Associations between aversive learning processes and transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms revealed by large-scale phenotyping

Background: Aversive learning processes are a candidate source of dysfunction in psychiatric disorders. Here symptom expression in a range of conditions is linked to altered threat perception, manifesting particularly in uncertain environments. How precise computational mechanisms that support aversive learning, and uncertainty estimation, relate to the presence of specific psychiatric symptoms remains undetermined. Methods: 400 subjects completed a novel online game-based aversive learning task, requiring avoidance of negative outcomes, in conjunction with completing measures of common psychiatric symptoms. We used a probabilistic computational model to measure distinct processes involved in learning, in addition to inferred estimates of safety likelihood and uncertainty. We tested for associations between learning processes and traditional psychiatric constructs alongside transdiagnostic factors using linear models. We used partial least squares regression to identify components of psychopathology grounded in both aversive learning behaviour and symptom self-report. Results: State anxiety and a transdiagnostic compulsivity-related factor were associated with enhanced learning from safety. However, data-driven analysis using partial least squares regression indicated the presence of two separable components across our behavioural and questionnaire data: one linked enhanced safety learning and lower estimated uncertainty to physiological anxiety, compulsivity, and impulsivity; the other linked enhanced threat learning and heightened uncertainty estimation to symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Conclusions: Our findings implicate aversive learning processes under uncertainty to the expression of psychiatric symptoms that cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries. These relationships are more complex than previously conceptualised. Future research should focus on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying alterations in aversive learning and how these lead to the development of symptoms and disorder

Associations between aversive learning processes and transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms in a general population sample

Symptom expression in psychiatric conditions is often linked to altered threat perception, however how computational mechanisms that support aversive learning relate to specific psychiatric symptoms remains undetermined. We answer this question using an online game-based aversive learning task together with measures of common psychiatric symptoms in 400 subjects. We show that physiological symptoms of anxiety and a transdiagnostic compulsivity-related factor are associated with enhanced safety learning, as measured using a probabilistic computational model, while trait cognitive anxiety symptoms are associated with enhanced learning from danger. We use data-driven partial least squares regression to identify two separable components across behavioural and questionnaire data: one linking enhanced safety learning and lower estimated uncertainty to physiological anxiety, compulsivity, and impulsivity; the other linking enhanced threat learning and heightened uncertainty estimation to symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Our findings implicate aversive learning processes in the expression of psychiatric symptoms that transcend diagnostic boundaries

The higher education impact agenda, scientific realism and policy change: the case of electoral integrity in Britain

Pressures have increasingly been put upon social scientists to prove their economic, cultural and social value through ‘impact agendas’ in higher education. There has been little conceptual and empirical discussion of the challenges involved in achieving impact and the dangers of evaluating it, however. This article argues that a critical realist approach to social science can help to identify some of these key challenges and the institutional incompatibilities between impact regimes and university research in free societies. These incompatibilities are brought out through an autobiographical ‘insider-account’ of trying to achieve impact in the field of electoral integrity in Britain. The article argues that there is a more complex relationship between research and the real world which means that the nature of knowledge might change as it becomes known by reflexive agents. Secondly, the researchers are joined into social relations with a variety of actors, including those who might be the object of study in their research. Researchers are often weakly positioned in these relations. Some forms of impact, such as achieving policy change, are therefore exceptionally difficult as they are dependent on other actors. Strategies for trying to achieve impact are drawn out such as collaborating with civil society groups and parliamentarians to lobby for policy change

Portfolio Vol. IV N 4

Wager, Dick. Collective Bargaining. Prose. 3-5. Raymond, Toby. Lochinvar Rides Again. Poetry. 6. Wyman, John. Lily of the Alley. Prose. 8-9. Benson, Virginia. Lost Cause. Prose. 10. Collins, Peg. The Curtain Falls. Prose. 11. Dorsey, Ann. Jack. Picture. 12. Sulke, Jim. Old Pete. Picture. 12. Myers, Sue. Jerry. Picture. 12. Rosenthal, Joan. Canadian Farmhouse. Picture. 13. Deeds, Ed. Mirror Lake. Picture. 13. Peters, Doris. Trees. Picture. 13. Seagrave, Leslie. Chinese Coins. Poetry. 14. White, Molly. Thoughts in the Rain. Poetry. 14. Smith, Duke. Keeping the Records Straight. Prose. 15. Stocker, Ed. Joe. Prose. 16-17. Saunders, John. Seven Year\u27s Luck. Prose. 19-22

