Adolescence is a key time period for the emergence of psychosocial and mental health difficulties. To promote adolescent adaptive ('resilient') psychosocial functioning (PSF), appropriate ...conceptualisation and quantification of such functioning and its predictors is a crucial first step. Here, we quantify resilient functioning as the degree to which an individual functions better or worse than expected given their self-reported childhood family experiences, and relate this to adolescent family and friendship support.
We used Principal Component and regression analyses to investigate the relationship between childhood family experiences and PSF (psychiatric symptomatology, personality traits and mental wellbeing) in healthy adolescents (the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network; N = 2389; ages 14-24). Residuals from the relation between childhood family experiences and PSF reflect resilient functioning; the degree to which an individual is functioning better, or worse, than expected given their childhood family experiences. Next, we relate family and friendship support with resilient functioning both cross-sectionally and 1 year later.
Friendship and family support were positive predictors of immediate resilient PSF, with friendship support being the strongest predictor. However, whereas friendship support was a significant positive predictor of later resilient functioning, family support had a negative relationship with later resilient PSF.
We show that friendship support, but not family support, is an important positive predictor of both immediate and later resilient PSF in adolescence and early adulthood. Interventions that promote the skills needed to acquire and sustain adolescent friendships may be crucial in increasing adolescent resilient PSF.
This paper investigates the uncertainty in the impact of climate change on flood frequency in England, through the use of continuous simulation of river flows. Six different sources of uncertainty ...are discussed: future greenhouse gas emissions; Global Climate Model (GCM) structure; downscaling from GCMs (including Regional Climate Model structure); hydrological model structure; hydrological model parameters and the internal variability of the climate system (sampled by applying different GCM initial conditions). These sources of uncertainty are demonstrated (separately) for two example catchments in England, by propagation through to flood frequency impact. The results suggest that uncertainty from GCM structure is by far the largest source of uncertainty. However, this is due to the extremely large increases in winter rainfall predicted by one of the five GCMs used. Other sources of uncertainty become more significant if the results from this GCM are omitted, although uncertainty from sources relating to modelling of the future climate is generally still larger than that relating to emissions or hydrological modelling. It is also shown that understanding current and future natural variability is critical in assessing the importance of climate change impacts on hydrology.
The motion of an artificial microscale swimmer that uses a chemical reaction catalyzed on its own surface to achieve autonomous propulsion is fully characterized experimentally. It is shown that at ...short times it has a substantial component of directed motion, with a velocity that depends on the concentration of fuel molecules. At longer times, the motion reverts to a random walk with a substantially enhanced diffusion coefficient. Our results suggest strategies for designing artificial chemotactic systems.
Immune abnormalities have been described in some individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) as well as their family members. However, few studies have directly investigated the role of ...prenatal cytokine and chemokine profiles on neurodevelopmental outcomes in humans. In the current study, we characterized mid-gestational serum profiles of 22 cytokines and chemokines in mothers of children with ASD (N=415), developmental delay (DD) without ASD (N=188), and general population (GP) controls (N=428) using a bead-based multiplex technology. The ASD group was further divided into those with intellectual disabilities (developmental/cognitive and adaptive composite score<70) (ASD+ID, N=184) and those without (composite score⩾70) (ASD-noID, N=201). Levels of cytokines and chemokines were compared between groups using multivariate logistic regression analyses, adjusting for maternal age, ethnicity, birth country and weight, as well as infant gender, birth year and birth month. Mothers of children with ASD+ID had significantly elevated mid-gestational levels of numerous cytokines and chemokines, such as granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, interferon-γ, interleukin-1α (IL-1α) and IL-6, compared with mothers of children with either ASD-noID, those with DD, or GP controls. Conversely, mothers of children with either ASD-noID or with DD had significantly lower levels of the chemokines IL-8 and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 compared with mothers of GP controls. This observed immunologic distinction between mothers of children with ASD+ID from mothers of children with ASD-noID or DD suggests that the intellectual disability associated with ASD might be etiologically distinct from DD without ASD. These findings contribute to the ongoing efforts toward identification of early biological markers specific to subphenotypes of ASD.
