Drinking to Cope: Effects of Anxiety on Generation of Self-Regulation Strategies

This study sought to utilize motivational and self-regulatory processes, specifically the principle of emotional transfer (PET), to elucidate mechanisms underlying the transition from casual alcohol use to dependence in young adults with elevated anxiety. Utilizing a script-driven imagery procedure, the proposed study examined the effects of manipulated state anxiety on 1) the amount, content, and commitment to freely generated anxiety reduction strategies, and 2) the level of craving for alcohol. Young adult college students (N = 69; ages 18-24; 76.8% women) were randomly assigned to either the high (n = 35) or low (n = 34) anxiety condition. After script presentation, participants responded to a script-related prompt eliciting generation of anxiety regulation strategies, rated their commitment to those strategies, and reported their current level of alcohol craving. Analyses revealed no significant difference between the conditions on the quantity of strategies generated, level of alcohol craving, or number of participants generating alcohol use as a strategy. However, participants in the high anxiety condition reported significantly greater commitment to the strategies generated than the low anxiety condition. While anxiety increased in both conditions in response to the script, it did not increase significantly more in the high anxiety condition. The two conditions were collapsed and hierarchical linear regressions were run to assess whether post-induction anxiety predicted the outcome variables, while controlling for covariates. Greater past-year alcohol use and problems – not anxiety – predicted generation of significantly fewer strategies and higher alcohol craving. Findings of this study suggest partial support for the PET and highlight the need for alternative approaches to inducing and assessing the potential effects of anxiety on self-regulatory processes, particularly for those most at risk for alcohol use problems

Weather and our food supply

The steep rate of increase in yield of grain crops in the United States since the mid-1950\u27s has resulted in the use of the term explosion in technology. Surplus grains piled up to such proportions after the 1960 · harvest that acreage control appeared. to be in order. But despite substantial reductions in acreages after 1960 the increased output per acre has just about compensated for acreage reductions. During this period of rapid increase in output per acre there has been a growing tendency to believe that technology has reduced the influence of weather on grain production so that we no longer need to fear shortages due to unfavorable weather. There is also a popular belief that acreage control$ fail to achieve the objective of production control, and that public funds are being wasted in storing surplus grains which we don\u27t need. There is increasing evidence, however, that a period of favorable weather interacted with technology to produce our recent high yields, and that perhaps half of the increase in yield per acre since 1950 has been due to a change to more favorable weather for grain crops. These findings have important implications in continued support for research in production technology and in the way in which we look at our surplus stocks of feed and food grains. If a period of favorable weather has been responsible for half of the increase in yields since 19501 then what can we expect if the weather trend reverses itself for a few years? Do we have periodicity in weather, and have we just passed through a run of favorable years that might be followed by a run of unfavorable years? Should we treat our surplus grains as reserves? How does our rate of growth in grain output compare with the needs of a growing world population? And of course I in the background of these questions is one big question -- how much of our recent high yields is really due to weather? To answer these important questions the Center for Agriculture and Economic Development invited outstanding authorities to present their ideas under three main headings: (1) Techniques for Evaluation of Weather Variables in Agricultural Production I (2) Periodicity in Weather Patterns: Implications in Agriculture I and (3) Weather Considerations in Agricultural Policy. The papers have been assembled in the order of their presentation under the general outline above.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/card_reports/1021/thumbnail.jp

Quantitative trait loci for sensitivity to ethanol intoxication in a C57BL/6J × 129S1/SvImJ inbred mouse cross

Individual variation in sensitivity to acute ethanol (EtOH) challenge is associated with alcohol drinking and is a predictor of alcohol abuse. Previous studies have shown that the C57BL/6J (B6) and 129S1/SvImJ (S1) inbred mouse strains differ in responses on certain measures of acute EtOH intoxication. To gain insight into genetic factors contributing to these differences, we performed quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of measures of EtOH-induced ataxia (accelerating rotarod), hypothermia, and loss of righting reflex (LORR) duration in a B6 × S1 F2 population. We confirmed that S1 showed greater EtOH-induced hypothermia (specifically at a high dose) and longer LORR compared to B6. QTL analysis revealed several additive and interacting loci for various phenotypes, as well as examples of genotype interactions with sex. QTLs for different EtOH phenotypes were largely non-overlapping, suggesting separable genetic influences on these behaviors. The most compelling main-effect QTLs were for hypothermia on chromosome 16 and for LORR on chromosomes 4 and 6. Several QTLs overlapped with loci repeatedly linked to EtOH drinking in previous mouse studies. The architecture of the traits we examined was complex but clearly amenable to dissection in future studies. Using integrative genomics strategies, plausible functional and positional candidates may be found. Uncovering candidate genes associated with variation in these phenotypes in this population could ultimately shed light on genetic factors underlying sensitivity to EtOH intoxication and risk for alcoholism in humans

