An association of adult personality with prenatal and early postnatal growth: the EPQ lie-scale

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have noted differences in social acquiescence and interpersonal relations among adults born preterm or with very low birth weight compared to full term adults. In addition, birth weight has been observed to be negatively correlated with lie-scale scores in two studies. We attempted to replicate and extend these studies by examining young adult lie-scale scores in a Danish birth cohort. METHOD: Weight, length and head circumference of 9125 children from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort were measured at birth and at 1, 3 and 6 years. A subsample comprising 1182 individuals participated in a follow-up at 20–34 years and was administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) which includes a lie-scale (indicating social acquiescence or self-insight). Associations between lie-scale scores and weight, length and head circumference respectively were analysed by multiple linear regression adjusting for single-mother status, parity, mother’s age, father’s age, parental social status, age at EPQ measurement, intelligence, and adult size. RESULTS: Male infants with lower weight, length, and head-circumference at birth and the following three years grew up to have higher scores on the lie-scale as young adults. Most of these associations remained significant after adjustment for the included covariates. No associations were found for females. Analyses were also conducted with neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism as outcome variables, but no significant associations were found for these traits after adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: The findings replicate and extend findings from previous studies suggesting that size at birth and during the first three years of life is significantly associated with social acquiescence in adult men. They highlight the potential influence of prenatal and early postnatal development on personality growth and development

Event-Based Runtime Checking of Timed LTL

In this paper we describe an event-based algorithm for runtime verification of timed linear temporal logic. The algorithm is based on a rewriting of the formula expressing a desired or undesired property of a timed system. Rewriting takes place, at discrete points in time, but only when there is a relevant state-change taking place in the timed system, or a deadline, determined by the formula, has been passed. By limiting the rewriting to only points in time where an event occurs, and not at all discrete time-points, makes the algorithm useful in situations where there are large data sets and large differences in the relevant time scales (ranging perhaps from milliseconds to months as in business software).The algorithm works by rewriting, for each event, the timed LTL formula into a residual formula that takes into account the time and system state at the occurence of the event. The residual formula will be the requirement for the timed system in the future, to be further rewritten at the occurrence of the next event. quad {bf Keywords: } Timed LTL, Disjunctive Normalized Equation Systems, Residual formula, Smallest Interesting Timepoint, Timed Based Fixed Point Reduction, Charaterization of Runtime Verification

Event-Based Runtime Checking of Timed LTL

In this paper we describe an event-based algorithm for runtime verification of timed linear temporal logic. The algorithm is based on a rewriting of the formula expressing a desired or undesired property of a timed system. Rewriting takes place, at discrete points in time, but only when there is a relevant state-change taking place in the timed system, or a deadline, determined by the formula, has been passed. By limiting the rewriting to only points in time where an event occurs, and not at all discrete time-points, makes the algorithm useful in situations where there are large data sets and large differences in the relevant time scales (ranging perhaps from milliseconds to months as in business software).The algorithm works by rewriting, for each event, the timed LTL formula into a residual formula that takes into account the time and system state at the occurence of the event. The residual formula will be the requirement for the timed system in the future, to be further rewritten at the occurrence of the next event. quad {bf Keywords: } Timed LTL, Disjunctive Normalized Equation Systems, Residual formula, Smallest Interesting Timepoint, Timed Based Fixed Point Reduction, Charaterization of Runtime Verification

Primate retinal cones express phosphorylated tau associated with neuronal degeneration yet survive in old age

Photoreceptor cells have high energy demands and suffer significantly with age. In aged rodents both rods and cones are lost, but in primates there is no evidence for aged cone loss, although their function declines. Here we ask if aged primate cones suffer from reduced function because of declining metabolic ability. Tau is a microtubule associated protein critical for mitochondrial function in neurons. Its phosphorylation is a feature of neuronal degeneration undermining respiration and mitochondrial dynamics. We show that total tau is widely distributed in the primate outer retina with little age-related change, being present in both rods and cones and their processes. However, all cones specifically accumulate phosphorylated tau, which was not seen in rods. The presence of this protein will likely undermine cone cell function. However, tau phosphorylation inhibits apoptosis. These data may explain why aged primate cones have reduced function but appear to be resistant to cell death. Consequently, therapies designed to remove phosphorylated tau may carry the risk of inducing cone photoreceptor cell death and further undermine ageing visual function

