Exploring the association between welfare state and mental wellbeing in Europe: does age matter?

Previous research reports show mixed results regarding the age gradient in population mental wellbeing, which may be linked to the role that welfare states play. In this study, we investigate whether an age gradient exists in relation to the association between welfare state and mental wellbeing within the adult population in Europe. We combine individual level data from Round 6 of the European Social Survey and country level data on welfare state and use multilevel regression analyses to explore population mental wellbeing. Subjective and psychological wellbeing dimensions were analyzed, and different approaches to measuring welfare state were explored, including a regime typology and composite welfare state measures constructed on the basis of a set of eight individual indicators. We found the age gradient for mental wellbeing to differ between welfare states, with the positive impact of the welfare state increasing with age. A universal and generous welfare state seems to be particularly important for older adults, who are also more likely to be in higher need of transfers and services provided by the welfare state

Coupling between feedback loops in autoregulatory networks affects bistability range, open-loop gain and switching times

Biochemical regulatory networks governing diverse cellular processes such as stress-response, differentiation and cell cycle often contain coupled feedback loops. We aim at understanding how features of feedback architecture, such as the number of loops, the sign of the loops and the type of their coupling, affect network dynamical performance. Specifically, we investigate how bistability range, maximum open-loop gain and switching times of a network with transcriptional positive feedback are affected by additive or multiplicative coupling with another positive- or negative-feedback loop. We show that a network's bistability range is positively correlated with its maximum open-loop gain and that both quantities depend on the sign of the feedback loops and the type of feedback coupling. Moreover, we find that the addition of positive feedback could decrease the bistability range if we control the basal level in the signal-response curves of the two systems. Furthermore, the addition of negative feedback has the capacity to increase the bistability range if its dissociation constant is much lower than that of the positive feedback. We also find that the addition of a positive feedback to a bistable network increases the robustness of its bistability range, whereas the addition of a negative feedback decreases it. Finally, we show that the switching time for a transition from a high to a low steady state increases with the effective fold change in gene regulation. In summary, we show that the effect of coupled feedback loops on the bistability range and switching times depends on the underlying mechanistic details

NASC-seq monitors RNA synthesis in single cells.

Sequencing of newly synthesised RNA can monitor transcriptional dynamics with great sensitivity and high temporal resolution, but is currently restricted to populations of cells. Here, we develop new transcriptome alkylation-dependent single-cell RNA sequencing (NASC-seq), to monitor newly synthesised and pre-existing RNA simultaneously in single cells. We validate the method on pre-labelled RNA, and by demonstrating that more newly synthesised RNA was detected for genes with known high mRNA turnover. Monitoring RNA synthesis during Jurkat T-cell activation with NASC-seq reveals both rapidly up- and down-regulated genes, and that induced genes are almost exclusively detected as newly transcribed. Moreover, the newly synthesised and pre-existing transcriptomes after T-cell activation are distinct, confirming that NASC-seq simultaneously measures gene expression corresponding to two time points in single cells. Altogether, NASC-seq enables precise temporal monitoring of RNA synthesis at single-cell resolution during homoeostasis, perturbation responses and cellular differentiation

Effect of excess charge carriers and fluid medium on the magnitude and the sign of the Casimir-Lifshitz torqueP. Thiyam

Last year, we reported a perturbative theory of the Casimir-Lifshitz torque between planar biaxially anisotropic materials in the retarded limit [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 120}, 131601 (2018)], which is applied here to study the change of sign and magnitude of the torque with separation distance in biaxial black phosphorus having excess charge carriers. The study is carried out both in vacuum as well as in a background fluid medium. The presence of extra charge carriers and that of an intervening fluid medium are both found to promote enhancement of the magnitude of the torque between identical slabs. The degree of enhancement of the magnitude of torque increases not only with an increased carrier concentration but also with separation distance. In the non-identical case when different planes of anisotropic black phosphorus face each other, owing to the non-monotonic characteristic of the sign-reversal effect of the torque, the enhancement by carrier addition and intervening medium also becomes non-monotonic with distance. In the presence of a background medium, the non-monotonic degree of enhancement of the torque with distance is observed even between identical slabs

