Decision-making impairment in emotional disorders

Decision-making has become the focus of increased scientific attention in recent years. Attempts to characterize decision-making deficits in unipolar mood and anxiety disorders have, however, produced conflicting results. The current study examined two types of impairment, indecisiveness and risky decision-making, in a clinical sample of individuals with depression and/or anxiety. Depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms were hypothesized to predict both self-reported indecisiveness and decision latency on behavioral tasks, with processing speed partially mediating the relationship between psychopathology and decision latency. It was hypothesized that symptoms of OCD and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) would predict advantageous performance on a task assessing risky decision-making, and that executive functioning would partially mediate the relationship between psychopathology and risky decision-making. A sample of individuals (N = 74) who had recently undergone semi-structured diagnostic interviews was recruited for the current study. All participants were diagnosed with at least one unipolar mood or anxiety disorder, with the majority meeting criteria for two or more disorders. All participants completed the same study protocol, which included self-report measures, neuropsychological tests, and computer-administered decision-making tasks. Regression analyses and latent growth modeling were used to examine associations between psychopathology, decision-making, and neuropsychological variables. Self-reported depressive symptoms and OCD symptoms predicted self-reported indecisiveness. Contrary to prediction, psychopathology (when measured dimensionally via self-report measures or operationalized as the presence or absence of a depressive disorder, GAD, or OCD) did not predict decision latency, and there was no evidence of a mediating effect of processing speed. Self-reported depressive symptoms, but not self-reported symptoms of GAD or OCD, were positively associated with ratings of decision difficulty. On a measure of risky decision-making, a diagnosis of GAD and poorer set-shifting were both associated with less improvement in performance over the course of the task, whereas a diagnosis of OCD was associated with more improvement. Results are discussed in the context of the decision-making literature. Methodological challenges to the study of decision-making are addressed and ideas for future research are proposed

Associations between long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and cardiovascular lipid risk factors in youth with type 1 diabetes: SEARCH Nutrition Ancillary Study

In this longitudinal study we explored the relationships between plasma n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and Δ5 and Δ6 desaturase activities (D5D and D6D, respectively) and fasting lipids in youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D)

The dose–response effect of insulin sensitivity on albuminuria in children according to diabetes type

Insulin resistance is associated with microalbuminuria among youth with diabetes mellitus. We sought to determine the dose-response effect of insulin sensitivity (IS) on the magnitude of albuminuria and whether there is a threshold below which urine albumin excretion increases

Capital Region Collaborative Community Survey Project to Document Disparate Impacts of COVID-19

The Capital Region Collaborative Community Survey project was undertaken in December 2020- January 2021 to document the social, economic and health impacts of COVID-19 on residents in the Capital Region, particularly in the city of Albany with an emphasis on the impacts on Black and African American (B/AA) communities (n=239). Key findings included B/AA participants reported experiencing general racism or racial discrimination significantly more than other racial groups as did Hispanics. The pandemic impacted employment of Capital Region residents significantly as half of the respondents either lost their jobs or had their hours reduced. B/AA individuals were more likely than others to have both their work hours reduced and increased, which aligns with their status as frontline workers in healthcare, food service, groceries and transportation. B/AA were more concerned about losing housing in the near future. Of respondents with children (n=80) 71% reported that the pandemic had affected their child’s emotions very or somewhat negatively with similar percentages reporting that it had affected their child’s school work and child’s social activities very or somewhat negatively. There were no differences between B/AA and Others (members of all other respondent groups combined) in these domains. Reported high rates of regular mask-wearing and vaccine intent were promising, although 19% of B/AA individuals were extremely or somewhat unlikely to receive a vaccine vs only 11.8% of Others. Vaccine safety was the most frequent reason for hesitancy among B/AA respondents. Even though the internet and social media were common sources of information, they were not deemed as trustworthy as doctors, state and federal health organizations, and community clinics. Internet access was very high in this sample of Albany residents. The authors recommend 1) More transparency in communication from public officials; 2) More localization in the distribution of resources – including food, testing, and vaccination; 3) Expansion of community based mental health services and funding of research to determine if there are barriers to obtaining a primary care provider or physician outside of a lack of health insurance: 4) Funding of research into how individuals access the internet and their online information-seeking behaviors, including barriers to information seeking; 5) Supports to address food insecurity (caused by suspension of subsidized school breakfasts and lunches, and low-quality substitutions; and/or having additional family members in households who had been displaced from their housing), and housing insecurity (e.g., rent support); and 6) Supports for children suffering from isolation, lack of physical activity, and supports for parents to assist children with online learning, including guidance and recommendations on how to best support their child’s emotional stability, mental health, and coping strategies

