Extraverted Children Are More Biased by Bowl Sizes than Introverts

Extraverted children are hypothesized to be most at risk for over-serving and overeating due to environmental cues – such as the size of dinnerware. A within-subject field study of elementary school students found that extraverted children served themselves 33.1% more cereal in larger bowls (16-oz) than in smaller (12-oz) bowls, whereas introverted children were unaffected by bowl size (+5.6%, ns). However, when children were asked by adults how much cereal they wanted to eat, both extraverted and introverted children requested more cereal when given a large versus small bowl. Insofar as extraverted children appear to be more biased by environmental cues, this pilot study suggests different serving styles are recommended for parents and other caregivers. They should serve extraverts, but allow introverts to serve themselves. Still, since the average child still served 23.2% more when serving themselves than when served by an adult, it might be best for caregivers to do the serving whenever possible – especially for extraverted children.     

Faces in a Crowd: High Socially Anxious Individuals Estimate that More People Are Looking at Them than Low Socially Anxious Individuals

Background

People with social anxiety disorder are afraid of being scrutinized by others and often feel that they are the excessive focus of other people''s attention. This study investigated whether, when compared to low socially anxious individuals, high socially anxious individuals overestimate the proportion of people in a crowd who are observing them. It was hypothesized that any potential overestimation would be modulated by self-focused attention.

Method

Forty-eight high and 48 low socially anxious participants performed a “faces in a crowd” computer task during which they briefly saw matrices of faces, which varied in terms of the proportion of people who were looking at them. Participants estimated the proportion of people who were looking at them. The task was performed once with mirrors present (to induce an enhanced self-focused state) and once without mirrors present (neutral state).

Results

Participants'' subjective estimates and the objective proportion of faces looking towards them were strongly correlated in both the high and low socially anxious groups. However, high socially anxious participants estimated that more people were looking at them than low socially anxious participants. In the first phase of the experiment, but not in the later phases, this effect was magnified in the mirror condition.

Discussion

This study provides preliminary evidence of a social anxiety related perceptual difference that may be amplified by self-focused attention. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Mothers,Fathers, Families,and Circumstances: Factors Affecting Children's Adjustment

The burgeoning empirical literature exploring the factors accounting for individual differences in psychological adjustment is reviewed. Many studies have shown that adjustment is largely affected by differences in the quality of parenting and parent–child relationships, the quality of the relationships between the parents, and the richness of the economic and social resources available to the family; more recent research signals the importance of congenital differences as well. Dimensions of family structure—including such factors as divorce, single parenthood, and the parents' sexual orientation—and biological relatedness between parents and children are of little or no predictive importance once the process variables are taken into account, because the same factors explain child adjustment regardless of family structure. These findings have important social and legal implications, especially in relation to decisions regarding foster care and adoption, as well as those concerning children's well-being following family dissolution.     

Effects of Aging and Mate Retention on Reproductive Success of Captive Female Peregrine Falcons

SYNOPSIS. Separating ecological (extrinsic) factors affectingreproduction from physiological and experiential (intrinsic)factors can be problematic in free-ranging animals. This studyexamined age-related changes in six measures of reproductivesuccess (clutch size, fertility, hatchability, brood size athatching, survivorship of nestlings, and brood size at fledging)for captive female peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) whereecological factors (i.e., access to mates, nesting sites, andfood) were not limiting and were similar across years and betweenindividuals. Mean nestling survivorship increased throughoutthe lifespan of the female while all other measures of reproductionpeaked at about seven years of age and decreased thereafter.Birds with prior breeding experience had higher productivitythan inexperienced birds of the same age. Productivity increasedwith increasing experience of the pair. Productivity droppedby an average of 53% when females experienced a change of mate,and then subsequently increased over a period of several years.Productivity was not affected when birds were moved to differentbreeding sites. There was no evidence that early improvementsin reproduction were related to chronological aging in the absenceof experiential differences. Birds that began breeding earlierproduced more fledglings during their lifetimes as a resultof higher annual productivity. Lifetime reproduction was notcorrelated with longevity because birds with higher maximalegg production had shorter breeding lifespans. Birds retainingmates produced more fledglings during their lifetime than birdsthat changed mates, but birds that changed mates more than oncedid not have lower lifetime reproduction than birds that hadonly one mate change. These results suggest that 1) age-relatedchanges in reproduction are not necessarily resource-mediated,2) in the absence of resource limitation, experience of thepair is a primary factor determining annual reproductive success,3) benefits of increasing experience may be offset by the onsetof senescence, 4) the cost of present egg production on futurereproductive potential supports a "pleiotropic" theory of aging,and 5) costs associated with mate changes may encourage selectionfor low "divorce" rates (i.e., lifetime monogamy) in this species.     

