human enteric viruses are present: (b) the coliphage numbers recovered should be equal to or larger than those of enteric viruses recovered: (c) the coliphages should be at least as resistant as enteric viruses to adverse environmental conditions: (d) isolation and quantification of the coliphage should be faster and less expensive than isolation of the enteroviruses.Comparative studies show that the coliphage to enterovirus ratio in wastewater is about 10³:1. Levels of poliovirus 1 (attenuated) to coliphage f2 remained stable for a few months in oxidation pond effluents.f2 coliphage exhibited higher resistance to chlorination than poliovirus 1 (attenuated). When the two strains were kept in water of different quality, f2 survived longer. In addition, all coliphage counts were completed within 24 h. while those of enteroviruses required about a week. Results indicate very strongly that coliphages can be used as viral indicators and this is already the practice in a few European and other countries.