Intelligence Test Scores Before and After Alcohol-Related Disorders—A Longitudinal Study of Danish Male Conscripts

Background: Existing studies on intellectual consequences of alcohol-related disorders are primarily cross-sectional and compare intelligence test scores of individuals with and without alcohol-related disorders, hence mixing the influence of alcohol-related disorders and predisposing factors such as premorbid intelligence. In this large-scale study, the primary aim was to estimate associations of alcohol-related disorders with changes in intelligence test scores from early adulthood to late midlife. Methods: Data were drawn from a follow-up study on middle-aged men, which included a re-examination of the same intelligence test as completed in young adulthood at military conscription (total analytic sample = 2,499). Alcohol-related hospital diagnoses were obtained from national health registries, whereas treatment for alcohol problems was self-reported at follow-up. The analyses included adjustment for year of birth, retest interval, baseline intelligence quotient (IQ) score, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, and psychiatric and somatic comorbidity. Results: Individuals with alcohol-related hospital diagnoses (8%) had a significantly lower baseline IQ score (95.0 vs. 100.5, p &lt; 0.001) and a larger decline in IQ scores from baseline to follow-up (−8.5 vs. −4.8, p &lt; 0.001) than individuals without such diagnoses. The larger decline in IQ scores with alcohol-related hospital diagnoses remained statistically significant after adjustment for all the covariates. Similar results were revealed when IQ scores before and after self-reported treatment for alcohol problems (10%) were examined. Conclusions: Individuals with alcohol-related disorders have a lower intelligence test score both in young adulthood and in late midlife, and these disorders, moreover, seem to be associated with more age-related decline in intelligence test scores. Thus, low mean intellectual ability observed in individuals with alcohol-related disorders is probably a result of both lower premorbid intelligence and more intellectual decline.</p

Differences in Associations of Three Types of Alcoholic Beverages with Age-Related Cognitive Decline in Men

Objectives: To investigate the influence of wine, beer, and spirits consumption, respectively, on non-pathological, age-related cognitive decline from young adulthood to late midlife in a large follow-up study of Danish men. Methods: The study includes 2456 middle-aged Danish men from the Lifestyle and Cognition Follow-up study 2015, with information on adult-life consumption (from age 26) of wine, beer, and spirits self-reported in late midlife and age-related cognitive decline assessed using the same validated intelligence test administered in young adulthood and late midlife. Associations were adjusted for consumption of other alcoholic beverages, year of birth, age at follow-up, retest interval, education, young adulthood intelligence, and personality. Results: Most of the men had wine (48%) or beer (42%) as their preferred beverage type. For all three alcoholic beverages, consumption of more than 14 units weekly was associated with a greater decline in unadjusted analyses, but this trend was only significant for wine. In contrast, adjusted models showed that moderate wine and spirits consumption was associated with less decline than abstention for these alcohol types (p = 0.03 for 8–14 units/week of wine and p = 0.03 for 1–7 units/week of spirits). Statistical tests suggested a difference between the estimated effects of consumption of 8–14 units/week of wine and beer on cognitive decline. Conclusions: While patterns of associations were similar across beverages, moderate wine and spirits consumption may mitigate cognitive decline, in contrast with beer. However, the results should be interpreted with caution due to inherent differences between men with different alcoholic beverage preferences

Intelligence in young adulthood and alcohol use disorders in a prospective cohort study of Danish men:the role of psychiatric disorders and parental psychiatric history

