The authors describe a therapist-assisted, Internet-based self-help intervention to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and discuss how it can be used as an efficient tool to treat large numbers of traumatized individuals. The intervention uses a modified form of stress inoculation training, promoted through daily homework assignments completed in vivo, using fewer therapist resources than standard face-to-face therapy. The process and structure of the treatment program (and structure of the Web site) and clinical and Internet security safeguards are described to introduce practitioners to a unique therapist-assisted self-management model of PTSD. It is hoped that the method described will lead to other novel, efficient methods of delivering interventions and treatment for PTSD in primary care and other outpatient and private practice settings.

Mutation rates vary between species across several orders of magnitude, with larger organisms having the highest per-generation mutation rates. Hypotheses for this pattern typically invoke physiological or population-genetic constraints imposed on the molecular machinery preventing mutations 1 . However, continuing germline cell division in multicellular eukaryotes means that organisms with longer generation times and of larger size will leave more mutations to their offspring simply as a by-product of their increased lifespan 2,3 . Here, we deeply sequence the genomes of 30 owl monkeys (Aotus nancymaae) from 6 multi-generation pedigrees to demonstrate that paternal age is the major factor determining the number of de novo mutations in this species. We find that owl monkeys have an average mutation rate of 0.81 x 10 -8 per site per generation, roughly 32% lower than the estimate in humans. Based on a simple model of reproductive longevity that does not require any changes to the mutational machinery, we show that this is the expected mutation rate in owl monkeys. We further demonstrate that our model predicts species-specific mutation rates in other primates, including study-specific mutation rates in humans based on the average paternal age. Our results suggest that variation in life history traits alone can explain variation in the per-generation mutation rate among primates, and perhaps among a wide range of multicellular organisms. MainThe rate at which new mutations arise is a key parameter of life on Earth, contributing to both individual disease risk and the evolution of novel traits. The mutation rate per generation varies among taxa, from as low as 1x10 -10 per base in Archaea to more than 1x10 -8 in mammals 1 . Two classes of models have been proposed to explain this variation. In one, the physiological and biochemical costs of increased fidelity during DNA replication limit the minimum mutation rate achievable 4,5 . Selection for faster replication in smaller organisms constrains the accuracy with which the cellular machinery can copy DNA, resulting in an inverse relationship between body size and mutation rate. Alternatively, a population-genetic model invokes the limits to natural selection in organisms with smaller population sizes [6][7][8] . This model posits a higher rate of mutation in larger organisms because of their generally smaller population size 9 .One difficulty in teasing apart the forces driving the evolution of the mutation rate among multicellular organisms is the fact that lifespan varies as much as the per-generation mutation rate. In multicellular organisms, the number of mutations passed on to offspring in a single generation is a combination of the errors made in each round of germline replication and the accumulation of unrepaired DNA damage. One hundred years after the first observation of increased disease incidence in the children of older parents 2,10 , whole-genome sequencing in humans revealed the precise contribution of parental age to the number of de novo muta...

No abstract

No abstract

Much sociological research is now focused on demonstrating how culture both motivates individuals to act and provides them with justifications for their actions (Vaisey, 2009). However, I argue that this sociological work relies on a model of action that sees culture itself as driving action beyond individuals' reflexive use of culture. I argue that it does so by conceptualizing the internalization of culture as pre-subjective and impersonal, essentially committing what is often deemed the Parsonian problem of diminishing the contingent nature of social action through the use of abstractions. Just as Parsons was charged with placing undue emphasis on various social systems rather than on persons, dominant strands of sociological inquiry overemphasize the salience of shared norms and schemas at the cost of individual perception. The major difference, however, is that while Parsons justified his focus on the system level by framing individuals as highly conscious and deliberate in their actions, contemporary sociologists tend to frame individuals' actions as largely unconscious and reliant on situational logics. In doing so, the consciously and normatively overdetermined actor in Parsonian sociology is now unconsciously and situationally overdetermined in contemporary sociology, a perspective ironically anticipated and deliberately positioned against by Parsons himself. Thus, I assert that efforts to de-Parsonize the discipline have given rise to theoretical problems that need resolution. I demonstrate how utilizing some of Parsons' key insights on the importance of simultaneously considering multiple levels of analysis when studying action could be a fruitful way to proceed.