Genetic and Environmental Influences on Biological Essentialism, Heuristic Thinking, Need for Closure, and Conservative Values: Insights From a Survey and Twin Study.

Biological essentialism, the belief that human attributes are determined by biology, is a core component of essentialist thinking. Previous studies have shown that individual differences in essentialist thinking are associated with heuristic thinking, cognitive ability and style, conservative values, and prejudice. None, however, have examined whether biological essentialism is itself heritable, or the extent to which familial aggregation explains associations with core correlates. In order to do this, we analyzed data from a genetically informative sample of families with twins in Australia (N = 2,103), as well as general population samples from the UK (N = 501) and the US (N = 500). Genetic factors had little influence in individual differences in biological essentialism or in its relationship with heuristic thinking. Conservative values were genetically correlated with cognitive styles (i.e., need for closure and heuristic thinking). These findings support a bigger role of genes in explaining the relationship between cognitive processes and moral reasoning and ideology than they do the association between cognitive processes and essentialist thinking.

Public Understanding of Behavioral Genetics: Integrating Heuristic Thinking, Motivated Reasoning and Planned Social Change Theories for Better Communication Strategies.

The field of behavioral genetics is experiencing a revolution following the development of genome-wide association studies and the availability of large datasets from international consortia. This rapid change could increase the existing gaps between basic research, translation, and public understanding of science. In the present work, we aim to synthesize key explanations of how public understanding of socio-scientific issues develop. We propose that integrating dual-process, motivated reasoning, and change management theories will increase the extent to which we understand, and can change, how people respond to findings from behavior genetics.

A direct test of the diathesis-stress model for depression.

The diathesis-stress theory for depression states that the effects of stress on the depression risk are dependent on the diathesis or vulnerability, implying multiplicative interactive effects on the liability scale. We used polygenic risk scores for major depressive disorder (MDD) calculated from the results of the most recent analysis from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium as a direct measure of the vulnerability for depression in a sample of 5221 individuals from 3083 families. In the same we also had measures of stressful life events and social support and a depression symptom score, as well as DSM-IV MDD diagnoses for most individuals. In order to estimate the variance in depression explained by the genetic vulnerability, the stressors and their interactions, we fitted linear mixed models controlling for relatedness for the whole sample as well as stratified by sex. We show a significant interaction of the polygenic risk scores with personal life events (0.12% of variance explained, P-value=0.0076) contributing positively to the risk of depression. Additionally, our results suggest possible differences in the aetiology of depression between women and men. In conclusion, our findings point to an extra risk for individuals with combined vulnerability and high number of reported personal life events beyond what would be expected from the additive contributions of these factors to the liability for depression, supporting the multiplicative diathesis-stress model for this disease.

The CODATwins Project: The Current Status and Recent Findings of COllaborative Project of Development of Anthropometrical Measures in Twins.

The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural-geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.

Direct Determination of Dynamic Properties of Coulomb and Yukawa Classical One-Component Plasmas.

Dynamic characteristics of strongly coupled classical one-component Coulomb and Yukawa plasmas are obtained within the nonperturbative model-free moment approach without any data input from simulations so that the dynamic structure factor (DSF) satisfies the first three nonvanishing sum rules automatically. The DSF, dispersion, decay, sound speed, and other characteristics of the collective modes are determined using exclusively the static structure factor calculated from various theoretical approaches including the hypernetted chain approximation. A good quantitative agreement with molecular dynamics simulation data is achieved.

Genome-wide analysis of over 106 000 individuals identifies 9 neuroticism-associated loci.

