An Exploration of Fetish Social Networks and Communities

Online Social Networks (OSNs) provide a venue for virtual interactions and relationships between individuals. In some communities, OSNs also facilitate arranging offline meetings and relationships. FetLife, the world’s largest anonymous social network for the BDSM, fetish and kink communities, provides a unique example of an OSN that serves as an interaction space, community organizing tool, and sexual market. In this paper, we present a first look at the characteristics of European members of Fetlife, comprising 504,416 individual nodes with 1,912,196 connections. We looked at user characteristics in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and preferred role. We further examined the homophilic communities and find that women in particular are far more platonically involved on the site than straight males. Our results suggest there are important differences between the FetLife community and conventional OSNs

High intensity intermittent games-based activity and adolescents’ cognition: moderating effect of physical fitness

Background: An acute bout of exercise elicits a beneficial effect on subsequent cognitive function in adolescents. The effect of games-based activity, an ecologically valid and attractive exercise model for young people, remains unknown; as does the moderating effect of fitness on the acute exercise-cognition relationship. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the effect of games-based activity on subsequent cognition in adolescents, and the moderating effect of fitness on this relationship. Methods: Following ethical approval, 39 adolescents (12.3 ± 0.7 year) completed an exercise and resting trial in a counterbalanced, randomised crossover design. During familiarisation, participants completed a multi-stage fitness test to predict VO2 peak. The exercise trial consisted of 60-min games-based activity (basketball), during which heart rate was 158 ± 11 beats∙min−1. A battery of cognitive function tests (Stroop test, Sternberg paradigm, trail making and d2 tests) were completed 30-min before, immediately following and 45-min following the basketball. Results: Response times on the complex level of the Stroop test were enhanced both immediately (p = 0.021) and 45-min (p = 0.035) post-exercise, and response times on the five item level of the Sternberg paradigm were enhanced immediately post-exercise (p = 0.023). There were no effects on the time taken to complete the trail making test or any outcome of the d2 test. In particular, response times were enhanced in the fitter adolescents 45-min post-exercise on both levels of the Stroop test (simple, p = 0.005; complex, p = 0.040) and on the three item level of the Sternberg paradigm immediately (p = 0.017) and 45-min (p = 0.008) post-exercise. Conclusions: Games-based activity enhanced executive function and working memory scanning speed in adolescents, an effect particularly evident in fitter adolescents, whilst the high intensity intermittent nature of games-based activity may be too demanding for less fit children

Quantifying evidence for phenotypic specificity (PP4) for syndromic phenotypes: Large-scale integration of rare germline FH variants from diagnostic laboratory testing for HLRCC and renal cancer

PURPOSE: Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC) is a rare cancer susceptibility syndrome exclusively attributable to pathogenic variants in FH (HGNC:3700). This article quantitatively weights the phenotypic context (PP4/PS4) of such very rare variants in FH. METHODS: We collated clinical diagnostic testing data on germline FH variants from 387 individuals with HLRCC and 1780 individuals with renal cancer and compared the frequency of "very-rare" variants in each phenotypic cohort with 562,295 population controls. We generated pan-gene very rare variant likelihood ratios (PG-VRV-LRs), domain-specific likelihood ratios for missense variants (DS-VRMV-LR) using spatial clustering analysis, and log2.08 likelihood ratios (LLRs) as applicable within the updated American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics/Association for Molecular Pathology variant classification framework. RESULTS: For HLRCC, the PG-VRV-LR was estimated to be 2669.4 (95% CI 1843.4-3881.2, LLR 10.77) for truncating variants and 214.7 (95% CI 185.0-246.9, LLR 7.33) for missense variants. For renal cancer, the PG-VRV-LR was 95.5 (95% CI 48.9-183.0, LLR 6.23) for truncating variants and 5.8 (95% CI 3.5-9.3, LLR 2.39) for missense variants. Clustering analysis in HLRCC cases revealed 3 "hotspot" regions wherein the DS-VRMV-LR increased to 1226.9. CONCLUSION: These data provide quantitative measures for very rare missense and truncating variants in FH, which reflect the differing phenotypic specificity of HLRCC and renal cancer and may be applicable in clinical variant classification

Ascospores as primary inoculum for epidemics of white leaf spot (Mycosphaerella capsellae) in winter oilseed rape in the UK

In the UK, conidia of Pseudocercosporella capsellae, the anamorph of Mycosphaerella capsellae, were observed on white leaf spot lesions on leaves throughout the growing season. Ascomata were not observed on lesions on either green or senescent leaves, although stromatic knots and spermogonia were occasionally seen in summer. However, spermogonia and protoascomata were produced in white leaf spot pod and stem lesions in early summer. Protoascomata continued to mature after harvest in these lesions on the debris. Mature ascomata subsequently developed by early autumn, but were exhausted by early January and did not overwinter. A diurnal periodicity in numbers of air-borne M. capesellae ascospores discharged from infected debris was observed with a Burkard spore sampler, with greatest numbers of ascospores collected near the middle of the day; the records also suggested that ascospores were released in response to wetting by dew or rain. Studies of natural white leaf spot epidemics in winter oilseed rape provided evidence that air-borne ascospores are the primary inoculum for initiating epidemics in the autumn in the UK. White leaf spot disease gradients over 100 m across a winter oilseed rape crop at Rothamsted were fitted by both negative exponential and inverse power-law models, with gradient slopes suggesting the deposition of air-borne spores dispersed from a single local source of inoculum. In comparison, no obvious white leaf spot gradients were observed over 250 m in a severely diseased crop near North Petherton, Somerset, suggesting that the air-borne spores were dispersed from a number of more distant sources in the area. Both patterns of disease were unlikely to have been initiated by P. capsellae conidia, which are dispersed only very short distances by rain-splash. However, once epidemics have been initiated by air-borne ascospores in the autumn, subsequent disease spread within an infected crop is dependent only on splash-dispersed conidia. A revised disease cycle of the pathogen is proposed.Peer reviewe