Background: Schizophrenia is a severe and chronic medical condition, characterized by positive and negative symptoms, as well as pervasive social cognitive deficits. Despite the functional significance of the social cognition deficits affecting many aspects of daily living, such as social relationships, occupational status, and independent living, there is still no effective treatment option for these deficits, which is applied as standard of care. To address this need, we developed a novel, internet-based training program that targets social cognition deficits in schizophrenia (SocialVille). Preliminary studies demonstrate the feasibility and initial efficacy of Socialville in schizophrenia patients (Nahum et al., 2014). The purpose of the current trial (referred to as the TReatment of Social cognition in Schizophrenia Trial or TRuSST) is to compare SocialVille to an active control training condition, include a larger sample of patients, and assess both social cognitive functioning,
This book presents a detailed in-depth study, primarily based on primary Arabic sources, of the background, history and the consequences of the rebellion of Muhammad b. ʿAbdallah b. al-Hasan b. al-Hasan b. ʿAli b. Abi Talib, better known as al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, in 145/762, during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph, Abu Jaʿfar al-Mansur. It focuses on the relations between the early Abbasid and the different Talibi-(Shiʿi) families - mainly the Hasanis and the Husaynis - and the internal struggles between these factions for the legitimacy of authority.
Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom ו Courtemance, Marie . 2015. “Religion, Morality, And Tolerance: The Role Of Disgust”. בתוך Religion And Political Tolerance In America: Advances In The State Of The Art. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Somewhat paradoxically, numerous scholars in various disciplines have found that religion induces negative attitudes towards immigrants, while others find that it fuels feelings of compassion. We offer a framework that accounts for this discrepancy. Using two priming experiments conducted among American Catholics, Turkish Muslims, and Israeli Jews, we disentangle the role of religious social identity and religious belief, and differentiate among types of immigrants based on their ethnic and religious similarity to, or difference from, members of the host society. We find that religious social identity increases opposition to immigrants who are dissimilar to in-group members in religion or ethnicity, while religious belief engenders welcoming attitudes toward immigrants of the same religion and ethnicity, particularly among the less conservative devout. These results suggest that different elements of the religious experience exert distinct and even contrasting effects on immigration attitudes, manifested in both the citizenry's considerations of beliefs and identity and its sensitivity to cues regarding the religion of the target group.
To optimize binding-and packaging-by their capsid proteins (CP), single-stranded (ss) RNA viral genomes often have local secondary/tertiary structures with high CP affinity, with these ‘‘packaging signals’’ serving as heterogeneous nucleation sites for the formation of capsids. Under typical in vitro self-assembly conditions, however, and in particular for the case of many ssRNA viruses whose CP have cationic N-termini, the adsorption of CP by RNA is nonspecific because the CP concentration exceeds the largest dissociation constant for CP RNA binding. Consequently, the RNA is saturated by bound protein before lateral interactions between CP drive the homogeneous nucleation of capsids. But, before capsids are formed, the binding of protein remains reversible and introduction of another RNA species with a different length and/or sequence is found experimentally to result in significant redistribution of protein. Here we argue that, for a given RNA mass, the sequence with the highest affinity for protein is the one with the most compact secondary structure arising from self-complementarity; similarly, a long RNA steals protein from an equal mass of shorter ones. In both cases, it is the lateral attractions between bound proteins that determines the relative CP affinities of the RNA templates, even though the individual binding sites are identical. We demonstrate this with Monte Carlo simulations, generalizing the Rosenbluth method for excludedvolume polymers to include branching of the polymers and their reversible binding by protein.
Groundwater flow patterns within the freshwater-saltwater interface in coastal aquifers include rotation in the flow direction of saltwater that originates from the sea and circulates in the aquifer. Using two types of tracer experiments we analyze the configuration of the rotating flow-lines. The experimental results are numerically reconstructed and quantitatively compared to the salinity distribution along the interface. The results show that the rotation in the direction of the saltwater flow-lines begins at the lowermost part of the interface (i.e. contour C/Cmax=99{%}), and completes within its lower tenth (contour C/Cmax=94{%}). At the upper part of the interface, after the rotation is completed, the flow is dictated by the freshwater flow seaward. Based on these results, the well-known chemical freshwater-saltwater interface is divided into two different parts, defined by their physical properties: (1) the lower part is the "Flow Rotation Region", defined by convective circulating flow-lines; and (2) the upper part is the "Dispersive Region", defined by dispersive dilution. Sensitivity analysis shows that the physical configuration of the interface depends on the transversal dispersivities. At higher dispersivities the rotation width increases, but completes within the lower third of the interface, at most. The sensitivity analysis also shows that the rotation begins at the lowermost part of the interface for dispersivities. Therefore, since no flow occurs below a line of 99{%}, the saline water that flows seaward is always diluted with respect to its original salinity. These flow patterns might affect coastal processes such as submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and chemicals transport through the aquifer.
Brings together research findings that have been accumulated during the last 40 years, mainly by the authors, on wild relatives of cool season legumes
Indicates the wild relatives of lentil, chickpea, common and bitter vetch that can be exploited for breeding
Presents biological evidence that pulse domestication proceeded in a unique course, already in the wild
The study of origin and domestication of legumes described in this book emerged when it became apparent that while this kind of information is adequate for cereals, the pulses lagged behind. At the end of the 1960s the senior author initiated a study on the chickpea's wild relatives followed by similar attempts for broad bean, fenugreek, common vetch, bitter vetch, and lentil. The junior author joined the project in the late 1980s with a study of the genetics of interspecific hybrid embryo abortion in lentil and later has extensively investigated chickpea domestication and wild peas.