Neuroticism is a personality trait of fundamental importance for psychological well-being and public health. It is strongly associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) and several other psychiatric conditions. Although neuroticism is heritable, attempts to identify the alleles involved in previous studies have been limited by relatively small sample sizes. Here we report a combined meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) of neuroticism that includes 91 370 participants from the UK Biobank cohort, 6659 participants from the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS) and 8687 participants from a QIMR (Queensland Institute of Medical Research) Berghofer Medical Research Institute (QIMR) cohort. All participants were assessed using the same neuroticism instrument, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R-S) Short Form's Neuroticism scale. We found a single-nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability estimate for neuroticism of ∼15% (s.e.=0.7%). Meta-analysis identified nine novel loci associated with neuroticism. The strongest evidence for association was at a locus on chromosome 8 (P=1.5 × 10(-15)) spanning 4 Mb and containing at least 36 genes. Other associated loci included interesting candidate genes on chromosome 1 (GRIK3 (glutamate receptor ionotropic kainate 3)), chromosome 4 (KLHL2 (Kelch-like protein 2)), chromosome 17 (CRHR1 (corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1) and MAPT (microtubule-associated protein Tau)) and on chromosome 18 (CELF4 (CUGBP elav-like family member 4)). We found no evidence for genetic differences in the common allelic architecture of neuroticism by sex. By comparing our findings with those of the Psychiatric Genetics Consortia, we identified a strong genetic correlation between neuroticism and MDD and a less strong but significant genetic correlation with schizophrenia, although not with bipolar disorder. Polygenic risk scores derived from the primary UK Biobank sample captured ∼1% of the variance in neuroticism in the GS:SFHS and QIMR samples, although most of the genome-wide significant alleles identified within a UK Biobank-only GWAS of neuroticism were not independently replicated within these cohorts. The identification of nine novel neuroticism-associated loci will drive forward future work on the neurobiology of neuroticism and related phenotypes.

Follicular lymphoma-protective HLA class II variants correlate with increased HLA-DQB1 protein expression.

Multiple follicular lymphoma (FL) susceptibility single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II regions have been identified, including rs6457327, rs3117222, rs2647012, rs10484561, rs9268853 and rs2621416. Here we validated previous expression quantitative trait loci results with real-time reverse transcription quantitative PCR and investigated protein expression in B-lymphoblastoid cell lines and primary dendritic cells using flow cytometry, cell-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and western blotting. We confirmed that FL-protective rs2647012-linked variants, in high linkage disequilibrium with the extended haplotype DRB1*15:01-DQA1*01:02-DQB1*06:02, correlate with increased HLA-DQB1 expression. This association remained significant at the protein level and was reproducible across different cell types. We also found that differences in HLA-DQB1 expression were not related to changes in activation markers or class II, major histocompatibility complex, transactivator expression, suggesting the role of an alternative regulatory mechanism. However, functional analysis using RegulomeDB did not reveal any relevant regulatory candidates. Future studies should focus on the clinical relevance of increased HLA-DQB1 protein expression facilitating tumor cell removal through increased immune surveillance.

The rs5743836 polymorphism in TLR9 confers a population-based increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has been associated with immunological defects, chronic inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. Given the link between immune dysfunction and NHL, genetic variants in toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been regarded as potential predictive factors of susceptibility to NHL. Adequate anti-tumoral responses are known to depend on TLR9 function, such that the use of its synthetic ligand is being targeted as a therapeutic strategy. We investigated the association between the functional rs5743836 polymorphism in the TLR9 promoter and risk for B-cell NHL and its major subtypes in three independent case-control association studies from Portugal (1160 controls, 797 patients), Italy (468 controls, 494 patients) and the US (972 controls, 868 patients). We found that the rs5743836 polymorphism was significantly overtransmitted in both Portuguese (odds ratio (OR), 1.85; P=7.3E-9) and Italian (OR, 1.84; P=6.0E-5) and not in the US cohort of NHL patients. Moreover, the increased transcriptional activity of TLR9 in mononuclear cells from patients harboring rs5743836 further supports a functional effect of this polymorphism on NHL susceptibility in a population-dependent manner.

Multi-locus HLA class I and II allele and haplotype associations with follicular lymphoma.

