Maternal depressive symptoms and child social preference during the early school years: Mediation by maternal warmth and child emotion regulation

This longitudinal study examined processes that mediate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and peer social preference during the early school years. Three hundred and fifty six kindergarten children (182 boys) and their mothers participated in the study. During kindergarten, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. In first grade, teachers rated children's emotion regulation at school and observers rated the affective quality of mother-child interactions. During second grade, children's social preference was assessed by peer nomination. Results indicated that mothers' level of depressive symptomatology negatively predicted their child's social preference 2 years later, controlling for the family SES and teacher-rated social preference during kindergarten. Among European American families, the association between maternal depressive symptoms and social preference was partially mediated by maternal warmth and the child's emotion regulation. Although the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and children peer preference was stronger among African American families than Europrean American families, its mediation by the maternal warmth and child's emotion regulation was not found in African American families. © 2010 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

CPT and Lorentz-invariance violation

The largest gap in our understanding of nature at the fundamental level is perhaps a unified description of gravity and quantum theory. Although there are currently a variety of theoretical approaches to this question, experimental research in this field is inhibited by the expected Planck-scale suppression of quantum-gravity effects. However, the breakdown of spacetime symmetries has recently been identified as a promising signal in this context: a number of models for underlying physics can accommodate minuscule Lorentz and CPT violation, and such effects are amenable to ultrahigh-precision tests. This presentation will give an overview of the subject. Topics such as motivations, the SME test framework, mechanisms for relativity breakdown, and experimental tests will be reviewed. Emphasis is given to observations involving antimatter.Comment: 6 page

Near-Ultraviolet Mutagenesis in Superoxide Dismutase-deficient Strains of Escherichia coli.

We compared mutagenic spectra induced by polychromatic near-ultraviolet radiation (near-UV; 300-400 nm) with superoxide anion (O2-) -dependent mutagenesis using a set of Escherichia coli tester strains. Near-UV radiation produced increased frequencies of G:C to A:T transitions, G:C to T:A and A:T to T:A transversions, and small increases in frameshift mutations in wild-type cells. Tester strains lacking superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity (sodAsodB double mutants) demonstrated high spontaneous mutation frequencies and increased near-UV sensitivity. The double mutants also showed increased mutations induced by near-UV compared to either isogenic wild type, sodA or sodB single mutants. Futhermore, these mutants had an unusual spontaneous mutation spectrum, with a predominance of A:T to T:A transversions, followed by G:C to T:A transversions and frameshifts generated in runs of adenines in both the +1 and -1 direction. Other frameshifts were detected to a lesser degree. The oxygen dependency and the type of mutations spontaneously induced in SOD-deficient cells indicated that this mutagenic spectrum was caused by oxidative DNA damage. However, no apparent synergistic action between near-UV radiation and an increased flux of O2- could be detected. From the frequency and types of mutations induced by the two agents, we speculate that near-UV-induced mutagenesis and O2--dependent mutagenesis involve, in part, different lesion(s) and/or mechanism(s). The nature and possible mutagenic pathways of each are discussed

Improvements in vision-related quality of life in blind patients implanted with the Argus II Epiretinal Prosthesis

Background: The purpose of this analysis is to report the change in quality of life (QoL) after treatment with the Argus II Epiretinal Prosthesis in patients with end-stage retinitis pigmentosa. Methods: The Vision and Quality of Life Index (VisQoL) was used to assess changes in QoL dimensions and overall utility score in a prospective 30-patient single-arm clinical study. VisQoL is a multi-attribute instrument consisting of six dimensions (injury, life, roles, assistance, activity and friendship) that may be affected by visual impairment. Within each dimension, patients were divided into two groups based on how much their QoL was affected by their blindness at baseline (moderate/severe or minimal). Outcomes were compared within each dimension sub-group between baseline and the combined follow-up periods using the Friedman test. In addition, data from the six dimensions were combined into a single utility score, with baseline data compared to the combined follow-up periods. Results: Overall, 80 per cent of the patients reported difficulty in one or more dimensions preimplant. Composite VisQoL utility scores at follow-up showed no statistically significant change from baseline; however, in three of the six VisQoL dimensions (injury, life and roles), patients with baseline deficits showed significant and lasting improvement after implantation with Argus II. In two of the three remaining dimensions (assistance and activity), data trended toward an improvement. In the final VisQoL dimension (friendship), none of the patients reported baseline deficits, suggesting that patients had largely adjusted to this attribute. Conclusion: Patients whose vision negatively affected them with respect to three VisQoL dimensions (that is, getting injured, coping with the demands of their life and fulfilling their life roles) reported significant improvement in QoL after implantation of the Argus II retinal prosthesis. Furthermore, the benefit did not deteriorate at any point during the 36-month follow-up, suggesting a long-term, durable improvement

