Is anxiety associated with negative interpretations of ambiguity in children and adolescents? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background The tendency to interpret ambiguity as threat (‘negative interpretation’) has been implicated in cognitive models of anxiety. A significant body of research has examined the association between anxiety and negative interpretation, and reviews suggest there is a robust positive association in adults. However, evidence with children and adolescents has been inconsistent. This study aimed to provide a systematic quantitative assessment of the association between anxiety and negative interpretation in children and adolescents. Methods Following systematic searches and screening for eligibility, 345 effects sizes from 77 studies were meta-analysed. Results Overall a medium positive association was found between anxiety and negative interpretation in children and adolescents (d ̂ = 0.62). Two variables significantly moderated this effect. Specifically, the association increased in strength with increasing age and when the content of ambiguous scenarios matched the anxiety subtype under investigation. Conclusions Results extend findings from adult literature by demonstrating an association in children and adolescents with evidence for content specificity in the association. Age effects imply a role for development. Results raise considerations for when and for whom clinical treatments for anxiety focusing on interpretation bias are appropriate. The vast majority of studies included in the review have used correlational designs and there are a limited number of studies with you ng children. The results should be considered with these limitations in mind

Adult attachment style across individuals and role-relationships: Avoidance is relationship-specific, but anxiety shows greater generalizability

A generalisability study examined the hypotheses that avoidant attachment, reflecting the representation of others, should be more relationship-specific (vary across relationships more than across individuals), while attachment anxiety, reflecting self-representation, should be more generalisable across a person’s relationships. College students responded to 6-item questionnaire measures of these variables for 5 relationships (mother, father, best same-gender friend, romantic partner or best opposite-gender friend, other close person), on 3 (N = 120) or 2 (N = 77) occasions separated by a few weeks. Results supported the hypotheses, with the person variance component being larger than the relationship-specific component for anxiety, and the opposite happening for avoidance. Anxiety therefore seems not to be as relationship-specific as previous research suggested. Possible reasons for discrepancies between the current and previous studies are discussed

Risk stratified monitoring for methotrexate toxicity in immune mediated inflammatory diseases: prognostic model development and validation using primary care data from the UK.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a prognostic model to inform risk stratified decisions on frequency of monitoring blood tests during long term methotrexate treatment. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Electronic health records within the UK's Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Gold and CPRD Aurum. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (≥18 years) with a diagnosis of an immune mediated inflammatory disease who were prescribed methotrexate by their general practitioner for six months or more during 2007-19. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Discontinuation of methotrexate owing to abnormal monitoring blood test result. Patients were followed-up from six months after their first prescription for methotrexate in primary care to the earliest of outcome, drug discontinuation for any other reason, leaving the practice, last data collection from the practice, death, five years, or 31 December 2019. Cox regression was performed to develop the risk equation, with bootstrapping used to shrink predictor effects for optimism. Multiple imputation handled missing predictor data. Model performance was assessed in terms of calibration and discrimination. RESULTS: Data from 13 110 (854 events) and 23 999 (1486 events) participants were included in the development and validation cohorts, respectively. 11 candidate predictors (17 parameters) were included. In the development dataset, the optimism adjusted R2 was 0.13 and the optimism adjusted Royston D statistic was 0.79. The calibration slope and Royston D statistic in the validation dataset for the entire follow-up period was 0.94 (95% confidence interval 0.85 to 1.02) and 0.75 (95% confidence interval 0.67 to 0.83), respectively. The prognostic model performed well in predicting outcomes in clinically relevant subgroups defined by age group, type of immune mediated inflammatory disease, and methotrexate dose. CONCLUSION: A prognostic model was developed and validated that uses information collected during routine clinical care and may be used to risk stratify the frequency of monitoring blood test during long term methotrexate treatment