Fructose intake and cardiovascular risk factors in youth with type 1 diabetes: SEARCH for diabetes in youth study

High consumption of dietary fructose has been shown to contribute to dyslipidemia and elevated blood pressure in adults, but there are few data in youth, particularly those at greater risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to examine the association between fructose intake and CVD risk factors in a diverse population of youth with type 1diabetes (T1D)

Manual / Issue 4 / Blue

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Blue.The fourth issue. Indigo blue, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, cerulean blue, zaffre blue, indanthrone blue, phthalo blue, cyan blue, Han blue, French blue, Berlin blue, Prussian blue, Venetian blue, Dresden blue, Tiffany blue, Lanvin blue, Majorelle blue, International Klein Blue, Facebook blue. The names given to different shades of blue speak of plants, minerals, and modern chemistry; exoticism, global trade, and national pride; capitalist branding and pure invention. The fourth issue of Manual is a meditation on blue. From precious substance to controllable algorithm to the wide blue yonder, join us as we leap into the blue. Softcover, 64 pages. Published 2015 by the RISD Museum. Proceeds from RISD Museum publications support the work of the museum. Manual 4 (Blue) contributors include Lawrence Berman, A. Will Brown, Linda Catano, Spencer Fitch, Jessica Helfand, Kate Irvin, Oda van Maanen, Dominic Molon, Maggie Nelson, Ingrid A. Neuman, Margot Nishimura, Karen B. Schloss, Anna Strickland, Louis van Tilborgh, and Elizabeth A. Williams.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/1003/thumbnail.jp

Data Generated during the 2018 LAPSE-RATE Campaign: An Introduction and Overview

Unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) offer innovative capabilities for providing new perspectives on the atmosphere, and therefore atmospheric scientists are rapidly expanding their use, particularly for studying the planetary boundary layer. In support of this expansion, from 14 to 20 July 2018 the International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) hosted a community flight week, dubbed the Lower Atmospheric Profiling Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE; de Boer et al., 2020a). This field campaign spanned a 1-week deployment to Colorado\u27s San Luis Valley, involving over 100 students, scientists, engineers, pilots, and outreach coordinators. These groups conducted intensive field operations using unmanned aircraft and ground-based assets to develop comprehensive datasets spanning a variety of scientific objectives, including a total of nearly 1300 research flights totaling over 250 flight hours. This article introduces this campaign and lays the groundwork for a special issue on the LAPSE-RATE project. The remainder of the special issue provides detailed overviews of the datasets collected and the platforms used to collect them. All of the datasets covered by this special issue have been uploaded to a LAPSE-RATE community set up at the Zenodo data archive (https://zenodo.org/communities/lapse-rate/, last access: 3 December 2020)

Effects of go/no-go training on food-related action tendencies, liking and choice

Inhibitory control training effects on behaviour (e.g. ‘healthier’ food choices) can be driven by changes in affective evaluations of trained stimuli, and theoretical models indicate that changes in action tendencies may be a complementary mechanism. In this preregistered study, we investigated the effects of food-specific go/no-go training on action tendencies, liking and impulsive choices in healthy participants. In the training task, energy-dense foods were assigned to one of three conditions: 100% inhibition (no-go), 0% inhibition (go) or 50% inhibition (control). Automatic action tendencies and liking were measured pre- and post-training for each condition. We found that training did not lead to changes in approach bias towards trained foods (go and no-go relative to control), but we warrant caution in interpreting this finding as there are important limitations to consider for the employed approach–avoidance task. There was only anecdotal evidence for an effect on food liking, but there was evidence for contingency learning during training, and participants were on average less likely to choose a no-go food compared to a control food after training. We discuss these findings from both a methodological and theoretical standpoint and propose that the mechanisms of action behind training effects be investigated further