A corpus of images and text in online news

In recent years, several datasets have been released that include images and text, giving impulse to new methods that combine natural language processing and computer vision. However, there is a need for datasets of images in their natural textual context. The ION corpus contains 300K news articles published between August 2014 - 2015 in five online newspapers from two countries. The 1-year coverage over multiple publishers ensures a broad scope in terms of topics, image quality and editorial viewpoints. The corpus consists of JSON-LD files with the following data about each article: the original URL of the article on the news publisher’s website, the date of publication, the headline of the article, the URL of the image displayed with the article (if any), and the caption of that image. Neither the article text nor the images themselves are included in the corpus. Instead, the images are distributed as high-dimensional feature vectors extracted from a Convolutional Neural Network, anticipating their use in computer vision tasks. The article text is represented as a list of automatically generated entity and topic annotations in the form of Wikipedia/DBpedia pages. This facilitates the selection of subsets of the corpus for separate analysis or evaluation

A Network Model of Resilience Factors for Adolescents with and without Exposure to Childhood Adversity.

Resilience factors (RFs) help prevent mental health problems after childhood adversity (CA). RFs are known to be related, but it is currently unknown how their interrelations facilitate mental health. Here, we used network analysis to examine the interrelations between ten RFs in 14-year-old adolescents exposed ('CA'; n = 638) and not exposed to CA ('no-CA'; n = 501). We found that the degree to which RFs are assumed to enhance each other is higher in the no-CA compared to the CA group. Upon correction for general distress levels, the global RF connectivity also differed between the two groups. More specifically, in the no-CA network almost all RFs were positively interrelated and thus may enhance each other, whereas in the CA network some RFs were negatively interrelated and thus may hamper each other. Moreover, the CA group showed more direct connections between the RFs and current distress. Therefore, CA seems to influence how RFs relate to each other and to current distress, potentially leading to a dysfunctional RF system. Translational research could explore whether intervening on negative RF interrelations so that they turn positive and RFs can enhance each other, may alter 'RF-mental distress' relations, resulting in a lower risk for subsequent mental health problems.EI is funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant (no. 647209). IG is funded by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award and declares consulting to Lundbeck. ALvH is supported by the Royal Society (DH15017 & RGF\EA\180029 & RFG/RI/180064), and MQ (MQBFC/2). JF is supported by the Medical Research Council Doctoral Training/Sackler Fund and the Pinsent Darwin Fund. Funders of the authors played no role in the study conduction, analysis performance, or the reporting of the study

A Network Model of Resilience Factors for Adolescents with and without Exposure to Childhood Adversity

Resilience factors (RFs) help prevent mental health problems after childhood adversity (CA). RFs are known to be related, but it is currently unknown how their interrelations facilitate mental health. Here, we used network analysis to examine the interrelations between ten RFs in 14-year-old adolescents exposed (‘CA’; n = 638) and not exposed to CA (‘no-CA’; n = 501). We found that the degree to which RFs are assumed to enhance each other is higher in the no-CA compared to the CA group. Upon correction for general distress levels, the global RF connectivity also differed between the two groups. More specifically, in the no-CA network almost all RFs were positively interrelated and thus may enhance each other, whereas in the CA network some RFs were negatively interrelated and thus may hamper each other. Moreover, the CA group showed more direct connections between the RFs and current distress. Therefore, CA seems to influence how RFs relate to each other and to current distress, potentially leading to a dysfunctional RF system. Translational research could explore whether intervening on negative RF interrelations so that they turn positive and RFs can enhance each other, may alter ‘RF-mental distress’ relations, resulting in a lower risk for subsequent mental health problems.FSW - Self-regulation models for health behavior and psychopathology - ou