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent, sometimes, fatal disease characterized by recurrence at progressively shorter intervals and is frequently refractive to therapy. Genome-wide association studies have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region on chromosome 6p21.32-33 that are statistically significantly associated with FL risk. Low to medium resolution typing of single or multiple HLA genes has provided an incomplete picture of the total genetic risk imparted by this highly variable region. To gain further insight into the role of HLA alleles in lymphomagenesis and to investigate the independence of validated SNPs and HLA alleles with FL risk, high-resolution HLA typing was conducted using next-generation sequencing in 222 non-Hispanic White FL cases and 220 matched controls from a larger San Francisco Bay Area population-based case-control study of lymphoma. A novel protective association was found between the DPB1*03:01 allele and FL risk [odds ratio (OR) = 0.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.21-0.68]. Extended haplotypes DRB1*01:01-DQA1*01:01-DQB1*05:01 (OR = 2.01, 95% CI = 1.22-3.38) and DRB1*15-DQA1*01-DQB1*06 (OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.36-0.82) also influenced FL risk. Moreover, DRB1*15-DQA1*01-DQB1*06 was highly correlated with an established FL risk locus, rs2647012. These results provide further insight into the critical roles of HLA alleles and SNPs in FL pathogenesis that involve multi-locus effects across the HLA region.

Thrust stand based on a single point load cell for impulse measurements from plasma thrusters.

We introduce a simple thrust stand for the direct measurement of the millinewton impulses or thrusts delivered by small thrusters intended for in-space electric propulsion. The thruster under test, with a weight below 1.5 kg, is disposed on a horizontal platform and its impulse is measured as an overweight by using a strain gauge cell physically protected from the ambient plasma and vacuum conditions. This system provides ten thrust readings per second with noise peak to peak amplitudes of 0.10-0.18 mN. The calibration procedures to verify its dynamic response to time dependent thrusts in the range of 0-15 mN using control weights as well as its minimum thrust sensitivity δTs = 0.3 mN are discussed. Additionally, its simple conception permits a plain data reduction and analysis of steady state and low frequency thrust transients. This thrust stand was employed under low pressure and plasma ambient conditions to measure the steady impulses delivered by the Alternative Low Power Hybrid Ion Engine (ALPHIE) of 0.4-4.0 mN with absolute errors ΔT = ±0.3 mN. Finally, the experimental results show that a control electric voltage governs the ALPHIE thruster throttle.

Dynamic characteristics of three-dimensional strongly coupled plasmas.

The dynamic structure factor and other dynamic characteristics of strongly coupled one-component plasmas have been studied [Yu. V. Arkhipov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 045001 (2017)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.119.045001] using the self-consistent version of the method of moments. Within any version of the latter, the system dielectric function satisfies all involved sum rules and other exact relations automatically, and the advantage of this version is that, in addition, the dynamic characteristics (the dynamic structure factor, the dispersion, and decay parameters of the collective modes) are all expressed in terms of the static ones (the static structure factor) without any adjustment to the simulation data. The approach outlined in the aforementioned Letter is justified in detail and applied mainly to the classical Coulomb systems achieving satisfactory agreement with new numerical simulation data. It is shown how the realm of applicability of the method can be extended to partly degenerate and multicomponent systems, even to simple liquids. Some additional theoretical results are presented in the Supplemental Material.

Plant Cover and Biomass Response to Clear-Cutting, Site Preparation, and Planting in Pinus elliottii Flatwoods.

Pine plantation management did not initially convert natural forests to monocultures; rather it increased plant species richness and diversity. During a 5-year study of two natural watersheds in Florida that were converted to plantations, woody species diminished, but herbaceous species increased. Number of plant species on permanent transects and plots increased. Diversity of cover, frequency, and biomass did not diminish or else increased after harvest.

Langevin simulation of rf collisional multipactor breakdown of gases.

