Mouse-tracking reveals cognitive conflict during negative impression formation in women with Borderline Personality Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder

Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) or Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) suffer from substantial interpersonal dysfunction and have difficulties establishing social bonds. A tendency to form negative first impressions of others could contribute to this by way of reducing approach behavior. We tested whether women with BPD or SAD would show negative impression formation compared to healthy women (HCs). We employed the Thin Slices paradigm and showed videos of 52 authentic target participants to 32 women with BPD, 29 women with SAD, and 37 HCs. We asked participants to evaluate whether different positive or negative adjectives described targets and expected BPD raters to provide the most negative ratings, followed by SAD and HC. BPD and SAD raters both agreed with negative adjectives more often than HCs (e.g., 'Yes, the person is greedy'), and BPD raters rejected positive adjectives more often (e.g., 'No, the person is not humble.'). However, BPD and SAD raters did not differ significantly from each other. Additionally, we used the novel process tracing method mouse-tracking to assess the cognitive conflict (via trajectory deviations) raters experienced during decision-making. We hypothesized that HCs would experience more conflict when making unfavorable (versus favorable) evaluations and that this pattern would flip in BPD and SAD. We quantified cognitive conflict via maximum absolute deviations (MADs) of the mouse-trajectories. As hypothesized, HCs showed more conflict when rejecting versus agreeing with positive adjectives. The pattern did not flip in BPD and SAD but was substantially reduced, such that BPD and SAD showed similar levels of conflict when rejecting and agreeing with positive adjectives. Contrary to the hypothesis for BPD and SAD, all three groups experienced substantial conflict when agreeing with negative adjectives. We discuss therapeutic implications of the combined choice and mouse-tracking results

Exome sequencing helped the fine diagnosis of two siblings afflicted with atypical Timothy syndrome (TS2)

BACKGROUND: Long-QT syndrome (LQTS) causes a prolongation of the QT-interval in the ECG leading to life threatening tachyarrhythmia and ventricular fibrillation. One atypical form of LQTS, Timothy syndrome (TS), is associated with syndactyly, immune deficiency, cognitive and neurological abnormalities as well as distinct cranio-facial abnormalities. CASE PRESENTATION: On a family with both children diagnosed with clinical LQTS, we performed whole exome sequencing to comprehensively screen for causative mutations after a targeted candidate gene panel screen for Long-QT syndrome target genes failed to identify any underlying genetic defect. Using exome sequencing, we identified in both affected children, a p.402G > S mutation in exon 8 of the CACNA1C gene, a voltage-dependent Ca2+ channel. The mutation was inherited from their father, a mosaic mutation carrier. Based on this molecular finding and further more careful clinical examination, we refined the diagnosis to be Timothy syndrome (TS2) and thereby were able to present new therapeutic approaches. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights the difficulties in accurate diagnosis of patients with rare diseases, especially those with atypical clinical manifestation. Such challenge could be addressed with the help of comprehensive and unbiased mutation screening, such as exome sequencing

Structure and magnetic properties of the AB(HCO2)3 (A = Rb+ or Cs+, B = Mn2+, Co2+ or Ni2+) frameworks: probing the effect of size on the phase evolution of the ternary formates

This work reports the synthesis and structures of six new AB(HCO2)3 (A = Rb+ or Cs+ and B = Mn2+, Co2+ or Ni2+) frameworks containing the largest monoatomic cations on the A-site. RbMn(HCO2)3 is found to adopt a distorted perovskite framework with a 412[middle dot]63 topology and a mixture of syn-anti and anti-anti ligands, while the remaining compounds adopt a chiral hexagonal structure with a 49[middle dot]66 topology. The structures of these frameworks clarify the effect of ionic size on the formation of the five known architectures adopted by the AB(HCO2)3 frameworks, which have attracted attention as a new class of potential multiferroics, and in particular the chiral hexagonal structure within this. This also highlights the role of molecular A-site cations in stabilising the 49[middle dot]66 topology for frameworks where such cations are too large or small to support this structure on the basis of size alone, possibly due to hydrogen bonding. The magnetic properties of the RbB(HCO2)3 and CsMn(HCO2)3 frameworks are also reported with the Rb+ compounds featuring weak ferromagnetic behaviour and the latter being purely antiferromagnetic. In conjunction with a comparison of the other isostructural AB(HCO2)3 frameworks we find that compounds adopting the 49[middle dot]66 topology have much higher magnetic ordering temperatures than those with the RbMn(HCO2)3 structure, highlighting the importance of understanding the structure-property relationships of the ternary formates

Democratic research: Setting up a research commons for a qualitative, comparative, longitudinal interview study during the COVID-19 pandemic

