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Genetic and geographical associations with six dimensions of psychotic experiences in adolesence
Get PDFBackground and Hypothesis: Large-scale epidemiological and genetic research have shown that psychotic experiences in the community are risk factors for adverse physical and psychiatric outcomes. We investigated the associations of six types of specific psychotic experiences and negative symptoms assessed in mid-adolescence with well-established environmental and genetic risk factors for psychosis.
Study Design: Fourteen polygenic risk scores (PRS) and nine geographical environmental variables from 3590 participants of the Twins Early Development Study (mean age 16) were associated with paranoia, hallucinations, cognitive disorganization, grandiosity, anhedonia, and negative symptoms scales. The predictors were modeled using LASSO regularization separately (Genetic and Environmental models) and jointly (GE model).
Study Results: In joint GE models, we found significant genetic associations of negative symptoms with educational attainment PRS (β = −.07; 95% CI = −0.12 to −0.04); cognitive disorganization with neuroticism PRS (β = .05; 95% CI = 0.03–0.08); paranoia with MDD (β = .07; 95% CI = 0.04–0.1), BMI (β = .05; 95% CI = 0.02–0.08), and neuroticism PRS (β = .05; 95% CI = 0.02–0.08). From the environmental measures only family SES (β = −.07, 95% CI = −0.10 to −0.03) and regional education levels (β = −.06; 95% CI = −0.09 to −0.02) were associated with negative symptoms.
Conclusions: Our findings advance understanding of how genetic propensity for psychiatric, cognitive, and anthropometric traits, as well as environmental factors, together play a role in creating vulnerability for specific psychotic experiences and negative symptoms in mid-adolescence
Heritability of psychological traits and developmental milestones in infancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFImportance Although infancy is the most rapid period of postnatal growth and development, factors associated with variation in infant traits are not well understood.
Objective To synthesize the large twin study literature partitioning phenotypic variance in psychological traits and developmental milestones in infancy into estimates of heritability and shared and nonshared environment.
Data Sources PubMed, PsycINFO, and references of included publications were searched up to February 11, 2021.
Study Selection Peer-reviewed publications using the classical twin design to study psychological traits and developmental milestones from birth to 2 years old were included.
Data Extraction and Synthesis Data were extracted in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and categorized using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Children and Youth Version. Data were pooled in 3-level random effects models, incorporating within-cohort variance in outcome measurement and between-cohort variance. Data were analyzed from March 2021 through September 2021.
Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcomes were monozygotic and dizygotic twin correlations. These were used to calculate genetic and shared and nonshared environment estimates.
Results Among 139 publications that were systematically retrieved, data were available on 79 044 twin pairs (31 053 monozygotic and 47 991 dizygotic pairs), 52 independent samples, and 21 countries. Meta-analyses were conducted on psychological traits and developmental milestones from 106 publications organized into 10 categories of functioning, disability, and health. Moderate to high genetic estimates for 8 categories were found, the highest of which was psychomotor functions (pooled h2, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.25-0.79; P < .001). Several categories of traits had substantial shared environment estimates, the highest being mental functions of language (pooled c2, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.24-0.86; P = .001). All examined categories of traits had moderate or high nonshared environment estimates, the highest of which were emotional functions (pooled e2, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.33-0.50; P < .001) and family relationships (pooled e2, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.30-0.55; P < .001).
