178 research outputs found
Uncovering the complex genetics of human personality: response from authors on the PGMRA Model
Following publication of our two articles [1, 2], a critique of the methodology of Phenotype-Genotype Many-to-Many Relations Analysis (PGMRA) [1, 3, 4] questioned the validity of our results from the perspective of polygenic risk scores (PRS) [5]. We appreciate the importance of these questions, and here provide a concise discussion of the assumptions and mathematical constraints of both approaches. We thank this commentator and others who have discussed our articles with us for their thoughtful questions and critique
The openness conjecture and complex Brunn-Minkowski inequalities
We discuss recent versions of the Brunn-Minkowski inequality in the complex
setting, and use it to prove the openness conjecture of Demailly and Koll\'ar.Comment: This is an account of the results in arXiv:1305.5781 together with
some background material. It is based on a lecture given at the Abel
symposium in Trondheim, June 2013. 13 page
Sexual behaviors and substance use behaviors among North Carolinaâs high school students: Implications for health care providers wanting to reach teens at risk.
Parents of adolescents, health care professionals, teachers, school administrators, and community organizations are all concerned about health risk behaviors among adolescents. Use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, lack of physical activity, sexual risk-taking, and behaviors that put students at risk for injuries have been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as priority areas for surveillance and intervention for adolescents. These behaviors represent significant preventable causes of morbidity and mortality for adolescents [1]. In addition to compromising the current health status of young people, risk behaviors initiated during adolescence result in adverse health consequences in adulthood and in significant social and financial costs [2]]]>
2013
English
http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/J_Erausquin_Sexual_2013.pdf
oai:libres.uncg.edu/14998
2014-03-03T09:16:25Z
UNCG
Motherhood and HIV risk among female sex workers in Andhra Pradesh, India: The need to consider women's life contexts.
Erausquin, Jennifer Toller
NC DOCKS at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
<![CDATA[This study examines whether the challenges of motherhood among female sex workers (FSW) are linked with vulnerability to sexual risk factors for HIV. FSW at least 18 years of age (n = 850) were recruited through respondent driven sampling for a survey on HIV risk in the Rajahmundry area of Andhra Pradesh, India. Logistic regression models adjusted for demographic characteristics were used to assess the relation between reported caretaking challenges and sexual risk indicators for HIV. In adjusted logistic regression models, FSW who reported three or more children in their household or current child health concerns were significantly less likely to report consistent condom use (adjusted odds ratios (AORs) range: 0.5â0.6) and more likely to take more money for sex without a condom (both AORs: 2.5). Women who reported current child health concerns were also more likely to report an STI symptom in the past 6 months (AOR = 1.6; 95 % confidence interval: 1.1â2.3). Findings suggest that challenging responsibilities related to caretaking of children are associated with heightened vulnerability to HIV risk among FSW. Such findings add to the cumulating evidence urging for the implementation of HIV prevention interventions that consider the multiple challenges across various domains of womenâs lives
INFLUENCE OF BIOLOGICAL SEX ON SOCIAL BEHAVIOR, INDIVIDUAL RECOGNTION, AND NON-ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING IN THE ADULT GRAY SHORT-TAILED OPOSSUM (MONODELPHIS DOMESTICA)
Social behavior is critical for relationship formation and is influenced by myriad environmental and individual factors. Basic and preclinical research typically relies on rodent models to identify the mechanisms that underlie behavior; however, it is important to use non-rodent models as well. A major objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that biological sex and social experience modulate the expression of social behavior in the adult gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica), a non-traditional model. We also investigated the non-associative learning abilities of these animals. Following a period of social isolation, animals of both sexes were paired with a non-familiar, same-sex partner for 10 minutes on three different occasions, with 24-hour inter-trial intervals. We are the first research group to find significant sex differences in submissive and nonsocial behaviors in Monodelphis. Females displayed significantly higher durations of nonsocial behavior that increased over trials. Males were more aggressive; their latencies to the first attack and submissive behavior decreased over trials whereas these latencies increased for females; malesâ duration of submissive behavior increased over trials whereas it decreased for females. A different group of subjects habituated in response to repeated presentations to neutral odors and dishabituated in response to novel odors. In addition, both males and females demonstrated the ability to form social memories in a standard individual (social) recognition test. Our results contribute to the characterization of this marsupial species, an important first step in developing it as a model of complex social behaviors
Temperament & Character account for brain functional connectivity at rest: A diathesis-stress model of functional dysregulation in psychosis
