Emotional abuse interacts with borderline personality in adolescent inpatients with binge-purging eating disorders

Purpose: Childhood abuse is associated with an increased risk of developing eating disorders (EDs) as well as personality disorders (PDs). However, their interaction is still uncertain, particularly in adolescents. This study investigates the correlations between childhood emotional neglect (CEN), childhood emotional abuse (CEA), and obsessive-compulsive and borderline personality styles in female adolescent inpatients with eating disorders (EDs). Methods: One hundred and twenty-eight inpatients (ages 14-18) were assessed, 54 were diagnosed with restricting-type anorexia nervosa (AN-R) and 33 with a binge-purging ED [BP-ED; comprising patients with binge-purging type anorexia nervosa (AN-BP), n = 15, and bulimia nervosa (BN), n = 18]. Fifty healthy participants made up the control group (CG). CEN and CEA were assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, while the Personality Style and Disorder Inventory was implemented to determine personality styles. Results: A MANOVA revealed a significant main effect of CEA on spontaneous-borderline personality style [F(8,119) = 17.1, p < 0.001, eta(2) = 0.126], as well as a main effect of ED group on spontaneous-borderline [F(2,119) = 3.1, p = 0.048, eta(2) = 0.050]. A significant interaction between ED group, CEA, and spontaneous-borderline was found [F(2,119) = 3.5, p = 0.034, eta(2) = 0.055] with BP-ED showing significantly higher scores in CEA (9.3 +/- 4.0) and in spontaneous-borderline (14.2 +/- 6.2). Conclusions: Considering CEA and borderline personality style in adolescent inpatients with BN or AN-BP may help improve the understanding of the etiology and maintenance of BP-ED and provide more effective treatment targets

Resonance saturation for four-nucleon operators

In the modern description of nuclear forces based on chiral effective field theory, four-nucleon operators with unknown coupling constants appear. These couplings can be fixed by a fit to the low partial waves of neutron-proton scattering. We show that the so determined numerical values can be understood on the basis of phenomenological one-boson-exchange models. We also extract these values from various modern high accuracy nucleon-nucleon potentials and demonstrate their consistency and remarkable agreement with the values in the chiral effective field theory approach. This paves the way for estimating the low-energy constants of operators with more nucleon fields and/or external probes.Comment: 16 pp, REVTeX, 3 figure

Do adults with high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome differ in empathy and emotion recognition?

The present study examined whether adults with high functioning autism (HFA) showed greater difficulties in (i) their self-reported ability to empathise with others and/or (ii) their ability to read mental states in others’ eyes than adults with Asperger syndrome (AS). The Empathy Quotient (EQ) and ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test (Eyes Test) were compared in 43 adults with AS and 43 adults with HFA. No significant difference was observed on EQ score between groups, while adults with AS performed significantly better on the Eyes Test than those with HFA. This suggests that adults with HFA may need more support, particularly in mentalizing and complex emotion recognition, and raises questions about the existence of subgroups within autism spectrum conditions

A New Class of Changing-Look LINERs

We report the discovery of six active galactic nuclei (AGN) caught "turning on" during the first nine months of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey. The host galaxies were classified as LINERs by weak narrow forbidden line emission in their archival SDSS spectra, and detected by ZTF as nuclear transients. In five of the cases, we found via follow-up spectroscopy that they had transformed into broad-line AGN, reminiscent of the changing-look LINER iPTF 16bco. In one case, ZTF18aajupnt/AT2018dyk, follow-up HST UV and ground-based optical spectra revealed the transformation into a narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) with strong [Fe VII, X, XIV] and He II 4686 coronal lines. Swift monitoring observations of this source reveal bright UV emission that tracks the optical flare, accompanied by a luminous soft X-ray flare that peaks ~60 days later. Spitzer follow-up observations also detect a luminous mid-infrared flare implying a large covering fraction of dust. Archival light curves of the entire sample from CRTS, ATLAS, and ASAS-SN constrain the onset of the optical nuclear flaring from a prolonged quiescent state. Here we present the systematic selection and follow-up of this new class of changing-look LINERs, compare their properties to previously reported changing-look Seyfert galaxies, and conclude that they are a unique class of transients well-suited to test the uncertain physical processes associated with the LINER accretion state.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 31 pages, 17 Figures (excluding Appendix due to file size constraints but will be available in electronic version

Can agricultural cultivation methods influence the healthfulness of crops for foods

The aim of the current study was to investigate if there are any health effects of long-term consumption of organically grown crops using a rat model. Crops were retrieved over two years from along-term field trial at three different locations in Denmark, using three different cultivation systems(OA, organic based on livestock manure; OB, organic based on green manure; and C, conventional with mineral fertilizers and pesticides)with two field replicates. The cultivation system had an impact on the nutritional quality, affecting γ-tocopherol, some amino acids, and fatty acid composition. Additionally, the nutritional quality was affected by harvest year and location. However, harvest year and location rather than cultivation system affected the measured health biomarkers. In conclusion, the differences in dietary treatments composed of ingredients from different cultivation systems did not lead to significant differences in the measured health biomarkers, except for a significant difference in plasma IgGl evels

Left gaze bias in humans, rhesus monkeys and domestic dogs

While viewing faces, human adults often demonstrate a natural gaze bias towards the left visual field, that is, the right side of the viewee’s face is often inspected first and for longer periods. Using a preferential looking paradigm, we demonstrate that this bias is neither uniquely human nor limited to primates, and provide evidence to help elucidate its biological function within a broader social cognitive framework. We observed that 6-month-old infants showed a wider tendency for left gaze preference towards objects and faces of different species and orientation, while in adults the bias appears only towards upright human faces. Rhesus monkeys showed a left gaze bias towards upright human and monkey faces, but not towards inverted faces. Domestic dogs, however, only demonstrated a left gaze bias towards human faces, but not towards monkey or dog faces, nor to inanimate object images. Our findings suggest that face- and species-sensitive gaze asymmetry is more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously recognised, is not constrained by attentional or scanning bias, and could be shaped by experience to develop adaptive behavioural significance

Impact of facial conformation on canine health: Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome

The domestic dog may be the most morphologically diverse terrestrial mammalian species known to man; pedigree dogs are artificially selected for extreme aesthetics dictated by formal Breed Standards, and breed-related disorders linked to conformation are ubiquitous and diverse. Brachycephaly–foreshortening of the facial skeleton–is a discrete mutation that has been selected for in many popular dog breeds e.g. the Bulldog, Pug, and French Bulldog. A chronic, debilitating respiratory syndrome, whereby soft tissue blocks the airways, predominantly affects dogs with this conformation, and thus is labelled Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS). Despite the name of the syndrome, scientific evidence quantitatively linking brachycephaly with BOAS is lacking, but it could aid efforts to select for healthier conformations. Here we show, in (1) an exploratory study of 700 dogs of diverse breeds and conformations, and (2) a confirmatory study of 154 brachycephalic dogs, that BOAS risk increases sharply in a non-linear manner as relative muzzle length shortens. BOAS only occurred in dogs whose muzzles comprised less than half their cranial lengths. Thicker neck girths also increased BOAS risk in both populations: a risk factor for human sleep apnoea and not previously realised in dogs; and obesity was found to further increase BOAS risk. This study provides evidence that breeding for brachycephaly leads to an increased risk of BOAS in dogs, with risk increasing as the morphology becomes more exaggerated. As such, dog breeders and buyers should be aware of this risk when selecting dogs, and breeding organisations should actively discourage exaggeration of this high-risk conformation in breed standards and the show ring