The wide-ranging life outcome correlates of a general psychopathology factor in adolescent psychopathology

Background: The structure of psychopathology has been much debated within the research literature. This study extends previous work by providing comparisons of the links between psychopathology and several life outcomes (temperamental, economic, social, psychological and health) using a three-correlated-factors model, a bifactor model, a revised-bifactor model and a higher-order model. Methods: Data from a sample of Dutch adolescents were used (n = 2 230), and psychopathology factors were modelled using self-reported and parent-reported longitudinal data from youth across four assessments during adolescence, from ages 11 to 19. Outcome variables were assessed at age 22 using adolescent-reports and parent-reports and more objective measures (e.g. body mass index). Results: While no measurement model was clearly superior, we found modest associations between the psychopathology factors and life outcomes. Importantly, after taking into account a general factor, the associations with life outcomes decreased for the residual parts of thought problems (across all domains) and internalizing problems (for temperamental and psychological outcomes), but not for externalizing problems, compared with the traditional three-correlated-factors model. Patterns were similar for adolescent-reported and parent-reported data. Conclusions: Findings suggest that a general factor is related to psychopathology and life outcomes in a meaningful way. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences in propensity to psychopathology and more broadly in light of recent developments concerning the structure of psychopathology

Mating opportunities and energetic constraints drive variation in age-dependent sexual signalling

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Online Version of Record published before inclusion in an issue: 11 October 2016When males repeatedly produce energetically expensive sexual signals, trade-offs between current and future investment can cause plasticity in age-dependent signalling. Such variation is often interpreted as alternate adaptive strategies: live fast and die young vs. slow and steady. An alternative (yet rarely tested) explanation is that condition-dependent constraints on allocation cause variation in signalling with age (‘late bloomers’ do not have early investment options). Testing this hypothesis is challenging because resource acquisition and allocation are difficult to measure, and energetic reserves both affect and are affected by reproductive effort. We simultaneously manipulated acquisition (through dietary nutrition) and access to potential mates (as a proxy for manipulating sexual trait allocation) in male decorated crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus), while measuring age- and signalling effort-mediated changes in energy storage components. Increased diet quality caused increased signalling effort and energy storage, while access to females increased both the likelihood of and time spent signalling. Males with lower resource budgets signalled less, but still suffered energetic storage loss and viability costs. Our results suggest that energetic constraints, rather than strategic resource accumulation, reduced signalling levels in males with lower resource acquisition ability. Our findings imply a non-adaptive explanation for age-dependent variation in sexual signalling, and an important role for energetic constraints in maintaining the honesty of costly behavioural displays.T.M.H. and L.F.B. were supported by the University of Stirling. J.H. was funded by a University Royal Society Fellowship. J.R. was funded by a NERC studentship (awarded to J.H)

Imputation of Assay Bioactivity Data Using Deep Learning.

We describe a novel deep learning neural network method and its application to impute assay pIC50 values. Unlike conventional machine learning approaches, this method is trained on sparse bioactivity data as input, typical of that found in public and commercial databases, enabling it to learn directly from correlations between activities measured in different assays. In two case studies on public domain data sets we show that the neural network method outperforms traditional quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models and other leading approaches. Furthermore, by focusing on only the most confident predictions the accuracy is increased to R2 > 0.9 using our method, as compared to R2 = 0.44 when reporting all predictions

Age-dependent variation in the terminal investment threshold in male crickets

This is the author accepted manuscript, made available online by the publisher 1st February 2018. Final version to be available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.The terminal investment hypothesis proposes that decreased expectation of future reproduction (e.g., arising from a threat to survival) should precipitate increased investment in current reproduction. The level at which a cue of decreased survival is sufficient to trigger terminal investment (i.e., the terminal investment threshold) may vary according to other factors that influence expectation for future reproduction. We test whether the terminal investment threshold varies with age in male crickets, using heat-killed bacteria to simulate an immune-inducing infection. We measured calling effort (a behavior essential for mating) and hemolymph antimicrobial activity in young and old males across a gradient of increasing infection cue intensity. There was a significant interaction between the infection cue and age in their effect on calling effort, confirming the existence of a dynamic terminal investment threshold: young males reduced effort at all infection levels, whereas old males increased effort at the highest levels relative to naïve individuals. A lack of a corresponding decrease in antibacterial activity suggests that altered reproductive effort is not traded against investment in this component of immunity. Collectively, these results support the existence of a dynamic terminal investment threshold, perhaps accounting for some of the conflicting evidence in support of terminal investment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.This research was funded, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation IOS 16-54028 (SKS, BMS, and JH), grants from the Beta Lambda Chapter of the Phi Sigma Biological Honor Society, Graduate Student Association of Illinois State University, Animal Behavior Society, and Orthopterists‘ Society to KRD, and an Illinois State University Summer Faculty Fellowship and Faculty Research Award to SKS

