Pregnancy Medicaid Expansions and Fertility: Differentiating between the Intensive and Extensive Margins

The theoretical and empirical links between public health insurance access and fertility in the United States remain unclear. Utilizing a demographic cell-based estimation approach with panel data (1987-1997), we revisit the large-scale Medicaid expansions to pregnant women during the 1980s to estimate the heterogeneous impacts of public health insurance access on childbirth. While the decision to become a parent (i.e., the extensive margin) appears to be unaffected by increased access to Medicaid, we find that increased access to public health insurance positively influenced the number of high parity births (i.e., the intensive margin) for select groups of women. In particular, we find a robust, positive birth effect for unmarried women with a high school education, a result which is consistent across the two racial groups examined in our analysis: African American and white women. This result suggests that investigating effects along both the intensive and extensive margin is important for scholars who study the natalist effects of social welfare policies, and our evidence provides a more nuanced understanding of the influence of public health insurance on fertility

Attentional control mediates the relationship between social anhedonia and social impairment

Social anhedonia (SA), a trait-like disinterest in social contact and diminished capacity to experience pleasure from social interactions, is consistently associated with social impairments in both healthy and clinical populations. However, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between SA and social impairment are poorly understood. Attentional control, selecting and focusing on relevant information and inhibiting irrelevant, may be one such mechanism. We examined individual differences in SA, attentional control, and social impairment in 108 healthy adults. High SA related to low attentional control and high social impairment. Moreover, attentional control mediated the relationship between SA and social impairment, establishing attentional control as one mechanism underlying aberrations in the fundamental human need for social contact. Although both attentional deficits and social impairment have been separately noted in SA, the relationship between SA, attentional control and social impairment in this non-clinical sample reflects a novel contribution

Lateral prefrontal cortex activity during cognitive control of emotion predicts response to social stress in schizophrenia

LPFC dysfunction is a well-established neural impairment in schizophrenia and is associated with worse symptoms. However, how LPFC activation influences symptoms is unclear. Previous findings in healthy individuals demonstrate that lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) activation during cognitive control of emotional information predicts mood and behavior in response to interpersonal conflict, thus impairments in these processes may contribute to symptom exacerbation in schizophrenia. We investigated whether schizophrenia participants show LPFC deficits during cognitive control of emotional information, and whether these LPFC deficits prospectively predict changes in mood and symptoms following real-world interpersonal conflict. During fMRI, 23 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 24 healthy controls completed the Multi-Source Interference Task superimposed on neutral and negative pictures. Afterwards, schizophrenia participants completed a 21-day online daily-diary in which they rated the extent to which they experienced mood and schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms, as well as the occurrence and response to interpersonal conflict. Schizophrenia participants had lower dorsal LPFC activity (BA9) during cognitive control of task-irrelevant negative emotional information. Within schizophrenia participants, DLPFC activity during cognitive control of emotional information predicted changes in positive and negative mood on days following highly distressing interpersonal conflicts. Results have implications for understanding the specific role of LPFC in response to social stress in schizophrenia, and suggest that treatments targeting LPFC-mediated cognitive control of emotion could promote adaptive response to social stress in schizophrenia

The Neural Basis of Social Cognition and Its Relationship to Social Functioning in Young People at Risk for Schizophrenia

These three studies seek to contribute to the neurological characterization of the development of schizophrenia as well as begin to branch into understanding how neuroanatomical structure and function may relate to specific deficits in social cognition and social functioning within in this population. Paper #1 investigates the relationship between brain structure in young adults at clinical high risk for schizophrenia and social functioning. Paper #2 expands upon the findings of paper #1 by looking at brain structure, social cognition, and social functioning in children and risk for psychosis. Finally, paper #3 focuses on brain function for theory of mind in typically developing children and its relationship to social cognition and social functioning. Investigating the neural mechanisms underlying social cognitive deficits and social functioning impairment in young adults and children at risk for schizophrenia will contribute to the field’s understanding of the development of this disorder.Psycholog

Confirmed presence of the squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa (Say, 1837) in the state of Oregon and specimen-based observational records of Peponapis (Say, 1837) (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in the Oregon State Arthropod Collection

