One ‘knows’: self-rated health and telomere length among ex-prisoners of war

Abstract

Objective: Ill-health and early mortality are amongst the most significant ramifications of trauma. Furthermore, trauma alters the subjective perception and experience of the body. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which deteriorations in perceived health among traumatised individuals are associated with cellular health as manifested in telomere length.

Methods: Specifically, 88 former prisoners of war (ex-POWs) evaluated their health (self-rated health; SRH) at 18 (T1), 35 (T2) and 42 (T3) years after the war, and were assessed for telomere length at T3. Health behaviour, BMI, morbidity and PTSD were also examined at T3.

Results: The findings demonstrated that SRH was cross-sectionally correlated with telomere length. Furthermore, a significant sequential indirect effect was found, in which worse SRH in T1 was associated with shorter telomere length at T3, through worse SRH at T2 and at T3.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that long-term deteriorations in the subjective evaluations of health are implicated in actual cellular health among individuals exposed to trauma.     

‘I download my prayer schedule’: exploring the technological mediation of Islamic religious practice at work

The practice of daily prayers in Islam and how observances such as Ramadan fall each year follow specific solar or lunar calendars different from the Gregorian calendar of UK work places. Identifying the time for daily prayers and finding a place to practise is a skilled activity requiring ways to ascertain the correct (and changing) time and a place in which prayer can take place. In the absence of traditional mediation such as the call to prayer broadcast from a local mosque, new, often technologically innovative, approaches are being adopted. This paper reports on a study of how Muslims practise and negotiate the difficulties of performing daily prayers in a UK university. Though technological mediation is a significant aspect of daily prayers, it is but one part of a complex practice which often involves multiple technologies and multiple ways of working.     

Sexual Fantasy,Masturbation and Pornography Among Egyptians

Sexual behavior is subjected to varying degrees of social, cultural, religious and moral constraints. With the lack of Egyptian studies addressing the prevalence of sexual fantasy, masturbation and pornography consumption, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of these behaviors among Egyptians, and its relation to socio-demographic characteristics. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 1532 patients who attended four outpatient clinics of Menoufia University Hospital in the time from January to March 2015. A significant higher prevalence of sexual fantasy was found among female participants, whereas unmarried males showed a higher prevalence compared to married ones. The prevalence of masturbation and pornography was significantly higher among males and among participants with higher educational level. Higher masturbation and pornography prevalence was found among married males with a marriage duration of >10–20 years, where a higher prevalence was found among married females with a marriage duration of ≤10 years. The study showed a considerably high prevalence of sexual fantasy, masturbation and pornography among the participants. Future studies are needed to assess the risk factors that contribute to this high prevalence. This should be followed by a comprehensive and effective intervention program to ensure optimum reproductive and sexual health among Egyptians.     

EEG decoding of semantic category reveals distributed representations for single concepts

Achieving a clearer picture of categorial distinctions in the brain is essential for our understanding of the conceptual lexicon, but much more fine-grained investigations are required in order for this evidence to contribute to lexical research. Here we present a collection of advanced data-mining techniques that allows the category of individual concepts to be decoded from single trials of EEG data. Neural activity was recorded while participants silently named images of mammals and tools, and category could be detected in single trials with an accuracy well above chance, both when considering data from single participants, and when group-training across participants. By aggregating across all trials, single concepts could be correctly assigned to their category with an accuracy of 98%. The pattern of classifications made by the algorithm confirmed that the neural patterns identified are due to conceptual category, and not any of a series of processing-related confounds. The time intervals, frequency bands and scalp locations that proved most informative for prediction permit physiological interpretation: the widespread activation shortly after appearance of the stimulus (from 100 ms) is consistent both with accounts of multi-pass processing, and distributed representations of categories. These methods provide an alternative to fMRI for fine-grained, large-scale investigations of the conceptual lexicon.