Attachment Styles and Social Media Use

Research suggests that attachment styles influence the extent to which people utilize social media sites. The present study examined whether attachment styles predict the content of individuals’ Facebook and Twitter posts after being presented with various relationship events. Participants completed personality questionnaires measuring attachment styles, as well as other individual differences already known to affect social media behavior including self-esteem, conscientiousness, and extraversion. Participants were then presented with a positive, negative, or neutral relationship scenario and told to imagine it with their romantic partner in mind. After reading the scenario, participants indicated the likelihood that they would post about this event on Facebook or Twitter and wrote an example post. The posts were scored in regard to how positively or negatively they depicted the relationship and the relationship partner. The results will advance our understanding of how attachment styles predict whether social media sites will be used in relationship-constructive or destructive ways

Weeds and endangered herbs have unforeseen dispersal helpers in the agri-environment: gastropods and earthworms

Agri-environmental schemes involving organic farming or set-aside management aim at promoting biodiversity and restoring ecosystem functioning in agrarian landscapes. Application of pesticides in these crop fields is strongly regulated facilitating the spread of weeds but also allowing for the establishment of endangered herbs and a variety of animals. Recent studies found gastropods and earthworms to be legitimate dispersers of seeds of wild plants. We assumed that both groups also play a significant role in the spread and establishment of wild plants within crop fields. Therefore, we are conducting a series of experiments in three different study systems on (1) the role of earthworms and gastropods as dispersers of rare herbs and weeds in an organic rye field in Germany, (2) the seed feeding behavior of gastropods of plants sown in fallow ground in Switzerland, and (3) weed dispersal in irrigated rice fields by golden apple snails in the Philippine

Perforated Pre-pyloric Ulcer in the Gastric Remnant Over a Decade After Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass: A Case Report

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is one of the two most common weight loss surgeries. Surgical emergencies after gastric bypass can be complicated by devastating events that are often difficult to diagnose and manage. Perforated ulcers are a very rare complication after a RYGB. CASE PRESENTATION: In this report, the diagnosis and surgical management of a 59-year-old immunosuppressed male patient who presented with late perforation of a pre-pyloric ulcer in the gastric remnant after RYGB is presented. The perforation was repaired transversely in a running horizontal mattress fashion and patched with a piece of well-vascularized omentum. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: This case illustrates the potential for gastric remnant ulceration, even a decade after RYGB. A high degree of suspicion for the diagnosis of perforated remnant stomach is required, especially in the absence of pneumoperitoneum and free fluid. Patient-specific factors, such as immunosuppression in this case, may blunt normal physiologic response. CONCLUSION: Considering the location of the ulcer in the pre-pyloric area, we caution that the typical paradigm of marginal ulceration of the gastro-jejunal anastomosis does not always apply when evaluating gastric complications after RYGB

Impact of implant thread design on insertion torque and osseointegration:a preclinical model

Successful osseointegration of endosteal dental implants has been attributed to implant design, including the macro-, micro- and nano- geometric properties. Based on current literature pertaining to implant design, the resultant cellular and bone healing response is unknown when the thread thickness of the implants is increased, resulting in an increased contact area in implants designed with healing chambers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of two implant designs with different thread profiles on the osseointegration parameters and implant stability at 3- and 6-weeks in vivo using a well-established preclinical dog model. A total of 48 type V Ti alloy implants were divided in two groups according to their thread design (D1= +0.1x/mm and D2= +0.15x/mm) and placed in an interpolated fashion into the radii of six beagles. Insertion torque was measured at time of placement, radii were extracted for histological processing following 3- and 6-week healing intervals. Histologic and histomorphometric analyses were performed in terms of bone to implant contact (%BIC) and bone area fraction occupancy within implant threads (%BAFO). Statistical analyses were performed through a linear mixed model with fixed factors of time and implant thread design. Surface roughness analysis demonstrated no significant differences in Sa and Sq between D1 and D2 implant designs, which confirmed that both implant designs were homogenous except for their respective thread profiles. For insertion torque, statistically significant lower values were recorded for D1 in comparison to D2 (59.6 ± 11.1 and 78.9 ± 10.1 N?cm, respectively). Furthermore, there were no significant differences with respect to histological analysis and histomorphometric parameters, between D1 and D2 at both time points. Both thread profiles presented equivalent potential to successfully osseointegrate in the osteotomies, with D2 yielding higher mechanical retention upon placement without detrimental bone resorption

Structure-activity analysis of CJ-15,801 analogues that interact with Plasmodium falciparum pantothenate kinase and inhibit parasite proliferation

Survival of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is dependent on pantothenate (vitamin B5), a precursor of the fundamental enzyme cofactor coenzyme A. CJ-15,801, an enamide analogue of pantothenate isolated from the fungus Seimatosporium sp. CL28611, was previously shown to inhibit P. falciparum proliferation in vitro by targeting pantothenate utilization. To inform the design of next generation analogues, we set out to synthesize and test a series of synthetic enamide-bearing pantothenate analogues. We demonstrate that conservation of the R-pantoyl moiety and the trans-substituted double bond of CJ-15,801 is important for the selective, on-target antiplasmodial effect, while replacement of the carboxyl group is permitted, and, in one case, favored. Additionally, we show that the antiplasmodial potency of CJ-15,801 analogues that retain the R-pantoyl and trans-substituted enamide moieties correlates with inhibition of P. falciparum pantothenate kinase (PfPanK)-catalyzed pantothenate phosphorylation, implicating the interaction with PfPanK as a key determinant of antiplasmodial activity.C.S. was funded by an NHMRC Overseas Biomedical Fellowship (1016357). EPSRC and Syngenta provided postgraduate support (MJV) and a Leadership Fellowship (RM). Additional support was provided by Dr. Ian Sword, the EPSRC (grant EP/H005692/1) and the COST Action CM0801