While this book mainly describes our research findings, pertinent results obtained by others are also discussed and evaluated. Studying the wild relatives of legumes included evaluation of their taxonomic status, their morphological variation, ecological requirements, exploration of their distribution, and seed collection in their natural habitats. Seeds were examined for their protein profile as preliminary hints of their affinity to the cultigens and plants grown from these seeds were used for establishing their karyotype, producing intra- and interspecific hybrids and analyses of their chromosome pairing at meiosis and fertility.
The aim of these investigations was the identification of the potential wild gene pool of the domesticated forms. Assessment of genetic variation among accessions, particularly in the genus Lens, was made by isozymes and chloroplast DNA studies.
The main findings include the discovery of the chickpea wild progenitor; studies of lentil in three crossability groups; wild peas proceeded in two lines of study; faba bean and fenugreek and their wild progenitors have not yet been identified; common vetch and its related form were treated here as an aggregate (A. sativa); we found gene flow between members of different karyotypes is possible; bitter vetch and its relation to the domesticated form were established by breeding experiments.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disorder predominantly affecting young people. Currently, interferon beta (IFNbeta) is a common treatment for MS. Despite a large effort in recent years, valid biomarkers with predictive value for clinical outcome and response to therapy are lacking. In order to identify predictive biomarkers of response to IFNbeta therapy in relapsing-remitting MS patients, we analyzed expression of 526 immune-related genes with the nCounter Analysis System (NanoString Technologies, Seattle, WA, USA) on total RNA extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 30 relapsing-remitting MS patients. We used a Wilcoxon signed-rank test to find an association between certain gene expression profiles and clinical responses to IFNbeta. We compared the expression profile of patients who responded to IFNbeta treatment (n=16) and non-responsive IFNbeta patients (n=14). The analysis revealed that the expression of eight genes could differentiate between responsive and non-responsive men (p0.005). This differentiation was not evident in women. We analyzed results from an additional cohort of 47 treated and untreated patients to validate the results and explore whether this eight gene cluster could also predict treatment response. Analysis of the validation cohort demonstrated that three out of the eight genes remained significant in only the treated men (p0.05). Our findings could be used as a basis for establishing a routine test for objective prediction of IFNbeta treatment response in male MS patients.
Studies on public opinion about welfare already acknowledge the role context plays in individual attitudes towards welfare. However, the much‐debated effect of socially held values and beliefs on attitudes towards social policy has not been empirically investigated. Drawing on studies in political and social psychology, as well as Shalom Schwartz's work on universal human values, this article argues that social values, specifically egalitarianism and embeddedness, affect individual support for social welfare policies. Moreover, we posit that social values condition the effect that individual ideological orientations have on attitudes towards government responsibility, such that the effect of embeddedness is much stronger for right‐wing and moderate identifiers than those who lean towards the left. We test our hypotheses using data from the European Social Surveys (ESS) and International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Role of Government module and employing multi‐level modelling. Our results provide evidence of the importance of social context and shared values in influencing attitudes towards welfare.
Phage therapy has been proven to be more effective, in some cases, than conventional antibiotics, especially regarding multidrug-resistant biofilm infections. The objective here was to isolate an anti-Enterococcus faecalis bacteriophage and to evaluate its efficacy against planktonic and biofilm cultures. E. faecalis is an important pathogen found in many infections, including endocarditis and persistent infections associated with root canal treatment failure. The difficulty in E. faecalis treatment has been attributed to the lack of anti-infective strategies to eradicate its biofilm and to the frequent emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. To this end, an anti-E. faecalis and E. faecium phage, termed EFDG1, was isolated from sewage effluents. The phage was visualized by electron microscopy. EFDG1 coding sequences and phylogeny were determined by whole genome sequencing (GenBank accession number KP339049), revealing it belongs to the Spounavirinae subfamily of the Myoviridae phages, which includes promising candidates for therapy against Gram-positive pathogens. This analysis also showed that the EFDG1 genome does not contain apparent harmful genes. EFDG1 antibacterial efficacy was evaluated in vitro against planktonic and biofilm cultures, showing effective lytic activity against various E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates, regardless of their antibiotic resistance profile. In addition, EFDG1 efficiently prevented ex vivo E. faecalis root canal infection. These findings suggest that phage therapy using EFDG1 might be efficacious to prevent E. faecalis infection after root canal treatment.
Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) curves are widely used in flood risk management because they provide an easy link between the characteristics of a rainfall event and the probability of its occurrence. Weather radars provide distributed rainfall estimates with high spatial and temporal resolutions and overcome the scarce representativeness of point-based rainfall for regions characterized by large gradients in rainfall climatology. This work explores the use of radar quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) for the identification of IDF curves over a region with steep climatic transitions (Israel) using a unique radar data record (23yr) and combined physical and empirical adjustment of the radar data. IDF relationships were derived by fitting a generalized extreme value distribution to the annual maximum series for durations of 20min, 1h and 4h. Arid, semi-arid and Mediterranean climates were explored using 14 study cases. IDF curves derived from the study rain gauges were compared to those derived from radar and from nearby rain gauges characterized by similar climatology, taking into account the uncertainty linked with the fitting technique. Radar annual maxima and IDF curves were generally overestimated but in 70% of the cases (60% for a 100yr return period), they lay within the rain gauge IDF confidence intervals. Overestimation tended to increase with return period, and this effect was enhanced in arid climates. This was mainly associated with radar estimation uncertainty, even if other effects, such as rain gauge temporal resolution, cannot be neglected. Climatological classification remained meaningful for the analysis of rainfall extremes and radar was able to discern climatology from rainfall frequency analysis.
