Research with psychiatric patients raises frequently discussed, ethical questions, one of which is: Can psychiatric patients give consent to participation in research at all? To answer this and similar questions adequately, it is - according to our thesis - necessary to analyze first, which theoretical assumptions are made in established practice.

To solve the question after the possibility of consent, compatible understandings of ‘disease’, ‘illness’ and ‘autonomy’ are crucial, but there is no consensual use of these terms in philosophy. Therefore we first are going to explain different concepts of ‘autonomy’ and ‘disease’. Subsequent to this we will test how the different conceptualizations of ‘autonomy’ and ‘disease’ can be related to each other and how the reasonable combinations shape possible answers to the opening question. It will become apparent that an adequate analysis of ‘autonomy’ and ‘disease’ raises ethical dilemma in psychiatry, for which we shall suggest possible solutions.

After achieving significant research results on laser-driven boron fusion, the essential facts are presented how the classical very low-energy gains of the initially known thermal ignition conditions for fusion of hydrogen (H) with the boron isotope 11 (HB11 fusion) were bridged by nine orders of magnitudes in agreement with experiments. This is possible under extreme non-thermal equilibrium conditions for ignition by >10 PW-ps laser pulses of extreme power and nonlinear conditions. This low-temperature clean and low-cost fusion energy generation is in crucial contrast to local thermal equilibrium conditions with the advantage to avoid the difficulties of the usual problems with extremely high temperatures.

Epigenetic DNA modifications in genes related to the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis are discussed as a mechanism underlying the association between prenatal depression and altered child HPA activity. In a longitudinal study, DNA methylation changes related to prenatal depressive symptoms were investigated in 167 children aged 6 to 9 years. At six candidate genes, 126 cytosine–guanine dinucleotides were considered without correcting for multiple testing due to the exploratory nature of the study. Further associations with the basal child HPA activity were examined. Children exposed to prenatal depressive symptoms exhibited lower bedtime cortisol (p = .003, ηp2 = 0.07) and a steeper diurnal slope (p = .023, ηp2 = 0.06). For total cortisol release, prenatal exposure was related to lower cortisol release in boys, and higher release in girls. Furthermore, prenatal depressive symptoms were associated with altered methylation in the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1), the mineralocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C2), and the serotonin receptor gene (SLC6A4), with some sex-specific effects (p = .012–.040, ηp2 = 0.03–0.04). In boys, prenatal depressive symptoms predicted bedtime cortisol mediated by NR3C2 methylation, indirect effect = –0.07, 95% confidence interval [–0.16, –0.02]. Results indicate relations of prenatal depressive symptoms to both child basal HPA activity and DNA methylation, partially fitting a mediation model, with exposed boys and girls being affected differently.

The inflation of a parachute encompasses problems of aerodynamics, dynamics, and elasticity. The most noticeable effects of the interaction of the events are the opening force and the filling time. Attempts to analyse the opening process and to predict the opening force date back to 1927. Since then a considerable number of methods have been published. Some of them are primarily analytical, others more empirical, and several deal with isolated problems. The earliest and most analytically oriented studies are by Scheube and O'Hara.

The visual evoked potential (VEP) latency was either abnormally prolonged or absent in the involved eye of 47 patients with optic neuritis. Twenty-two of these patients with known multiple sclerosis (MS), had similar abnormalities to 25 patients with no clinical evidence of MS. Follow-up clinical assessment and VEP were done 10 to 42 (mean 22) months later in 34 patients. In 15 of 34 patients with no VEP from the involved eye during initial examination, 6 returned to normal, 8 had prolonged latencies and 1 still had no response at follow up. Of 19 patients who initially had prolonged latencies in the involved eye, 6 returned to normal, 11 had prolonged latencies and 2 had no response at follow up. The VEP is helpful in confirming the diagnosis of ON. The examination must be performed when the patient is symptomatic or soon thereafter as 35% of our patients with an abnormal initial VEP had a normal VEP at follow up. This normalization was not related to the severity of the initial VEP abnormality.

Exceptionally high reaction gains of hydrogen protons measured with the boron isotope 11 are compared with other fusion reactions. This is leading to the conclusion that secondary avalanche reactions are happening and confirming the results of high-gain, neutron-free, clean, safe, low-cost, and long-term available energy. The essential basis is the unusual non-thermal block-ignition scheme with picosecond laser pulses of extremely high powers above the petawatt range.

Cook et al. suggest that motor-visual neurons originate from associative learning. This suggestion has interesting implications for the processing of socially relevant visual information in social interactions. Here, we discuss two aspects of the associative learning account that seem to have particular relevance for visual recognition of social information in social interactions – namely, context-specific and contingency based learning.

Jeffery et al. propose a non-uniform representation of three-dimensional space during navigation. Fittingly, we recently revealed asymmetries between horizontal and vertical path integration in humans. We agree that representing navigation in more than two dimensions increases computational load and suggest that tendencies to maintain upright head posture may help constrain computational processing, while distorting neural representation of three-dimensional navigation.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

In this paper, human viscosity perception in haptic teleoperation systems is thoroughly analyzed. An accurate perception of viscoelastic environmental properties such as viscosity is a critical ability in several contexts, such as telesurgery, telerehabilitation, telemedicine, and soft-tissue interaction. We study and compare the ability to perceive viscosity from the standpoint of detection and discrimination using several relevant control methods for the teleoperator. The perception-based method, which was proposed by the authors to enhance the operator's kinesthetic perception, is compared with the conventional transparency-based control method for the teleoperation system. The fidelity-based method, which is a primary method among perception-centered control schemes in teleoperation, is also studied. We also examine the necessity and impact of the remote-site force information for each of the methods. The comparison is based on a series of psychophysical experiments measuring absolute threshold and just noticeable difference for all conditions. The results clearly show that the perception-based method enhances both detection and discrimination abilities compare with other control methods. The results further show that the fidelity-based method confers a better discrimination ability than the transparency-based method, although this is not true with respect to detection ability. In addition, we show that force information improves viscosity detection for all control methods, as predicted from previous theoretical analysis, but improves the discrimination threshold only for the perception-based method.

Experimental observations of supersonically flowing dusty plasmas and their interaction with an electrically biased circular cylinder are presented. Two methods for producing flowing dusty plasmas are described. The dusty plasma is produced in a DC anode glow discharge plasma. In Configuration I, a secondary dust cloud, initially formed near a biased grid, flowed away from the grid at supersonic speeds when the grid voltage was suddenly changed. In Configuration II, a pencil-like dust beam was produced using a nozzle-like (converging-diverging) electrostatic potential structure. Using Configuration I, the streaming dust encountered a biased cylinder (wire) whose axis was oriented transverse to the dust flow. The flowing dust particles were repelled by the electrostatic field of the negatively charged cylinder, and a dust void was formed around the cylinder. A detached electrohydrodynamic bow shock, akin to the Earth's magnetohydrodynamic bow shock, was formed on the upstream side of the cylinder, while an extended teardrop-shaped wake region was formed on the downstream side. Video imaging of the dust stream allowed for observations of the structure and evolution of the bow shock. Configuration II was used to produce a narrow beam of dust particles and observe how the beam was deflected around the biased cylinder. Three multimedia files (movies) of the observed phenomena are provided in the online Supplementary material.