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Mutation analysis in Bardet-Biedl syndrome by DNA pooling and massively parallel resequencing in 105 individuals

Bardet–Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare, primarily autosomal-recessive ciliopathy. The phenotype of this pleiotropic disease includes retinitis pigmentosa, postaxial polydactyly, truncal obesity, learning disabilities, hypogonadism and renal anomalies, among others. To date, mutations in 15 genes (BBS1–BBS14, SDCCAG8) have been described to cause BBS. The broad genetic locus heterogeneity renders mutation screening time-consuming and expensive. We applied a strategy of DNA pooling and subsequent massively parallel resequencing (MPR) to screen individuals affected with BBS from 105 families for mutations in 12 known BBS genes. DNA was pooled in 5 pools of 21 individuals each. All 132 coding exons of BBS1–BBS12 were amplified by conventional PCR. Subsequent MPR was performed on an Illumina Genome Analyzer II(™) platform. Following mutation identification, the mutation carrier was assigned by CEL I endonuclease heteroduplex screening and confirmed by Sanger sequencing. In 29 out of 105 individuals (28%), both mutated alleles were identified in 10 different BBS genes. A total of 35 different disease-causing mutations were confirmed, of which 18 mutations were novel. In 12 additional families, a total of 12 different single heterozygous changes of uncertain pathogenicity were found. Thus, DNA pooling combined with MPR offers a valuable strategy for mutation analysis of large patient cohorts, especially in genetically heterogeneous diseases such as BBS

Risk and resilience: a prospective analysis of the complex effects of internalizing problems on alcohol use in adolescence

Previous research suggests that there exist both risk and protective mechanisms for the relationship between internalizing problems and alcohol use outcomes. The present study aimed to determine whether low deviant peer affiliations and risk aversion were two protective mediating mechanisms of this relationship. A risk mechanism of high negative emotionality, consistent with the tension reduction hypothesis, was also investigated. For exploratory purposes, the mediators were tested on three separate alcohol use outcomes: frequency of use, frequency of heavy use, and problematic use. Data from age cohorts 9, 12, and 15 (N=2,318) of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods\u27 (PHDCN) Longitudinal Cohort Study were utilized. Path analyses for all models revealed that internalizing problems were associated with high negative emotionality and low impulsivity. Also, high peer deviance was found to increase adolescents\u27 risk for all alcohol use outcomes, implying a possible target for intervention. Contrary to predictions, high negative emotionality significantly negatively mediated the relationship between internalizing problems and alcohol use frequency

Risk and resilience: a prospective analysis of the complex effects of internalizing problems on alcohol use in adolescence

Previous research suggests that there exist both risk and protective mechanisms for the relationship between internalizing problems and alcohol use outcomes. The present study aimed to determine whether low deviant peer affiliations and risk aversion were two protective mediating mechanisms of this relationship. A risk mechanism of high negative emotionality, consistent with the tension reduction hypothesis, was also investigated. For exploratory purposes, the mediators were tested on three separate alcohol use outcomes: frequency of use, frequency of heavy use, and problematic use. Data from age cohorts 9, 12, and 15 (N=2,318) of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods\u27 (PHDCN) Longitudinal Cohort Study were utilized. Path analyses for all models revealed that internalizing problems were associated with high negative emotionality and low impulsivity. Also, high peer deviance was found to increase adolescents\u27 risk for all alcohol use outcomes, implying a possible target for intervention. Contrary to predictions, high negative emotionality significantly negatively mediated the relationship between internalizing problems and alcohol use frequency

Exploration of a novel space is associated with individual differences in learning speed in black-capped chickadees, Poecile atricapillus.

Individual variation in exploratory behaviour has been demonstrated in a diverse array of animal species. Understanding the evolutionary antecedents and ecological consequences of this variation is an active research area within animal behaviour.Here we investigate whether different exploration styles exhibited by black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in a novel environment are related to how quickly these birds learn an acoustic discrimination task.We found that birds that readily enter a novel environment learn an acoustic discrimination task faster than birds that do not readily enter a novel environment. This result contrasts with previous work suggesting no correlation between exploration style and learning a spatial or associative task in great tits (Parus major), a close relative of the black-capped chickadee

Capture order is repeatable in chickadees

Black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) have been used as a model to examine cognitive functions including perception, episodic-like memory, and spatial learning and orientation. Recently, these species have been used in two studies to examine the relationship between learning and novel environment exploration and novel environment exploration and dominance. In the current study we explored whether these two species show consistency in behavior over time. In same species/same sex groups male and female black-capped and mountainchickadees were released into a room and then captured by an experimenter with the procedure repeated one week later. Males, but not females in both species show consistency in capture order over both sessions. We discuss implications of this finding in the context of possible sampling biases