A new Oregon record for Peponapis pruinosa (Say, 1837) is presented with notes on its occurrence and photographs. This record provides the first empirical evidence of the genus and species in the state of Oregon. A dataset of Peponapis (Say, 1837) specimens in the holdings of the Oregon State Arthropod Collection is included with a brief summary of its contents

Distinguishing different styles of transpressional deformation at an obliquely convergent plate margin, Fiordland, New Zealand

Fiordland, New Zealand provides one of the best-known and deepest (to 65 km) exposures of an Early Cretaceous magmatic arc root known to geologists. These exposures allow for us to study tectonic deformational processes at varying crustal depths, including the role of pre-existing structures on later reactivation. The well-preserved Grebe shear zone (GSZ) marks the boundary between major basement terranes in southern Fiordland and has undergone multiple episodes of deformation during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic time periods. The primary focus of this study is to recognize and characterize the differing phases of deformation that occurred along this shear zone. To investigate these phases, we have conducted structural, finite strain, fault-slip, and kinematic analysis, on structural measurements and samples taken from Fiordland. We use these methods in concert to identify and differentiate the deformational styles. In southern Fiordland, the GSZ is characterized by a narrow zone of protomylonitic-mylonitic fabric within amphibolite retrogressed to greenschist facies rock. Finite strain analysis on feldspar aggregates from samples in and around the GSZ produced primarily oblate ellipsoids, indicative of shortening across the shear zone. Asymmetrical shear sense indicators present in thin sections oriented parallel, perpendicular, and oblique to lineations also suggest a component of sinistral obliquity in shear zone fabrics. This coupled with a deflection of foliations in surrounding rock towards parallelism with the shear zone boundary is consistent with transpressional deformation. This deformation is localized to a zone of ductile deformation where components of sinistral strike-slip and shortening are accommodated in close proximity to the shear zone (non-partitioned). This deformational event is associated with the formation of the shear zone and is overprinted by a separate transpressional event that took place during the Cenozoic. Fault-slip analysis showed that this reactivation event is accommodated in primarily brittle faults in where one set accommodates mostly or purely strike-slip motion, and another that accommodates mostly or purely reverse motion (partitioned). This contrasting style of transpression implies that the Cretaceous ductile shear zone influenced the behavior of strain during Cenozoic reactivation

The Relationships Among Narcissism, Self-Esteem, and Friendship Jealousy

Jealousy, a common and often dreaded emotion, appears to be closely associated with an individual’s self-esteem. In fact, one study connected self-esteem to jealousy and found that adolescents with low self-worth reported the greatest friendship jealousy (Parker et al., 2015). Along with this relationship between self-esteem and jealousy, existing literature finds that self-esteem is closely associated with narcissism. One study found that low self-worth was correlated with high scores in vulnerable narcissism (Kaufman et al., 2020). However, grandiose narcissism was found to be related to high scores of self-esteem (Zeigler-Hill & Besser, 2011). Though previous studies have examined the correlations between narcissism and jealousy in romantic relationships, there is limited literature regarding narcissism and jealousy in friendships (Tortoriello et al., 2017). The following study seeks to address this gap by examining the specific relationships between jealousy in friendships, self-esteem, and the two types of narcissism. Recruited from an online platform, this study used a sample of 39 participants selected from undergraduate Introductory Psychology courses. Participants were asked to complete a Qualtrics survey consisting of five separate assessments: the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, a Friendship Jealousy Questionnaire, and demographics questions. We propose that jealousy will be negatively correlated with self-esteem and positively correlated with vulnerable narcissism. Additionally, we predict that self-esteem will be negatively correlated with vulnerable narcissism and positively correlated with grandiose narcissism. We anticipate our results will reflect these hypotheses after data collection and analysis is complete. In the face of vast literature on romantic jealousy, we hope that this study’s findings will motivate further research on jealousy in friendships. Jealousy is closely intertwined with friendship dynamics; hopefully, by studying how instances of jealousy may increase in the company of high narcissism and low self-esteem, individuals can gain valuable and informed insight towards their own jealous emotions