Reduced gray matter volume in ventral prefrontal cortex but not amygdala in bipolar disorder:significant effects of gender and trait anxiety

Neuroimaging studies in bipolar disorder report gray matter volume (GMV) abnormalities in neural regions implicated in emotion regulation. This includes a reduction in ventral/orbital medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) GMV and, inconsistently, increases in amygdala GMV. We aimed to examine OMPFC and amygdala GMV in bipolar disorder type 1 patients (BPI) versus healthy control participants (HC), and the potential confounding effects of gender, clinical and illness history variables and psychotropic medication upon any group differences that were demonstrated in OMPFC and amygdala GMV. Images were acquired from 27 BPI (17 euthymic, 10 depressed) and 28 age- and gender-matched HC in a 3T Siemens scanner. Data were analyzed with SPM5 using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to assess main effects of diagnostic group and gender upon whole brain (WB) GMV. Post-hoc analyses were subsequently performed using SPSS to examine the extent to which clinical and illness history variables and psychotropic medication contributed to GMV abnormalities in BPI in a priori and non-a priori regions has demonstrated by the above VBM analyses. BPI showed reduced GMV in bilateral posteromedial rectal gyrus (PMRG), but no abnormalities in amygdala GMV. BPI also showed reduced GMV in two non-a priori regions: left parahippocampal gyrus and left putamen. For left PMRG GMV, there was a significant group by gender by trait anxiety interaction. GMV was significantly reduced in male low-trait anxiety BPI versus male low-trait anxiety HC, and in high- versus low-trait anxiety male BPI. Our results show that in BPI there were significant effects of gender and trait-anxiety, with male BPI and those high in trait-anxiety showing reduced left PMRG GMV. PMRG is part of medial prefrontal network implicated in visceromotor and emotion regulation.

The Maudsley Early Onset Schizophrenia Study:The effect of age of onset and illness duration on fronto-parietal gray matter

Objective: In Early Onset Schizophrenia (EOS; onset before the 18th birthday) late brain maturational changes may interact with disease mechanisms leading to a wave of back to front structural changes during adolescence. To further explore this effect we examined the relationship between age of onset and duration of illness on brain morphology in adolescents with EOS. Subjects and methods: Structural brain magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained from 40 adolescents with EOS. We used Voxel Based Morphometry and multiple regressions analyses, implemented in SPM, to examine the relationship between gray matter volume with age of onset and illness duration. Results: Age of onset showed a positive correlation with regional gray matter volume in the right superior parietal lobule (Brodmann Area 7). Duration of illness was inversely related to regional gray matter volume in the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 11/47). Conclusions: Parietal gray matter loss may contribute to the onset of schizophrenia while orbitofrontal gray matter loss is associated with illness duration. © 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Social movement studies, Social movement studies, and the challenges of Parochialism:a rejoinder to Poulson, Caswell and Gray

In this short rejoinder, I briefly contextualise and discuss the implications of Poulson, Caswell and Gray's article for Social Movement Studies. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Hamid Tafazoli und Richard T. Gray (Hg.): Außenraum – Mitraum – Innenraum. Heterotopien in Kultur und Gesellschaft

Review of Hamid Tafazoli und Richard T. Gray (Hg.): Außenraum – Mitraum – Innenraum. Heterotopien in Kultur und Gesellschaft

What will the boss think? The impression management implications of supportive relationships with star and project peers

Although impression management scholars have identified a number of tactics for influencing supervisor evaluations, most of those tactics represent supervisor-targeted behaviors. This study examines the degree to which employees form supportive relationships with peers for impression management purposes. In so doing, we explore this intriguing question: Will employees gain more from forming supportive relationships with stars (i.e., top performers who are on the fast track in the organization) or projects (i.e., works in progress who need help and refinement to perform well)? We examined this question in 2 field studies. Study 1 included 4 sources and 2 time periods; Study 2 included 2 sources and 3 time periods. The results showed that supportive relationships with both stars and projects seemed to represent impression management opportunities, insofar as they predicted supervisor positive affect and perceptions of employee promotability. Impression management motives only predicted supportive relationships with stars, however, not projects. Relationships with projects were driven by prosocial motives not concerns about managing images. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of our results for the managing of impressions and peer relationships

