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Over the last 102 years, a lot of discussion was being held about the psychoanalytic conception of the “death drive,” but still with inconclusive results. In this paper, we start with a brief review of Freud’s conception, followed by a comprised overview of its subsequent support or criticisms. The core of our argument is a systematic review of current biochemical research about two proposed manifestations of the “death drive,” which could hopefully move the discussion to the realm of science. It was already established that drive satisfaction leads to the secretion of beta-endorphins, and research evidence also shows that the same biochemical mechanisms get activated in the case of masochism and the gambling disorder but only if they are preceded by chronic frustration of the essential drives. We conclude that the actual situation is more complex than Freud hypothesized, and that a fundamental revision of the psychoanalytic drive theory is necessary.

Background: The availability of psychometrically sound instruments for the assessment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is indispensable for clinical and scientific work with individuals suffering from trauma-related distress. Objective: The aim of the present study was to translate the Post-Traumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5 (PDS-5) into German and to evaluate its psychometric properties as well as convergent, discriminant, and factorial validity. Method: The authorized German translation of the PDS-5 was completed by 270 patients admitted to specialized outpatient trauma clinics. Of these, 57.8% completed the PDS for a second time (mean time between assessments was 12.0 days). In order to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the PDS-5, the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 as well as Patient Health Questionnaire subscales assessing depression (PHQ-9), somatization (PHQ-15), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) were applied. Results: The PDS-5 total score showed excellenst internal consistency (α = .91) and re-test reliability (rho = .84). Convergent validity was supported by a strong correlation with the total score of the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5; rho = .91). Correlations with Patient Health Questionnaire subscales of depression (rho = .81), anxiety (rho = .72), and somatization (rho = .65) were significantly lower (all p

This paper presents performance improvements for Ellipsoid Clipmaps, an out-of-core planet-sized geodetically accurate terrain rendering algorithm. The performance improvements were achieved by eliminating unnecessarily dense levels, more accurate block culling in the geographic coordinate system, and more efficient rendering methods. The elimination of unnecessarily dense levels is the result of analyzing and determining the optimal relative height of the viewer with respect to the most detailed level, resulting in the most consistent size of triangles across all visible levels. The proposed method for estimating the visibility of blocks based on view orientation allows rapid block-level view frustum culling performed in data space before visualization and spatial transformation of blocks. The use of a modern geometry pipeline through task and mesh shaders forced the handling of extremely fine granularity of blocks, but also shifted a significant part of the block culling process from CPU to the GPU. The approach described achieves high throughput and enables geodetically accurate rendering of the terrain based on the WGS 84 reference ellipsoid at very high resolution and in real time, with tens of millions of triangles with an average area of about 0.5 pix2 on a 1080p screen on mid-range graphics cards.

The rapid growth in Earth’s global geospatial data necessitates an efficient system for organizing the data, facilitating data fusion from diverse sources, and promoting interoperability. Mapping the spheroidal surface of the planet presents significant challenges as it involves balancing distortion and splitting the surface into multiple partitions. The distortion decreases as the number of partitions increases, but, at the same time, the complexity of data processing increases since each partition represents a separate dataset and is defined in its own local coordinate system. In this paper, we propose the Dual Orthogonal Equidistant Cylindrical projection method to mitigate distortion and reduce the number of partitions. Additionally, we use the rotation of the graticule system on the globe to achieve the oblique aspect, which effectively minimizes average angular and areal distortions of Earth’s landmass and reduces the interruption of continental plates caused by partition edges. By incorporating auxiliary latitudes and proposing an approximate authalic latitude, we further enhance the mapping of the ellipsoid onto the sphere, simplifying calculations. The experimental results demonstrate a substantial reduction in distortion and interruption of continental plates. With only two partitions, an average landmass angular distortion of less than 3.56 degrees and an average areal distortion of less than 1.07 were achieved.

Objective. The aim of this paper is to examine the implications for healing in a contemporary Balkan post-war context, and to provide a bridge-building model of trauma transformation, reconciliation and recovery through academic reconstruction and cross-border dialogue. Post-war societies are marked by the effects of massive, large group traumatization, and if not properly dealt with, long-term rehabilitation and social recovery cannot be expected. Unprocessed cumulative trauma that has become deeply embedded in the collective memory of the Balkan peoples over centuries, „chosen trauma“, its trans-generational transmission and periodical reactivations across the Balkan have often been addressed in recent literature, in ethno-psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, sociology and anthropology. In order to deepen our understanding of the roots of collective (social) trauma and the specific traumatic experiences of different groups, and to offer different perspectives and information on how trauma can be dealt with, the “Trauma Trust Memory” multinational interdisciplinary research network is being established, and a groundbreaking workshop was held in May 2013 in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Conclusion. The Tuzla Workshop showed that the active participation of affected groups in adequate coping with the past is required for post-conflict reconstruction, trauma healing and peacebuilding in the long run.

The integration of a surveillance camera video with a three-dimensional (3D) geographic information system (GIS) requires the georeferencing of that video. Since a video consists of separate frames, each frame must be georeferenced. To georeference a video frame, we rely on the information about the camera view at the moment that the frame was captured. A camera view in 3D space is completely determined by the camera position, orientation, and field-of-view. Since the accurate measuring of these parameters can be extremely difficult, in this paper we propose a method for their estimation based on matching video frame coordinates of certain point features with their 3D geographic locations. To obtain these coordinates, we rely on high-resolution orthophotos and digital elevation models (DEM) of the area of interest. Once an adequate number of points are matched, Levenberg–Marquardt iterative optimization is applied to find the most suitable video frame georeference, i.e., position and orientation of the camera.

Background: Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome is a rare X-linked immunodeficiency disorder with a variable phenotype., Case Characteristics: 3.5-year-old boy diagnosed with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome., Observation: Unusual and persistent thrombocytopenia with increased platelet volume (>10fL). He did not exhibit characteristic clinical and laboratory finding for the syndrome., Outcome: Maternally inherited causative mutation in the exon 2 of the WAS gene was disclosed., Message: This is a need for multidisciplinary assessment of patients with congenital or early infantile thrombocytopenia, including testing for mutations of the WAS gene in all unexplained cases even in the absence of characteristic microthrombocytopenia.