The language of extraversion: Extraverted people talk more abstractly, introverts are more concrete

To understand the impact of personality, one needs to know how personality differences manifest themselves in language use. The present study investigates the link between extraversion and language abstraction. Participants’ spontaneous verbal utterances in face-to-face interactions were analyzed for language abstraction by applying the linguistic category model, which distinguishes predicate types that convey information in concrete or interpretative manner. We also applied the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program to relate several word categories to extraversion and language abstraction. Results show significant positive correlations between extraversion and both language abstraction and self-reported level of interpretation. Language abstraction was also linked to LIWC variables (e.g., articles, numbers) previously shown to be related to extraversion. The findings suggest that the verbal style of extraverts is characterized by a higher level of abstract interpretation, whereas introverts tend to stick to concrete facts

Confirmation of the Effectiveness and Genetic Positions of Disease Resistance Loci in ‘Kishmish Vatkana’ (Ren1) and ‘Villard Blanc’ (Ren3 and Rpv3)

This study aimed to validate the effectiveness and to genetically characterise the fungal disease resistance genes of ‘Kishmish Vatkana’ and ‘Villard Blanc’ in South Africa using microsatellite (SSR) markers anda Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) approach. An F1 ‘Sunred Seedless’ × ‘Kishmish Vatkana’ cross was used to generate a partial linkage map for chromosome 13 known to harbour the Ren1 powdery mildew locusof ‘Kishmish Vatkana’. The effectiveness of this locus was validated, explaining between 44.8% and 57.7% of the observed phenotypic variance. An F1 ‘Villard Blanc’ × ‘G1-6604’ cross was used to generate partial linkage maps for chromosomes 15 and 18, reported to harbour fungal resistance genes of ‘Villard Blanc’.  The powdery mildew QTL (Ren3) was validated on chromosome 15 of ‘Villard Blanc’, which explainedbetween 18.9% and 23.9% of the phenotypic variance observed. The downy mildew resistance QTL on chromosome 18 (Rpv3) of ‘Villard Blanc’ was also confirmed, and it explained between 19.1% and 21.2%of the phenotypic variance observed. This molecular information and individual sources of resistance have already been implemented in the marker-assisted selection (MAS) and gene pyramiding efforts of the tablegrape breeding program of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Infruitec-Nietvoorbij

Systematic RADaR analysis of responses to the open-ended question in the Culture of Care Barometer survey of a Dutch hospital

Objectives Systematically measuring the work environment of healthcare employees is key to continuously improving the quality of care and addressing staff shortages. In this study, we systematically analyse the responses to the one open-ended question posed in the Dutch version of the Culture of Care Barometer (CoCB-NL) to examine (1) if the responses offered new insights into healthcare employees’ perceptions of their work environment and (2) if the original CoCB had any themes missing.Design Retrospective text analysis using Rigorous and Accelerated Data Reduction technique.Setting University hospital in the Netherlands using the CoCB-NL as part of the annual employee survey.Participants All hospital employees were invited to participate in the study (N=14 671). In total, 2287 employees responded to the open-ended question.Results 2287 comments were analysed. Comments that contained more than one topic were split according to topic, adding to the total (n=2915). Of this total, 372 comments were excluded because they lacked content or respondents indicated they had nothing to add. Subsequently, 2543 comments were allocated to 33 themes. Most comments (n=2113) addressed the 24 themes related to the close-ended questions in the CoCB-NL. The themes most commented on concerned questions on ‘organisational support’. The remaining 430 comments covered nine additional themes that addressed concerns about work environment factors (team connectedness, team effectiveness, corporate vision, administrative burden and performance pressure) and themes (diversity and inclusion, legal frameworks and collective bargaining, resilience and work–life balance, and personal matters).Conclusions Analysing responses to the open-ended question in the CoCB-NL led to new insights into relevant elements of the work environment and missing themes in the COCB-NL. Moreover, the analysis revealed important themes that not only require attention from healthcare organisations to ensure adequate improvements in their employees’ work environment but should also be considered to further develop the CoCB-NL

Systematic RADaR analysis of responses to the open-ended question in the Culture of Care Barometer survey of a Dutch hospital

Objectives Systematically measuring the work environment of healthcare employees is key to continuously improving the quality of care and addressing staff shortages. In this study, we systematically analyse the responses to the one open-ended question posed in the Dutch version of the Culture of Care Barometer (CoCB-NL) to examine (1) if the responses offered new insights into healthcare employees’ perceptions of their work environment and (2) if the original CoCB had any themes missing.Design Retrospective text analysis using Rigorous and Accelerated Data Reduction technique.Setting University hospital in the Netherlands using the CoCB-NL as part of the annual employee survey.Participants All hospital employees were invited to participate in the study (N=14 671). In total, 2287 employees responded to the open-ended question.Results 2287 comments were analysed. Comments that contained more than one topic were split according to topic, adding to the total (n=2915). Of this total, 372 comments were excluded because they lacked content or respondents indicated they had nothing to add. Subsequently, 2543 comments were allocated to 33 themes. Most comments (n=2113) addressed the 24 themes related to the close-ended questions in the CoCB-NL. The themes most commented on concerned questions on ‘organisational support’. The remaining 430 comments covered nine additional themes that addressed concerns about work environment factors (team connectedness, team effectiveness, corporate vision, administrative burden and performance pressure) and themes (diversity and inclusion, legal frameworks and collective bargaining, resilience and work–life balance, and personal matters).Conclusions Analysing responses to the open-ended question in the CoCB-NL led to new insights into relevant elements of the work environment and missing themes in the COCB-NL. Moreover, the analysis revealed important themes that not only require attention from healthcare organisations to ensure adequate improvements in their employees’ work environment but should also be considered to further develop the CoCB-NL

Quantitative Trait Locus Analysis of Mating Behavior and Male Sex Pheromones in Nasonia Wasps.