Magnetic Fields, Relativistic Particles, and Shock Waves in Cluster Outskirts

It is only now, with low-frequency radio telescopes, long exposures with high-resolution X-ray satellites and gamma-ray telescopes, that we are beginning to learn about the physics in the periphery of galaxy clusters. In the coming years, Sunyaev-Zeldovich telescopes are going to deliver further great insights into the plasma physics of these special regions in the Universe. The last years have already shown tremendous progress with detections of shocks, estimates of magnetic field strengths and constraints on the particle acceleration efficiency. X-ray observations have revealed shock fronts in cluster outskirts which have allowed inferences about the microphysical structure of shocks fronts in such extreme environments. The best indications for magnetic fields and relativistic particles in cluster outskirts come from observations of so-called radio relics, which are megaparsec-sized regions of radio emission from the edges of galaxy clusters. As these are difficult to detect due to their low surface brightness, only few of these objects are known. But they have provided unprecedented evidence for the acceleration of relativistic particles at shock fronts and the existence of muG strength fields as far out as the virial radius of clusters. In this review we summarise the observational and theoretical state of our knowledge of magnetic fields, relativistic particles and shocks in cluster outskirts.Comment: 34 pages, to be published in Space Science Review

Search for Colour Singlet and Colour Reconnection Effects in Hadronic Z Decays at LEP

A search is performed in symmetric 3-jet hadronic Z decay events for evidence of colour singlet production or colour reconnection effects. Asymmetries in the angular separation of particles are found to be sensitive indicators of such effects. Upper limits on the level of colour singlet production and colour reconnection effects are established for a variety of models

Midlife body mass index, central adiposity and neuropsychological performance over 10 years in women living with and without HIV

Background and objective: Observations of overweight and obesity in association with neuropsychological performance (NP) vary over the adult life course depending on baseline levels, biological sex, age, race, temporality of measurements, and other factors. Therefore, similar published analyses across cohorts are inconsistent. In our sample of women living with HIV (WLWH) and women without HIV (WWOH), we conducted comparable analyses as those published in men with and without HIV. We examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) and NP. Methods: Four hundred thirty two 432 virologically-suppressed WLWH and 367 WWOH, ≥40 years in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) with anthropometry and NP assessments every two years from 2009-2019 were included in the study. Demographically-adjusted T-scores were calculated for six NP domains: learning, memory, executive function, processing speed, attention and working memory, and motor function. Multivariable linear regression models stratified by HIV status were used to examine cross-sectional associations of BMI and WC by NP domain; repeated measures analyses assessed baseline BMI and WC in association with longitudinal change in NP. Covariates included sociodemographic, behavioral, and HIV-related characteristics. Results: At baseline among all women, the median age was 45 years, 65% were Non-Latinx Black women, and 45% were obese women. Obese WLWH (BMI≥30.0 kg/m2) had poorer executive function (β=-2.27, 95%CI [-4.46, -0.07]) versus WLWH with healthy BMI (18.5–24.9 kg/m2). Longitudinally over ~8 years, obese versus overweight WWOH improved on memory (β=2.19, 95%CI [0.13, 4.26]), however overweight versus healthy WWOH experienced declining memory (β= -2.67, 95%CI [-5.40, -0.07]). Increasing WC was associated with declining executive, processing speed, and motor function (p’s<0.05); an at-risk WC was associated with improved memory (β=1.81, 95%CI [0.19, 3.44]) among WWOH. Among WLWH, increasing BMI was associated with improved learning (β=0.07, 95%CI [0.00, 0.15]. Conclusion: Our cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses evaluating the associations of BMI and WC and NP were mixed compared to previous reports. This illustrates the importance of sociodemographic characteristics, baseline levels of exposures and outcomes, HIV status, temporality of measurements, and other factors when evaluating aging HIV epidemiology study results

Search for Higgs bosons decaying to tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present a search for the production of neutral Higgs bosons decaying into tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb-1, were collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We set upper limits at the 95% C.L. on the product of production cross section and branching ratio for a scalar resonance decaying into tautau pairs, and we then interpret these limits as limits on the production of Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and as constraints in the MSSM parameter space.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PL

Measurement of the photon+b+b-jet production differential cross section in ppˉp\bar{p} collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.96~\TeV

We present measurements of the differential cross section dsigma/dpT_gamma for the inclusive production of a photon in association with a b-quark jet for photons with rapidities |y_gamma|< 1.0 and 30<pT_gamma <300 GeV, as well as for photons with 1.5<|y_gamma|< 2.5 and 30< pT_gamma <200 GeV, where pT_gamma is the photon transverse momentum. The b-quark jets are required to have pT>15 GeV and rapidity |y_jet| < 1.5. The results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7 fb^-1, recorded with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron $p\bar{p}$ Collider at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV. The measured cross sections are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using different sets of parton distribution functions as well as to predictions based on the kT-factorization QCD approach, and those from the Sherpa and Pythia Monte Carlo event generators.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.