The CogBIAS longitudinal study protocol: cognitive and genetic factors influencing psychological functioning in adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Optimal psychological development is dependent upon a complex interplay between individual and situational factors. Investigating the development of these factors in adolescence will help to improve understanding of emotional vulnerability and resilience. The CogBIAS longitudinal study (CogBIAS-L-S) aims to combine cognitive and genetic approaches to investigate risk and protective factors associated with the development of mood and impulsivity-related outcomes in an adolescent sample. METHODS: CogBIAS-L-S is a three-wave longitudinal study of typically developing adolescents conducted over 4 years, with data collection at age 12, 14 and 16. At each wave participants will undergo multiple assessments including a range of selective cognitive processing tasks (e.g. attention bias, interpretation bias, memory bias) and psychological self-report measures (e.g. anxiety, depression, resilience). Saliva samples will also be collected at the baseline assessment for genetic analyses. Multilevel statistical analyses will be performed to investigate the developmental trajectory of cognitive biases on psychological functioning, as well as the influence of genetic moderation on these relationships. DISCUSSION: CogBIAS-L-S represents the first longitudinal study to assess multiple cognitive biases across adolescent development and the largest study of its kind to collect genetic data. It therefore provides a unique opportunity to understand how genes and the environment influence the development and maintenance of cognitive biases and provide insight into risk and protective factors that may be key targets for intervention.This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agreement no: [324176]

Municipal Waste Selection and Disposal: Evidences from Lombardy

This article exploit a data base of 1.522 observations related to Lombardy’s municipalities to run a cross sectional estimation of the drivers of MW selection. We find no evidence of a significant correlation between the percentage of selected MW selection and market variables such as the unit charge for waste management, a result probably affected by the high degree of integration existing in Lombardy among collectors and disposal operators. On the contrary, we discover robust and significant correlation with a set of geographical, socio-economic, and political variables. Among the latter ones, we have a confirmations on the influence of party competition on the percentage of household recycling, with the left wing ruling parties more addressed to it than the rivals, and on the high correlation existing between MW selection and the implementation of a unit pricing scheme. Other positive correlations with the independent variable are shown by per-capita income, while quite surprisingly the education level of citizens seems to play no role

Assay of experimental transmission with an Argaside (Ornithodoros coriaceus), of a chlamydia, associated with bovine abortion

Quelques dizaines de spécimens à'Ornithodoros coriaceus sont artifi ciellement infectés par nourrissement avec des membranes du jaune d'œufs embryonnés sur lesquelles a été cultivée et multipliée une chlamydie isolée d’avortons de bovins. De trois génisses, soumises à la prédation de ces argasidés entre 25 et 89 jours après qu'ils aient été infectés, deux avortent 106 et 122 jours plus tard.Field collected Omithodoros coriaceus were artificially infected by feeding on a yolk sac culture of a chlamydial isolate, recovered from an aborted bovine fetus in an outbreak of epizootic bovine abortion (EBA). Of three heifers on which the ticks fed 25 and 89 days, respectively, subse quent to infection, two heifers aborted 106 and 122 days later

Étude « in vitro » de l'hypersensibilité retardée provoquée, chez le cobaye, par l'inoculation intradermique d’un antigène chlamydien (virus de l'avortement de la brebis) purifié concentré

La réaction d’inhibition de la migration « in vitro » des macrophages du cobaye sensibilisé par l’antigène chlamydien purifié montre que cette réaction est intense, et spécifique. Sa netteté montre l’importance, dans l’infection expérimentale par la chla mydiacée de l’avortement de la brebis, de la réaction immunitaire par médiation cellulaire juxtaposée à la réaction humorale