Longitudinal Bidirectional Relations Between Subtypes of Anxiety and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Early- to Mid-Adolescence

Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by limited empathy, lack of guilt or remorse, and callous use of others. They are a risk factor for adult psychopathy, especially when comorbid with conduct problems. Thus, efforts to identify risk factors and consequences of CU traits have been prominent. One construct that may act as both a risk factor for and consequence of CU traits among youth is anxiety. While the most consistent finding is in this literature is a negative relation between CU traits and anxiety, findings have been mixed. The present study examined bidirectional relations between three subtypes of anxiety (i.e. physiological anxiety, fear and concentration problems, and worry and oversensitivity), CU traits, and conduct problems over six months among a sample of primarily African American middle school students. Results showed that CU traits at Time 1 were not associated with changes in physiological anxiety, fear and concentration problems, or worry and oversensitivity at Time 2. Similarly, physiological anxiety, fear and concentration problems, and worry and oversensitivity at Time 1 were not associated with increased CU traits at Time 2. Further, no longitudinal relations were found between CU traits and conduct problems. The six-month timeframe may have been too short to see changes in anxiety and CU traits given their stability. The models tested also did not take into account the impact of factors such as distress and trauma which may influence bidirectional relations between CU traits and anxiety

Genetically targeted anatomical and behavioral characterization of the cornu ammonis 2 (CA2) subfield of the mouse hippocampus

The hippocampus is critical for storing declarative memory, our repository of knowledge of who, what, where, and when. Mnemonic information is processed and encoded in the hippocampus through several parallel routes, most notably the trisynaptic pathway, in which information proceeds from entorhinal cortex (EC) to dentate gyrus (DG) to CA3 and then to CA1, the main hippocampal output. Absent from this pathway is the CA2 subfield, a relatively small area interposed between CA3 and CA1 that has recently been shown to mediate a powerful disynaptic circuit linking EC input with CA1 output. Usually ignored or grouped together with CA3, CA2 has generally escaped exploration presumably due to its relatively small size and somewhat ill-defined borders. A few studies have proposed an important role for the CA2 subfield of the hippocampus, however, the relevance of this subfield in a behaving animal has not been explored. The function of a particular brain region may be inferred by examining the effects of a lesion of that area. Indeed, the hippocampus's role in learning and memory was elucidated following the bilateral medial temporal lobe ablation of Henry Molaison (patient H.M.). Similarly, a lesion of CA2 could be used to infer its role in learning, memory, and disease. Due to the relatively small size of CA2, physical or chemical lesions are not precise enough to ablate this region without collateral damage. To overcome this limitation, I generated a CA2-specific transgenic mouse line to enable genetic targeting of this subfield. I used this mouse line to map CA2 connectivity and explore its behavioral role. Using monosynaptic rabies tracing, CA2 axon tracing, and electrophysiology, I confirmed the disynaptic pathway and presence of septal and subcortical inputs to CA2. Genetically targeted inactivation of CA2 caused a remarkably profound loss of social memory, with no change in sociability. This impairment was not the result of a general loss of hippocampal function as CA2-inactivation did not impact performance on several other hippocampal-dependent tasks, including spatial and contextual memory. These behavioral and anatomical results thus reveal CA2 as a hub of sociocognitive processing and implicate its dysfunction in social endophenotypes of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and autism

Social Exclusion in Cultural Context: Group Norms, Fairness, and Stereotypes

The current study investigated pre-adolescents' and adolescents' attitudes about social exclusion based on cultural membership, specifically exclusion of individuals from Arab descent. Developmental intergroup research on the Arab cultural identity is sparse, and given this is a group that is highly associated with negative emotionally charged stereotypes in adults, it is important to understand the developmental origins of such attitudes. Questions about the role of stereotypes, cultural identity, shared interest in activities (e.g., hobbies), exclusive and inclusive group norms, and intergroup attributions of emotions in exclusion contexts were addressed. To answer these questions non-Arab American 12- and 16-year-olds (N =199) evaluated situations in which their own group and an Arab American group of peers made decisions about inclusion and exclusion. These decisions were about a cultural ingroup target with different interests in activities or a cultural outgroup target with the same interests in activities. Findings indicated that participants expected the Arab American group would make inclusion decisions based on the cultural identity of the target (a preference for cultural identity over shared interests) in contrast to their own non-Arab American group, which they expected would make decisions based on shared interest in activities (a preference for shared activities over cultural identity). This finding was perpetuated in groups that had exclusive group norms. Sixteen year-olds were less inclusive toward an outgroup member than 12-year-olds and participants who reported stereotypes about Arabs were also less inclusive toward an outgroup target. Different emotions were attributed to an Arab American group that excluded a target compared with an American group, evidencing more empathic attributions to participants' ingroup (American group). Findings from this study inform intergroup developmental research on the role of stereotypes, and the interplay of cognition and emotions, in pre-adolescents' and adolescents' social decision-making in cross-cultural interactions. Results of this study have implications for developing interventions that foster positive intergroup peer relationships

Elucidating the Genetic Basis of Canine Progressive Retinal Atrophies in Several Breeds of Dog