Indexing multi-dimensional uncertain data with arbitrary probability density functions

Research Session 26: Spatial and Temporal DatabasesIn an "uncertain database", an object o is associated with a multi-dimensional probability density function (pdf), which describes the likelihood that o appears at each position in the data space. A fundamental operation is the "probabilistic range search" which, given a value p q and a rectangular area r q, retrieves the objects that appear in r q with probabilities at least p q. In this paper, we propose the U-tree, an access method designed to optimize both the I/O and CPU time of range retrieval on multi-dimensional imprecise data. The new structure is fully dynamic (i.e., objects can be incrementally inserted/deleted in any order), and does not place any constraints on the data pdfs. We verify the query and update efficiency of U-trees with extensive experiments.postprintThe 31st International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB 2005), Trondheim, Norway, 30 August-2 September 2005. In Proceedings of 31st VLDB, 2005, v. 3, p. 922-93

Reservoir Engineering of Wairakei Geothermal Field

Wairakei was the first liquid dominated geothermal field exploited for major power production. As such many decisions were taken on an ad-hoc or experimental basis. In retrospect the choice of Wairakei was fortunate : with extensive shallow high permeability and major recharge it is an easy field to exploit. This lecture describes the history of the field and the contribution of reservoir engineering to field management, and describes the reservoir as it is now understood

Impact of FTO genotypes on BMI and weight in polycystic ovary syndrome : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Aims/hypothesis FTO gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been shown to be associated with obesity-related traits and type 2 diabetes. Several small studies have suggested a greater than expected effect of the FTO rs9939609 SNP on weight in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). We therefore aimed to examine the impact of FTO genotype on BMI and weight in PCOS. Methods A systematic search of medical databases (PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane CENTRAL) was conducted up to the end of April 2011. Seven studies describing eight distinct PCOS cohorts were retrieved; seven were genotyped for SNP rs9939609 and one for SNP rs1421085. The per allele effect on BMI and body weight increase was calculated and subjected to meta-analysis. Results A total of 2,548 women with PCOS were included in the study; 762 were TT homozygotes, 1,253 had an AT/CT genotype, and 533 were AA/CC homozygotes. Each additional copy of the effect allele (A/C) increased the BMI by a mean of 0.19 z score units (95% CI 0.13, 0.24; p = 2.26 × 10−11) and body weight by a mean of 0.20 z score units (95% CI 0.14, 0.26; p = 1.02 × 10−10). This translated into an approximately 3.3 kg/m2 increase in BMI and an approximately 9.6 kg gain in body weight between TT and AA/CC homozygotes. The association between FTO genotypes and BMI was stronger in the cohorts with PCOS than in the general female populations from large genome-wide association studies. Deviation from an additive genetic model was observed in heavier populations. Conclusions/interpretation The effect of FTO SNPs on obesity-related traits in PCOS seems to be more than two times greater than the effect found in large population-based studies. This suggests an interaction between FTO and the metabolic context or polygenic background of PCOS

The potential of Virtual Reality as anxiety management tool: a randomized controlled study in a sample of patients affected by Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a constant and unspecific anxiety that interferes with daily-life activities. Its high prevalence in general population and the severe limitations it causes, point out the necessity to find new efficient strategies to treat it. Together with the cognitive-behavioural treatments, relaxation represents a useful approach for the treatment of GAD, but it has the limitation that it is hard to be learned. To overcome this limitation we propose the use of virtual reality (VR) to facilitate the relaxation process by visually presenting key relaxing images to the subjects. The visual presentation of a virtual calm scenario can facilitate patients' practice and mastery of relaxation, making the experience more vivid and real than the one that most subjects can create using their own imagination and memory, and triggering a broad empowerment process within the experience induced by a high sense of presence. According to these premises, the aim of the present study is to investigate the advantages of using a VR-based relaxation protocol in reducing anxiety in patients affected by GAD. Methods/Design: The trialis based on a randomized controlled study, including three groups of 25 patients each (for a total of 75 patients): (1) the VR group, (2) the non-VR group and (3) the waiting list (WL) group. Patients in the VR group will be taught to relax using a VR relaxing environment and audio-visual mobile narratives; patients in the non-VR group will be taught to relax using the same relaxing narratives proposed to the VR group, but without the VR support, and patients in the WL group will not receive any kind of relaxation training. Psychometric and psychophysiological outcomes will serve as quantitative dependent variables, while subjective reports of participants will be used as qualitative dependent variables. Conclusion: We argue that the use of VR for relaxation represents a promising approach in the treatment of GAD since it enhances the quality of the relaxing experience through the elicitation of the sense of presence. This controlled trial will be able to evaluate the effects of the use of VR in relaxation while preserving the benefits of randomization to reduce bias