Measuring Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism in Adolescents

The Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) has been widely used with adults. Its vulnerable and grandiose dimensions have been differentially associated with psychopathology and interpersonal difficulties. While the PNI has been used with adolescents, its structure and correlates remain to be investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the French PNI for adolescents and its association with indices of dysfunction. A total of 570 adolescents completed the PNI, the Youth Self Reportto assess internalizing and externalizing difficulties, and the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents to assess self-esteem. Results showed that the first and second-order factor structure of the PNI for adolescents is identical to the one found in adults. Temporal stability at one month was good. Between gender differences, as well as correlations between PNI dimensions, internalizing and externalizing difficulties, and self-esteem further add to the conclusion that the French PNI-A has good psychometric properties. Key words: adolescence, narcissism, measure, french, pathological narcissism inventor

Mechanochemical modeling of dynamic microtubule growth involving sheet-to-tube transition

Microtubule dynamics is largely influenced by nucleotide hydrolysis and the resultant tubulin configuration changes. The GTP cap model has been proposed to interpret the stabilizing mechanism of microtubule growth from the view of hydrolysis effects. Besides, the microtubule growth involves the closure of a curved sheet at its growing end. The curvature conversion also helps to stabilize the successive growth, and the curved sheet is referred to as the conformational cap. However, there still lacks theoretical investigation on the mechanical-chemical coupling growth process of microtubules. In this paper, we study the growth mechanisms of microtubules by using a coarse-grained molecular method. Firstly, the closure process involving a sheet-to-tube transition is simulated. The results verify the stabilizing effect of the sheet structure, and the minimum conformational cap length that can stabilize the growth is demonstrated to be two dimers. Then, we show that the conformational cap can function independently of the GTP cap, signifying the pivotal role of mechanical factors. Furthermore, based on our theoretical results, we describe a Tetris-like growth style of microtubules: the stochastic tubulin assembly is regulated by energy and harmonized with the seam zipping such that the sheet keeps a practically constant length during growth.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures. 2 supporting movies have not been uploaded due to the file type restriction

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

Validation de l'échelle de narcissisme pathologique pour adolescents

Le narcissisme pathologique est un construit qui suscite un intérêt important dans la littérature récente. Autant au plan clinique qu’au plan empirique, il est sujet à plusieurs débats concernant sa conceptualisation ainsi que son opérationnalisation. La littérature récente a en grande partie tenté d’éclaircir le caractère pathologique du narcissisme, le modèle phénotypique ainsi que la mesure de ce construit. Il y a cependant consensus à savoir que le narcissisme pathologique s’observe et exerce une influence dans les principales sphères de l’individu, comme l’identité, le monde émotif ainsi que les relations interpersonnelles. Pour cette raison, il apparait important d’étudier la façon avec laquelle il se déploie durant l’adolescence. Cependant, peu est connu sur le narcissisme pathologique durant cette période développementale. La présente thèse cherche à ajouter des connaissances et des appuis au modèle phénotypique du narcissisme pathologique élaboré par Pincus et Lukowitsky en étudiant le déploiement de ce construit à l’adolescence. Afin de combler le manque dans la littérature au sujet de la mesure du narcissisme pathologique à l’adolescence, la première étude cherche à valider la structure factorielle et de construit ainsi que la stabilité temporelle de la version française du Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI). Les résultats permettent de tirer des conclusions prometteuses au sujet de l’utilisation de cet instrument auprès des adolescents dans une population francophone. Ensuite, afin de combler le manque dans la littérature en ce qui a trait au développement du narcissisme pathologique, la deuxième étude cherche à déterminer de quelle façon ce construit interagit avec le genre et l’âge ainsi qu’à explorer son association avec l’abus et son influence sur la relation entre l’abus et la présence de symptômes internalisés et externalisés. Les résultats démontrent que le genre a un effet modérateur sur la relation entre l’âge et le narcissisme pathologique. De plus, les résultats démontrent l’association entre plusieurs types d’abus et le narcissisme pathologique ainsi que le rôle médiateur de ce dernier dans la relation entre l’abus et les symptômes chez les filles seulement. De toutes les facettes du narcissisme pathologique, il apparait que les caractéristiques vulnérables sont les meilleurs prédicteurs des symptômes. Les retombées de cette thèse au plan empirique, au plan de la mesure et au plan de la conceptualisation du narcissisme pathologique à l’adolescence sont discutées.The construct of pathological narcissism is gathering more and more interest in recent literature. Clinically and empirically, it is the subject of ongoing debates concerning its conceptualization and its operationalization. Recent literature has focused on trying to isolate the pathological characteristics of narcissism and to elaborate a phenotypical model as well as adequate measures. There is nevertheless a consensus that pathological narcissism can be observed and has an influence on the major spheres of individuals’ lives, such as identity, affect, and interpersonal relationships. For this reason, it seems important to study how pathological narcissism unfolds during adolescence. However, little is known on pathological narcissism during this developmental period. This thesis aims to add empirical evidence and supports to the phenotypical model of pathological narcissism elaborated by Pincus and Lukowitsky by studying the unfolding of this construct in adolescence. In order to fill the gap in the literature on pathological narcissism in adolescence, the first study aims to validate the factor structure and the construct as well as to demonstrate the temporal stability of the French version of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI). Results allow to draw promising conclusions concerning the validity of this questionnaire in an adolescent French-Canadian population. Then, in order to fill the gap in the literature on the developmental of pathological narcissism, the second study aims to determine how this construct interacts with gender and age and to explore its association with abuse and its influence on the relation between abuse and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results show that gender has a moderating effect on the relation between age and pathological narcissism. For the girls only, results also show an association between types of abuse and pathological narcissism as well as its mediating role in the association between abuse and symptoms. Of all the facets of pathological narcissism, it appears that the vulnerable characteristics are the best predictors of symptoms. Contributions of this thesis on the empirical, assessment, and conceptualization levels of pathological narcissism in adolescence are discussed

The dynamics of collective sorting robot-like ants and ant-like robots.

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Microtubule dynamics. II. Kinetics of self-assembly

Inverse scattering theory describes the conditions necessary and sufficient to determine an unknown potential from known scattering data. No similar theory exists for when and how one may deduce the kinetics of an unknown chemical reaction from quantitative information about its final state and its dependence on initial conditions-except it is known to be impossible for equilibrium reactions. This article presents a case study of a far-from-equilibrium reaction: it presents a systematic phenomenological analysis of experimental time series for the amount of final product, a biopolymer, formed from various initial concentrations of monomers. Distinct mathematical properties of the kinetics of the unknown reaction pathway are found. These properties are shown to restrict the kinetics to a single model that generalizes Oosawa's classical nucleation-polymerization model. The methods used here to analyze the self-assembly of microtubules from tubulin are general, and many other reactions and processes may be studied as inverse problems with these methods when enough experimental data are available