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Parent-child interaction during the first year of life in infants at elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) likely emerges from a complex interaction between pre-existing neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and the environment. The interaction with parents forms a key aspect of an infant’s social environment, but few prospective studies of infants at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (who have an older sibling with ASD) have examined parent-child interactions in the first year of life. As part of a European multisite network, parent-child dyads of free play were observed at 5 months (62 EL infants, 47 infants at typical likelihood (TL)) and 10 months (101 EL siblings, 77 TL siblings). The newly-developed Parent-Infant/Toddler Coding of Interaction (PInTCI) scheme was used, focusing on global characteristics of infant and parent behaviors. Coders were blind to participant information. Linear mixed model analyses showed no significant group differences in infant or parent behaviors at 5 or 10 months of age (all ps≥0.09, d≤0.36), controlling for infant’s sex and age, and parental educational level. However, without adjustments, EL infants showed fewer and less clear initiations at 10 months than TL infants (p = 0.02, d = 0.44), but statistical significance was lost after controlling for parental education (p = 0.09, d = 0.36), which tended to be lower in the EL group. Consistent with previous literature focusing on parent-infant dyads, our findings suggest that differences between EL and TL dyads may only be subtle during the first year of life. We discuss possible explanations and implications for future developmental studies
Practising everyday abolition
This chapter offers some strategies and examples for taking an everyday approach to prison and police abolition
Measuring self confidence in workplace settings: a conceptual and methodological review of measures of self confidence, self-efficacy and self-esteem
MIT Press to publish monographs open access from 2022
An article in the Times Higher with a quote from Martin Paul Ev
Early differences in auditory processing relate to Autism Spectrum Disorder traits in infants with Neurofribramatosis Type I
Background: sensory modulation difficulties are common in children with conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and could contribute to other social and non-social symptoms. Positing a causal role for sensory processing differences requires observing atypicalsensory reactivity prior to the emergence of other symptoms, which can be achieved through prospective studies. Methods: in this longitudinalstudy, we examined auditory repetition suppression and change detection at 5 and 10-months ininfants with and without Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), a condition associated with higher likelihood of developing ASD. Results: in typically developing infants, suppression to vowel repetition and enhancedresponses to vowel/pitchchangedecreased with ageoverposterior regions, becoming more frontally-specific; age-related change was diminished in the NF1group. Whilst both groups detected changes in vowel and pitch, the NF1group were largely slower to show a differentiated neural response. Auditory responses did not relate to later language but were related to later ASD traits. Conclusions: these findings represent the first demonstration of atypical brain responses to soundsin infants with NF1, and suggests they may relate to the likelihood of later ASD
The false promise of hate crime laws
A blog piece which explains how hate crime laws work and argues that longer sentences and widening criminalisation does not increase community safety
Cenozoic Dynamic Topography of Madagascar
It has been proposed that Oligo-Miocene regional uplift of Madagascar was generated and is maintained by mantle dynamical processes. Expressions of regional uplift include flat-lying Upper Cretaceous-Paleogene marine limestones that crop out at elevations of hundreds of meters along the western seaboard and emergent Quaternary coral-rich terraces that rim the coastline. Here, we explore the history of subcrustal topographic support through a combined analysis of four sets of observational constraints. First, we exploit published receiver function estimates of crustal thickness and spectral admittance between gravity and topography. An admittance value of ∼+40 ± 10 mGal km−1 at wavelengths >500 km implies that ∼1 km of topography is supported by subcrustal processes. Secondly, new apatite fission-track and helium measurements from 18 basement samples are inverted, constraining temperature and denudation histories. Results suggest that 0.5–1.6 km of regional uplift occurred after ∼30 Ma. Thirdly, we calculate a history of regional uplift by minimizing the misfit between observed and calculated longitudinal river profiles. Results suggest that topography was generated during Neogene times. Finally, inverse modeling of rare earth element concentrations in Neogene mafic rocks indicates that melting of the asthenospheric source occurred at depths of ≤65 km with potential temperatures of 1300–1370 °C. Melting occurred at higher temperatures beneath Réunion Island and northern Madagascar and at lower temperatures beneath the Comores and southern Madagascar. These inferences are consistent with shear wave velocities obtained from tomographic models. We conclude that Madagascar is underlain by thinned lithospheric mantle and that a thermal anomaly lies within an asthenospheric layer beneath northern Madagascar
Neurocognitive efficiency in breast cancer survivorship: a performance monitoring ERP study
