Psychometric Properties of a Short Version of the Impulsiveness Questionnaire UPPS-P in a Brazilian Adult Sample: Invariance for Effects of Age, Sex and Socioeconomic Status and Subscales Viability

Five different facets or domains of impulsivity (lack of Perseverance, lack of Premeditation, Sensation Seeking, Positive and Negative Urgency) have been detected in undergraduate students by means of a short, 20-item version of the Impulsive Behavior Scale UPPS-P. The present cross-sectional study examined the psychometric properties of a Brazilian version of this short scale (SUPPS-P) in a non-clinical sample of 510 individuals with a larger age range (10–72 years) and from varying socioeconomic strata (SES). We also investigated: (a) differential item functioning according to age, sex and socioeconomic status; (b) whether these demographic factors affected participants’ responses (population heterogeneity); and (c) if using scores directly derived from respondents’ answers (raw scores) reflected the 5 distinguishable impulsiveness domains out of the structural equation modeling environment (bifactor model). We showed that the short UPPS-P version replicated factor structures, internal consistency across domains and inter-scale correlations found in prior studies, and confirmed the psychometric separability of the 5 impulsiveness domains. Only three out of the 20 items showed differential item functioning. Higher Positive and Negative Urgency and lack of Premeditation were reported by men and impulsiveness decreases with age in all domains except lack of Premeditation. SES did not influence results. The viability of using raw scores to assess the five domains was not confirmed via bifactor modeling. The use of a general composite score was psychometrically acceptable. We conclude that, in the structural equation modeling environment, the SUPPS-P is a reliable instrument to assess multiple impulsivity domains in non-clinical community samples in different cultural settings. However, out of this statistical environment, viability was only found for a general factor of impulsivity

Adapted version of the Pubertal Development Scale for use in Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether scores in an adapted version of the self-assessment Pubertal Development Scale into Portuguese match those from the gold standard in pubertal development (Tanner scale). METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 133 children and adolescents aged nine to 17 years (59 males; mean age of 13 years and six months, with standard deviation = 25 months). Youngsters completed the Pubertal Development Scale and were then examined by specialists in adolescent medicine. RESULTS: Exact absolute agreement of pubertal stages were modest, but significant associations between measures (correlation; intra-class correlation coefficients of consistency) showed that the Pubertal Development Scale adequately measures changes that map onto pubertal development determined by physical examination, on par with international publications. Furthermore, scores obtained from each Pubertal Development Scale question reflected adequate gonadal and adrenal events assessed by clinical ratings, mostly with medium/high effect sizes. Latent factors obtained from scores on all Pubertal Development Scale questions had excellent fit indices in Confirmatory Factor Analyses and correlated with Tanner staging. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that self-assessment of body changes by youngsters using the Portuguese version of the Pubertal Development Scale is useful when estimates of pubertal progression are sufficient, and exact agreement with clinical staging is not necessary. The Pubertal Development Scale is, therefore, a reliable instrument for use in large-scale studies in Brazil that aim at investigating adolescent health related to pubertal developmental. The translated version and scoring systems are provided

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Relações recíprocas entre desenvolvimento puberal e metabolismo e seus impactos no desenvolvimento cognitivo durante adolescência

Pubertal onset and progression are endocrine-gated energy-demanding processes dependent on the metabolic status with differences among sexes. Both puberty (through hormonal signaling, pubertal timing and tempo), metabolism and nutritional status, apart from sociocultural factors (socioeconomic status, parental influence), are individually associated with cognitive performance, but their combined role on cognitive development is unclear. Objective: to investigate, in a cross-sectional study including typically developing 9 to 15-year-old boys and girls, the relation between pubertal and metabolic status on cognitive maturation. Methods: 278 (166 girls; mean ± SD age: 12.63 ± 1.79 years) adolescents participated in the study. They completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale (WASI) subtests - Block Design and Vocabulary - as measures of cognitions that indicate non-verbal and verbal intelligence, respectively, and filled in scales to assess pubertal status (self-assessed Tanner stages and the Pubertal Developmental Scale, PDS). For objective measurement of puberty biomarkers, saliva was collected to determine testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) concentrations. Metabolic status was assessed by lipid profile and glycated hemoglobin, determined using capillary blood, blood pressure and anthropometric data. Correlation matrixes among the pubertal and metabolic factors were used to propose latent factors that were confirmed using Confirmatory Factor Analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to describe the associations between the latent factors and cognition, controlled for socioeconomic status and age. Results: The resulting pubertal latent factor (combining measures of self-assessed gonadal and adrenal Tanner stagings, DHEA-S concentrations and participant- and guardian-rated scores in the PDS), controlled for age, was related to the metabolic status latent factor (body mass index, percentage of body fat, waist/height ratio, triglycerides and systolic blood pressure) in girls only, but did not relate to the cognitive outcomes. Differently, more advanced pubertal status was positively associated with performance in both intelligence markers in boys and girls. Conclusions: Pubertal maturational stage is related to metabolic status only in girls and to cognitive development independently of age and metabolic status in both sexes.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Processo 18/06374-

Sex-specific relation of urinary kisspeptin with developmental measures during puberty

This page contains supplementary material for the manuscript "Sex-specific relation of urinary kisspeptin with developmental measures during puberty", including the complete datasets. This manuscript will be made available as a preprint soon. Manuscript's abstract: Kisspeptins are neuropeptides regarded as critical for puberty onset and progression, playing a pivotal role in the reactivation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis in late childhood. Despite their importance, there is a dearth of evidence on how peripheral concentrations of these peptides are related to sexual maturation in humans, specially using non-invasive measures that allow more widespread testing. Here, using a cross-sectional design, we investigated whether peripheral kisspetin concentrations, measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in two-hour retention midstream urine, are associated with developmental markers in 209 (120 girls) typically developing, 9 to 15-year-old adolescents. Developmental variables were age, self-reported pubertal status using the Pubertal Development Scale, and saliva concentrations of hormones that indicate gonadal (testosterone) and adrenal (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate) functioning. Our results showed marked sexual differences in urine kisspeptins (controlled for body mass index and socioeconomic status). While concentrations were similar in both sexes until the age of around 12 years, in males there was a positive linear correlation with all developmental measures thereafter, while in girls, kisspeptin concentrations did not change. Our results are in line with those of previous studies using more invasive methods, such as measuring kisspeptins in blood samples. We conclude that urine kisspeptin concentrations have potential in exploring sex-specific peripheral action of these peptides

The reciprocal role of pubertal and metabolic status in cognitive development during early adolescence

Article data se

Associating puberty, metabolism and cognition

Cognition is influenced by pubertal and metabolic changes independently. However, these changes co-occur in adolescence and their combined role on cognition is unclear. We used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigated the association of pubertal and metabolic status latent factors, each composed of a pool of indicators, on intelligence markers in 278 early adolescents, cross-sectionally. The SEM model, controlled for socioeconomic status, included paths between latent factors and from them to the outcomes: two subtests of Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale (Block Design; Vocabulary). Metabolic status related to pubertal status only in girls, but did not affect performance. Differently, more advanced pubertal status (controled for age) was positively associated with better verbal (Vocabulary) and non-verbal (Block Design) intelligence in both sexes