The thresholds for the electron multiplication in both multipactor and the so-called collisional multipactor microwave discharges are calculated by means of an individual particle model. The simulations are restricted to low and intermediate gas pressures, where the collisional mean-free path of electrons is of the same order or larger than the characteristic dimension of the system. Thus, the charge multiplication is caused by both the electron impact ionization of the neutral gas and the secondary electron emission by electron collisions at the surfaces. The charge avalanche is simulated by the numerical integration of the trajectories of electrons up to the characteristic time for the space-charge buildup. The electron dynamics is described by the stochastic Langevin equations where the collisional scatter of electrons is incorporated by means of a random force, while the microwave electric field and the friction are deterministic forces. The physical properties of materials at the walls are considered by means of realistic models deduced from experimental data fitting, while the constant collision frequency model is used for elastic and inelastic electron collisions with neutral atoms. Previous results for low pressure electron multipactor are recovered, and for pressures corresponding to collisional multipactor the predictions of this simple model are in agreement with both the experimental results and particle in cell and Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, physical conditions under which the charge multiplication develops and the limitations for higher pressures of the proposed model are also discussed.

Friction-force model for Maxwellian drifting ions in weakly ionized plasmas.

Analytical expressions for the collision frequency for momentum transfer and the friction force experienced by a Maxwellian ion population drifting with respect to the uniform neutral atom background are derived. The calculations make use of different models for the collision cross section for momentum transfer accounting for the relative speed v_{r} between the colliding particles. These results are compared with the currently used semi-empirical equations for the friction force and collision frequency in the fluid equations for weakly ionized plasmas. The kinetic model calculations are in agreement for suprathermal ion flows while they present discrepancies of orders of magnitude for subthermal ion drift speeds u_{d} . However, for the collision cross section sigma_{m} approximately 1v_{r} , the magnitude of the friction force results proportional to u_{d} and the collision frequency becomes constant regardless of the magnitude of the ion drift speed in both cases. These results are relevant for ion populations drifting in a plasma which could be approximated by shifted Maxwellian distributions, as in collisional plasma sheaths or plasma double layers.

[Hyponutrition prevalence among patients with digestive neoplasm before surgery]. / Prevalencia de desnutrición en pacientes con neoplasia digestiva previa cirugía.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the prevalence and degree of hyponutrition among patients with resectable digestive neoplasm that will be submitted to surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Observational cross-sectional descriptive study carried out from november of 2005 to march of 2006, assessing the nutritional status of all patients aged > or = 18 years with resectable digestive neoplasm submitted to scheduled surgery at the General and Digestive Surgery Department of the Hospital Complex of Orense (Spain). Eighty patients were studied, 41 men and 39 women aged 27-92 years. RESULTS: Diagnosis categorization was as follows: colonic neoplasm 27 patients, rectal neoplasm 24, gastric neoplasm 23, and pancreatic neoplasm 6. Fifty-three percent of the patients assessed had lost 5% of their usual weight within the previous 3 months. Serum albumin levels were lower than 3.5 mg/dL in 49% of the cases. Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment shows a hyponutrition prevalence of 50% (29% with moderate hyponutrition or at risk for hyponutrition and 21% with severe hyponutrition). Hyponutrition was related to age, increasing with increasing age (p < 0.05), and to the kind of digestive neoplasm (higher prevalence among patients with gastric neoplasm). CONCLUSIONS: Hyponutrition prevalence among patients with resectable digestive neoplasm is high. There is a similarity between the relative data relating to percentage of weight loss, serum albumin levels, and nutritional assessment obtained by applying the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment. Further studies on hyponutrition prevalence among oncologic patients at our setting would be desirable.

No evidence of association of oxytocin polymorphisms with breastfeeding in 2 independent samples.

