You ≠ Me: Individual differences in the structure of social cognition

This study investigated the structure of social cognition, and how it is influenced by personality; specifically, how various socio-cognitive capabilities, and the pattern of inter-relationships and co-dependencies among them differ between divergent personality styles. To measure social cognition, a large non-clinical sample (n = 290) undertook an extensive battery of self-report and performance-based measures of visual perspective taking, imitative tendencies, affective empathy, interoceptive accuracy, emotion regulation, and state affectivity. These same individuals then completed the Personality Styles and Disorders Inventory. Latent Profile Analysis revealed two dissociable personality profiles that exhibited contrasting cognitive and affective dispositions, and multivariate analyses indicated further that these profiles differed on measures of social cognition; individuals characterised by a flexible and adaptive personality profile expressed higher action orientation (emotion regulation) compared to those showing more inflexible tendencies, along with better visual perspective taking, superior interoceptive accuracy, less imitative tendencies, and lower personal distress and negativity. These characteristics point towards more efficient self-other distinction, and to higher cognitive control more generally. Moreover, low-level cognitive mechanisms served to mediate other higher level socio-emotional capabilities. Together, these findings elucidate the cognitive and affective underpinnings of individual differences in social behaviour, providing a data-driven model that should guide future research in this area

Threshold Electrodisintegration of ^3He

Cross sections were measured for the near-threshold electrodisintegration of ^3He at momentum transfer values of q=2.4, 4.4, and 4.7 fm^{-1}. From these and prior measurements the transverse and longitudinal response functions R_T and R_L were deduced. Comparisons are made against previously published and new non-relativistic A=3 calculations using the best available NN potentials. In general, for q<2 fm^{-1} these calculations accurately predict the threshold electrodisintegration of ^3He. Agreement at increasing q demands consideration of two-body terms, but discrepancies still appear at the highest momentum transfers probed, perhaps due to the neglect of relativistic dynamics, or to the underestimation of high-momentum wave-function components.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, REVTEX4, submitted to Physical Review

Towards a Criminology of the Domestic

Criminology has paid insufficient attention to the ‘domestic’ arena, as a locale that is being reconfigured through technological and social developments in ways that require us to reconsider offending and victimisation. This article addresses this lacuna. We take up Campbell's (2016) challenge that criminology needs to develop more sophisticated models of place and space, particularly in relation to changing patterns of consumption and leisure activity and the opportunities to offend in relation to these from within the domestic arena

Dynamics of earthquake nucleation process represented by the Burridge-Knopoff model

Dynamics of earthquake nucleation process is studied on the basis of the one-dimensional Burridge-Knopoff (BK) model obeying the rate- and state-dependent friction (RSF) law. We investigate the properties of the model at each stage of the nucleation process, including the quasi-static initial phase, the unstable acceleration phase and the high-speed rupture phase or a mainshock. Two kinds of nucleation lengths L_sc and L_c are identified and investigated. The nucleation length L_sc and the initial phase exist only for a weak frictional instability regime, while the nucleation length L_c and the acceleration phase exist for both weak and strong instability regimes. Both L_sc and L_c are found to be determined by the model parameters, the frictional weakening parameter and the elastic stiffness parameter, hardly dependent on the size of an ensuing mainshock. The sliding velocity is extremely slow in the initial phase up to L_sc, of order the pulling speed of the plate, while it reaches a detectable level at a certain stage of the acceleration phase. The continuum limits of the results are discussed. The continuum limit of the BK model lies in the weak frictional instability regime so that a mature homogeneous fault under the RSF law always accompanies the quasi-static nucleation process. Duration times of each stage of the nucleation process are examined. The relation to the elastic continuum model and implications to real seismicity are discussed.Comment: Title changed. Changes mainly in abstract and in section 1. To appear in European Physical Journal

Identification of a RAI1-associated disease network through integration of exome sequencing, transcriptomics, and 3D genomics.

Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a developmental disability/multiple congenital anomaly disorder resulting from haploinsufficiency of RAI1. It is characterized by distinctive facial features, brachydactyly, sleep disturbances, and stereotypic behaviors. We investigated a cohort of 15 individuals with a clinical suspicion of SMS who showed neither deletion in the SMS critical region nor damaging variants in RAI1 using whole exome sequencing. A combination of network analysis (co-expression and biomedical text mining), transcriptomics, and circularized chromatin conformation capture (4C-seq) was applied to verify whether modified genes are part of the same disease network as known SMS-causing genes. Potentially deleterious variants were identified in nine of these individuals using whole-exome sequencing. Eight of these changes affect KMT2D, ZEB2, MAP2K2, GLDC, CASK, MECP2, KDM5C, and POGZ, known to be associated with Kabuki syndrome 1, Mowat-Wilson syndrome, cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome, glycine encephalopathy, mental retardation and microcephaly with pontine and cerebellar hypoplasia, X-linked mental retardation 13, X-linked mental retardation Claes-Jensen type, and White-Sutton syndrome, respectively. The ninth individual carries a de novo variant in JAKMIP1, a regulator of neuronal translation that was recently found deleted in a patient with autism spectrum disorder. Analyses of co-expression and biomedical text mining suggest that these pathologies and SMS are part of the same disease network. Further support for this hypothesis was obtained from transcriptome profiling that showed that the expression levels of both Zeb2 and Map2k2 are perturbed in Rai1 (-/-) mice. As an orthogonal approach to potentially contributory disease gene variants, we used chromatin conformation capture to reveal chromatin contacts between RAI1 and the loci flanking ZEB2 and GLDC, as well as between RAI1 and human orthologs of the genes that show perturbed expression in our Rai1 (-/-) mouse model. These holistic studies of RAI1 and its interactions allow insights into SMS and other disorders associated with intellectual disability and behavioral abnormalities. Our findings support a pan-genomic approach to the molecular diagnosis of a distinctive disorder

Long term follow up of persistence of immunity following quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in immunocompromised children

Background: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) causes significant burden of HPV-related diseases, which are more prevalent in immunosuppressed compared to immunocompetent people. We conducted a multi-centre clinical trial to determine the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of HPV vaccine in immunocompromised children. Here we present the immunogenicity results 5 years post vaccination. Methods: We followed up immunocompromised children (5-18 years) with a range of specified underlying conditions who were previously recruited from three Australian paediatric hospitals. Participants received three doses of quadrivalent HPV vaccine (Gardasil Quadrivalent HPV Types 6, 11, 16, 18) and were followed up between 2007 and 2016 (60 months post-vaccination). The immunogenicity primary outcome was seroconversion and geometric mean titres (GMT) of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine serotypes in the study. Results: Of the 59 original participants, 37 were followed up at 60 months. The proportion of participants who seroconverted were: 86.5%, 89.2%, 89.2%, 91.9% by competitive Luminex immunoassay (cLIA) and 83.8%, 83.8%, 94.6%, 78.4% by total immunoglobulin G assays (IgG) for serotypes 6, 11, 16 and 18 respectively. GMT values ranged from 118 (95%CI: 79-177) for serotype 11, to 373 (95%CI: 215-649) for serotype 16 by cLIA. For IgG, serotype 16 had the highest GMT of 261 (95%CI: 143-477) and serotype 18 had the lowest value of 37 (95%CI: 21-68). All antibody titres were lower in females compared to males but the difference was not statistically significant except for serotype 16. No serious adverse event was reported during this follow-up period. Conclusion: Our evidence, although limited by small numbers, is reassuring that a three dose schedule of HPV vaccine remains immunogenic in immunocompromised children to five years post vaccination. Large scale studies are required to determine long term protection in immunocompromised children.C. Raina MacIntyre, Peter J. Shaw, Fiona E. Mackie, Christina Boros, Helen Marshall, Holly Seale, Sean E. Kennedy, Aye Moa, Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, Mallory Trent, Edward V O’Loughlin, Michael Stormo

Possible origins of macroscopic left-right asymmetry in organisms

I consider the microscopic mechanisms by which a particular left-right (L/R) asymmetry is generated at the organism level from the microscopic handedness of cytoskeletal molecules. In light of a fundamental symmetry principle, the typical pattern-formation mechanisms of diffusion plus regulation cannot implement the "right-hand rule"; at the microscopic level, the cell's cytoskeleton of chiral filaments seems always to be involved, usually in collective states driven by polymerization forces or molecular motors. It seems particularly easy for handedness to emerge in a shear or rotation in the background of an effectively two-dimensional system, such as the cell membrane or a layer of cells, as this requires no pre-existing axis apart from the layer normal. I detail a scenario involving actin/myosin layers in snails and in C. elegans, and also one about the microtubule layer in plant cells. I also survey the other examples that I am aware of, such as the emergence of handedness such as the emergence of handedness in neurons, in eukaryote cell motility, and in non-flagellated bacteria.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to J. Stat. Phys. special issue. Major rewrite, rearranged sections/subsections, new Fig 3 + 6, new physics in Sec 2.4 and 3.4.1, added Sec 5 and subsections of Sec