The sudden and dramatic advent of the COVID-19 pandemic led to urgent demands for timely, relevant, yet rigorous research. This paper discusses the origin, design, and execution of the SolPan research commons, a large-scale, international, comparative, qualitative research project that sought to respond to the need for knowledge among researchers and policymakers in times of crisis. The form of organization as a research commons is characterized by an underlying solidaristic attitude of its members and its intrinsic organizational features in which research data and knowledge in the study is shared and jointly owned. As such, the project is peer-governed, rooted in (idealist) social values of academia, and aims at providing tools and benefits for its members. In this paper, we discuss challenges and solutions for qualitative studies that seek to operate as research commons.European Commission Horizon 2020Wellcome Trust -- Submitted for publication after 1 Jan 2021: 0m embargo and CC-BY licenseBundesministerium für Bildung und ForschungCOVID-19 Research Response Fund University of OxfordWellcome CenterKULeuven BOF FundUniversity of ViennaCariplo Foundation Social ScienceUniversity of Basel Research Fun

Interference effects in the photorecombination of argonlike Sc3+ ions: Storage-ring experiment and theory

Absolute total electron-ion recombination rate coefficients of argonlike Sc3+(3s2 3p6) ions have been measured for relative energies between electrons and ions ranging from 0 to 45 eV. This energy range comprises all dielectronic recombination resonances attached to 3p -> 3d and 3p -> 4s excitations. A broad resonance with an experimental width of 0.89 +- 0.07 eV due to the 3p5 3d2 2F intermediate state is found at 12.31 +- 0.03 eV with a small experimental evidence for an asymmetric line shape. From R-Matrix and perturbative calculations we infer that the asymmetric line shape may not only be due to quantum mechanical interference between direct and resonant recombination channels as predicted by Gorczyca et al. [Phys. Rev. A 56, 4742 (1997)], but may partly also be due to the interaction with an adjacent overlapping DR resonance of the same symmetry. The overall agreement between theory and experiment is poor. Differences between our experimental and our theoretical resonance positions are as large as 1.4 eV. This illustrates the difficulty to accurately describe the structure of an atomic system with an open 3d-shell with state-of-the-art theoretical methods. Furthermore, we find that a relativistic theoretical treatment of the system under study is mandatory since the existence of experimentally observed strong 3p5 3d2 2D and 3p5 3d 4s 2D resonances can only be explained when calculations beyond LS-coupling are carried out.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, Phys. Rev. A (in print), see also: http://www.strz.uni-giessen.de/~k

Solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a nine-country interview study in Europe

Calls for solidarity have been an ubiquitous feature in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we know little about how people have thought of and practised solidarity in their everyday lives since the beginning of the pandemic. What role does solidarity play in people’s lives, how does it relate to COVID-19 public health measures and how has it changed in different phases of the pandemic? Situated within the medical humanities at the intersection of philosophy, bioethics, social sciences and policy studies, this article explores how the practice-based understanding of solidarity formulated by Prainsack and Buyx helps shed light on these questions. Drawing on 643 qualitative interviews carried out in two phases (April–May 2020 and October 2020) in nine European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, German-speaking Switzerland and the UK), the data show that interpersonal acts of solidarity are important, but that they are not sustainable without consistent support at the institutional level. As the pandemic progressed, respondents expressed a longing for more institutionalised forms of solidarity. We argue that the medical humanities have much to gain from directing their attention to individual health issues, and to collective experiences of health or illness. The analysis of experiences through a collective lens such as solidarity offers unique insights to understandings of the individual and the collective. We propose three essential advances for research in the medical humanities that can help uncover collective experiences of disease and health crises: (1) an empirical and practice-oriented approach alongside more normative approaches; (2) the confidence to make recommendations for practice and policymaking and (3) the pursuit of cross-national and multidisciplinary research collaborations

Tuning the mechanical properties of molecular perovskites by controlling framework distortions via A-site substitution

Molecular perovskites are important materials in the area of barocalorics, improper ferroelectrics and ferroelastics, where the search for principles that link composition, structure and mechanical properties is a key challenge. Herein, we report the synthesis of a new series of dicyanamide-based molecular perovskites [A]Ni(C2N3)3, where the A-site cation (A+) is a range of alkylated piperidinium cations. We use this new family to explore how A+ cations determine their mechanical response by measuring the bulk modulus (B) – using high-pressure powder X-ray diffraction. Within the series, we find a positive correlation between the network distortions of the pseudocubic [Ni(C2N3)3]− network and B. Furthermore, we show that we can tune framework distortions, and therefore B, by synthesising A-site solid solutions. The applied methodology is a blueprint for linking framework distortions and mechanical properties in network materials and guides us toward principles for designing macroscopic properties via systematic compositional changes in molecular perovskites