Re-written by machine and new technology: Did the Internet kill the Video Star

The traditional way of understanding television content consumption and viewer reactions may be simply summarised: information about the program, viewing at airing time, and interpersonal discussion after the program. In our digital media environment due to crossmedia consumption and platform shifts, the actual trend in audiovisual, and traditionally television content consumption is changing, the viewer’s journey is different across contents and platforms. Content is becoming independent from the platform and the medium is increasingly in the hands of technologically empowered viewers. Our objective is to uncover how traditional content expressly manufactured for television (series, reality shows, sports) can now be consumed via other platforms, and how and to what extent audiovisual content consumption is complemented or replaced by other forms (text, audio). In our exploratory research we identify the typical patterns of interaction and synergies of consumption across classical media content. In this study we used a multimethodology qualitative research design with three research phases including focus groups, online content analysis, and viewers’ narratives. Overall, the Video Star stays alive, but has to deal with immediate reactions and has to change according to his or her audiences’ wishes

Exploring the star forming regions in vigorous star forming galaxies at Z=0.84

We analyze the properties of star forming regions in a sample of star forming galaxies at z = 0.84. Star forming regions are extracted from B band ACS-HST images. Previously we have substracted a model of the galaxy, fitting a bulged+disk model to the whole galaxy. Special care has been taken masking the star forming regions in the model fitting procedure, yielding more reliable results. We present here the properties of these star forming regions.

Measuring star formation in high-z massive galaxies: a mid-infrared to submillimetre study of the GOODS NICMOS Survey sample

We present measurements of the mean mid-infrared to submillimetre flux densities of massive (M_*≳ 10^11 M_⊙) galaxies at redshifts 1.7 < z < 2.9, obtained by stacking positions of known objects taken from the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS) catalogue on maps at 24 μm (Spitzer/MIPS); 70, 100 and 160 μm (Herschel/PACS); 250, 350 and 500 μm (BLAST); and 870 μm (LABOCA). A modified blackbody spectrum fit to the stacked flux densities indicates a median [interquartile] star formation rate (SFR) of SFR = 63[48, 81] M_⊙ yr^−1. We note that not properly accounting for correlations between bands when fitting stacked data can significantly bias the result. The galaxies are divided into two groups, disc-like and spheroid-like, according to their Sérsic indices, n. We find evidence that most of the star formation is occurring in n≤ 2 (disc-like) galaxies, with median [interquartile] SFR = 122[100, 150] M_⊙ yr^−1, while there are indications that the n > 2 (spheroid-like) population may be forming stars at a median [interquartile] SFR = 14[9, 20] M_⊙ yr^−1, if at all. Finally, we show that star formation is a plausible mechanism for size evolution in this population as a whole, but find only marginal evidence that it is what drives the expansion of the spheroid-like galaxies.

The relation between cool cluster cores and Herschel-detected star formation in brightest cluster galaxies

We present far-infrared (FIR) analysis of 68 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at 0.08 < z < 1.0. Deriving total infrared luminosities directly from Spitzer and Herschel photometry spanning the peak of the dust component (24-500 μm), we calculate the obscured star formation rate (SFR). 22^+6.2 _–5.3% of the BCGs are detected in the far-infrared, with SFR = 1-150 M ☉ yr^–1. The infrared luminosity is highly correlated with cluster X-ray gas cooling times for cool-core clusters (gas cooling time <1 Gyr), strongly suggesting that the star formation in these BCGs is influenced by the cluster-scale cooling process. The occurrence of the molecular gas tracing Hα emission is also correlated with obscured star formation. For all but the most luminous BCGs (L_TIR > 2 × 10^11 L_☉), only a small (≤0.4 mag) reddening correction is required for SFR(Hα) to agree with SFR_FIR. The relatively low Hα extinction (dust obscuration), compared to values reported for the general star-forming population, lends further weight to an alternate (external) origin for the cold gas. Finally, we use a stacking analysis of non-cool-core clusters to show that the majority of the fuel for star formation in the FIR-bright BCGs is unlikely to originate from normal stellar mass loss.