‘Thrown in at the deep end’: a qualitative analysis into the transition from trainee to consultant during the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons for the future

Background Sustained crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic would be expected to impact the transition from trainee to consultant for anaesthetists or intensivists, but limited research exists on this important topic. This study aimed to examine the social context of this crucial career transition during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with anaesthetists and intensivists who became consultants after the first UK lockdown. Thematic analysis was used and data saturation was reached at 33 interviews. Results The pandemic substantially impacted the transition to consultant role in various ways, including professional identity, clinical and non-clinical responsibilities, and wellbeing. Participants experienced identity confusion, self-doubt, and moral injury, resulting in intense emotional distress, feelings of guilt and helplessness, which persisted beyond the pandemic. They also felt unprepared for their consultant roles because of disruptions in training. The pandemic exaggerated the vulnerability of those transitioning to consultants, because of increased clinical uncertainties, and pressures of the growing backlog. Additionally, the pandemic impacted on the wellbeing of those transitioning to consultants, intensifying feelings of anxiety and stress. We also identified unique opportunities presented by the pandemic, which accelerated learning and encouraged post-traumatic growth. Our study identified practical solutions that may improve transition experience at individual, organisational, and national levels. Conclusions Persistent crises significantly impact the transition from trainee to consultant. Our findings generated insights into the challenges of this critical career transition and staff wellbeing, and serve to inform approaches of ongoing support for those transitioning to consultants

True Neutrality as a New Type of Flavour

A classification of leptonic currents with respect to C-operation requires the separation of elementary particles into the two classes of vector C-even and axial-vector C-odd character. Their nature has been created so that to each type of lepton corresponds a kind of neutrino. Such pairs are united in families of a different C-parity. Unlike the neutrino of a vector type, any C-noninvariant Dirac neutrino must have his Majorana neutrino. They constitute the purely neutrino families. We discuss the nature of a corresponding mechanism responsible for the availability in all types of axial-vector particles of a kind of flavour which distinguishes each of them from others by a true charge characterized by a quantum number conserved at the interactions between the C-odd fermion and the field of emission of the corresponding types of gauge bosons. This regularity expresses the unidenticality of truly neutral neutrino and antineutrino, confirming that an internal symmetry of a C-noninvariant particle is described by an axial-vector space. Thereby, a true flavour together with the earlier known lepton flavour predicts the existence of leptonic strings and their birth in single and double beta decays as a unity of flavour and gauge symmetry laws. Such a unified principle explains the availability of a flavour symmetrical mode of neutrino oscillations.Comment: 19 pages, LaTex, Published version in IJT

The origin of life: chemical evolution of a metabolic system in a mineral honeycomb?

For the RNA-world hypothesis to be ecologically feasible, selection mechanisms acting on replicator communities need to be invoked and the corresponding scenarios of molecular evolution specified. Complementing our previous models of chemical evolution on mineral surfaces, in which selection was the consequence of the limited mobility of macromolecules attached to the surface, here we offer an alternative realization of prebiotic group-level selection: the physical encapsulation of local replicator communities into the pores of the mineral substrate. Based on cellular automaton simulations we argue that the effect of group selection in a mineral honeycomb could have been efficient enough to keep prebiotic ribozymes of different specificities and replication rates coexistent, and their metabolic cooperation protected from extensive molecular parasitism. We suggest that mutants of the mild parasites persistent in the metabolic system can acquire useful functions such as replicase activity or the production of membrane components, thus opening the way for the evolution of the first autonomous protocells on Earth

The Precursors and Products of Justice Climates: Group Leader Antecedents and Employee Attitudinal Consequences

Drawing on the organizational justice, organizational climate, leadership and personality, and social comparison theory literatures, we develop hypotheses about the effects of leader personality on the development of three types of justice climates (e.g., procedural, interpersonal, and informational), and the moderating effects of these climates on individual level justice- attitude relationships. Largely consistent with the theoretically-derived hypotheses, the results showed that leader (a) agreeableness was positively related to procedural, interpersonal and informational justice climates, (b) conscientiousness was positively related to a procedural justice climate, and (c) neuroticism was negatively related to all three types of justice climates. Further, consistent with social comparison theory, multilevel data analyses revealed that the relationship between individual justice perceptions and job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment) was moderated by justice climate such that the relationships were stronger when justice climate was high