Explore the vast range of titles available.

An understanding of the effects of climate on fuel is required to predict future changes to fire. We explored the climatic determinants of variations in surface fine fuel parameters across forests (dry and wet sclerophyll plus rainforest) and grassy woodlands of south‐eastern Australia. Influences of vegetation type and climate on fuel were examined through statistical modelling for estimates of litterfall, decomposition and steady state fine litter fuel load obtained from published studies. Strong relationships were found between climate, vegetation type and all three litter parameters. Litterfall was positively related to mean annual rainfall and mean annual temperature across all vegetation types. Decomposition was both negatively and positively related to mean annual temperature at low and high levels of warm‐season rainfall respectively. Steady state surface fine fuel load was generally, negatively related to mean annual temperature but mean annual rainfall had divergent effects dependent on vegetation type: i.e. positive effect in low productivity dry sclerophyll forests and grassy woodlands versus negative effect in high productivity wet sclerophyll forests and rainforests. The species composition of the vegetation types may have influenced decomposition and steady state fuel load responses in interaction with climate: e.g. lower decomposition rates in the low productivity vegetation types that occupied drier environments may be partially due to the predominance of species with sclerophyllous leaves. The results indicate that uncertain and highly variable future trends in precipitation may have a crucial role in determining the magnitude and direction of change in surface fine fuel load across south‐eastern Australia.

Assumptions associated with Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) suggest that self-compassion, but not self-esteem, should be incompatible with irrational beliefs and with the emotional disturbances that they produce. In this study, 184 university students responded to a self-compassion scale along with measures of irrational beliefs, self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. As expected, self-compassion correlated negatively with irrationality, predicted better mental health, and explained inverse connections of self-esteem with irrational beliefs. In support of REBT, the irrationality of low frustration tolerance also partially mediated the inverse self-compassion relationship with anxiety. Other findings for self-esteem and for the irrational belief of self-worth, nevertheless, suggested complexities for the REBT conceptual framework. These data most importantly confirmed self-compassion as part of what REBT would describe as an effective personal philosophy.

To aid the implementation of athlete surveillance systems relative to logistical circumstances, easy-to-access information that summarises the extent to which methods of acquiring data are used in practice to monitor athletes is required. In this scoping review, Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM) techniques were used to summarise and identify the most prevalent combinations of methods used to monitor athletes in research studying team, individual, field- and court-based sports (357 articles; SPORTDiscus, MEDLINE, CINHAL, and WebOfScience; 2014-2018 inc.) . The most prevalent combination in team and field-based sports were HR and/or sRPE (internal) and GPS, whereas in individual and court-based sports, internal methods (e.g., HR and sRPE) were most prevalent. In court-based sports, where external methods were occasionally collected in combination with internal methods of acquiring data, the use of accelerometers or inertial measuring units (ACC/IMU) were most prevalent. Whilst individual and court-based sports are less researched, this SNAM-based summary reveals that court-based sports may lead the way in using ACC/IMU to monitor athletes. Questionnaires and self-reported methods of acquiring data are common in all categories of sport. This scoping review provides coaches, sport-scientists and researchers with a data-driven visual resource to aid the selection of methods of acquiring data from athletes in all categories of sport relative to logistical circumstances. A guide on how to practically implement a surveillance system based on the visual summaries provided herein, is also presented.

NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) guidelines for new entrant tuberculosis (TB) screening recommend chest x ray (CXR) for immigrants from countries with TB incidence >40/105, and tuberculin skin test (TST) for people with normal CXR from very high TB prevalence countries. A revised screening policy using first-line QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) in high risk immigrants was piloted in 2007. Initially, TST was offered to immigrants from countries with TB incidence 200–339/105, and QFT to those from countries with incidence >340/105. When increased resources became available, all immigrants from countries with TB incidence >200/105 had QFT. Those with positive QFT were invited for CXR. 1336 immigrant were invited for screening, with a 32% attendance rate. 280 patients had QFT, of which 38% were positive, with <2% being indeterminate. Using the NICE approach, the cost of screening these 280 immigrants would be £13 346.75 (£47.67 per immigrant) and would identify 83 cases of latent TB infection (LTBI). Using first-line QFT followed by CXR the cost was £9781.82 (£34.94 per immigrant) and identified 105 cases of LTBI. The cost to identify one case of LTBI following NICE guidelines would be £160.81 and using the present protocol was £93.16. For immigrants from high risk countries QFT blood testing followed by CXR is feasible for TB screening, cheaper than screening using the NICE guideline and identifies more cases of LTBI.

Pakistani Muslim university students (N = 207) displayed Personal Distress, Public Distress, and Personal Defeat Reactions to Terrorism. All three reactions predicted poorer mental health with Personal Defeat being especially disturbed in its adjustment implications. In line with the assumptions of coping theory, scores on the Negative Religious Coping Scale correlated positively with Personal Distress and with Personal Defeat. However, Positive Religious Coping, the spirituality of Muslim Experiential Religiousness, and the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientations exhibited positive rather than the expected negative linkages with Personal Distress and Public Distress. Muslim Experiential Religiousness moderated associations of Positive and Negative Religious Coping with Public Distress. When spirituality was high, these relationships were negative. When spirituality was low, they became positive. These data documented the negative impacts that terrorism can have on Pakistanis and suggested that Muslim religious commitments may have an important role to play in resisting those influences.

