The relative impact of childhood stressor domains on young adult depression and the mediating role of social and personal resources

Numerous studies have documented the harmful effects of childhood exposure to adversity on adult psychopathology. The relative impact of different types of stress, however, is less certain. Moreover, while there is very good evidence that childhood exposure to adversity does increase the likelihood of experiencing psychopathology, less is known about the mechanisms through which this happens. It is my hypothesis that childhood adversity exhibits effects on psychological distress in young adulthood, at least in part, through its damaging impact on the development of social and personal resources---specifically, by affecting a reduction in family support, peer support, self-esteem, and mastery. Further, I expect that the importance of different mediators in explaining the link between stress and depression will vary by stress type. Secondary analyses of data from a sample of 649 individuals attending one of three colleges in the New England area were performed to assess the relative impact of each of several domains of childhood/adolescent adversity, and to identify mechanisms by which different forms of adversity affect psychological distress among young adults. Findings indicate that while both non-violent self-adversity and non-violent family-adversity affect later well-being, adversity experienced indirectly through family hardships has a more severe impact. Also, witnessing the violent victimization of intimates can have effects on depression equal to personally experiencing the same type of victimization. In general, the mediating influences of the resource variables on the relationships to depression of the stressor domains were relatively small. Interesting patterns, however, did emerge. The two most important mediators of the relationship to depression of family-adversity are self-esteem and mastery; of self-adversity , family support and self-esteem; of violence experienced , family support, peer support, and self-esteem; and of violence witnessed, mastery. Further, the combined mediating effect of the resource variables is greater for family-adversity than it is for self-adversity, and greater for violence experienced than it is for violence witnessed. Because different mediators matter more or less depending on the type of stress considered, it is evident that the mechanisms involved in the translation of stress to depression do vary somewhat by stress type. Some implications of these findings are discussed

The flavivirus NS1 protein: molecular and structural biology, immunology, role in pathogenesis and application as a diagnostic biomarker

The flavivirus nonstructural glycoprotein NS1 is an enigmatic protein whose structure and mechanistic function have remained somewhat elusive ever since it was first reported in 1970 as a viral antigen circulating in the sera of dengue-infected patients. All flavivirus NS1 genes share a high degree of homology, encoding a 352-amino-acid polypeptide that has a molecular weight of 46-55. kDa, depending on its glycosylation status. NS1 exists in multiple oligomeric forms and is found in different cellular locations: a cell membrane-bound form in association with virus-induced intracellular vesicular compartments, on the cell surface and as a soluble secreted hexameric lipoparticle. Intracellular NS1 co-localizes with dsRNA and other components of the viral replication complex and plays an essential cofactor role in replication. Although this makes NS1 an ideal target for inhibitor design, the precise nature of its cofactor function has yet to be elucidated. A plethora of potential interacting partners have been identified, particularly for the secreted form of NS1, with many being implicated in immune evasion strategies. Secreted and cell-surface-associated NS1 are highly immunogenic and both the proteins themselves and the antibodies they elicit have been implicated in the seemingly contradictory roles of protection and pathogenesis in the infected host. Finally, NS1 is also an important biomarker for early diagnosis of disease. In this article, we provide an overview of these somewhat disparate areas of research, drawing together the wealth of data generated over more than 40. years of study of this fascinating protein

Si/SiGe bound-to-continuum quantum cascade emitters

Si/SiGe bound-to-continuum quantum cascade emitters designed by self-consistent 6-band k.p modeling and grown by low energy plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition are presented demonstrating electroluminescence between 1.5 and 3 THz. The electroluminescence is Stark shifted by an electric field and demonstrates polarized emission consistent with the design. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction are also presented to characterize the thick heterolayer structure

Developing a corpus of strategic conversation in The Settlers of Catan

International audienceWe describe a dialogue model and an implemented annotation scheme for a pilot corpus of annotated online chats concerning bargaining negotiations in the game The Settlers of Catan. We will use this model and data to analyze how conversations proceed in the absence of strong forms of cooperativity, where agents have diverging motives. Here we concentrate on the description of our annotation scheme for negotiation dialogues, illustrated with our pilot data, and some perspectives for future research on the issue

Characterization and Compensation of Network-Level Anomalies in Mixed-Signal Neuromorphic Modeling Platforms

Advancing the size and complexity of neural network models leads to an ever increasing demand for computational resources for their simulation. Neuromorphic devices offer a number of advantages over conventional computing architectures, such as high emulation speed or low power consumption, but this usually comes at the price of reduced configurability and precision. In this article, we investigate the consequences of several such factors that are common to neuromorphic devices, more specifically limited hardware resources, limited parameter configurability and parameter variations. Our final aim is to provide an array of methods for coping with such inevitable distortion mechanisms. As a platform for testing our proposed strategies, we use an executable system specification (ESS) of the BrainScaleS neuromorphic system, which has been designed as a universal emulation back-end for neuroscientific modeling. We address the most essential limitations of this device in detail and study their effects on three prototypical benchmark network models within a well-defined, systematic workflow. For each network model, we start by defining quantifiable functionality measures by which we then assess the effects of typical hardware-specific distortion mechanisms, both in idealized software simulations and on the ESS. For those effects that cause unacceptable deviations from the original network dynamics, we suggest generic compensation mechanisms and demonstrate their effectiveness. Both the suggested workflow and the investigated compensation mechanisms are largely back-end independent and do not require additional hardware configurability beyond the one required to emulate the benchmark networks in the first place. We hereby provide a generic methodological environment for configurable neuromorphic devices that are targeted at emulating large-scale, functional neural networks