The varying burden of depressive symptoms across adulthood : Results from six NHANES cohorts

Background: Depressive symptoms differ from each other in the degree of functional impairment they cause. The incidence of depression varies across the adult lifespan. We examined whether age moderates the impairment caused by depressive symptoms. Methods: The study sample (n = 21,056) was adults drawn from six multistage probability samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey series (NHANES, years 2005-2016) conducted in the United States using cross-sectional, representative cohorts. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). We used regression models to predict high functional impairment, while controlling for sociodemographic variables and physical disorders. Results: Age moderated the association between depressive symptoms and functional impairment: middle-aged adults perceived moderate and severe symptoms as more impairing than did others. Older adults reported slightly higher impairment due to mild symptoms. The individual symptoms of low mood, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, and concentration difficulties were more strongly related to high impairment in mid-adulthood as compared to early and late adulthood. Limitations: Cross-sectional data allows only between-person comparisons. The PHQ-9 is brief and joins compound symptoms into single items. There was no information available concerning comorbid mental disorders. Co-occurring physical disorders were self-reported. Conclusions: Symptoms of depression may imply varying levels of impairment at different ages. The results suggest a need for age adjustments when estimating the functional impact of depression in the general population. Additionally, they show a need for more accurate assessments of depression-related impairment at older ages. Evidence-based programs may generally benefit from symptom- and age-specific findings.Peer reviewe

Interpersonal Relationships as Protective and Risk Factors for Psychopathy : A Follow-up Study in Adolescent Offenders

Friendships and romantic relationships may function as protective and risk factors for psychopathic traits. To better understand potential causal associations, we investigated whether within-individual changes in relationship characteristics were related to changes in psychopathic traits over time. Data were derived from ten repeated measurements of the Pathways to Desistance longitudinal study of 1354 offending adolescents (14.3% female; 40.1% Black). Analyses were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, self-reported offending and living facilities. Relationships of high quality were associated with lower psychopathic traits, whereas antisocial behavior and antisocial influence in relationships were related to higher psychopathic traits. Within-individual analysis indicated that time-invariant individual characteristics did not confound these associations. The findings suggest that the quality and antisocial activities of interpersonal relationships can affect positively or negatively on the levels of psychopathy.Peer reviewe

Parental Warmth and Hostility and the Development of Psychopathic Behaviors : A Longitudinal Study of Young Offenders

Parental behaviors may shape levels of psychopathic traits and antisocial outcomes among youth. To better evaluate the potential causality of these associations, we used eight follow-ups from the Pathways to Desistance study of 1354 offending adolescents (14.3% female; 40.1% black) and examined whether within-individual variation in parenting over time was associated with within-individual variation in psychopathic traits and offending. Multilevel regression models were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, contact with parental figure, and self-reported offending. Adolescent self-reported parental warmth was associated with lower psychopathic traits, and parental hostility with higher psychopathic traits. The results indicated that the more supportive and nurturing the parent, the lower the levels of psychopathic traits, whereas the more hostile the parent, the higher the levels, respectively. In addition, self-reported offending was predicted by higher parental hostility and lower maternal warmth. In time-lagged analysis, psychopathic traits did not predict parental behaviors. In young offenders parental warmth may protect against development of psychopathic traits in adolescence, whereas parental hostility may strengthen these traits. We conclude, that parenting quality matters in adolescence. Warm parenting style at this developmental period associates with lower psychopathic features among young offenders possibly lowering the risk of further criminal activity.Peer reviewe

Victimization and psychopathic features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents

We examined different forms of victimization experiences in relation to psychopathic features and whether these associations differed in boys and girls among 4855 Finnish school adolescents aged 15-16 years. Psychopathic features were measured with the Antisocial Process Screening Device-Self Report (APSD-SR). Victimization was assessed with questions about violent and abusive experiences across lifetime and within the last 12 months. Results from linear regression analysis showed that victimization was significantly associated with higher APSD-SR total scores, more strongly in girls than boys. Recent (12-month) victimization showed significance in the relationship between victimization and psychopathic features; especially recent sexual abuse and parental corporal punishment were strong determinants of higher APSD-SR total scores. The present study demonstrates novel findings on how severe victimization experiences relate to psychopathic features in community youth, especially in girls. The findings underscore the need for comprehensive evaluation of victimization experiences when psychopathic features are present in youth. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents

