BackgroundA self-reported life satisfaction question is routinely used as an indicator of societal well-being. Several studies support that mental illness is an important determinant for life satisfaction and improvement of mental healthcare access therefore could have beneficial effects on a population’s life satisfaction. However, only a few studies report the relationship between subjective mental health and life satisfaction. Subjective mental health is a broader concept than the presence or absence of psychopathology. In this study, we examine the strength of the association between a self-reported mental health question and self-reported life satisfaction, taking into account other relevant factors.MethodsWe conducted this analysis using successive waves of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) collected between 2003 and 2012. Respondents included more than 400,000 participants aged 12 and over. We extracted information on self-reported mental health, socio-demographic and other factors and examined correlation with self-reported life satisfaction using a proportional ordered logistic regression.ResultsLife satisfaction was strongly associated with self-reported mental health, even after simultaneously considering factors such as income, general health, and gender. The poor-self-reported mental health group had a particularly low life satisfaction. In the fair-self-reported mental health category, the odds of having a higher life satisfaction were 2.35 (95% CI 2.21 to 2.50) times higher than the odds in the poor category. In contrast, for the “between 60,000 CAD and 79,999 CAD” household income category, the odds of having a higher life satisfaction were only 1.96 (95% CI 1.90 to 2.01) times higher than the odds in the “less than 19,999 CAD” category.ConclusionsSubjective mental health contributes highly to life satisfaction, being more strongly associated than other selected previously known factors. Future studies could be useful to deepen our understanding of the interplay between subjective mental health, mental illness and life satisfaction. This may be beneficial for developing public health policies that optimize mental health promotion, illness prevention and treatment of mental disorders to enhance life satisfaction in the general population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-5235-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

We develop a mathematical model of platelet, megakaryocyte, and thrombopoietin dynamics in humans. We show that there is a single stationary solution that can undergo a Hopf bifurcation, and use this information to investigate both normal and pathological platelet production, specifically cyclic thrombocytopenia. Carefully estimating model parameters from laboratory and clinical data, we then argue that a subset of parameters are involved in the genesis of cyclic thrombocytopenia based on clinical information. We provide model fits to the existing data for both platelet counts and thrombopoietin levels by changing four parameters that have physiological correlates. Our results indicate that the primary change in cyclic thrombocytopenia is an interference with, or destruction of, the thrombopoietin receptor with secondary changes in other processes, including immune-mediated destruction of platelets and megakaryocyte deficiency and failure in platelet production. This study contributes to the understanding of the origin of cyclic thrombocytopenia as well as extending the modeling of thrombopoiesis.

SrPt 2 As 2 single crystals with CaBe 2 Ge 2 -type structure were synthesized by self-melting technique. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and optical spectroscopy measurements were conducted to elucidate the properties of SrPt 2 As 2 . SrPt 2 As 2 single crystals undergo a structural phase transition well above the room temperature (about 450 K) and become superconducting at 5.18 K. The superconducting and structural phase transition temperatures are reduced by 6% Iridium doping. Both the pure SrPt 2 As 2 and the Ir-doped single crystals are demonstrated to be highly metallic with rather high plasma frequencies. In particular, the optical spectroscopy measurement revealed two gap-like suppression structures: a stronger one at high energy near 12000 cm −1 (∼1.5 eV), and a less prominent one at lower energy near 3200 cm −1 (∼0.4 eV) for the pure compound. We elaborate that the former is related to the correlation effect, while the latter could be attributed to the partial energy gap formation associated with structural phase transition.