The human brainâs resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides stable trait-like measures of differences in the perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning of individuals. The rsFC of the prefrontal cortex is hypothesized to mediate a personâs rational self-government, as is also measured by personality, so we tested whether its connectivity networks account for vulnerability to psychosis and related personality configurations. Young adults were recruited as outpatients or controls from the same communities around psychiatric clinics. Healthy controls (nâ=â30) and clinically stable outpatients with bipolar disorder (nâ=â35) or schizophrenia (nâ=â27) were diagnosed by structured interviews, and then were assessed with standardized protocols of the Human Connectome Project. Data-driven clustering identified five groups of patients with distinct patterns of rsFC regardless of diagnosis. These groups were distinguished by rsFC networks that regulate specific biopsychosocial aspects of psychosis: sensory hypersensitivity, negative emotional balance, impaired attentional control, avolition, and social mistrust. The rsFc group differences were validated by independent measures of white matter microstructure, personality, and clinical features not used to identify the subjects. We confirmed that each connectivity group was organized by differential collaborative interactions among six prefrontal and eight other automatically-coactivated networks. The temperament and character traits of the members of these groups strongly accounted for the differences in rsFC between groups, indicating that configurations of rsFC are internal representations of personality organization. These representations involve weakly self-regulated emotional drives of fear, irrational desire, and mistrust, which predispose to psychopathology. However, stable outpatients with different diagnoses (bipolar or schizophrenic psychoses) were highly similar in rsFC and personality. This supports a diathesis-stress model in which different complex adaptive systems regulate predisposition (which is similar in stable outpatients despite diagnosis) and stress-induced clinical dysfunction (which differs by diagnosis)
Optimal Concentration of Information Content For Log-Concave Densities
An elementary proof is provided of sharp bounds for the varentropy of random
vectors with log-concave densities, as well as for deviations of the
information content from its mean. These bounds significantly improve on the
bounds obtained by Bobkov and Madiman ({\it Ann. Probab.}, 39(4):1528--1543,
2011).Comment: 15 pages. Changes in v2: Remark 2.5 (due to C. Saroglou) added with
more general sufficient conditions for equality in Theorem 2.3. Also some
minor corrections and added reference
Parkinsonian motor impairment predicts personality domains related to genetic risk and treatment outcomes in schizophrenia
Identifying endophenotypes of schizophrenia is of critical importance and has profound implications on clinical practice. Here we propose an innovative approach to clarify the mechanims through which temperament and character deviance relates to risk for schizophrenia and predict long-term treatment outcomes. We recruited 61 antipsychotic naĂŻve subjects with chronic schizophrenia, 99 unaffected relatives, and 68 healthy controls from rural communities in the Central Andes. Diagnosis was ascertained with the Schedules of Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry; parkinsonian motor impairment was measured with the Unified Parkinsonâs Disease Rating Scale; mesencephalic parenchyma was evaluated with transcranial ultrasound; and personality traits were assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory. Ten-year outcome data was available for ~40% of the index cases. Patients with schizophrenia had higher harm avoidance and self-transcendence (ST), and lower reward dependence (RD), cooperativeness (CO), and self-directedness (SD). Unaffected relatives had higher ST and lower CO and SD. Parkinsonism reliably predicted RD, CO, and SD after correcting for age and sex. The average duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) was over 5 years. Further, SD was anticorrelated with DUP and antipsychotic dosing at follow-up. Baseline DUP was related to antipsychotic dose-years. Further, âexplosive/borderlineâ, âmethodical/obsessiveâ, and âdisorganized/schizotypalâ personality profiles were associated with increased risk of schizophrenia. Parkinsonism predicts core personality features and treatment outcomes in schizophrenia. Our study suggests that RD, CO, and SD are endophenotypes of the disease that may, in part, be mediated by dopaminergic function. Further, SD is an important determinant of treatment course and outcome
Vivencias estudiantiles e intervenciones educativas en escuelas secundarias: posicionamientos docentes frente a la violencia en las aulas
Explorar comprensivamente las perspectivas de los agentes educativos en sus contextos de trabajo, contribuye a expandir la mirada sobre los problemas que enfrentan y la reflexiĂłn que realizan sobre las prĂĄcticas que desarrollan. El artĂculo retoma algunos resultados parciales de la Tesis de MaestrĂa en PsicologĂa Educacional, titulada âPerspectivas de agentes educativos ante situaciones y problemas de violencia en contextos de prĂĄctica profesionalâ, a cargo de la Lic. Carolina Dome y la direcciĂłn de la Prof. Magister Cristina Erausquin, presentada en la Facultad de PsicologĂa de Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, con el objetivo de analizar perspectivas y posicionamientos de agentes educativos, ante problemas de violencias e intervenciones en escuelas.Facultad de PsicologĂ
Mass Transportation on Sub-Riemannian Manifolds
We study the optimal transport problem in sub-Riemannian manifolds where the
cost function is given by the square of the sub-Riemannian distance. Under
appropriate assumptions, we generalize Brenier-McCann's Theorem proving
existence and uniqueness of the optimal transport map. We show the absolute
continuity property of Wassertein geodesics, and we address the regularity
issue of the optimal map. In particular, we are able to show its approximate
differentiability a.e. in the Heisenberg group (and under some weak assumptions
on the measures the differentiability a.e.), which allows to write a weak form
of the Monge-Amp\`ere equation
Generalized Ricci Curvature Bounds for Three Dimensional Contact Subriemannian manifolds
Measure contraction property is one of the possible generalizations of Ricci
curvature bound to more general metric measure spaces. In this paper, we
discover sufficient conditions for a three dimensional contact subriemannian
manifold to satisfy this property.Comment: 49 page
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