Stability of self-referent encoding task performance and associations with change in depressive symptoms from early to middle childhood.

Depressed individuals exhibit memory biases on the self-referent encoding task (SRET), such that those with depression exhibit poorer recall of positive, and enhanced recall of negative, trait adjectives (referred to as positive and negative processing biases). However, it is unclear when SRET biases emerge, whether they are stable, and if biases predict, or are predicted by, depressive symptoms. To address this, a community sample of 434 children completed the SRET and a depressive symptoms measure at ages 6 and 9. Negative and positive processing exhibited low, but significant, stability. At ages 6 and 9, depressive symptoms correlated with higher negative, and lower positive, SRET processing. Importantly, lower positive processing at age 6 predicted increased symptoms at age 9. However, negative processing at age 6 did not predict depressive symptoms at age 9, and depressive symptoms at age 6 did not predict SRET processing scores at age 9. This suggests that less positive processing may reflect vulnerability for future depressive symptoms

Interaction between 5-HTTLPR and BDNF Val66Met polymorphisms on HPA axis reactivity in preschoolers

This study examined whether the interaction between the serotonin transporter promoter region (5-HTTLPR) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphisms was associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity to stress. A community sample of 144 preschool-aged children was genotyped and exposed to stress-inducing laboratory tasks. Salivary cortisol was obtained at four time points during a standardized laboratory assessment before and after stressors involving separation from a parent and frustrating tasks. Children homozygous for the short-5-HTTLPR allele and carrying the Met-BDNF allele evidenced a significantly lower initial level of cortisol, followed by a positive increase in cortisol in response to the laboratory stressors. In contrast, children who were homozygous for the short-5-HTTLPR and the Val-BDNF alleles evidenced a greater decline in cortisol in response to the laboratory stressors. Findings indicated that the BDNF gene moderated the association between 5-HTTLPR and children\u27s biological stress responses, suggesting that epistatic effects play a role in individual differences in stress regulation, and possibly genetic vulnerability to stress-related disorders. © 2009 Elsevier B.V

Higher and Lower Order Factor Analyses of the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire.

The Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ) is a widely used parent-report measure of temperament. However, neither its lower nor higher order structures has been tested via a bottom-up, empirically based approach. We conducted higher and lower order exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) of the TMCQ in a large ( N = 654) sample of 9-year-olds. Item-level EFAs identified 92 items as suitable (i.e., with loadings ≥.40) for constructing lower order factors, only half of which resembled a TMCQ scale posited by the measure\u27s authors. Higher order EFAs of the lower order factors showed that a three-factor structure (Impulsivity/Negative Affectivity, Negative Affectivity, and Openness/Assertiveness) was the only admissible solution. Overall, many TMCQ items did not load well onto a lower order factor. In addition, only three factors, which did not show a clear resemblance to Rothbart\u27s four-factor model of temperament in middle childhood, were needed to account for the higher order structure of the TMCQ

A growth curve analysis of the course of dysthymic disorder: The effects of chronic stress and moderation by adverse parent– child relationships and family history

Using mixed effects models, the authors examined the effects of chronic stress, adverse parent-child relationships, and family history on the 7.5-year course of dysthymic disorder. Participants included 97 outpatients with early-onset dysthymia who were assessed with semistructured interviews at baseline and 3 additional times at 30-month intervals for 7.5 years. Results indicated that higher levels of chronic stress 6 months prior to each follow-up predicted greater depression severity at follow-up, controlling for depression severity at the start of the chronic stress assessment. In addition, adverse parent-child relationships and family history of dysthymic disorder moderated this association. For patients with poorer parent-child relationships, chronic stress was associated with increased depression severity at follow-up, whereas patients with a higher familial loading for dysthymic disorder were less responsive to chronic stress over time

Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cerebral Venous Thrombosis and Mortality

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Korean Stroke Society.Background and Purpose Recent studies suggested an increased incidence of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We evaluated the volume of CVT hospitalization and in-hospital mortality during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the preceding year. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study of 171 stroke centers from 49 countries. We recorded COVID-19 admission volumes, CVT hospitalization, and CVT in-hospital mortality from January 1, 2019, to May 31, 2021. CVT diagnoses were identified by International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) codes or stroke databases. We additionally sought to compare the same metrics in the first 5 months of 2021 compared to the corresponding months in 2019 and 2020 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04934020). Results There were 2,313 CVT admissions across the 1-year pre-pandemic (2019) and pandemic year (2020); no differences in CVT volume or CVT mortality were observed. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT volumes compared to 2019 (27.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 24.2 to 32.0; P<0.0001) and 2020 (41.4%; 95% CI, 37.0 to 46.0; P<0.0001). A COVID-19 diagnosis was present in 7.6% (132/1,738) of CVT hospitalizations. CVT was present in 0.04% (103/292,080) of COVID-19 hospitalizations. During the first pandemic year, CVT mortality was higher in patients who were COVID positive compared to COVID negative patients (8/53 [15.0%] vs. 41/910 [4.5%], P=0.004). There was an increase in CVT mortality during the first 5 months of pandemic years 2020 and 2021 compared to the first 5 months of the pre-pandemic year 2019 (2019 vs. 2020: 2.26% vs. 4.74%, P=0.05; 2019 vs. 2021: 2.26% vs. 4.99%, P=0.03). In the first 5 months of 2021, there were 26 cases of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), resulting in six deaths. Conclusions During the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic, CVT hospitalization volume and CVT in-hospital mortality did not change compared to the prior year. COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with higher CVT in-hospital mortality. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT hospitalization volume and increase in CVT-related mortality, partially attributable to VITT.Peer reviewe

