Posttraumatic stress avoidance symptoms as mediators in the development of alcohol use disorders after exposure to childhood sexual abuse in a Swiss community sample.

This study examined the role of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms of re-experience, avoidance, and hyperarousal in the relationship between different types of trauma and alcohol use disorders (AUD). We used data from 731 trauma-exposed individuals who participated in the first wave of the PsyCoLaus-study. Trauma characteristics were assessed relatively to the occurrence of lifetime PTSD symptoms and AUD. The results suggest that lifetime and childhood sexual abuse as well as overall childhood trauma were directly linked to AUD and PTSD symptoms, in particular to avoidance symptoms. From single symptom clusters PTSD avoidance was found to specifically mediate the trauma-AUD pathway. Both childhood and sexual trauma strongly contribute to the comorbidity of PTSD and AUD and avoidance-type symptoms appear to play a central role in maintaining this association. Hence, the alleviation of avoidance symptoms might be an important target for therapeutic intervention among victims of sexual abuse before specific addiction treatment is initiated.

Desigualdades en el acceso a los programas preventivos en salud sexual y reproductiva

La presente revisión tiene como objetivos analizar si dentro de los programas preventivos europeos de salud sexual y reproductiva existen barreras de acceso, identificar qué grupos son más vulnerables respecto a la prevención y conocer estrategias que permitan un mejor acceso a dichos programas. El método es una revisión de la bibliografía publicada en los últimos 10 años sobre iniciativas de prevención en salud sexual y reproductiva en Europa. Los resultados muestran la existencia de desigualdades en el acceso, y se identifican propuestas para contribuir a su disminución. La conclusión principal es que las mujeres con condiciones socioeconómicas desfavorables tendrán un mayor riesgo de exclusión si no se aplican medidas correctoras en el diseño de los programas.

Desigualdades en el acceso a los programas preventivos en salud sexual y reproductiva

La presente revisión tiene como objetivos analizar si dentro de los programas preventivos europeos de salud sexual y reproductiva existen barreras de acceso, identificar qué grupos son más vulnerables respecto a la prevención y conocer estrategias que permitan un mejor acceso a dichos programas. El método es una revisión de la bibliografía publicada en los últimos 10 años sobre iniciativas de prevención en salud sexual y reproductiva en Europa. Los resultados muestran la existencia de desigualdades en el acceso, y se identifican propuestas para contribuir a su disminución. La conclusión principal es que las mujeres con condiciones socioeconómicas desfavorables tendrán un mayor riesgo de exclusión si no se aplican medidas correctoras en el diseño de los programas.

Mergers and difference-in-difference estimator : why firms do not increase prices?

Difference-in-Difference (DiD) methods are being increasingly used to analyze the impact of mergers on pricing and other market equilibrium outcomes. Using evidence from an exogenous merger between two retail gasoline companies in a specific market in Spain, this paper shows how concentration did not lead to a price increase. In fact, the conjectural variation model concludes that the existence of a collusive agreement before and after the merger accounts for this result, rather than the existence of efficient gains. This result may explain empirical evidence reported in the literature according to which mergers between firms do not have significant effects on prices.

The difference of disease perception by juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients and their parents : analysis of the JAMAR questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: The JAMAR (Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report) has been developed to evaluate the perception of the patient and his parents on different items: well-being, pain, functional status, quality of life, disease activity, disease course, side effects of medication, therapeutic compliance and satisfaction with illness outcome. Our aim was to compare disease's perception by JIA patients and their parents. METHODS: We included into the study 100 consecutive patients over 7 years of age. We asked both parent and child to complete the JAMAR questionnaire. For each patient we recorded demographic and disease related data. We examined the level of disagreement between children and parents for the quantitative items of the JAMAR: VAS Pain, VAS Disease Activity, VAS Well Being, Juvenile Arthritis Functional Score, HRQoL. Then we looked for a relation between discordance-rate and demographic and clinical variables. RESULTS: Children and parents' median scores for all five items were similar. Individual dyads agreement was low, with a large amount of pairs (80) discordant for at least one item. We found higher MD VAS and JADAS in more discordant dyads, suggesting that when the disease is more active discordance between child and parent increase. CONCLUSION: The JAMAR questionnaire is an important tool that helps clinicians to detect divergent child and parent's disease perceptions. It is essential that both patients and parents fill the JAMAR questionnaire for a complete clinical and psychosocial evaluation.