Objectives The aims were to estimate the association between intelligence measured in young adulthood and risk of alcohol use disorders (AUD) in men and to investigate the potential modification of this association by psychiatric disorders, parental AUD and parental psychiatric disorders.Design Prospective cohort study based on a linkage of intelligence test scores from draft board examinations and register data on AUD diagnoses during 36 years of follow-up.Setting Denmark.Participants 3287 Danish men from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort (born 1959–1961) who appeared before the draft board at a mean age of 18.7 years.Primary outcome measure First registration with AUD during follow-up was the primary outcome. Information on AUD was based on diagnoses retrieved from national hospital and outpatient treatment registers, defined according to the International Classification of Diseases.Results 361 (11.0%) men were registered with AUD during follow-up. Low intelligence scores were associated with increased odds of AUD adjusting for parental AUD, parental psychiatric disorders, maternal smoking during pregnancy, birth weight, maternal age at birth, parity and childhood socioeconomic position (OR per SD decrease in intelligence=1.69, 95% CI 1.49 to 1.92). Separate analyses indicated significant interaction (p&lt;0.001) between intelligence and psychiatric disorders. The adjusted OR per SD decrease in intelligence score was 2.04 (95% CI 1.67 to 2.49) in men without other psychiatric disorders whereas the OR was 1.21 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.46) in men with other psychiatric disorders. No interaction was found between intelligence and parental AUD or between intelligence and parental psychiatric disorders.Conclusions The association between intelligence in young adulthood and AUD is modified by other psychiatric disorders as low intelligence is primarily a risk factor for men without other psychiatric disorders. Future studies should take other psychiatric disorders into account when investigating associations between intelligence and AUD

Land-use change and propagule pressure promote plant invasions in tropical rainforest remnants

Context: Intact tropical rainforests are considered robust to plant invasions. However, land-use change alters the structure and species composition of native forest, opening up tropical landscapes to invasion. Yet, the relative roles of key drivers on tropical forest invasions remain little investigated. Objectives: We examine factors affecting plant invasion of rainforest remnants in oil-palm dominated landscapes in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. We hypothesized that invasion is greater in highly fragmented landscapes, and in disturbed forests with lower native plant diversity (cf. old-growth rainforests). Methods: Native and exotic plants were surveyed in 47 plots at 17 forest sites, spanning gradients in landscape-scale fragmentation and local forest disturbance. Using partial least squares path-modelling, we examined correlations between invasion, fragmentation, forest disturbance, propagule pressure, soil characteristics and native plant community. Results: We recorded 6999 individuals from 329 genera in total, including eight exotic species (0–51% of individuals/plot, median = 1.4%) representing shrubs, forbs, graminoids and climbers. The best model (R2 = 0.343) revealed that invasion was correlated with disturbance and propagule pressure (high prevalence of exotic species in plantation matrix), the latter being driven by greater fragmentation of the landscape. Our models revealed a significant negative correlation between invasion and native tree seedlings and sapling community diversity. Conclusions: Increasing landscape fragmentation promotes exotic plant invasion in remnant tropical forests, especially if local disturbance is high. The association between exotic species invasion and young native tree community may have impacts for regeneration given that fragmentation is predicted to increase and so plant invasion may become more prevalent

Divergent tree seedling communities indicate different trajectories of change among rainforest remnants

Aim: To examine plant community composition within rain forest remnants, and whether communities in different fragments follow similar trajectories of change in composition. We investigate whether plant communities in rain forest fragments either diverge from, or become more similar to, plant communities in other fragments, in order to understand the biodiversity value of forest fragments. Location: Rain forest fragments embedded within agricultural landscapes in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Methods: We examined 14 forest fragments (39–120,000 ha) and five sites in continuous forest, and compared pre-isolation (trees >5 cm dbh) and post-isolation (seedlings <1 cm dbh) plant community composition. We used Chao-Sørensen dissimilarity metric to compute beta diversity between all pairwise combinations of sites, and then used Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling to reduce 18 pairwise values per site to a single site value, which we used to test whether fragment area and/or isolation are associated with changes in plant communities. We compare analyses for trees and seedlings, and whether community changes arise from recruitment failure. Results: Seedlings in fragments have diverged most from other communities, and divergence was greatest between seedling communities in small fragments, which have not only diverged more from tree communities in the same fragment, but also from seedling communities at other sites. This finding is partly associated with recruitment failure: the number of genera represented by both trees and seedlings is positively associated with site area. Main conclusions: Seedling communities are diverging in forest remnants, associated primarily with reductions in fragment area, whilst tree communities have not diverged, possibly due to extinction debts. Divergence is likely to continue as seedling cohorts mature, resulting in communities in fragments following different trajectories of change. Individual plant communities in each fragment may become impoverished, but they can support different communities of plants and hence contribute to landscape-scale diversity

Patterns of changes in bipolar depressive symptoms revealed by trajectory analysis among 482 patients with bipolar disorder

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149731/1/bdi12715_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149731/2/bdi12715.pd