Conclusions and Relevance These findings may be an important source of information to guide future gene discovery research, public perspectives on nature and nurture, and clinical insights into the degree to which family history and environments may estimate major domains of infant functioning, disability, and health in psychological traits and developmental milestones
How did COVID-19 shape co-creation? Insights and policy lessons from international initiatives
Get PDFCo-creation – the joint production of innovation between combinations of industry, research, government and civil society – was widely used to respond to COVID-19 challenges. This paper analyses 30 international co-creation initiatives that were implemented to address COVID-19 challenges. Evidence on these initiatives was gathered based on structured interviews with initiative leaders. Existing co-creation networks enabled the rapid emergence of new initiatives to address urgent needs, while digital technologies enabled establishing new – and, where necessary, socially distanced – collaborations. Aside from funding initiatives, governments engaged actively in co-creation by granting access to their networks, advising on initiative goals and offering support to improve quick delivery. The role of civil society was important as well, and the socially impactful nature of research and innovation was a motivating factor for engagement. Harnessing a similarly strong motivation is an important driver of effective future co-creation endeavours also to address the challenges of the green transition
Individual and organizational predictors of patient care: a multilevel analysis of the English National Health Service Staff Survey
Get PDFGrowing evidence attests to the importance of doctors’ psychosocial working conditions in relation to the provision of good quality patient care. However, few studies have explored the mechanisms of this relationship, including the role of work-related wellbeing as a mediator. Even fewer have done so from a multilevel perspective with organization-level predictors or informed by a theoretical framework. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we ran multilevel structural equation models to test: (i) whether individual and organization-level psychosocial predictors influence doctors’ self-reported perception of care provided; and (ii) whether psychological strain and work engagement mediate these relationships. Data was drawn from a national survey of doctors (n=14,066) and metrics from all 157 English hospital organizations. At the individual level, work overload and job control predicted quality of care, while workplace aggression and manager support did not. Indirect effects were observed for all examined psychosocial predictors and quality of care as mediated by work engagement. At the organization level, only work engagement mediated the relationships between the number of emergency admissions and the quality of organization and individual care. These findings emphasize the importance of positive manifestations of work-related wellbeing and the improvement of hospital working conditions. The JD-R model provides a useful framework at the individual level, although study design limitations may explain its incompatibility at the organization level
The significance of strong evaluation and narrativity in supporting capacity
No full textBook synopsis: This collection brings together leading international socio-legal and medico-legal scholars to explore the dilemma of how to support legal capacity in theory and practice. Traditionally, decisions for persons found to lack capacity are made by others, generally without reference to the person, and this applies especially to those with cognitive and psycho-social disabilities. This book examines the difficulties in establishing effective and deliverable supported decision-making, concluding that approaches to capacity need to be informed by a grounded understanding of how it operates in 'real life' contexts.
The book focuses on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which recognises the equal right to legal capacity of people with disabilities and requires States Parties to provide support for the exercise of this right. However, 10 years after the CRPD came into force, the shift to legal frameworks for supported decision-making remains at best only partial.
With 16 chapters written by contributors from the UK, Canada, Finland, India, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey, the collection takes a comparative and interdisciplinary approach. Many of the contributors have been directly involved in law reform processes in their home jurisdictions, and thus can combine both academic expertise and practical, grounded awareness of the challenges of legal change
Complex burial histories of Apollo 12 basaltic soil grains derived from cosmogenic noble gases: implications for local regolith evolution and future in situ investigations
Get PDFWe report the concentrations and isotope ratios of light noble gases (He, Ne, Ar) in ten small basalt fragments derived from lunar regolith soils at the Apollo 12 landing site. We use cosmic ray exposure and shielding condition histories to consider their geological context. We have devised a method of using cosmogenic Ne isotopes to partition the cosmic ray exposure history of each sample into two stages: a duration of ‘deep’ burial (shielding of 5-500 g/cm2) and a duration of near-surface exposure (shielding of 0 g/cm2). Three samples show evidence of measurable exposure at the lunar surface (durations of between 6 ± 2 to 7 ± 2 Myr). The remaining seven samples show evidence of a surface residence duration of less than a few hundred thousand years prior to collection. One sample records a single stage cosmic ray exposure age range of between 516 ± 36 and 1139 ± 121 Myr, within 0-5 g/cm2 of the lunar surface. This is consistent with derivation from ballistic sedimentation (i.e., local regolith reworking) during the Copernicus crater formation impact at ~ 800 Myr. The remaining samples show cosmic ray exposure age cluster around 124 ± 11 Myr, and 188 ± 15 Myr. We infer that local impacts, including Surveyor crater (180-240 Ma) and Head crater (144 Ma), may have brought these samples to depths where the cosmic ray flux was intense enough to produce measurable cosmogenic Ne isotopes. More recent small impacts that formed un-named craters may have exhumed these samples from their deep shielding conditions to the surface (i.e., ~0-5 g/cm2) prior to collection from the lunar surface during the Apollo 12 mission
Face recognition ability is manifest in early dynamic decoding of face-orientation selectivity – evidence from multi-variate pattern analysis of the neural response
No full textAlthough humans are considered to be face experts, there is a well-established reliable variation in the degree to which neurotypical individuals are able to learn and recognise faces. While many behavioural studies have characterised these differences, studies that seek to relate the neuronal response to standardised behavioural measures of ability remain relatively scarce, particularly so for the time-resolved approaches and the early response to face stimuli. In the present study we make use of a relatively recent methodological advance, multi-variate pattern analysis (MVPA), to decode the time course of the neural response to faces compared to other object categories (inverted faces, objects). Importantly, for the first time, we directly relate metrics of this decoding assessed at the individual level to gold-standard measures of behavioural face processing ability assessed in an independent task. Thirty-nine participants completed the behavioural Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), then viewed images of faces and houses (presented upright and inverted) while their neural activity was measured via electroencephalography. Significant decoding of both face orientation and face category were observed in all individual participants. Decoding of face orientation, a marker of more advanced face processing, was earlier and stronger in participants with higher levels of face expertise, while decoding of face category information was earlier but not stronger for individuals with greater face expertise. Taken together these results provide a marker of significant differences in the early neuronal response to faces from around 100ms post stimulus as a function of behavioural expertise with faces.