More than one way to splice an RNA: branching without a bulge and splicing without branching in group II introns.

Domain 6 (D6) of group II introns contains a bulged adenosine that serves as the branch-site during self-splicing. In addition to this adenosine, other structural features in D6 are likely to contribute to the efficiency of branching. To understand their role in promoting self-splicing, the branch-site and surrounding nucleotides were mutagenized. Detailed kinetic analysis on the self-splicing efficiency of the mutants revealed several interesting features. First, elimination of the branch-site does not preclude efficient splicing, which takes place instead through a hydrolytic first step. Second, pairing of the branch-site does not eliminate branching, particularly if the adenosine is involved in a mispair. Third, the G-U pairs that often surround group II intron branch-points contribute to the efficiency of branching. These results suggest that there is a strong driving force for promoting self-splicing by group II introns, which employ a versatile set of different mechanisms for ensuring that splicing is successful. In addition, the behavior of these mutants indicates that a bulged adenosine per se is not the important determinant for branch-site recognition in group II introns. Rather, the data suggest that the branch-site adenosine is recognized as a flipped base, a conformation that can be promoted by a variety of different substructures in RNA and DNA.     

HDL Size is More Accurate than HDL Cholesterol to Predict Carotid Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Individuals Classified as Low Cardiovascular Risk

Background

Misclassification of patients as low cardiovascular risk (LCR) remains a major concern and challenges the efficacy of traditional risk markers. Due to its strong association with cholesterol acceptor capacity, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) size has been appointed as a potential risk marker. Hence, we investigate whether HDL size improves the predictive value of HDL-cholesterol in the identification of carotid atherosclerotic burden in individuals stratified to be at LCR.

Methods and Findings

284 individuals (40–75 years) classified as LCR by the current US guidelines were selected in a three-step procedure from primary care centers of the cities of Campinas and Americana, SP, Brazil. Apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins were precipitated by polyethylene glycol and HDL size was measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique. Participants were classified in tertiles of HDL size (<7.57; 7.57–8.22; >8.22 nm). Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) <0.90 mm (80^th percentile) was determined by high resolution ultrasonography and multivariate ordinal regression models were used to assess the association between cIMT across HDL size and levels of lipid parameters. HDL-cholesterol was not associated with cIMT. In contrast, HDL size >8.22 nm was independently associated with low cIMT in either unadjusted and adjusted models for age, gender and Homeostasis Model Assessment 2 index for insulin sensitivity, ethnicity and body mass index (Odds ratio 0.23; 95% confidence interval 0.07–0.74, p = 0.013).

Conclusion

The mean HDL size estimated with DLS constitutes a better predictor for subclinical carotid atherosclerosis than the conventional measurements of plasma HDL-cholesterol in individuals classified as LCR.     