Friendships and Family Support Reduce Subsequent Depressive Symptoms in At-Risk Adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Early life stress (ELS) consists of child family adversities (CFA: negative experiences that happened within the family environment) and/or peer bullying. ELS plays an important role in the development of adolescent depressive symptoms and clinical disorders. Identifying factors that may reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents with ELS may have important public mental health implications. METHODS: We used structural equation modelling and examined the impact of adolescent friendships and/or family support at age 14 on depressive symptoms at age 17 in adolescents exposed to ELS before age 11. To this end, we used structural equation modelling in a community sample of 771 adolescents (322 boys and 477 girls) from a 3 year longitudinal study. Significant paths in the model were followed-up to test whether social support mediated or moderated the association between ELS and depressive symptoms at age 17. RESULTS: We found that adolescent social support in adolescence is negatively associated with subsequent depressive symptoms in boys and girls exposed to ELS. Specifically, we found evidence for two mediational pathways: In the first pathway family support mediated the link between CFA and depressive symptoms at age 17. Specifically, CFA was negatively associated with adolescent family support at age 14, which in turn was negatively associated with depressive symptoms at age 17. In the second pathway we found that adolescent friendships mediated the path between peer bullying and depressive symptoms. Specifically, relational bullying was negatively associated with adolescent friendships at age 14, which in turn were negatively associated with depressive symptoms at age 17. In contrast, we did not find a moderating effect of friendships and family support on the association between CFA and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Friendships and/or family support in adolescence mediate the relationship between ELS and late adolescent depressive symptoms in boys and girls. Therefore, enhancing affiliate relationships and positive family environments may benefit the mental health of vulnerable youth that have experienced CFA and/or primary school bullying.AlvH was supported by a Rubicon Fellowship from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. IMG was supported by a Wellcome Trust programme grant, and grants from the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research, and Care (CLAHRC) for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; IMG, AlvH, and JLG were supported through a grant from Kidscompany UK; PBJ was supported by Wellcome Trust grants, and National Institute for Health Research grant; RAK is supported by a Wellcome grant; JLG reports grants from ESRC, grants from MRC, grants, and personal fees from Royal College of Speech, and Language therapists.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.015371

The association between pubertal status and depressive symptoms and diagnoses in adolescent females: A population-based cohort study

Background: There is an association between puberty and depression, but many things remain poorly understood. When assessing puberty in females, most studies combine indicators of breast and pubic hair development which are controlled by different hormonal pathways. The contributions of pubertal timing (age at onset) and pubertal status (stage of development, irrespective of timing) are also poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that stage of breast development in female adolescents, controlled largely by increased estradiol, would be more strongly associated with depression than pubic hair development which occurs in both males and females, and is controlled by adrenal androgens. We investigated whether this association was independent of pubertal timing. Methods: ROOTS is an ongoing cohort of 1,238 adolescents (54% female) recruited in Cambridgeshire (UK) at age 14.5, and followed-up at ages 16 and 17.5. Depression was assessed using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) and clinical interview. Breast and pubic hair development were assessed at 14.5, using Tanner rating scales. Results: For each increase in Tanner breast stage at 14.5, depressive symptoms increased by 1.4 MFQ points (95% CI 0.6 to 2.3), irrespective of age at onset. Pubic hair status was only associated with depressive symptoms before adjustment for breast status, and was not associated with depression in males. The same pattern was observed longitudinally, and for depression diagnoses. Limitations: We did not directly measure hormone levels, our findings are observational, and the study had a relatively low response rate. Conclusions: Females at more advanced stages of breast development are at increased risk of depression, even if their age at pubertal onset is not early. Alongside social and psychological factors, hormones controlling breast but not pubic hair development may contribute to increased incidence of female depression during puberty

Dietary Mannan Oligosaccharides Modulate Gut Microbiota, Increase Fecal Bile Acid Excretion, and Decrease Plasma Cholesterol and Atherosclerosis Development

Functional Genomics of Systemic Disorder

Unravelling the complex nature of resilience factors and their changes between early and later adolescence

Abstract: Background: Childhood adversity (CA) is strongly associated with mental health problems. Resilience factors (RFs) reduce mental health problems following CA. Yet, knowledge on the nature of RFs is scarce. Therefore, we examined RF mean levels, RF interrelations, RF-distress pathways, and their changes between early (age 14) and later adolescence (age 17). Methods: We studied 10 empirically supported RFs in adolescents with (CA+; n = 631) and without CA (CA−; n = 499), using network psychometrics. Results: All inter-personal RFs (e.g. friendships) showed stable mean levels between age 14 and 17, and three of seven intra-personal RFs (e.g. distress tolerance) changed in a similar manner in the two groups. The CA+ group had lower RFs and higher distress at both ages. Thus, CA does not seem to inhibit RF changes, but to increase the risk of persistently lower RFs. At age 14, but not 17, the RF network of the CA+ group was less positively connected, suggesting that RFs are less likely to enhance each other than in the CA− group. Those findings underpin the notion that CA has a predominantly strong proximal effect. RF-distress pathways did not differ in strength between the CA+ and the CA− group, which suggests that RFs have a similarly protective strength in the two groups. Yet, as RFs are lower and distress is higher, RF-distress pathways may overall be less advantageous in the CA+ group. Most RF interrelations and RF-distress pathways were stable between age 14 and 17, which may help explain why exposure to CA is frequently found to have a lasting impact on mental health. Conclusions: Our findings not only shed light on the nature and changes of RFs between early and later adolescence, but also offer some accounts for why exposure to CA has stronger proximal effects and is often found to have a lasting impact on mental health