Portfolio Vol. V N 1

Dippery, Franklin M. Unnamed. Prose. 2. Shields, Margaret. The Dance . Prose. 4. Raymond, Toby. Tundra . Prose. 7. Pruyn, Scott. Lest We Forget . Poem. 9. Tolan, Maurice. Pronounced \u27Mejico\u27 . Picture. 10. Phillips, Alison. Pronounced Mejico . Prose. 10. Benson, Virginia. Matter of Opinion . Poem. 12. Benson, Virginia. Cloud Shadows . Poem. 12. Benson, Virginia. Autumn Organist . Poem. 12. Sherman, Hoyt Leon. Orchard . Picture. 12. Nussbaum, Ervin. The End of John Brown . Picture. 13. Brannon, Pat. Revolution . Poem. 13. Anonymous, Pat. A Dream . Poem. 13. Anonymous, Pat. Her . Poem. 13. Seagrave, Leslie. Tibetan Rug . Prose. 14. Benson, Virginia. Cronin-The Keys of the Kingdom . Prose. 15. Benson, Virginia. Koestler-Darkness at Noon . Prose. 15. Jones, Charles. Mr. Doakes Almost Goes to Washington . Prose. 16. Collins, Peggy. Thespiana . Prose. 18. Smith, Duke. Keeping the Records Straight . Prose. 19

Portfolio Vol. IV N 2

Mahood, Danner L. War Sonnets. Poetry. 2. Lenser, Eugene. Landscape. Picture. 2. Lay, Mary Virginia. Damned Laughter. Prose. 3-4. Card, Dorothy. They Call It Love. Prose. 5. Kinney, John. Maestro. Prose. 7-9. Anstaett, Joe. Styleglance. Picture. 6. Beckham, Adela. Still the Echo. Poetry. 10. Bridge, Robert. Design for Life. Prose. 11. Seagrave, Dr. Gordon. Letter from Burma. Prose. 12-13. Chin, David K. To know their theatre is to know the Chinese people. Prose. 15. Jones, Charles. The Bookshelf. Prose. 16. Smith, Duke. Keeping the Records Straight. Prose. 17. Beckham, Adela. If Love Could Be. Prose. 19. Raymond, Toby. The Courtship of Miles Standish. Poetry. 20. King, Horace. The Case for Modern Art. Prose. 21-22. Elliot, Frances Gray. Black and White Dancers. Picture. 10

Glacier velocities and dynamic ice discharge from the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Nunavut, Canada

Recent studies indicate an increase in glacier mass loss from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as a result of warmer summer air temperatures. However, no complete assessment of dynamic ice discharge from this region exists. We present the first complete surface velocity mapping of all ice masses in the Queen Elizabeth Islands and show that these ice masses discharged ~2.6 ± 0.8 Gt a−1 of ice to the oceans in winter 2012. Approximately 50% of the dynamic discharge was channeled through non surge-type Trinity and Wykeham Glaciers alone. Dynamic discharge of the surge-type Mittie Glacier varied from 0.90 ± 0.09 Gt a−1 during its 2003 surge to 0.02 ± 0.02 Gt a−1 during quiescence in 2012, highlighting the importance of surge-type glaciers for interannual variability in regional mass loss. Queen Elizabeth Islands glaciers currently account for ~7.5% of reported dynamic discharge from Arctic ice masses outside Greenland.We thank NSERC, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, ArcticNet, Ontario Graduate Scholarship, University of Ottawa and the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship for funding. RADARSAT-2 data were provided by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates under the RADARSAT-2 Government Data Allocation administrated by the Canadian Space Agency. Support to DB is provided through the Climate Change Geosciences Program, Earth Sciences Sector, Natural Resources Canada (ESS Contribution #20130293). We also acknowledge support from U.K NERC for grants R3/12469 and NE/K004999 to JAD.This is the accepted version of an article published in Geophysical Research Letters. An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright (2014) American Geophysical Union. The final version is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013GL058558/abstract;jsessionid=6A3AD907C4383DA5D4E20C4924D6EC18.f02t02

Globalization, democratization, and the Arab uprising : the international factor in MENA's failed democratization

What explains the almost negative impact of international factors on post-Uprising democratization prospects? This article compares the utility of rival “diffusionist” and neo-Gramscian political economy frames to explain this. Three international factors deter democratization. The failure of Western democracy promotion is rooted in the contradiction between the dominance of global finance capital and the norm of democratic equality; in the periphery, neo-liberalism is most compatible with hybrid regimes and, at best, “low intensity democracy.” In MENA, neo-liberalism generated a crony capitalism incompatible with democratization; while this also sparked the uprisings, these have failed to address class inequalities. Moreover at the normative level, MENA hosts the most credible counter-hegemonic ideologies; the brief peaking of democratic ideology in the region during the early uprisings soon declined amidst regional discourse wars. Non-democrats—coercive regime remnants and radical charismatic movements--were empowered by the competitive interference of rival powers in Uprising states. The collapse of many Uprising states amidst a struggle for power over the region left an environment uncongenial to democratization.PostprintPeer reviewe