Fullerene graphs have exponentially many perfect matchings

A fullerene graph is a planar cubic 3-connected graph with only pentagonal and hexagonal faces. We show that fullerene graphs have exponentially many perfect matchings.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Associations between observed temperament in preschoolers and parent psychopathology

Parent history of psychopathology is an established marker of children\u27s own risk for later disorder and can therefore be used as a means of validating other risks, such as child temperament. While associations between children\u27s temperament and parent psychopathology have been reported, few studies have used observational measures of child temperament or examined trait interactions, particularly between children\u27s affective and regulatory traits such as effortful control (EC). In this bottom-up family study of 968 three-year-olds and their parents, we examined interactions between preschoolers\u27 observed positive and negative affectivity (NA) and EC as predictors of a known marker of psychopathology risk: parent history of disorder. Children with lower positive affectivity had an increased probability of paternal depression history in the context of higher child NA. In addition, children with lower EC and higher NA had an increased probability of maternal anxiety. Findings shed new light on the main effects and interactions that account for associations between child temperament and parent history of disorder, one of the best-established markers of an individual\u27s own risk for future disorder, implicating reactive and regulatory traits that merit special consideration in future longitudinal work. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Measurement of scintillation efficiency for nuclear recoils in liquid argon

The scintillation light yield of liquid argon from nuclear recoils relative to electronic recoils has been measured as a function of recoil energy from 10 keVr up to 250 keVr at zero electric field. The scintillation efficiency, defined as the ratio of the nuclear recoil scintillation response to the electronic recoil response, is 0.25±0.01+0.01 (correlated) above 20 keVr. © 2012 American Physical Society

Effortful control and parenting: Associations with HPA axis reactivity in early childhood

While activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is an adaptive response to stress, excessive HPA axis reactivity may be an important marker of childhood vulnerability to psychopathology. Parenting, including parent affect during parent-child interactions, may play an important role in shaping the developing HPA system; however, the association of parent affect may be moderated by child factors, especially children\u27s emerging self-regulatory skills. We therefore tested the relationship between parent affectivity and 160 preschoolers\u27 cortisol reactivity during a laboratory visit, examining children\u27s effortful control (EC) as a moderator. Greater parent negative affectivity was related to greater initial and increasing cortisol over time, but only when children were low in EC. Higher parent positive affectivity was related to a higher baseline cortisol for children with low EC and lower baseline cortisol for children with high EC. Results indicate that children\u27s EC moderates the extent to which parent affect shapes stress reactive systems in early childhood. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Evidence for Supernova-Synthesised Dust from the Rising Afterglow of GRB 071025 at z~5

We present observations and analysis of the broadband afterglow of Swift GRB 071025. Using optical and infrared (RIYJHK) photometry, we derive a photometric redshift of 4.4 < z < 5.2; at this redshift our simultaneous multicolour observations begin at ~30 s after the GRB trigger in the host frame and during the initial rising phase of the afterglow. We associate the light curve peak at 580 s in the observer frame with the formation of the forward shock, giving an estimate of the initial Lorentz factor Gamma_0 ~ 200. The red spectral energy distribution (even in regions not affected by the Lyman-alpha break) provides secure evidence of a large dust column. However, the inferred extinction curve shows a prominent flat component between 2000-3000 Angstroms in the rest-frame, inconsistent with any locally observed template but well-fit by models of dust formed by supernovae. Time-dependent fits to the extinction profile reveal no evidence of dust destruction and limit the decrease in the extinction column to Delta A_3000 < 0.54 mag after t = 50 s in the rest frame. Our observations provide evidence of a transition in dust properties at z~5, in agreement with studies of high-z quasars, and suggest that SN-formed dust continues to dominate the opacity of typical galaxies at this redshift.Comment: Resubmitted to MNRAS following referee report. Contains additional figure and some extra analysis/discussio