Nasal airflow simulations suggest convergent adaptation in Neanderthals and modern humans.

Both modern humans (MHs) and Neanderthals successfully settled across western Eurasian cold-climate landscapes. Among the many adaptations considered as essential to survival in such landscapes, changes in the nasal morphology and/or function aimed to humidify and warm the air before it reaches the lungs are of key importance. Unfortunately, the lack of soft-tissue evidence in the fossil record turns difficult any comparative study of respiratory performance. Here, we reconstruct the internal nasal cavity of a Neanderthal plus two representatives of climatically divergent MH populations (southwestern Europeans and northeastern Asians). The reconstruction includes mucosa distribution enabling a realistic simulation of the breathing cycle in different climatic conditions via computational fluid dynamics. Striking across-specimens differences in fluid residence times affecting humidification and warming performance at the anterior tract were found under cold/dry climate simulations. Specifically, the Asian model achieves a rapid air conditioning, followed by the Neanderthals, whereas the European model attains a proper conditioning only around the medium-posterior tract. In addition, quantitative-genetic evolutionary analyses of nasal morphology provided signals of stabilizing selection for MH populations, with the removal of Arctic populations turning covariation patterns compatible with evolution by genetic drift. Both results indicate that, departing from important craniofacial differences existing among Neanderthals and MHs, an advantageous species-specific respiratory performance in cold climates may have occurred in both species. Fluid dynamics and evolutionary biology independently provided evidence of nasal evolution, suggesting that adaptive explanations regarding complex functional phenotypes require interdisciplinary approaches aimed to quantify both performance and evolutionary signals on covariation patterns.

Molecular dissociation in the presence of catalysts: interpreting bond breaking as a quantum dynamical phase transition.

In this work we show that molecular chemical bond formation and dissociation in the presence of the d-band of a metal catalyst can be described as a quantum dynamical phase transition (QDPT). This agrees with DFT calculations that predict sudden jumps in some observables as the molecule breaks. According to our model this phenomenon emerges because the catalyst provides for a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. We show that when the molecule approaches the surface, as occurs in the Heyrovsky reaction of H2, the bonding H2 orbital has a smooth crossover into a bonding molecular orbital built with the closest H orbital and the surface metal d-states. The same occurs for the antibonding state. Meanwhile, two resonances appear within the continuous spectrum of the d-band, which are associated with bonding and antibonding orbitals between the furthest H atom and the d-states at the second metallic layer. These move toward the band center, where they collapse into a pure metallic resonance and an almost isolated H orbital. This phenomenon constitutes a striking example of the non-trivial physics enabled when one deals with non-Hermitian Hamiltonian beyond the usual wide band approximation.

Psychological characteristics of dieters and bulimics.

Two studies examined the continuum and discontinuity models of the relation between dieting and bulimia nervosa. In Study 1, 21 dieters, 19 bulimics, and 33 nondieting controls were compared on 24 measures. Multivariate analyses revealed that each of the groups differed significantly from the other two. Univariate analyses found 18 significant differences between bulimics and dieters and 1 significant difference between dieters and controls. In Study 2, 86 subjects completed measures of psychological functioning, dieting, and bulimia nervosa. On the basis of regression analyses using factor scores from the psychological variables as predictors, high scores on a psychopathology factor and low scores on a defensiveness factor predicted both bulimia and dieting. Low self-concept scores also predicted bulimia. These data indicate that both continuity and discontinuity characterize the relation between dieting and bulimia.

Economic adjustment and the future of health services in the Third World.

Hard economic times in the Third World in the 1980s found many countries unable to maintain previous levels of health and social services in the face of the mounting service cost of their external debt and declining export earnings. The economic adjustment policies promoted by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on the basis of market ideology were not able alone to improve the economic status of the debtor countries and did have deleterious effects on their health services and the health status of their population. Less pressure to privatize health services, more aid from abroad for the public sector, and a reallocation of scarce government resources from military to social purposes would help to rectify the situation, although sustained long-run improvement would still depend on the external factors that determine economic prosperity, and the prognosis in this respect is uncertain.

[Late results of treating cervical cancer with a proton beam]. / Otdalennye rezul'taty lecheniia raka sheiki matki puchkom protonov.

The authors described methods of cervical cancer therapy performed in 1970 using the proton beam of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics and analyzed long-term results. The use of protons resulted in homogeneous irradiation of a preset target volume without injuring the adjacent organs and tissues. Proton beam irradiation of the uterus was combined with gamma-beam therapy of the zones of regional metastatic spreading. Postradiation reactions were unobserved in the adjacent bladder and rectum in patients receiving combined therapy and irradiation alone. The clinical efficacy of proton beam irradiation was confirmed by the treatment of 160 patients.

Bulimics and restrained eaters: a personality comparison.

This study compared the psychological characteristics of restrained eaters and bulimics. One hundred and thirty six female undergraduates completed the Restraint Scale, the Bulimia Test, the Narcissistic Personality Disorder Scale, a borderline personality disorder scale, the Body Cathexis Scale, and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale which yields six measures of self-esteem (physical self, moral-ethical self, personal self, family self, social self, and total self-esteem) and four measures of psychopathology (general maladjustment, psychosis, personality disorder, and neurosis). Stepwise regression analyses were done using restraint and bulimia as dependent measures and the other measures as predictor variables. Both the regression equation for bulimia and the one for restraint included physical self-esteem and narcissism as predictor variables. As a third variable, general maladjustment was entered in the bulimia equation and moral self-esteem in the restraint equation. The results indicate that both bulimics and restrained eaters are dissatisfied with their bodies and have narcissistic qualities. However, bulimics show an element of psychopathology which restrained eaters do not and restrained eaters perceive themselves as morally virtuous, whereas bulimics do not.

[6-unit clinico-physical complex]. / Shestikabinnyi kliniko-fizicheskii kompleks.

The article is devoted to the results of application of high energy proton beams, negative pi-mesons and neutrons in biomedical and clinical investigations carried out at the 680 MeV phasotron (the JINR Laboratory of Nuclear Problems) before its conversion. A six-compartment clinico-physical facility is described. It has been constructed at the converted phasotron in order to continue and expand investigations for application of heavy nuclear particles in radiation therapy. The first physical and dosimetric characteristics of medical proton beams produced in the converted accelerator and guided to chambers 1 and 2 of the new clinico-physical facility are discussed. The future of radiobiological and clinical investigations with high energy proton, negative pion and neutron beams of this facility is also discussed.

Restraint, bulimia, and psychopathology.

This study investigated the similarities between bulimia and dietary restraint by examining how these variables related to each other as well as to two standardized measures of psychopathology. Female college students completed the restraint scale (which consists of a weight fluctuation (WF) and a concern with dieting (CD) factor), a bulimia scale (BULIT), a narcissism scale (NPDS), and a maldajustment scale (Mt). Bulimia was significantly correlated with restraint and each of its factors; however, it was most strongly related to the CD factor. When WF was controlled, bulimia and CD were significantly correlated, whereas when CD was controlled, bulimia and WF were not related. However, despite their strong relation with each other, bulimia and CD did not show similar patterns of relations with narcissism and maladjustment. Bulimia was significantly related to maladjustment when narcissism was controlled. In contrast, CD was significantly related to narcissism when maladjustment was controlled. In summary, bulimia and the CD factor of restraint appear to be overlapping constructs; however, they are associated with different types of psychopathology.