We investigated the prevalence of juvenile weapon carrying and psychosocial and personality-related risk factors for carrying different types of weapons in a nationally representative, population-based sample of Finnish adolescents. Specifically, we aimed to investigate psychopathic-like personality features as a risk factor for weapon carrying. The participants were 15-16-year-old adolescents from the Finnish self-report delinquency study (n = 4855). Four different groups were formed based on self-reported weapon carrying: no weapon carrying, carrying knife, gun or other weapon. The associations between psychosocial factors, psychopathic-like features and weapon carrying were examined with multinomial logistic regression analysis. 9 % of the participants had carried a weapon in the past 12 months. Adolescents with a history of delinquency, victimization and antisocial friends were more likely to carry weapons in general; however, delinquency and victimization were most strongly related to gun carrying, while perceived peer delinquency (antisocial friends) was most strongly related to carrying a knife. Better academic performance was associated with a reduced likelihood of carrying a gun and knife, while feeling secure correlated with a reduced likelihood of gun carrying only. Psychopathic-like features were related to a higher likelihood of weapon carrying, even after adjusting for other risk factors. The findings of the study suggest that adolescents carrying a weapon have a large cluster of problems in their lives, which may vary based on the type of weapon carried. Furthermore, psychopathic-like features strongly relate to a higher risk of carrying a weapon.Peer reviewe

Hyperglycemic conditions modulate connective tissue reorganization by human vascular smooth muscle cells through stimulation of hyaluronan synthesis.

Changes in the extracellular matrix organization within vascular walls are critical events in the process of atherosclerosis including diabetic macroangiopathy. Here, we examined whether glucose can directly modulate connective tissue reorganization by human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Using a collagen gel contraction (CGC) assay, we demonstrated that in comparison with normal glucose concentration (5 mM), high glucose concentration (25 mM) inhibits the efficacy of VSMCs to contract collagen gels. With human genome microarrays, we showed a significant increase in the expression of hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2) by VSMCs in hyperglycemic conditions. The finding was verified with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, which also revealed that the expression of the other hyaluronan synthesizing enzymes, HAS1 and HAS3, was stimulated concomitantly. A corresponding increase was observed in hyaluronan (HA) production. Treatment of VSMCs either with hyaluronidase or with 4-methylumbelliferone, an inhibitor of HA synthesis, partially restored the diminished CGC efficacy of VSMCs in hyperglycemic conditions. In conclusion, high glucose concentration stimulated HA synthesis by VSMCs and modulated their ability to reorganize collagen-rich matrix. Because HA is known to enhance the development of atherosclerosis and restenosis after percutaneous coronary interventions, our study provides a new potential mechanism whereby hyperglycemia leads to disturbed vascular remodeling in diabetic patients through stimulation of HA synthesis

Holographic zero sound at finite temperature in the Sakai-Sugimoto model

In this paper, we study the fate of the holographic zero sound mode at finite temperature and non-zero baryon density in the deconfined phase of the Sakai-Sugimoto model of holographic QCD. We establish the existence of such a mode for a wide range of temperatures and investigate the dispersion relation, quasi-normal modes, and spectral functions of the collective excitations in four different regimes, namely, the collisionless quantum, collisionless thermal, and two distinct hydrodynamic regimes. For sufficiently high temperatures, the zero sound completely disappears, and the low energy physics is dominated by an emergent diffusive mode. We compare our findings to Landau-Fermi liquid theory and to other holographic models.Comment: 1+24 pages, 19 figures, PDFTeX, v2: some comments and references added, v3: some clarifications relating to the different regimes added, matches version accepted for publication in JHEP, v4: corrected typo in eq. (3.18

Agile user stories enriched with usability

Usability is a critical quality factor. Therefore, like traditional software teams, agile teams have to address usability to properly catch their users experience. There exists an interesting debate in the agile and usability communities about how to achieve this integration. Our aim is to contribute to this debate by discussing the incorporation of particular usability recommendations into user stories, one of the most popular artifacts for communicating agile requirements. In this paper, we explore the implications of usability for both the structure of and the process for defining user stories. We discuss what changes the incorporation of particular usability issues may introduce in a user story. Although our findings require more empirical validation, we think that they are a good starting point for further research on this line