Phylogeography of competing sexual and parthenogenetic forms of a freshwater flatworm: patterns and explanations

Background: Models of the maintenance of sex predict that one reproductive strategy, sexual or parthenogenetic, should outcompete the other. Distribution patterns may reflect the outcome of this competition as well as the effect of chance and historical events. We review the distribution data of sexual and parthenogenetic biotypes of the planarian Schmidtea polychroa. Results: S. polychroa lives in allopatry or sympatry across Europe except for Central and North-Western Europe, where sexual individuals have never been reported. A phylogenetic relationship between 36 populations based on a 385 bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene revealed that haplotypes were often similar over large geographic distances. In North Italian lakes, however, diversity was extreme, with sequence differences of up to 5% within the same lake in both sexuals and parthenogens. Mixed populations showed "endemic" parthenogenetic lineages that presumably originated from coexisting sexuals, and distantly related ones that probably result from colonization by parthenogens independent from sexuals. Conclusions: Parthenogens originated repeatedly from sexuals, mainly in Italy, but the same may apply to other Mediterranean regions (Spain, Greece). The degree of divergence between populations suggests that S. polychroa survived the ice ages in separate ice-free areas in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe and re-colonised Europe after the retreat of the major glaciers. Combining these results with those based on nuclear markers, the data suggest that repeated hybridisation between sexuals and parthenogenetic lineages in mixed populations maintains high levels of genetic diversity in parthenogens. This can explain why parthenogens persist in populations that were originally sexual. Exclusive parthenogenesis in central and western populations suggests better colonisation capacity, possibly because of inbreeding costs as well

Operational sex ratio, sexual conflict and the intensity of sexual selection.

Modern sexual selection theory indicates that reproductive costs rather than the operational sex ratio predict the intensity of sexual selection. We investigated sexual selection in the polygynandrous common lizard Lacerta vivipara. This species shows male aggression, causing high mating costs for females when adult sex ratios (ASR) are male-biased. We manipulated ASR in 12 experimental populations and quantified the intensity of sexual selection based on the relationship between reproductive success and body size. In sharp contrast to classical sexual selection theory predictions, positive directional sexual selection on male size was stronger and positive directional selection on female size weaker in female-biased populations than in male-biased populations. Thus, consistent with modern theory, directional sexual selection on male size was weaker in populations with higher female mating costs. This suggests that the costs of breeding, but not the operational sex ratio, correctly predicted the strength of sexual selection.

Determinants of male fitness: disentangling intra- and inter-sexual selection.

Both intra- and inter-sexual selection may crucially determine a male's fitness. Their interplay, which has rarely been experimentally investigated, determines a male's optimal reproductive strategy and thus is of fundamental importance to the understanding of a male's behaviour. Here we investigated the relative importance of intra- and inter-sexual selection for male fitness in the common lizard. We investigated which male traits predict a male's access to reproduction allowing for both selective pressures and comparing it with a staged mating experiment excluding all types of intra-sexual selection. We found that qualitatively better males were more likely to reproduce and that sexual selection was two times stronger when allowing for both selective pressures, suggesting that inter- and intra-sexual selection determines male fitness and confirming the existence of multi-factorial sexual selection. Consequently, to optimize fitness, males should trade their investment between the traits, which are important for inter- and intra-sexual selection.

Pubic growth study: applicability in sexual and age diagnostic.

The growth of five variables of the ischiopubic area was analyzed from bone material from birth to old age. The main purpose was to evaluate its significance and capacity for age and sex determination during and after growth. The material used consisted of 327 specimens from four documented Western European collections. Growth curves were calculated by polynomial regression for two classical variables of the ischiopubic area (pubis length and ischiopubic index) and three new variables of the pubic acetabular area (horizontal and vertical diameter of the pubic acetabular area and the pubic acetabular index). None of the curves showed lineal growth, with the exception of the ischiopubic index and the masculine vertical diameter of the pubis acetabular area. Pubis length has the most complicated growth, expressed by a five-degree polynomial. All the variables are useful for adult sex determination, except the pubic acetabular index. The ischopubic index, vertical diameter of the pubic acetabular area and the pubic acetabular index seem to be good variables for sub-adult sex determination. For age estimation the best variables, in both archaeological and forensic remains, are the absolute measurements (pubic length, vertical and horizontal diameter of the pubis). However, pubis length is the best variable for age estimation because it can be applied until 25 years of age.

Phylogenetic relationships of the newly discovered sexual state of Talaromyces flavovirens, comb. nov.

Typical Talaromyces ascomata were observed on dry Quercus suber leaf litter amongst the characteristic synnemata of Penicillium aureocephalum, and they appear to represent the sexual state of the latter species. The species is a synonym of the older Lasioderma flavovirens, and we propose the new combination Talaromyces flavovirens. Lectotype and epitype specimens are designated for this name. The defining characters of the asexual state include yellow, short-stalked, mycetozoan-like synnemata with an unusual, almost closed terminal head of penicillate conidiophores intermixed with sinuous hyphae, and dark green conidia. Ascomata could not be induced in culture, but PCR amplifications of mating-type genes indicate the species is heterothallic. In nature, ascocarp initials appear to be antheridia coiled around clavate ascogonia, similar to those of T. flavus, and the thick-walled, spiny ascospores are also similar to those of T. flavus. ITS barcodes and β-tubulin sequences place T. flavovirens in a clade with T. apiculatus, T. flavus, T. funiculosus, T. galapagensis, T. pinophilus, T. macrosporus, and seven other species.