A major focus in speciation genetics is to identify the chromosomal regions and genes that reduce hybridization and gene flow. We investigated the genetic architecture of mating behavior in the parasitoid wasp species pair Nasonia giraulti and Nasonia oneida that exhibit strong prezygotic isolation. Behavioral analysis showed that N. oneida females had consistently higher latency times and broke off the mating sequence more often in the mounting stage when confronted with N. giraulti males compared with males of their own species. N. oneida males produce a lower quantity of the long-range male sex pheromone, (4R,5S)-5-hydroxy-4-decanolide (RS-HDL). Crosses between the two species yielded hybrid males with various pheromone quantities and these males were used in mating trials with females of either species to measure female mate discrimination rates. A quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis involving 475 recombinant hybrid males (F2), 2148 reciprocally backcrossed females (F3), and a linkage map of 52 equally spaced neutral single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers plus SNPs in 40 candidate mating behavior genes revealed four QTL for male pheromone amount depending on partner species. Our results demonstrate that the RS-HDL pheromone plays a role in the mating system of N. giraulti and N. oneida, but also that additional communication cues are involved in mate choice. No QTL were found for female mate discrimination which points at a polygenic architecture of female choice with strong environmental influences

Genetic variation in thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP) is associated with hypertriglyceridaemia and blood pressure in diabetes mellitus

Aims Thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP) is an attractive candidate gene for diabetes or diabetic dyslipidaemia, since TXNIP is the strongest glucose-responsive gene in pancreatic B-cells, TXNIP deficiency in a mouse model is associated with hyperlipidaemia and TXNIP is located in the 1q21-1q23 chromosomal Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) locus. We set out to investigate whether metabolic effects of TXNIP that were previously reported in a murine model are also relevant in human Type 2 DM. Methods The frequency distribution of a 3' UTR single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TXNIP was investigated in subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT; n = 379), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT; n = 228) and Type 2 DM (n = 230). Metabolic data were used to determine the effect of this SNP on parameters associated with lipid and glucose metabolism. Results The frequency of the TXNIP variation did not differ between groups, but within the group of diabetic subjects, carriers of the TXNIP-T variant had 1.6-fold higher triglyceride concentrations (P = 0.015; n = 136) and a 5.5-mmHg higher diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.02; n = 212) than homozygous carriers of the common C-allele, whereas in non-diabetic subjects fasting glucose was 0.26 mmol/l lower (P = 0.002; n = 478) in carriers of the T-allele. Moreover, a significant interaction between plasma glucose concentrations and TXNIP polymorphism on plasma triglycerides was observed (P = 0.012; n = 544). Conclusion This is the first report to implicate TXNIP in a human disorder of energy metabolism, Type 2 diabetes. The effect of TXNIP on triglycerides is influenced by plasma glucose concentrations, suggesting that the biological relevance of TXNIP variations may be particularly relevant in recurrent episodes of hyperglycaemia

Utilizing a biology-driven approach to map the exposome in health and disease:An essential investment to drive the next generation of environmental discovery

BACKGROUND: Recent developments in technologies have offered opportunities to measure the exposome with unprecedented accuracy and scale. However, because most investigations have targeted only a few exposures at a time, it is hypothesized that the majority of the environmental determinants of chronic diseases remain unknown. OBJECTIVES: We describe a functional exposome concept and explain how it can leverage existing bioassays and high-resolution mass spectrometry for exploratory study. We discuss how such an approach can address well-known barriers to interpret exposures and present a vision of next-generation exposomics. DISCUSSION: The exposome is vast. Instead of trying to capture all exposures, we can reduce the complexity by measuring the functional exposome— the totality of the biologically active exposures relevant to disease development—through coupling biochemical receptor-binding assays with affinity purification–mass spectrometry. We claim the idea of capturing exposures with functional biomolecules opens new opportunities to solve critical problems in exposomics, including low-dose detection, unknown annotations, and complex mixtures of exposures. Although novel, biology-based measurement can make use of the existing data processing and bioinformatics pipelines. The functional exposome concept also complements conven-tional targeted and untargeted approaches for understanding exposure-disease relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Although measurement technology has advanced, critical technological, analytical, and inferential barriers impede the detection of many environmental exposures relevant to chronic-disease etiology. Through biology-driven exposomics, it is possible to simultaneously scale up discovery of these causal environmental factors. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8327

Defining a positive work environment for hospital healthcare professionals: A Delphi study

Introduction: The work environment of healthcare professionals is important for good patient care and is receiving increasing attention in scientific research. A clear and unambiguous understanding of a positive work environment, as perceived by healthcare professionals, is crucial for gaining systematic objective insights into the work environment. The aim of this study was to gain consensu

Occupational exposures to solvents and metals are associated with fixed airflow obstruction

peer-reviewedOur study is the first to investigate the associations between exposures to solvents and metals using lifetime work history calendars and fixed airflow obstruction (AO). We have shown that increasing cumulative exposure-unit years to chlorinated solvents is associated with fixed AO. We found that women were at increased risk of fixed AO with increasing cumulative exposed-unit-years to chlorinated solvents but not men