The relationship between androgyny and cognitive complexity: An exploratory investigation

This study explored the relationship between psychological androgyny as measured by Bem's Sex Role Inventory and cognitive complexity, measured by Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire. It was expected that androgyny and high cognitive complexity would be correlated positively. A moderate correlation between androgyny and cognitive complexity was obtained. However, the result was interpreted as a function of the complexity measure. The unexpected result was that of the subjects who scored high in complexity, more were categorized as undifferentiated as contrasted with androgynous, masculine, or feminine. Suggestions, based on the results, are made for re-examining psychological sex roles and cognitive complexity. Specifically, the researchers suggest that the undifferentiated individual be given serious attention and that qualitative indices of interpersonal construct systems be used to investigate further the connection between psychological androgyny and social cognition

Antagonizing Scalloped With a Novel Vestigial Construct Reveals an Important Role for Scalloped in Drosophila melanogaster Leg, Eye and Optic Lobe Development

Scalloped (SD), a TEA/ATTS-domain-containing protein, is required for the proper development of Drosophila melanogaster. Despite being expressed in a variety of tissues, most of the work on SD has been restricted to understanding its role and function in patterning the adult wing. To gain a better understanding of its role in development, we generated sd(47M) flip-in mitotic clones. The mitotic clones had developmental defects in the leg and eye. Further, by removing the VG domains involved in activation, we created a reagent (VGΔACT) that disrupts the ability of SD to form a functional transcription factor complex and produced similar phenotypes to the flip-in mitotic clones. The VGΔACT construct also disrupted adult CNS development. Expression of the VGΔACT construct in the wing alters the cellular localization of VG and produces a mutant phenotype, indicating that the construct is able to antagonize the normal function of the SD/VG complex. Expression of the protein:protein interaction portion of SD is also able to elicit similar phenotypes, suggesting that SD interacts with other cofactors in the leg, eye, and adult CNS. Furthermore, antagonizing SD in larval tissues results in cell death, indicating that SD may also have a role in cell survival

Identification of hepatotropic viruses from plasma using deep sequencing: a next generation diagnostic tool.

We conducted an unbiased metagenomics survey using plasma from patients with chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and patients without liver disease (control). RNA and DNA libraries were sequenced from plasma filtrates enriched in viral particles to catalog virus populations. Hepatitis viruses were readily detected at high coverage in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B and C, but only a limited number of sequences resembling other viruses were found. The exception was a library from a patient diagnosed with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection that contained multiple sequences matching GB virus C (GBV-C). Abundant GBV-C reads were also found in plasma from patients with AIH, whereas Torque teno virus (TTV) was found at high frequency in samples from patients with AIH and NASH. After taxonomic classification of sequences by BLASTn, a substantial fraction in each library, ranging from 35% to 76%, remained unclassified. These unknown sequences were assembled into scaffolds along with virus, phage and endogenous retrovirus sequences and then analyzed by BLASTx against the non-redundant protein database. Nearly the full genome of a heretofore-unknown circovirus was assembled and many scaffolds that encoded proteins with similarity to plant, insect and mammalian viruses. The presence of this novel circovirus was confirmed by PCR. BLASTx also identified many polypeptides resembling nucleo-cytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) proteins. We re-evaluated these alignments with a profile hidden Markov method, HHblits, and observed inconsistencies in the target proteins reported by the different algorithms. This suggests that sequence alignments are insufficient to identify NCLDV proteins, especially when these alignments are only to small portions of the target protein. Nevertheless, we have now established a reliable protocol for the identification of viruses in plasma that can also be adapted to other patient samples such as urine, bile, saliva and other body fluids

Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence Victimization from Adolescence to Young Adulthood in a Nationally Representative Sample

PURPOSE: To determine the prevalence of patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization from adolescence to young adulthood, and document associations with selected sociodemographic and experiential factors. METHODS: We used prospective data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to group 4,134 respondents reporting only opposite-sex romantic or sexual relationships in adolescence and young adulthood into four victimization patterns: no IPV victimization, adolescent-limited IPV victimization, young adult onset IPV victimization, and adolescent-young adult persistent IPV victimization. RESULTS: Forty percent of respondents reported physical or sexual victimization by young adulthood. Eight percent experienced IPV only in adolescence, 25% only in young adulthood, and 7% showed persistent victimization. Female sex, Hispanic and non-Hispanic black race/ethnicity, an atypical family structure (something other than two biologic parents, step family, single parent), more romantic partners, experiencing childhood abuse, and early sexual debut (before age 16) were each associated with one or more patterns of victimization versus none. Number of romantic partners and early sexual debut were the most consistent predictors of violence, its timing of onset, and whether victimization persisted across developmental periods. These associations did not vary by biological sex. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial numbers of young adults have experienced physical or sexual IPV victimization. More research is needed to understand the developmental and experiential mechanisms underlying timing of onset of victimization, whether victimization persists across time and relationships, and whether etiology and temporal patterns vary by type of violence. These additional distinctions would inform the timing, content, and targeting of violence prevention efforts

Clinical imaging for prevention : directed strategies for improved detection of presymptomatic patients with undetected atherosclerosis—Part I : clinical imaging for prevention

14 page(s