Background and Purpose. The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to examine the usefulness of the addition of specific stabilization exercises to a general back and abdominal muscle exercise approach for patients with subacute or chronic nonspecific back pain by comparing a specific muscle stabilization–enhanced general exercise approach with a general exercise–only approach. Subjects. Fifty-five patients with recurrent, nonspecific back pain (stabilization–enhanced exercise group: n=29, general exercise–only group: n=26) and no clinical signs suggesting spinal instability were recruited. Methods. Both groups received an 8-week exercise intervention and written advice (The Back Book). Outcome was based on self-reported pain (Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire), disability (Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire), and cognitive status (Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia, Pain Locus of Control Scale) measured immediately before and after intervention and 3 months after the end of the intervention period. Results. Outcome measures for both groups improved. Furthermore, self-reported disability improved more in the general exercise–only group immediately after intervention but not at the 3-month follow-up. There were generally no differences between the 2 exercise approaches for any of the other outcomes. Discussion and Conclusion. A general exercise program reduced disability in the short term to a greater extent than a stabilization-enhanced exercise approach in patients with recurrent nonspecific low back pain. Stabilization exercises do not appear to provide additional benefit to patients with subacute or chronic low back pain who have no clinical signs suggesting the presence of spinal instability.

Psychological aggression against wives is a social problem in all societies. To analyze possible predictive factors of psychological aggression against wives, this study examined 398 women selected through multi-stage stratified sampling techniques. Research participants responded to the Conflict Tactics Scale, questions about childhood insult experience, and the Five-Factor Personality Inventory (NEO-FFI). Results showed that 86 % of respondents experienced psychological aggression from their husbands during the last year. Results also revealed that 46.7 % and 43.3 % of respondents were targets of insults during childhood by their mothers and fathers, respectively. Childhood insult experience and neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits predicted psychological aggression by husbands against their wives. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that neuroticism was a significant predictor of minor and severe psychological aggression against wives. The results highlighted the importance of childhood insult experience and personality traits in explaining the severity of psychological aggression against wives in Tehran, Iran.

Proteomic analysis of histones has shown that they are subject to a superabundance of acylations, which extend far beyond acetylation, to include: crotonylation, propionylation, butyrylation, malonylation, succinylation, β-hydroxybutyrylation and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation. To date, much of the functional data has focussed on histone crotonylation which, similar to acetylation, has been associated with positive gene regulation and is added by the acyltransferase, p300. Although Sirtuins 1–3, along with HDAC3, have been shown to possess decrotonylase activity in vitro , there is relatively little known about the regulation of histone crotonylation in vivo . Here we show that Histone Deacetylase 1 and 2 (HDAC1/2), the catalytic core of numerous co-repressor complexes, are important histone decrotonylase enzymes. A ternary complex of HDAC1/CoREST1/LSD1 is able to hydrolyse both histone H3 Lys18-acetyl (H3K18ac) and H3 Lys18-crotonyl (H3K18cr) peptide substrates. Genetic deletion of HDAC1/2 in ES cells increases global levels of histone crotonylation and causes an 85% reduction in total decrotonylase activity. Furthermore, we mapped H3K18cr in cells using ChIP-seq, with and without HDAC1/2, and observed increased levels of crotonylation, which largely overlaps with H3K18ac in the vicinity of transcriptional start sites. Collectively, our data indicate that HDAC1/2 containing complexes are critical regulators of histone crotonylation in vivo .

In the study of mysticism the debate has centered on whether a universal experiential core exists regardless of religious interpretation. The current investigation combines Jamesian empiricist and social constructivist perspectives to argue that stable experiential facets load variously on factors to construct local interpretations. Local interpretations reflect a family resemblance—a mystical common core experienced across cultures. Results of confirmatory factor analyses, based on data from 240 Tibetan Buddhist adults, suggest statistical model fit and superiority for the three-factor model compared to the unidimensional model. Pure experience can be distinguished explicitly from its context-specific hermeneutical construal.

This study explores the phenomenological structure of mystical experience among 139 Chinese Pure Land and Chan Buddhist monks and nuns. Semi-structured interviews, thematic coding, and statistical analyses demonstrated that Stace's common facets of mysticism as measured by Hood's Mysticism Scale (M Scale) successfully described Buddhist experience as modified by Buddhist doctrines. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that these facets could be formed into Stace's three-factor structure. A mystical introvertive unity hypothesized to be separate from an extrovertive unity instead converged in the Chinese Buddhist context. These results lend strong support to the thesis that the phenomenology of mystical experience reveals a common experiential core that can be discerned across religious and spiritual traditions. These data also demonstrated that this common core can and should be explored using mixed methods.