Using effective temperature and metallicity derived from SDSS spectra for image60,000 F- and G-type main-sequence stars, we develop polynomial models for estimating these parameters from the SDSS ...image and image colors. These photometric estimates have similar error properties as those determined from SDSS spectra. We apply this method to SDSS photometric data for over 2 million F/G stars and measure the unbiased metallicity distribution for a complete volume-limited sample of stars at distances between 500 pc and 8 kpc. The metallicity distribution can be exquisitely modeled using two components with a spatially varying number ratio, which correspond to disk and halo. The two components also possess the kinematics expected for disk and halo stars. The metallicity of the halo component is spatially invariant, while the median disk metallicity smoothly decreases with distance from the Galactic plane from -0.6 at 500 pc to -0.8 beyond several kiloparsecs. The absence of a correlation between metallicity and kinematics for disk stars is in a conflict with the traditional decomposition in terms of thin and thick disks. We detect coherent substructures in the kinematics-metallicity space, such as the Monoceros stream, which rotates faster than the LSR, and has a median metallicity of image, with an rms scatter of only image0.15 dex. We extrapolate our results to the performance expected from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and estimate that LSST will obtain metallicity measurements accurate to 0.2 dex or better, with proper-motion measurements accurate to image0.5 mas yr super(-1), for about 200 million F/G dwarf stars within a distance limit of image100 kpc.
In this review, we discuss the role of the tumour-associated carbonic anhydrase isoform IX (CAIX) in the context of pH regulation. We summarise recent experimental findings on the effect of CAIX on ...cell growth and survival, and present a diffusion-reaction model to help in the assessment of CAIX function under physiological conditions. CAIX emerges as an important facilitator of acid diffusion and acid transport, helping to overcome large cell-to-capillary distances that are characteristic of solid tumours. The source of substrate for CAIX catalysis is likely to be CO₂, generated by adequately oxygenated mitochondria or from the titration of metabolic acids with HCO₃⁻ taken up from the extracellular milieu. The relative importance of these pathways will depend on oxygen and metabolite availability, the spatiotemporal patterns of the cell's exposure to hypoxia and on the regulation of metabolism by genes. This is now an important avenue for further investigation. The importance of CAIX in regulating tumour pH highlights the protein as a potential target for cancer therapy.
A diet rich in dairy and calcium (Ca) has been variably associated with improvements in body composition and decreased risk of type 2 diabetes. Our objective was to determine if a dietary pattern ...high in dairy and Ca improves weight loss and subjective appetite to a greater extent than a low dairy/Ca diet during energy restriction in overweight and obese adults with metabolic syndrome.
A total of 49 participants were randomized to one of two treatment groups: Control (low dairy, ≈ 700 mg/day Ca, -500 kcal/day) or Dairy/Ca (high dairy, ≈ 1400 mg/day Ca, -500 kcal/day) for 12 weeks. Body composition, subjective ratings of appetite, food intake, plasma satiety hormones, glycemic response and inflammatory cytokines were measured.
Control (-2.2 ± 0.5 kg) and Dairy/Ca (-3.3 ± 0.6 kg) had similar weight loss. Based on self-reported energy intake, the percentage of expected weight loss achieved was higher with Dairy/Ca (82.1 ± 19.4%) than Control (32.2 ± 7.7%; P=0.03). Subjects in the Dairy/Ca group reported feeling more satisfied (P=0.01) and had lower dietary fat intake (P=0.02) over 12 weeks compared with Control. Compared with Control, Dairy/Ca had higher plasma levels of peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY, P=0.01) during the meal tolerance test at week 12. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 was reduced at 30 min with Dairy/Ca compared with Control (P=0.04).
In conclusion, a dairy- and Ca-rich diet was not associated with greater weight loss than control. Modest increases in plasma PYY concentrations with increased dairy/Ca intake, however, may contribute to enhanced sensations of satisfaction and reduced dietary fat intake during energy restriction.
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