Inês Mares12*, Louise Ewing3*, Michael Papasavva1, Emmanuel Ducrocq1, Fraser W. Smith3, Marie L. Smith1,
Advanced two- and three-dimensional insights into Earth’s oldest stromatolites (ca. 3.5 Ga): prospects for the search for life on Mars
Get PDFPaleoarchean stromatolites are among the oldest compelling evidence for life. We present advanced two- and three-dimensional (2-D and 3-D) reconstructions of the morphology, mineralogy, trace element geochemistry, and taphonomy of permineralized stromatolites from the lowermost horizons of the ca. 3.5 Ga Dresser Formation, Pilbara, Western Australia. Rare earth element plus yttrium compositions suggest a restricted paleodepositional setting influenced by marine influxes; this contrasts with other Dresser stromatolites, which developed around terrestrial hot springs. Mineral phase relationships and positive Eu anomalies denote syndepositional hydrothermal influence and silicification promoting high-fidelity microstructural preservation. Although no primary kerogen is preserved, numerous 2-D and 3-D morphological characteristics denote a biogenic origin, including the onlap of sedimentary layers onto stromatolitic topography, fine-scale undulatory laminations, non-isopachous laminations with crestal thickening, laminoid fenestrae, and subvertical pillar-like fabrics interpreted as microbial palisade structure; these features suggest that the stromatolite eco-system was dominantly phototrophic. The deep iron-rich weathering profile of the Dresser stromatolites makes them pertinent analogues for potential microbialites in altered carbonates on Mars. Were similar putative biogenic macro-, meso- and micromorphologies identified in habitable Martian settings by rover imaging systems, such materials would be compelling targets for sample return
Motor learning in hemi-Parkinson using VR-manipulated sensory feedback
No full textAims: Modalities for rehabilitation of the neurologically affected upper-limb (UL) are generally of limited benefit. The majority of patients seriously affected by UL paresis remain with severe motor disability, despite all rehabilitation efforts. Consequently, extensive clinical research is dedicated to develop novel strategies aimed to improve the functional outcome of the affected UL. We have developed a novel virtualreality training tool that exploits the voluntary control of one hand and provides real-time movementbased manipulated sensory feedback as if the other hand is the one that moves. The aim of this study was to expand our previous results, obtained in healthy subjects, to examine the utility of this training setup in the context of neuro-rehabilitation. Methods: We tested the training setup in patient LA, a young man with significant unilateral UL dysfunction stemming from hemi-parkinsonism. LA underwent daily intervention in which he intensively trained the non-affected upper limb, while receiving online sensory feedback that created an illusory perception of control over the affected limb. Neural changes were assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans before and after training. Results: Training-induced behavioral gains were accompanied by enhanced activation in the pre-frontal cortex and a widespread increase in resting-state functional connectivity. Discussion: Our combination of cutting edge technologies, insights gained from basic motor neuroscience in healthy subjects and well-known clinical treatments, hold promise for the pursuit of finding novel and more efficient rehabilitation schemes for patients suffering from hemiplegia
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