并非只是为了草场和放牧

联户不仅针对水源问题,还限制了各家的牲畜数量,帮扶家庭困难的孩子上学,在维护社区的道德规范方面起到了重要作用。     

Changing Diet and Exercise Behaviors in Individuals at Risk for Weight Gain

To date, there have been very few studies on the primary prevention of obesity and/or weight gain. This paper identifies three time periods that might be appropriate for such efforts at weight gain prevention-the 25 to 35 year age window, the perimeno pausal period, and the year following successful weight loss. Research is encouraged that compares these three time periods and various intervention strategies. Several different approaches to primary prevention are identified, including group treatment pro grams with weekly meetings vs. less intensive, community- based interventions; focusing on those who are currently at ideal body weight vs. including those who are over weight as well; and targeting weight gain prevention per se vs. attempting to produce modest weight losses and/or modify cardiovascular risk factors. This paper suggests that primary prevention efforts should include exercise, changes in quality and quantity of food consumed, behavior modification, and some degree of therapist contact, but the manner in which these changes should be implemented to produce long-term habit change remains unclear.     

Yeast Asparagine (Asn) tRNA without Q Base Promotes Eukaryotic Frameshifting More Efficiently than Mammalian Asn tRNAs with or without Q Base

In this study, we compare the efficiency of Asn tRNA from mammalian sources with and without the highly modified queuosine (Q) base in the wobble position of its anticodon and Asn tRNA from yeast, which naturally lacks Q base, to promote frameshifting. Interestingly, no differences in the ability of the two mammalian Asn tRNAs to promote frameshifting were observed, while yeast tRNA^Asn_–Q promoted frameshifting more efficiently than its mammalian counterparts in both rabbit reticulocyte lysates and wheat germ extracts. The shiftability of yeast Asn tRNA is therefore not due, or at least not completely, to the lack of Q base and most likely the shiftiness resides in structural differences elsewhere in the molecule. However, we cannot absolutely rule out a role of Q base in frameshifting as wheat germ extracts and a lysate depleted of most of its tRNA and supplemented with calf liver tRNA contain both Asn tRNA with or without Q base.     

Realtime PCR Is More Sensitive than Multiplex PCR for Diagnosis and Serotyping in Children with Culture Negative Pneumococcal Invasive Disease

Background

Pneumococcal serotyping is usually performed by Quellung reaction, considered the gold standard test. However the method cannot be used on culture-negative samples. Molecular methods can be a useful alternative. The aim of the study was to evaluate the use of Multiplex-sequential-PCR (MS-PCR) or Realtime-PCR on blood samples for diagnosis and serotyping of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in a pediatric clinical setting.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Sensitivity and specificity of MS-PCR and Realtime-PCR have been evaluated both on 46 well characterized pneumococcal isolates and on 67 clinical samples from children with culture-negative IPD. No difference in sensitivity and specificity between MS-PCR and Realtime PCR was found when the methods were used on isolates: both methods could type 100% isolates and the results were always consistent with culture-based methods. On the contrary, when used on clinical samples 43/67 (64.2%) were typeable by MS-PCR and 61/67 (91.0%) by Realtime-PCR (p = 0.0004,K Cohen 0.3, McNemar''s p<0.001). Non-typeability by MS-PCR was associated in 18/20 cases (90.0%) with low bacterial load. The difference between the two methods was present both when they were used on normally sterile fluids (respectively 31/33 (93.9%) typeable samples for Realtime-PCR and 24/33 (72.7%) for MS-PCR, p = 0.047, 95%CL 0.03–0.98; K Cohen 0.3; McNemar''s p = 0.0016) and when they were used on nasopharyngeal swabs (respectively 30/34 (88.2%) typeable samples for Realtime-PCR and 19/34 (55.9%) for MS-PCR, p = 0.007, 95%CL 0.04–0.66); the presence of multiple pneumococcal serotypes in nasopharyngeal swabs was found more frequently by Realtime PCR (19/30; 63.3%) than by Multiplex-sequential PCR (3/19; 15.8%; p = 0.003;95%CL 1.87–39.97).

Conclusions/Significance

In conclusion, both MS-PCR and Realtime PCR can be used for pneumococcal serotyping of most serotypes/serogroups directly on clinical samples from culture-negative patients but Realtime-PCR appears more sensitive.