Similarities and Differences in Chinese and Caucasian Adults' Use of Facial Cues for Trustworthiness Judgments

All cultural groups in the world place paramount value on interpersonal trust. Existing research suggests that although accurate judgments of another's trustworthiness require extensive interactions with the person, we often make trustworthiness judgments based on facial cues on the first encounter. However, little is known about what facial cues are used for such judgments and what the bases are on which individuals make their trustworthiness judgments.In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that individuals may use facial attractiveness cues as a “shortcut” for judging another's trustworthiness due to the lack of other more informative and in-depth information about trustworthiness. Using data-driven statistical models of 3D Caucasian faces, we compared facial cues used for judging the trustworthiness of Caucasian faces by Caucasian participants who were highly experienced with Caucasian faces, and the facial cues used by Chinese participants who were unfamiliar with Caucasian faces. We found that Chinese and Caucasian participants used similar facial cues to judge trustworthiness. Also, both Chinese and Caucasian participants used almost identical facial cues for judging trustworthiness and attractiveness.The results suggest that without opportunities to interact with another person extensively, we use the less racially specific and more universal attractiveness cues as a “shortcut” for trustworthiness judgments

Long-term outcome and prognosis of dissociative disorder with onset in childhood or adolescence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the majority of cases short-term treatment outcome of juvenile dissociative disorder is rather favourable. In contrast, the long-term course seems to be less positive, but meaningful results are still fragmentary. The aim of this follow-up study is to bridge this gap to some extent describing the long-term outcome of juvenile dissociative disorder in a clinical sample. To our knowledge there is no comparable other long-term follow-up study which is based on a case definition according to actual classification systems using standardized interviews for individual assessment of the patients at the time of follow-up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The total study group was made up of all patients treated for dissociative disorder at our department for child and adolescent psychiatry between 1983 and 1992 (<it>N </it>= 62). Two of these former patients committed suicide during the follow-up period (3%). We got information on the clinical course of 27 former patients (44%). 17 out of these 27 former patients were female (63%). The mean age of onset of dissociative disorder was11.7 years and the mean follow-up time was 12.4 years. Most of the patients were reassessed personally (n = 23) at a mean age of 24.8 years using structured interviews covering dissociative disorders, other Axis I disorders and personality disorders (Heidelberg Dissociation Inventory HDI; Expert System for Diagnosing Mental Disorders, DIA-X; Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, SCID-II). Social adjustment was assessed by a semi-structured interview and by patient self report (Social Adjustment Scale – Self Report, SAS-SR). Psychosocial outcome variables were additionally assessed in 36 healthy controls (67% female, mean age = 22.9 years).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At the time of follow-up investigation 82.6% of the patients met the criteria for some form of psychiatric disorder, while 26.1% were still suffering from dissociative disorder. A total of 56.5% presented with an Axis I disorder (especially anxiety, dissociative and somatoform disorders). Personality disorders were seen in 47.8% (especially borderline, obsessive-compulsive and negativistic personality disorders). More dissociative symptoms and inpatient treatment in childhood or adolescence were significantly related to a lower level of psychosocial adjustment in adulthood.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Treatment strategies have to consider that in a significant portion of young patients initial recovery may not be stable over time. Limitations of the study refer to the small sample size and the low rate of former patients taking part in the follow-up investigation.</p

Multilocus ISSR Markers Reveal Two Major Genetic Groups in Spanish and South African Populations of the Grapevine Fungal Pathogen Cadophora luteo-olivacea

Cadophora luteo-olivacea is a lesser-known fungal trunk pathogen of grapevine which has been recently isolated from vines showing decline symptoms in grape growing regions worldwide. In this study, 80 C. luteo-olivacea isolates (65 from Spain and 15 from South Africa) were studied. Inter-simple-sequence repeat-polymerase chain reaction (ISSR-PCR) generated 55 polymorphic loci from four ISSR primers selected from an initial screen of 13 ISSR primers. The ISSR markers revealed 40 multilocus genotypes (MLGs) in the global population. Minimum spanning network analysis showed that the MLGs from South Africa clustered around the most frequent genotype, while the genotypes from Spain were distributed all across the network. Principal component analysis and dendrograms based on genetic distance and bootstrapping identified two highly differentiated genetic clusters in the Spanish and South African C. luteo-olivacea populations, with no intermediate genotypes between these clusters. Movement within the Spanish provinces may have occurred repeatedly given the frequent retrieval of the same genotype in distant locations. The results obtained in this study provide new insights into the population genetic structure of C. luteo-olivacea in Spain and highlights the need to produce healthy and quality planting material in grapevine nurseries to avoid the spread of this fungus throughout different grape growing regions