Star formation in a stellar mass-selected sample of galaxies to z=3 from the GOODS-NICMOS Survey

We present a study of the star-forming properties of a stellar mass-selected sample of galaxies in the GOODS (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) NICMOS Survey (GNS), based on deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of the GOODS North and South fields. Using a stellar mass-selected sample, combined with HST/ACS and Spitzer data to measure both ultraviolet (UV) and infrared-derived star formation rates (SFRs), we investigate the star forming properties of a complete sample of ∼1300 galaxies down to log M_*= 9.5 at redshifts 1.5 < z < 3. Eight per cent of the sample is made up of massive galaxies with M_*≥ 10^11 M_⊙. We derive optical colours, dust extinctions and UV and infrared SFR to determine how the SFR changes as a function of both stellar mass and time. Our results show that SFR increases at higher stellar mass such that massive galaxies nearly double their stellar mass from star formation alone over the redshift range studied, but the average value of SFR for a given stellar mass remains constant over this ∼2 Gyr period. Furthermore, we find no strong evolution in the SFR for our sample as a function of mass over our redshift range of interest; in particular we do not find a decline in the SFR among massive galaxies, as is seen at z < 1. The most massive galaxies in our sample (log M_*≥ 11) have high average SFRs with values SFR_UV, corr= 103 ± 75 M_⊙ yr^−1, and yet exhibit red rest-frame (U−B) colours at all redshifts. We conclude that the majority of these red high-redshift massive galaxies are red due to dust extinction. We find that A_2800 increases with stellar mass, and show that between 45 and 85 per cent of massive galaxies harbour dusty star formation. These results show that even just a few Gyr after the first galaxies appear, there are strong relations between the global physical properties of galaxies, driven by stellar mass or another underlying feature of galaxies strongly related to the stellar mass.

The AGN, star-forming, and morphological properties of luminous ir-bright/optically-faint galaxies

We present the active galactic nucleus (AGN), star-forming, and morphological properties of a sample of 13 MIR-luminous (∫_24 700 μJy) IR-bright/optically-faint galaxies (IRBGs, ∫_24/f_R≲ 1000). While these z ∼ 2 sources were drawn from deep Chandra fields with >200 ks X-ray coverage, only seven are formally detected in the X-ray and four lack X-ray emission at even the 2σ level. Spitzer InfraRed Spectrograph (IRS) spectra, however, confirm that all of the sources are AGN-dominated in the mid-IR, although half have detectable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission responsible for ∼25% of their mid-infrared flux density. When combined with other samples, this indicates that at least 30%–40% of luminous IRBGs have star formation rates in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) range (∼100–2000 M_⨀ yr^−1). X-ray hardness ratios and MIR to X-ray luminosity ratios indicate that all members of the sample contain heavily X-ray obscured AGNs, 80% of which are candidates to be Compton thick. Furthermore, the mean X-ray luminosity of the sample, log L_2–10 keV(erg s^−1) ∼44.6, indicates that these IRBGs are Type 2 QSOs, at least from the X-ray perspective. While those sources most heavily obscured in the X-ray are also those most likely to display strong silicate absorption in the mid-IR, silicate absorption does not always accompany X-ray obscuration. Finally, ∼70% of the IRBGs are merger candidates, a rate consistent with that of sub-mm galaxies (SMGs), although SMGs appear to be physically larger than IRBGs. These characteristics are consistent with the proposal that these objects represent a later, AGN-dominated, and more relaxed evolutionary stage following soon after the star-formation-dominated one represented by the SMGs.

Deep Herschel view of obscured star formation in the Bullet cluster

We use deep, five band (100–500 μm) data from the Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS) to fully constrain the obscured star formation rate, SFR_FIR, of galaxies in the Bullet cluster (z = 0.296), and a smaller background system (z = 0.35) in the same field. Herschel detects 23 Bullet cluster members with a total SFR_FIR = 144±14 M_⨀ yr^-1. On average, the background system contains brighter far-infrared (FIR) galaxies, with ~50% higher SFR_FIR (21 galaxies; 207± 9 M_⨀ yr^-1). SFRs extrapolated from 24 μm flux via recent templates (SFR_24 µm) agree well with SFRFIR for ~60% of the cluster galaxies. In the remaining ~40%, SFR_24 µm underestimates SFR_FIR due to a significant excess in observed S_100/S_24 (rest frame S_75/S_18) compared to templates of the same FIR luminosity.