Predicting the Significance of Necessity

With Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), a necessity effect is estimated by calculating the amount of empty space in the upper-left corner in a plot with a predictor X and an outcome Y, and recently a method for testing the statistical significance of the necessity effect through permutation has been proposed. In the present simulation study, this method was found to give significant results already with a very weak true population necessity effect, i.e., exhibit high power, unless the sample size is very small. However, in some situations the significance of the necessity effect tends to increase with increased degree of sufficiency, which is paradoxical for a method whose objective is to find necessary but not sufficient conditions

Parental feeding practices and associations with child weight status. Swedish validation of the Child Feeding Questionnaire finds parents of 4-year-olds less restrictive

The Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) assesses parental feeding attitudes, beliefs and practices concerned with child feeding and obesity proneness. The questionnaire has been developed in the U.S. ..

Detection of Inflammation via Volatile Cues in Human Urine

Contagious disease is a major threat to survival, and the cost of relying on the immune system to defeat pathogens is high; therefore, behavioral avoidance of contagious individuals is arguably an adaptive strategy. Animal findings demonstrate the ability to detect and avoid sick individuals by the aid of olfactory cues, and a recent study indicated that human axillary odor also becomes more aversive as a function of immune activation. By injecting healthy human participants with lipopolysaccharide (0.6 ng/kg body weight) to experimentally induce inflammation, this study demonstrates that natural daily rhythms of urine odor—its perceived dimensions and volatile profile—are altered within hours of inflammation onset. Whereas healthy human urine decreases in averseness over the course of a single day, inflammation interrupts this process and results in an increased urine odor averseness and an altered volatile composition. These results support the notion that subtle and early cues of sickness may be detected and avoided, thereby complementing the immune system in its role of keeping us alive and healthy

Associations between cognition and serotonin receptor 1B binding in patients with major depressive disorder : a pilot study

The neurotransmitter serotonin has been widely implicated in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). In animal studies and human neuroimaging studies, involvement of the serotonin receptor 1B (5-HT1BR) in MDD and memory performance has been reported. However, the role of the 5-HT1BR in cognitive functions affected in MDD remains to be clarified. Ten patients with MDD diagnosis were examined with positron emission tomography (PET) and a battery of cognitive tests before and after Internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ICBT). The results were compared to ten matched control subjects in order to investigate putative changes in 5-HT1BR availability and cognitive performance. Patients treated with ICBT showed statistically significant improvement relative to baseline in Verbal fluency, both letter and category production. Significant correlations were found between improvement in letter production and changes in 5-HT1BR availability in ventral striatum, between category production and amygdala, as well as between the improvement in Trailmaking test B and change in 5-HT1BR binding in dorsal brainstem, in amygdala and in hippocampus. The results suggest an association between 5-HT1BR binding and improvement in cognitive functioning. Replications in larger-scale studies are required to confirm these findings.Swedish Research Council (523-2013-2982)Birgitta and Sten WesterbergSwedish Society of MedicineStiftelsen Söderström-Königska sjukhemmetStockholm County CouncilThe Stockholm Centre for Psychiatric ResearchKarolinska InstitutetAccepte

Psychosocial functioning and intelligence both partly explain socioeconomic inequalities in premature death. A population-based male cohort study

The possible contributions of psychosocial functioning and intelligence differences to socioeconomic status (SES)-related inequalities in premature death were investigated. None of the previous studies focusing on inequalities in mortality has included measures of both psychosocial functioning and intelligence.The study was based on a cohort of 49 321 men born 1949-1951 from the general community in Sweden. Data on psychosocial functioning and intelligence from military conscription at ∼18 years of age were linked with register data on education, occupational class, and income at 35-39 years of age. Psychosocial functioning was rated by psychologists as a summary measure of differences in level of activity, power of initiative, independence, and emotional stability. Intelligence was measured through a multidimensional test. Causes of death between 40 and 57 years of age were followed in registers.The estimated inequalities in all-cause mortality by education and occupational class were attenuated with 32% (95% confidence interval: 20-45%) and 41% (29-52%) after adjustments for individual psychological differences; both psychosocial functioning and intelligence contributed to account for the inequalities. The inequalities in cardiovascular and injury mortality were attenuated by as much as 51% (24-76%) and 52% (35-68%) after the same adjustments, and the inequalities in alcohol-related mortality were attenuated by up to 33% (8-59%). Less of the inequalities were accounted for when those were measured by level of income, with which intelligence had a weaker correlation. The small SES-related inequalities in cancer mortality were not attenuated by adjustment for intelligence.Differences in psychosocial functioning and intelligence might both contribute to the explanation of observed SES-related inequalities in premature death, but the magnitude of their contributions likely varies with measure of socioeconomic status and cause of death. Both psychosocial functioning and intelligence should be considered in future studies