Stability of Satellite Planes in M31 II: Effects of the Dark Subhalo Population

The planar arrangement of nearly half the satellite galaxies of M31 has been a source of mystery and speculation since it was discovered. With a growing number of other host galaxies showing these satellite galaxy planes, their stability and longevity have become central to the debate on whether the presence of satellite planes are a natural consequence of prevailing cosmological models, or represent a challenge. Given the dependence of their stability on host halo shape, we look into how a galaxy plane's dark matter environment influences its longevity. An increased number of dark matter subhalos results in increased interactions that hasten the deterioration of an already-formed plane of satellite galaxies in spherical dark halos. The role of total dark matter mass fraction held in subhalos in dispersing a plane of galaxies present non trivial effects on plane longevity as well. But any misalignments of plane inclines to major axes of flattened dark matter halos lead to their lifetimes being reduced to < 3 Gyrs. Distributing > 40% of total dark mass in subhalos in the overall dark matter distribution results in a plane of satellite galaxies that is prone to change through the 5 Gyr integration time period.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRAS September 22 201

American Head and Neck Society Endocrine Section clinical consensus statement: North American quality statements and evidence‐based multidisciplinary workflow algorithms for the evaluation and management of thyroid nodules

BackgroundCare for patients with thyroid nodules is complex and multidisciplinary, and research demonstrates variation in care. The objective was to develop clinical guidelines and quality metrics to reduce unwarranted variation and improve quality.MethodsMultidisciplinary expert consensus and modified Delphi approach. Source documents were workflow algorithms from Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Cancer Care of Ontario based on the 2015 American Thyroid Association management guidelines for adult patients with thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer.ResultsA consensus‐based, unified preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative workflow was developed for North American use. Twenty‐one panelists achieved consensus on 16 statements about workflow‐embedded process and outcomes metrics addressing safety, access, appropriateness, efficiency, effectiveness, and patient centeredness of care.ConclusionA panel of Canadian and United States experts achieved consensus on workflows and quality metric statements to help reduce unwarranted variation in care, improving overall quality of care for patients diagnosed with thyroid nodules.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148340/1/hed25526_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148340/2/hed25526.pd

White Matter Structure in Youth With Behavioral and Emotional Dysregulation Disorders: A Probabilistic Tractographic Study

Psychiatric disorders in youth characterized by behavioral and emotional dysregulation are often comorbid and difficult to distinguish. An alternative approach to conceptualizing these disorders is to move toward a diagnostic system based on underlying pathophysiologic processes that may cut across conventionally defined diagnoses. Neuroimaging techniques have potentials for the identification of these processes

Validation of the english version of the Multidimensional Mentalizing Questionnaire (MMQ).

Mentalizing refers to the ability to understand one's own and others' mental states. Mentalizing is considered a key component of social cognition and healthy personality development. A multinational assessment tools able to appraise the multidimensional and multifaceted aspects of this complex construct are needed. The present study had two aims: (a) validate an English version of the Multidimensional Mentalizing Questionnaire (MMQ, 33 items) which was designed to assess mentalizing based on an integrated and multilevel model of mentalizing; (b) explore the correlational relationships between the six dimensions of the MMQ and a set of sociodemographic, psycho-cognitive, mental health, and socio-functional variables. Overall, 1823 individuals (age: 19-76 years old [M = 45; SD = 16]; sex: male = 48.51%, female = 50.57%, non-binary = 0.9%) participated in an online survey. While the participants came from 77 different countries, most of them were residents in UK and USA (95%). Data analytics include confirmatory factorial analysis and Pearson correlations. The CFA results validated the factorial structure of a 28-items MMQ-English version, with acceptable goodness of fit indices. Regarding the psychometric properties, the MMQ-English version showed good internal reliability and significant positive correlation with another scale designed to assess an analogue construct showing a fair convergent validity. The findings indicated that males, individuals with lower levels of education, lower socio-economic status, depressed, and with a higher score of loneliness are significantly more likely to report poor mentalizing compared with females, individuals with higher education level, greater SES, happier, and with lower scores of loneliness. The present study validated the English version of the MMQ

How much online pornography is too much? A comparison of two theoretically distinct assessment scales.

Online pornography use, an ever more common activity, has raised myriad psychosocial and clinical concerns. While there is a need to screen for and measure its problematic dimension, there is a debate about the adequacy of existing assessment tools. The study compares two instruments for measuring pathological online pornography use (POPU) that are based on different theoretical frameworks-one in line with DSM-5 criteria and the six-component addiction model and one in line with ICD-11 criteria. An international sample of 1,823 adults (Mean age = 31.66, SD = 6.74) answered an online questionnaire that included the Short Version of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS-6) and the Assessment of Criteria for Specific Internet-Use Disorders (ACSID-11). Factorial, correlational, and network analyses were conducted on the data. Both tools adequately screened for online "addictive" behavior, but the ACSID-11 was superior in assessing the degree of clinical risk. Depending on the specific aim of the assessment (screening vs. clinical diagnostics), both online pornography measurement tools may be useful

White matter structure in youth with behavioral and emotional dysregulation disorders a probabilistic tractographic study

Importance: Psychiatric disorders in youth characterized by behavioral and emotional dysregulation are often comorbid and difficult to distinguish. An alternative approach to conceptualizing these disorders is to move toward a diagnostic system based on underlying pathophysiologic processes that may cut across conventionally defined diagnoses. Neuroimaging techniques have potentials for the identification of these processes.Objective: To determine whether diffusion imaging, a neuroimaging technique examining white matter (WM) structure, can identify neural correlates of emotional dysregulation in a sample of youth with different psychiatric disorders characterized by behavioral and emotional dysregulation.Design, Setting, And Participants: Using global probabilistic tractography,we examined relationships betweenWMstructure in key tracts in emotional regulation circuitry (ie, cingulum, uncinate fasciculus, and forceps minor) and (1) broader diagnostic categories of behavioral and emotional dysregulation disorders (DDs) and (2) symptom dimensions cutting across conventional diagnoses in 120 youth with behavioral and/or emotional DDs, a referred sample of the Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms (LAM) study. Thirty age- and sex-matched typically developing youth (control participants) were included. Multivariate multiple regression models were used. The study was conducted from July 1, 2010, to February 28, 2014.Main Outcomes And Measures: Fractional anisotropy aswell as axial and radial diffusivity were estimated and imported into a well-established statistical package.We hypothesized that (1) youth with emotional DDs and those with both behavioral and emotional DDs would show significantly lower fractional anisotropy compared with youth with behavioral DDs in these WM tracts and (2) that there would be significant inverse relationships between dimensional measures of affective symptom severity and fractional anisotropy in these tracts across all participants.Results: Multivariate multiple regression analyses revealed decreased fractional anisotropy and decreased axial diffusivity within the uncinate fasciculus in youth with emotional DDs vs those with behavioral DDs, those with both DDs, and the controls (F6,160 = 2.4; P = .032; all pairwise comparisons, P 3,85 = 2.8; P = .044).Conclusions And Relevance: These findings suggest that abnormal uncinate fasciculus and cingulumWMstructure may underlie emotional, but not behavioral, dysregulation in pediatric psychiatric disorders and that a different neural mechanism may exist for comorbid emotional and behavioral DDs