Contributions of Dopamine-Related Genes and Environmental Factors to Highly Sensitive Personality: A Multi-Step Neuronal System-Level Approach

Traditional behavioral genetic studies (e.g., twin, adoption studies) have shown that human personality has moderate to high heritability, but recent molecular behavioral genetic studies have failed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) with consistent effects. The current study adopted a multi-step approach (ANOVA followed by multiple regression and permutation) to assess the cumulative effects of multiple QTLs. Using a system-level (dopamine system) genetic approach, we investigated a personality trait deeply rooted in the nervous system (the Highly Sensitive Personality, HSP). 480 healthy Chinese college students were given the HSP scale and genotyped for 98 representative polymorphisms in all major dopamine neurotransmitter genes. In addition, two environment factors (stressful life events and parental warmth) that have been implicated for their contributions to personality development were included to investigate their relative contributions as compared to genetic factors. In Step 1, using ANOVA, we identified 10 polymorphisms that made statistically significant contributions to HSP. In Step 2, these polymorphism's main effects and interactions were assessed using multiple regression. This model accounted for 15% of the variance of HSP (p<0.001). Recent stressful life events accounted for an additional 2% of the variance. Finally, permutation analyses ascertained the probability of obtaining these findings by chance to be very low, p ranging from 0.001 to 0.006. Dividing these loci by the subsystems of dopamine synthesis, degradation/transport, receptor and modulation, we found that the modulation and receptor subsystems made the most significant contribution to HSP. The results of this study demonstrate the utility of a multi-step neuronal system-level approach in assessing genetic contributions to individual differences in human behavior. It can potentially bridge the gap between the high heritability estimates based on traditional behavioral genetics and the lack of reproducible genetic effects observed currently from molecular genetic studies

Refinement-based verification of sequential implementations of Stateflow charts

Simulink/Stateflow charts are widely used in industry for the specification of control systems, which are often safety-critical. This suggests a need for a formal treatment of such models. In previous work, we have proposed a technique for automatic generation of formal models of Stateflow blocks to support refinement-based reasoning. In this article, we present a refinement strategy that supports the verification of automatically generated sequential C implementations of Stateflow charts. In particular, we discuss how this strategy can be specialised to take advantage of architectural features in order to allow a higher level of automation.Comment: In Proceedings Refine 2011, arXiv:1106.348

Treatment- and Population-Dependent Activity Patterns of Behavioral and Expression QTLs

Genetic control of gene expression and higher-order phenotypes is almost invariably dependent on environment and experimental conditions. We use two families of recombinant inbred strains of mice (LXS and BXD) to study treatment- and genotype-dependent control of hippocampal gene expression and behavioral phenotypes. We analyzed responses to all combinations of two experimental perturbations, ethanol and restraint stress, in both families, allowing for comparisons across 8 combinations of treatment and population. We introduce the concept of QTL activity patterns to characterize how associations between genomic loci and traits vary across treatments. We identified several significant behavioral QTLs and many expression QTLs (eQTLs). The behavioral QTLs are highly dependent on treatment and population. We classified eQTLs into three groups: cis-eQTLs (expression variation that maps to within 5 Mb of the cognate gene), syntenic trans-eQTLs (the gene and the QTL are on the same chromosome but not within 5 Mb), and non-syntenic trans-eQTLs (the gene and the QTL are on different chromosomes). We found that most non-syntenic trans-eQTLs were treatment-specific whereas both classes of syntenic eQTLs were more conserved across treatments. We also found there was a correlation between regions along the genome enriched for eQTLs and SNPs that were conserved across the LXS and BXD families. Genes with eQTLs that co-localized with the behavioral QTLs and displayed similar QTL activity patterns were identified as potential candidate genes associated with the phenotypes, yielding identification of novel genes as well as genes that have been previously associated with responses to ethanol

On the polyhedral volume ratios VA/VB in perovskites ABX³.

This paper presents analytical expressions for the calculation of ratios of cation coordination polyhedra volumes (VA/VB) for perovskites ABX³ of the Stokes–Howard diagram directly from atomic coordinates. We show the advantages of quantifying perovskite structure distortion with polyhedral volume ratios rather than with tilting angles, and discuss why space groups with multiple crystallographically inequivalent A or B sites (I4/mmm, Immm, P42/nmcetc.) are much less common than those with a single A and B site (I4/mcm, R c, Pnmaetc.). Analysis of crystallographic data for approximately 1300 perovskite structures of oxides, halides and chalcogenides from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database revealed that the most highly distorted perovskites belong to the space group Pnma and formally lower-symmetry perovskites (I2/m, I2/a) are less distorted geometrically. Critical values of the VA/VB ratios for the most common phase transitions Pnma↔I4/mcm and Pnma↔R c are estimated to be 4.85 with the possible intermediate space group Imma stable in the very narrow range of VA/VB 4.8–4.9. Transitions to post-perovskite CaIrO3-type structures may be expected for VA/VB < 3.8. © 2007, International Union of Crystallograph

The effect of non-magnetic dilution of the Tb sublattice in TbCo3B2

Solid solutions of Tb 1− x Y x Co 3 B 2 ( x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, 0.4 and 0.5) were studied by neutron powder diffraction, x-ray diffraction, AC susceptibility and SQUID magnetization measurements. Their magnetic and crystallographic properties were deduced and examined together with those previously published for the end compounds ( x = 0,1). These solid solutions have hexagonal symmetry and are paramagnetic at RT, and undergo a magnetic ordering transition of the Co sublattice, with the magnetic moments along the hexagonal axis, at T Co ~150(15) K, independent of Y concentration. A second magnetic ordering transition of the Tb sublattice T Tb ≤30 K accompanied by the rotation of the magnetic moments towards the basal plane, was observed for solid solutions with Y concentration x ≤0.25. This transition was also found to be accompanied by a crystallographic symmetry decrease. Unexpectedly, neutron powder diffraction showed that the magnitude of the ordered magnetic moment of the Tb ion decreases with Tb concentration. © 2010 IOP Publishing LTD

Effect of non-magnetic dilution of the Tb sublattice in TbCo3B2.

Solid solutions of Tb1-xYxCo3B2 (x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, 0.4 and 0.5) were studied by neutron powder diffraction, x-ray diffraction, AC susceptibility and SQUID magnetization measurements. Their magnetic and crystallographic properties were deduced and examined together with those previously published for the end compounds (x = 0, 1). These solid solutions have hexagonal symmetry and are paramagnetic at RT, and undergo a magnetic ordering transition of the Co sublattice, with the magnetic moments along the hexagonal axis, at T-Co similar to 150(15) K, independent of Y concentration. A second magnetic ordering transition of the Tb sublattice T-Tb <= 30 K accompanied by the rotation of the magnetic moments towards the basal plane, was observed for solid solutions with Y concentration x <= 0.25. This transition was also found to be accompanied by a crystallographic symmetry decrease. Unexpectedly, neutron powder diffraction showed that the magnitude of the ordered magnetic moment of the Tb ion decreases with Tb concentration. © 2010, Institute of Physic

Distributing synchronous programs on a loosely synchronous, distributed architecture

Theme 1 - Reseaux et systemes - Projet AdpSIGLEAvailable from INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : 22588, issue : a.1999 n.1289 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc