Publications by authors named "John Abela"

To date, the best-performing blind super-resolution (SR) techniques follow one of two paradigms: (A) train standard SR networks on synthetic low-resolution-high-resolution (LR-HR) pairs or (B) predict the degradations of an LR image and then use these to inform a customised SR network. Despite significant progress, subscribers to the former miss out on useful degradation information and followers of the latter rely on weaker SR networks, which are significantly outperformed by the latest architectural advancements. In this work, we present a framework for combining any blind SR prediction mechanism with any deep SR network.

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Anxiety and depressive symptoms frequently co-occur in adolescence and confer greater distress compared to experiencing either symptom alone. A causal model (anxiety symptoms predicting depressive symptoms), a correlated liabilities model (vulnerabilities interacting with stressors to predict both symptoms), and a diathesis-anxiety model (vulnerabilities interacting with anxiety symptoms to predict depressive symptoms) have all been proposed as explanations for the relation between depression and anxiety. To date, however, research has mostly examined these models among North American/Western European adolescents.

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The current longitudinal study examined whether the personality vulnerabilities of self-criticism and dependency prospectively predicted stress generation in Chinese adolescents. Participants included 1,116 adolescents (588 girls and 528 boys), aged 15 to 18 years from rural, urban and ultra-urban mainland China. Participants completed self-report measures of personality, depressive and anxious symptoms and participated in a clinical interview assessing lifetime history of depression.

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This article assesses whether added sugar meets FDA's standard to be generally recognized as safe ("GRAS"). If added sugar is not GRAS, then manufacturers are subject to premarket approval prior to using added sugar in their products. This article advocates that FDA should issue a Federal Register notice determining that added sugar is not GRAS, allowing FDA to regulate the amount of added sugar used in processed foods, decreasing the health adversities that stem from added sugar consumption.

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Depression is a debilitating mental illness with clear developmental patterns from childhood through late adolescence. Here, we present data from the Gene Environment Mood (GEM) study, which used an accelerated longitudinal cohort design with youth (N = 665) starting in 3rd, 6th, and 9th grades, and a caretaker, who were recruited from the general community, and were then assessed repeatedly through semistructured diagnostic interviews every 6 months over 3 years (7 waves of data) to establish and then predict trajectories of depression from age 8 to 18. First, we demonstrated that overall prevalence rates of depression over time, by age, gender, and pubertal status, in the GEM study closely match those trajectories previously obtained in past developmental epidemiological research.

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Independent lines of research illustrate the benefits of social support and the negative consequences of conflict and emotional neglect across family and peer contexts with regard to depression. However, few studies have simultaneously examined negative and positive interactions across relationships. We sought to address this gap in the literature by utilizing a person-centered approach to a) understand empirical, interpersonal profiles in youth and b) understand how these profiles confer risk for prospective depression.

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Research increasingly suggests that low emotional awareness may be associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety among children and adolescents. However, because most studies have been cross-sectional, it has remained unclear whether low emotional awareness predicts subsequent internalizing symptoms. The current study used longitudinal data to examine the role of emotional awareness as a transdiagnostic predictor of subsequent symptoms of depression and anxiety.

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The purpose of this multiwave longitudinal study was to examine the structure of self-complexity, and its relation to depressive symptoms, in 276 adolescents ( = 12.55; = 1.04).

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Predictors of depressive symptoms may differ before and after the first onset of major depression due to stress sensitization. Dependent stressors, or those to which characteristics of individuals contribute, have been shown to predict depressive symptoms in youth. The current study sought to clarify how stressors' roles may differ before and after the first depressive episode.

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Background: The present study sought to clarify the development of comorbid emotional distress by comparing different explanations for how youth develop anxiety and depressive symptoms. Specifically, we introduced the diathesis-anxiety approach (whether cognitive vulnerabilities interact with anxiety symptoms), and compared it to a causal model (anxiety symptoms predicting depressive symptoms), and a correlated liabilities model (whether cognitive vulnerabilities interacted with stressors to predict both anxiety and depressive symptoms) to examine which model best explained the relation between depressive and anxiety symptoms in youth.