Breast cancer diagnosis and treatment can lead to longer term cognitive and emotional vulnerability, making the ability to efficiently adapt to setbacks critical. Whilst cancer-related cognitive impairments (CRCI) are often reported amongst breast cancer survivors, investigation into the capacity to efficiently process errors is limited. The present study investigated the neurocognitive correlates of cognitive-control related performance monitoring, an important function influencing behavioural adjustment to mistakes. 62 participants (30 Breast Cancer Survivors, 32 Non-Cancer) completed a modified flanker task designed to challenge response inhibition as we measured neurocognitive indices of performance monitoring (ERN, the error-related negativity; CRN, the correct-response negativity; Pe, the error positivity). Findings indicated a blunted CRN and larger ∆ERN in the breast cancer survivors compared to the non-cancer group, in the absence of performance effects. This was followed by larger Pe in the breast cancer survivors’ group, indicating an exaggerated performance monitoring response. For women affected by breast cancer, findings suggest an early disrupted neural response to monitoring cognitive performance, followed by the requirement for more effortful processing in the conscious response to errors, indicating deficits in neurocognitive efficiency. These findings have important implications for developing cognitive rehabilitation programmes for breast cancer survivors affected by cognitive dysfunction to assist in the monitoring and adjustment of performance required to meet established goals in the face of adversity
Holocene paleoenvironmental change inferred from two sediment cores collected in the Tibetan lake Taro Co
The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the ‘‘Water Tower of Asia’’ because of its function as a water storage and supply region, responds dramatically to modern climate changes. Paleoecological shifts inferred from lake sediment archives provide essential insights into past climate changes, and the processes that drove those shifts. This is especially true for studies of lakes in endorheic basins on the Tibetan Plateau, where lake level is regulated pre-dominantly by Monsoon intensity. Such water bodies provide excellent opportunities to reconstruct past changes in humidity. Most paleolimnological investigations of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau, however, have involved the study of a single sediment core, making it difficult to discern between changes caused by local events and those caused by lake-wide or regional processes. Here we present results from a paleolimnological study of Lake Taro Co, a currently closed-basin lake in Central Tibet. We compared a sediment record from the central part of the lake to a record from the near-shore area, and present results of sedimentological and bioindicator (chironomid, diatom, pollen) analyses from both records. Results show three periods of lake-wide ecosystem change ([ca. 5250, 5250–2250 and since about 2250 cal year BP), which reflect a continuous drying trend throughout the Middle and Late Holocene. In addition to this lake-wide trend, we identified two local events in the sediment core from the southeastern, nearshore site. These include (1) a hiatus between 12,400 and 5400 cal year BP and (2) an 1800-year period of distinct paleoenvironmental conditions (5400–3600 cal year BP). We hypothesize that both events were caused by relocation of a river in the southeast sector of the lake’s catchment. We propose that the first relocation caused an erosion event that removed sediment, thereby producing the hiatus. During the following 1800 years, the core site may have been located on the river delta, before another river relocation at 3600 cal year BP established the modern prodelta situation. Our study demonstrates the value of using multiple sediment cores from a lake, to better identify processes that control widespread versus local events
Oceans apart: work-life boundaries and the effects of an oversupply of segmentation
Employment trends see work and personal life domains becoming both more integrated (e.g., flexible working) and more segmented (e.g., global careers). Trends toward more extreme segmentation or integration may lead to a greater risk of misfit between employee preferences for and organizational supplies of integration/segmentation. This paper investigates the impact of organizational fit and misfit within a highly segmented occupational context: offshore work. With lengthy rotations away from home, followed by long periods away from work, limited inter-role communications and reduced day-to-day transitions between work and non-work roles, offshore work offers a segmented work-life interface. Fit and misfit of integration-segmentation preferences with perceptions of organizational integration-segmentation supply were examined among offshore employees, as well as their counterparts working traditional, office-based schedules. Using polynomial regression and response surface analysis, the impact of fit and misfit on work-life conflict, enrichment and organizational commitment was assessed. The data show that misfit resulting from an oversupply of segmentation may result in behavioral work-to-life conflict, associated with the reduced number of transitions between work and home roles, strain-based conflict, and a reduced transfer of resources from work to home resulting in less developmental work-life enrichment and organizational commitment. These findings contribute to existing literature by identifying the impact of misfit resulting from segmentation oversupply on individual and organizational outcomes, emphasizing the need for HR practitioners to recognize the potential for and impact of different forms of misfit within the changing landscape of their own organizational environments