Oxytocin has an important function in breastfeeding via its role in the milk ejection reflex and in attachment and bonding processes. Genetic factors account for a significant part of the individual differences in breastfeeding behavior. OXT and OXTR have been proposed as gene candidates for breastfeeding. Previous studies have focused on certain single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within these genes, finding null or inconsistent results. The present study analyses the associations between a wide coverage of polymorphisms in OXT and OXTR and breastfeeding duration from 2 large and independent unselected samples comprising a total of 580 and 2112 female twin mothers from the Murcia Twin Registry (Spain) and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (Australia), respectively. A total of 19 SNPs in OXT and 137 in OXTR SNPs were covered in both samples. Effects of the OXT and OXTR polymorphisms on breastfeeding duration were calculated by means of linear regression controlling for age at survey time, educational level, interaction between age and educational level and principal components of genetic ancestry. The analyses were conducted independently in the 2 samples and also meta-analyzed. Although some SNPs were associated at an alpha level of .05 with breastfeeding, they did not survive multiple testing correction. We conclude that SNPs within or nearby OXT and OXTR are unlikely to have large effects on breastfeeding behavior.

Network visualization for outbreak response: Mapping the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) chains of transmission in N'Zérékoré, Guinea.

BACKGROUND: During the 2014-2015 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in N'Zérékoré, Forested Guinea, modes of transmission remained unexamined for a number of new cases. We used network visualization to investigate EVD transmission chains (TC) in seven sub-prefectures of N'Zérékoré in order to adapt outbreak response. METHODS: Between August 2014 and February 2015, the EVD outbreak response team including the World Health Organization (WHO) and local health authorities routinely collected information among new cases regarding hospital visits, cases within a household, participation in burials, as well as dates of symptom onset, serial intervals (SI) and exposure to EVD. SI's were defined as the interval between symptom onset in an index case and symptom onset in a secondary case infected by that index case. Cases who reported hospital visits, contact with a case in the household or participating in burials were attributed to these exposures. RESULTS: We identified seven TC (two urban and five rural) gathering characteristics of 109 probable/confirmed cases. Overall, 61% (66 cases, SI range: 7-20 days) were household related, 32% (35 cases, SI range 8-30 days) were household or burial related and 7% (8 cases, SI range: 4-20 days) were hospital-related. In the urban chains (18 cases, SI range: 7-20 days), 12 cases were household related and 6 cases were hospital related, none where household or burial related. In the rural chains (84 cases, SI range: 7-30 days), 60% (50 cases) were household related, 1% (1 case) was hospital related and 39% (34 cases) were household or burial related. No cases reported multiple exposures. CONCLUSIONS: Network visualization during field response is crucial in enhancing local control strategies, refining outbreak response and aiding rapid response teams in insuring psychosocial and socio-economic recovery. Urban settings need to focus on reducing hospital EVD transmission whereas rural settings should focus on raising awareness of transmission within a household and safeguarding EVD burials.

Application of multiparametric procedures for assessing the heritability of circadian health.

At present, the measurement of circadian system status under free-living conditions by the use of sensors is a relatively new technique. The data obtained using these methods are influenced by strong environmental masking factors and artifacts that can affect its recording. Therefore, the use of integrative variables such as TAP, a measure that includes temperature, activity and position that reduces these drawbacks and the number of parameters obtained is necessary. However, the relative genetic contribution to this circadian marker is unknown. The aim of our study was to ascertain the relative importance of genetic influences in TAP, and for each of its components using classical twin models. The study was performed in 53 pairs of female twins [28 monozygotic (MZ) and 25 dizygotic (DZ)] with mean age 52 ± 6 years. Circadian patterns were studied by analyzing temperature, body position and activity for 1 week every 1 min with "Circadianware®.". Genetic influences affecting the variability of each of the measurements were estimated by comparing the observed data in twin pairs. MZ twins showed higher intrapair correlations than DZ twins for most of the parameters. Genetic factors (broad sense heritability) were responsible for about 40-72% of TAP variance in parameters such as mesor, acrophase, amplitude, Rayleigh test, percentage of rhythmicity and circadian function index. We found more homogeneous heritability estimates of the circadian system when using an integrative technique such as TAP than with individual variables alone, suggesting that this measurement can be more reliable and less subject to environmental artifacts.