Sexually coercive behavior following childhood maltreatment

Child maltreatment is associated with adult sexually coercive behavior. The association may be causal or confounders that increase the risk of both childhood victimization and sexually coercive behavior might explain the observed links. We examined if childhood maltreatment was related to sexual coercion independently of familial (genetic or common family environment) risk factors, thereby addressing potential causality. Participants were 6,255 18 to 33-year-old twins from the Finnish population-based study &quot;Genetics of Sex and Aggression&quot; who responded to self-report questionnaires of child maltreatment and sexually coercive behavior. We used generalized estimating equations to elucidate risk of sexual coercion in maltreated compared to unrelated, non-maltreated individuals. To adjust for unmeasured familial factors, we used the co-twin control method and compared sexual coercion risk within maltreatment-discordant twin pairs. Further, we examined possible differential effects of maltreatment subtypes and compared mean differences in maltreatment summary scores between sexually coercive individuals and controls. Sexual coercion was moderately more common among individuals maltreated as children versus unrelated controls (38.3 vs. 22.8&nbsp;%; age- and gender-adjusted odds ratio, aOR&nbsp;=&nbsp;2.31, 95&nbsp;% CI 1.75-3.05) and the risk increase remained similar within maltreatment-discordant twins (OR&nbsp;=&nbsp;2.82, 95&nbsp;% CI 1.42-5.61). Moreover, different maltreatment subtypes predicted sexual coercion equally well and effect sizes remained similar within discordant twin pairs. We conclude that associations between child maltreatment and sexual coercion are largely independent of shared familial confounds, consistent with a causal inference. Importantly, detection and targeted interventions for maltreated children should remain a priority to reduce societal sexually coercive behavior.</p

Camouflage Effects of Various Colour-Marking Morphs against Different Microhabitat Backgrounds in a Polymorphic Pygmy Grasshopper Tetrix japonica

Colour-marking polymorphism is widely distributed among cryptic species. To account for the adaptive significance of such polymorphisms, several hypotheses have been proposed to date. Although these hypotheses argue over the degree of camouflage effects of marking morphs (and the interactions between morphs and their microhabitat backgrounds), as far as we know, most empirical evidence has been provided under unnatural conditions (i.e., using artificial prey).Tetrix japonica, a pygmy grasshopper, is highly polymorphic in colour-markings and occurs in both sand and grass microhabitats. Even within a microhabitat, T. japonica is highly polymorphic. Using humans as dummy predators and printed photographs in which various morphs of grasshoppers were placed against different backgrounds, we addressed three questions to test the neutral, background heterogeneity, and differential crypsis hypotheses in four marking-type morphs: 1) do the morphs differ in the degree of crypsis in each microhabitat, 2) are different morphs most cryptic in specific backgrounds of the microhabitats, and 3) does the morph frequency reflect the degree of crypsis?The degree of camouflage differed among the four morphs; therefore, the neutral hypothesis was rejected. Furthermore, the order of camouflage advantage among morphs differed depending on the two types of backgrounds (sand and grass), although the grass background consistently provided greater camouflage effects. Thus, based on our results, we could not reject the background heterogeneity hypothesis. Under field conditions, the more cryptic morphs comprised a minority of the population. Overall, our results demonstrate that the different morphs were not equivalent in the degree of crypsis, but the degree of camouflage of the morphs was not consistent with the morph frequency. These findings suggest that trade-offs exist between the camouflage benefit of body colouration and other fitness components, providing a better understanding of the adaptive significance of colour-markings and presumably supporting the differential crypsis hypothesis

Conformational Mechanics of Polymer Adsorption Transitions at Attractive Substrates

Conformational phases of a semiflexible off-lattice homopolymer model near an attractive substrate are investigated by means of multicanonical computer simulations. In our polymer-substrate model, nonbonded pairs of monomers as well as monomers and the substrate interact via attractive van der Waals forces. To characterize conformational phases of this hybrid system, we analyze thermal fluctuations of energetic and structural quantities, as well as adequate docking parameters. Introducing a solvent parameter related to the strength of the surface attraction, we construct and discuss the solubility-temperature phase diagram. Apart from the main phases of adsorbed and desorbed conformations, we identify several other phase transitions such as the freezing transition between energy-dominated crystalline low-temperature structures and globular entropy-dominated conformations.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure

Diversity of Francisella Species in Environmental Samples from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

We determined whether Francisella spp. are present in water, sediment, and soil from an active tularemia natural focus on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, during a multiyear outbreak of pneumonic tularemia. Environmental samples were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting Francisella species 16S rRNA gene and succinate dehydrogenase A (sdhA) sequences; evidence of the agent of tularemia was sought by amplification of Francisella tularensis-specific sequences for the insertion element ISFTu2, 17-kDa protein gene tul4, and the 43-kDa outer membrane protein gene fopA. Evidence of F. tularensis subsp. tularensis, the causative agent of the human infections in this outbreak, was not detected from environmental samples despite its active transmission among ticks and animals in the sampling site. Francisella philomiragia was frequently detected from a brackish-water pond using Francisella species PCR targets, and subsequently F. philomiragia was isolated from an individual brackish-water sample. Distinct Francisella sp. sequences that are closely related to F. tularensis and Francisella novicida were detected from samples collected from the brackish-water pond. We conclude that diverse Francisella spp. are present in the environment where human cases of pneumonic tularemia occur