Methods: 678 3rd (n=208), 6th (n=245), and 9th (n=225) grade girls (n=380) and boys (n=298) completed self-report measures at baseline assessing cognitive vulnerabilities (rumination and self-criticism), stressors, depressive and anxiety symptoms.

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This study examined depressogenic thinking and shame proneness as factors in the development of internalizing problems in a longitudinal sample of 174 children (99 boys, 75 girls). At 7.6-9.

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The present study examined the prospective relation between two personality predispositions, self-criticism and dependency, and internalizing symptoms. Specifically, it was examined whether self-criticism and dependency predicted symptoms of depression and social anxiety, and if a moderation (e.g.

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The present study examined the relation between attachment cognitions, stressors, and emotional distress in a sample of Chinese adolescents. Specifically, it was examined whether negative attachment cognitions predicted depression and anxiety symptoms, and if a vulnerability-stress or stress generation model best explained the relation between negative attachment cognitions and internalizing symptoms. Participants included 558 adolescents (310 females and 248 males) from an urban school in Changsha and 592 adolescents (287 female, 305 male) from a rural school in Liuyang, both in Hunan province located in mainland China.

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Recent research investigating cognitive and interpersonal models of depression have conceptualized rumination and excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) as vulnerabilities for the etiology of depression. However, research testing the vulnerability hypothesis for these constructs among youth is lacking. Additionally, the specificity of rumination and excessive reassurance seeking to depression is unclear.

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A major theory of personality predispositions to depression posits that individuals who possess high levels of self-criticism and/or dependency are vulnerable to developing depression following negative life events. The goal of the current study was to test this theory of personality predispositions and the self-esteem buffering hypothesis in a sample of youth using an idiographic approach, a high-risk sample, and a multiwave longitudinal design. One hundred forty children aged 6 to 14 completed measures of dependency, self-criticism, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms.

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Five studies document the validity of a new 8-item scale designed to measure positivity, defined as the tendency to view life and experiences with a positive outlook. In the first study (N = 372), the psychometric properties of Positivity Scale (P Scale) were examined in accordance with classical test theory using a large number of college participants. In Study 2, the unidimensionality of the P Scale was corroborated with confirmatory factor analysis in 2 independent samples (N₁ = 322; N₂ = 457).

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Background: Previous research, predominantly with adults, has shown that the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) interacts with stress (G × E) to predict depressive symptoms; however, few G × E studies have been conducted with youth using rigorous methods, particularly a prospective design and contextual interview to assess stress. This study examined the interaction between 5-HTTLPR and stress, both chronic and episodic, to predict longitudinal change in depressive symptoms among children and adolescents.

Methods: A general community sample of youth (N = 200; 57% girls; mean age: 12.

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This study tested the measurement invariance of Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and compared its factorial variance/covariance and latent means among Chinese and Italian children. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis of the original five factors identified by Kovacs revealed that full measurement invariance did not hold. Further analysis showed that 4 of 21 factor loadings, 14 of 26 intercepts, and 12 of 26 item errors were noninvariant.

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The current multiwave longitudinal study examined the applicability of two cognitive vulnerability-stress models of depression-Beck's (1967, 1983) cognitive theory and the hopelessness theory (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989)-in two independent samples of adolescents from Hunan Province, China (one rural and one urban). During an initial assessment, participants completed measures assessing dysfunctional attitudes (Beck, 1967, 1983), negative cognitive style (Abramson et al., 1989), neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1992), depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms.

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The current study tested the stress-reactivity extension of response styles theory of depression (Nolen-Hoeksema Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100:569-582, 1991) in a sample of high-risk children and early adolescents from a vulnerability-stress perspective using a multi-wave longitudinal design. In addition, we examined whether obtained results varied as a function of either age or sex. During an initial assessment, 56 high-risk children (offspring of depressed parents; ages 7-14) completed measures assessing rumination and depressive symptoms.

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The current study examined whether rumination serves as a moderator of the temporal association between maternal and child negative affect. Participants included 88 mothers with a history of major depressive episodes and their 123 children. During an initial assessment, mothers and their children completed measures assessing negative affect and children completed a measure assessing the tendency to ruminate in response to such symptoms.

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