A decade of theory as reflected in Psychological Science (2009–2019)

The dominant belief is that science progresses by testing theories and moving towards theoretical consensus. While it’s implicitly assumed that psychology operates in this manner, critical discussions claim that the field suffers from a lack of cumulative theory. To examine this paradox, we analysed research published in Psychological Science from 2009–2019 (N = 2,225). We found mention of 359 theories in-text, most were referred to only once. Only 53.66% of all manuscripts included the word theory, and only 15.33% explicitly claimed to test predictions derived from theories. We interpret this to suggest that the majority of research published in this flagship journal is not driven by theory, nor can it be contributing to cumulative theory building. These data provide insight into the kinds of research psychologists are conducting and raises questions about the role of theory in the psychological sciences

Multi-ancestry GWAS reveals excitotoxicity associated with outcome after ischaemic stroke

During the first hours after stroke onset, neurological deficits can be highly unstable: some patients rapidly improve, while others deteriorate. This early neurological instability has a major impact on long-term outcome. Here, we aimed to determine the genetic architecture of early neurological instability measured by the difference between the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) within 6 h of stroke onset and NIHSS at 24 h. A total of 5876 individuals from seven countries (Spain, Finland, Poland, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico and Korea) were studied using a multi-ancestry meta-analyses. We found that 8.7% of NIHSS at 24 h of variance was explained by common genetic variations, and also that early neurological instability has a different genetic architecture from that of stroke risk. Eight loci (1p21.1, 1q42.2, 2p25.1, 2q31.2, 2q33.3, 5q33.2, 7p21.2 and 13q31.1) were genome-wide significant and explained 1.8% of the variability suggesting that additional variants influence early change in neurological deficits. We used functional genomics and bioinformatic annotation to identify the genes driving the association from each locus. Expression quantitative trait loci mapping and summary data-based Mendelian randomization indicate that ADAM23 (log Bayes factor = 5.41) was driving the association for 2q33.3. Gene-based analyses suggested that GRIA1 (log Bayes factor = 5.19), which is predominantly expressed in the brain, is the gene driving the association for the 5q33.2 locus. These analyses also nominated GNPAT (log Bayes factor = 7.64) ABCB5 (log Bayes factor = 5.97) for the 1p21.1 and 7p21.1 loci. Human brain single-nuclei RNA-sequencing indicates that the gene expression of ADAM23 and GRIA1 is enriched in neurons. ADAM23, a presynaptic protein and GRIA1, a protein subunit of the AMPA receptor, are part of a synaptic protein complex that modulates neuronal excitability. These data provide the first genetic evidence in humans that excitotoxicity may contribute to early neurological instability after acute ischaemic stroke. Ibanez et al. perform a multi-ancestry meta-analysis to investigate the genetic architecture of early stroke outcomes. Two of the eight genome-wide significant loci identified-ADAM23 and GRIA1-are involved in synaptic excitability, suggesting that excitotoxicity contributes to neurological instability after ischaemic stroke.Peer reviewe

Contribution of Common Genetic Variants to Risk of Early-Onset Ischemic Stroke

Background and Objectives Current genome-wide association studies of ischemic stroke have focused primarily on late-onset disease. As a complement to these studies, we sought to identify the contribution of common genetic variants to risk of early-onset ischemic stroke. Methods We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of early-onset stroke (EOS), ages 18-59 years, using individual-level data or summary statistics in 16,730 cases and 599,237 nonstroke controls obtained across 48 different studies. We further compared effect sizes at associated loci between EOS and late-onset stroke (LOS) and compared polygenic risk scores (PRS) for venous thromboembolism (VTE) between EOS and LOS. Results We observed genome-wide significant associations of EOS with 2 variants in ABO, a known stroke locus. These variants tag blood subgroups O1 and A1, and the effect sizes of both variants were significantly larger in EOS compared with LOS. The odds ratio (OR) for rs529565, tagging O1, was 0.88 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.85-0.91) in EOS vs 0.96 (95% CI: 0.92-1.00) in LOS, and the OR for rs635634, tagging A1, was 1.16 (1.11-1.21) for EOS vs 1.05 (0.99-1.11) in LOS; p-values for interaction = 0.001 and 0.005, respectively. Using PRSs, we observed that greater genetic risk for VTE, another prothrombotic condition, was more strongly associated with EOS compared with LOS (p = 0.008). Discussion The ABO locus, genetically predicted blood group A, and higher genetic propensity for venous thrombosis are more strongly associated with EOS than with LOS, supporting a stronger role of prothrombotic factors in EOS.Peer reviewe