Canine progressive retinal atrophies (PRA) are a group of hereditary diseases characterised by rod and cone photoreceptor cell death in the retina. This study sought to elucidate novel PRA-associated variants of distinct forms of PRA in three breeds of dog: the Lhasa Apso (LA), Giant Schnauzer (GS) and Shetland Sheepdog (SS). A genome-wide association study identified a 1.3 Mb disease-associated region on canine chromosome 33 in LA dogs. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis of a PRA-affected LA revealed a long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) insertion in the predicted promoter region of the retinal candidate gene, IMPG2. Validation of the LINE-1 insertion determined it segregated with disease and was likely to be private to LA dogs. Comprehensive WGS analyses alone were utilised to determine PRA-associated mutations in a family of GS dogs, and in a single SS. For the GS breed, WGS was performed on two affected siblings and both non-affected parents. Successive filtering, for autosomal recessive deleterious variants, against 568 canine genomes identified a single nucleotide variant (SNV) in the gene encoding NECAP endocytosis associated 1 (NECAP1): c.544G>A (p.G182R). Screening 5,130 canids revealed only the three PRA-affected GS were homozygous for the SNV, yet heterozygotes were identified in the GS breed and in other breeds of German ancestry. NECAP1 has not previously been associated with retinal degeneration; however, these findings, in parallel with known gene function, indicate NECAP1 should be considered as a strong candidate for retinal degeneration research in other species. Following WGS analysis of the single SS against 176 controls of other breeds, a c.1222G>C (p.A408P) SNV in the Bardet-Biedl syndrome 2 gene (BBS2) was identified. In addition to PRA, homozygotes exhibited features including an upturned nose, unusual coat and dental defects, proposing a novel syndromic form of canine PRA. This research has elucidated three novel PRA-associated mutations for which diagnostic DNA tests have been developed, offering breeders the opportunity to avoid producing PRA-affected dogs. Since PRA shares clinical features to human retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and other phenotypically similar retinal diseases, this study may offer novel insights for consideration in human as well as canine retinal degeneration research and gene therapies

THE MODERATING ROLE OF DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS ON RELATIONS BETWEEN CHILD MALTREATMENT, TRAUMA, AND DATING VIOLENCE

Teenage dating violence (TDV) is prevalent and associated with an array of psychosocial and health problems. Thus, numerous studies have focused on the identification of risk and protective factors for TDV. Child maltreatment has been consistently identified as a risk factor for TDV victimization and perpetration. However, potential underlying mechanisms that may partially explain the relations between child maltreatment and TDV victimization and perpetration are not well understood. The present study explored indirect relations between child maltreatment and TDV victimization and perpetration via trauma symptoms, and examined whether internal and external developmental assets moderated relations between (a) child maltreatment and trauma symptoms, and (b) trauma symptoms and TDV victimization and perpetration. Data were collected from 135 dating African American adolescents (57% female) who resided in high-burden neighborhoods in a midsized city in the Southeastern United States. Findings indicated that child maltreatment was associated with higher frequencies of TDV victimization and perpetration via trauma symptoms. However, contrary to expectations, composite measures of internal and external developmental assets did attenuate relations between: (a) child maltreatment and trauma symptoms, or (b) trauma symptoms and dating violence. The implications of these findings are discussed

USF Jamovi Tutorial Project: Open Education Resource

Jamovi is an open source free software that USF staff, faculty and student can download to carry out any statistical analyses. The current report summarizes the progress made on an Open Education Resource Grant funded project, which aimed to created Jamovi tutorials. In this report, student feedback and faculty reaction are summarized after one semester of using the tutorials created

Tutorial 9: Splitting Ordinal/Continuous Variables (2 categories)

This tutorial will cover how to convert a continuous or ordinal/integer variable into a categorical variable with only two categories. This tutorial is one of 27 tutorials funded by a 2021 Gleeson Library OER Faculty Grant. A report summarizing the work completed on the USF Jamovi Tutorial Project can be found on the USF OER Faculty grant section of this repository

Tutorial 26: Chi Square Tests - Goodness of Fit

This tutorial will cover how to carry out hypotheses tests using the Chi Square statistic and distribution to examine observed frequencies/proportions of a categorical (nominal) variable against an expected or predicted distribution of frequencies/proportions. This tutorial is one of 27 tutorials funded by a 2021 Gleeson Library OER Faculty Grant. A report summarizing the work completed on the USF Jamovi Tutorial Project can be found on the USF OER Faculty grant section of this repository

Tutorial 15: Exploring Data - Skewness & Normality

This tutorial will cover how to explore data to assess whether variables that have interval or ratio (ordinal/integer or continuous) measurement types are normally distributed or skewed. This tutorial is one of 27 tutorials funded by a 2021 Gleeson Library OER Faculty Grant. A report summarizing the work completed on the USF Jamovi Tutorial Project can be found on the USF OER Faculty grant section of this repository

Algebraic resolution of formal ideals along a valuation

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 4, 2009)Vita.Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2008.Let X be a possibly singular complete algebraic variety, defined over a field [kappa] of characteristic zero. X is nonsingular at [rho] [element of] X if OX,[rho] is a regular local ring. The problem of resolution of singularities is to show that there exists a nonsingular complete variety X, which birationally dominates X. Resolution of singularities (in characteristic zero) was proven by Hironaka in 1964. The valuation theoretic analogue to resolution of singularities is local uniformization. Let [logical or] be a valuation of the function field of X, [logical or] dominates a unique point [rho], on any complete variety [upsilon] , which birationally dominates X. The problem of local uniformization is to show that, given a valuation [logical or] of the function field of X, there exists a complete variety [upsilon] , which birationally dominates X such that the center of [logical or] on [upsilon], is a regular local ring. Zariski proved local uniformization (in characteristic zero) in 1944. His proof gives a very detailed analysis of rank 1 valuations, and produces a resolution which reflects invariants of the valuation. We extend Zariski's methods to higher rank to give a proof of local uniformization which reflects important properties of the valuation. We simultaneously resolve the centers of all the composite valuations, and resolve certain formal ideals associated to the valuation.Includes bibliographical reference