Depression and Interpersonal Stress Generation in Children: Prospective Impact on Relational versus Overt Victimization.

The goal of this study was to examine depressive stress generation effects on children's reports of relational and overt peer victimization. Participants in this multi-wave prospective study were 100 children assessed every two months for six months who completed self-report assessments of peer victimization and depressive symptoms at each assessment point. Using linear mixed modeling, we found that children's elevations in depressive symptoms predicted prospective increases in children's levels of peer victimization, with the effects being specific to relational victimization.

Sex discrimination from the acetabulum in a twentieth-century skeletal sample from France using digital photogrammetry.

Digital photogrammetric methods were used to collect diameter, area, and perimeter data of the acetabulum for a twentieth-century skeletal sample from France (Georges Olivier Collection, Musée de l'Homme, Paris) consisting of 46 males and 36 females. The measurements were then subjected to both discriminant function and logistic regression analyses in order to develop osteometric standards for sex assessment. Univariate discriminant functions and logistic regression equations yielded overall correct classification accuracy rates for both the left and the right acetabula ranging from 84.

Hepatocyte growth factor and keratinocyte growth factor enhance IL-1-induced IL-8 secretion through different mechanisms in Caco-2 epithelial cells.

A variety of cytokines have been detected in inflamed intestinal mucosal tissues, including the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-1 (IL-1), along with growth factors involved in wound healing processes such as proliferation and cell migration. However, little is known about how IL-1 and growth factors interact with intestinal epithelial cells to regulate the production of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-8 (IL-8). Previously, we have shown that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) could significantly enhance IL-1-stimulated IL-8 secretion by the Caco-2 colonic epithelial cell line, yet HGF, by itself, did not stimulate IL-8 secretion.

Memory for reward location is enhanced even though acetylcholine efflux within the amygdala is impaired in rats with damage to the diencephalon produced by thiamine deficiency.

A rodent model of diencephalic amnesia produced by thiamine deficiency (pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency [PTD]) was implemented to assess both changes in behavior and acetylcholine (ACh) efflux in the amygdala across four training sessions of a delayed alternation task. Two versions of the delayed alternation task were used. In one version, when a correct alternation was made a unique reward was paired with each spatial location ([left arm-chocolate milk] or [right arm-rat chow]).

Change in human social behavior in response to a common vaccine.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that exposure to a directly transmitted human pathogen-flu virus-increases human social behavior presymptomatically. This hypothesis is grounded in empirical evidence that animals infected with pathogens rarely behave like uninfected animals, and in evolutionary theory as applied to infectious disease. Such behavioral changes have the potential to increase parasite transmission and/or host solicitation of care.

Sex discrimination from the glenoid cavity in black South Africans: morphometric analysis of digital photographs.

Given that skeletal material recovered from medicolegal contexts is often incomplete or damaged, forensic anthropologists need to have a variety of techniques at their disposal in order to correctly determine the sex of unidentified human remains. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to produce practical standards for discriminating the sex of black South Africans using measurements of the glenoid cavity of the scapula. Standardized digital photographs of the left glenoid fossa were taken for 60 males and 60 females drawn from the Pretoria Bone Collection.

The efficacy of sternal measurements for sex estimation in South African blacks.

The correct assessment of sex from the human skeleton is of fundamental importance in forensic medicine and bioarchaeology. In South Africa, unidentified remains are often fragmentary, making it necessary to estimate sex from a variety of skeletal elements. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the sex discriminating potential of the sternum in black South Africans using standard osteometric techniques.

Reports of Childhood Physical Abuse, Genotype, and Women's Attentional Biases for Angry Faces.

The goal of this study was to examine environmental (childhood physical abuse) and genetic ( genotype) correlates of adult women's attentional biases for facial displays of emotion. Supporting a gene × environment model of risk, women's reports of childhood physical abuse were related to their attentional biases for angry faces among carriers of the short allele, but not among those homozygous for the long allele. Specifically, women reporting a history of moderate to severe physical abuse who also carried at least one copy of the short allele exhibited attentional avoidance of angry faces.

Sex determination from the acetabulum: test of a possible non-population-specific discriminant function equation.

In a recent study of pelvic dimorphism, Steyn and Patriquin demonstrated that sex classification accuracies for a combined sample of South African blacks, South African whites, and Greeks living on Crete, differed very little from those obtained separately for the three groups. These results suggest that population-specific formulae may be unnecessary when using pelvic dimensions to discriminate sex, and according to the authors, the formulae derived in their study from a large and ethnically diverse sample should provide reliable standards for determining sex in a variety of populations. The purpose of the present study was to assess the accuracy of the discriminant function equation for acetabular diameter published by the aforementioned authors on a documented skeletal sample from France.

Co-rumination and lifetime history of depressive disorders in children.

Co-rumination, the social process of frequently discussing and rehashing problems with peers, is hypothesized to increase risk for depression, particularly for girls. Although there is growing evidence for a relation between co-rumination and depressive symptoms in youth, it remains unclear whether these results generalize to diagnosable episodes of depression. Using a retrospective behavioral high-risk design with 81 children aged 9 to 14 years, we tested the hypothesis that children currently exhibiting high levels of co-rumination would be more likely to have a history of depressive diagnoses than children with low levels of co-rumination.

Body dissatisfaction and weight-related teasing: a model of cognitive vulnerability to depression among women.

Although a number of studies have linked body dissatisfaction to depressive symptoms, few have done so within the framework of a vulnerability-stress model. We hypothesized that women's levels of body dissatisfaction would interact with recent experiences of vulnerability-congruent negative life events (i.e.

Does the Hopelessness Theory Account for Sex Differences in Depressive Symptoms Among Young Adults?

The present study examined whether the sex difference in depression could be accounted for within the framework of the hopelessness theory of depression. Specifically, we tested whether young adults' negative inferential styles mediated the sex difference in depressive symptoms or whether sex moderated the cognitive vulnerability-stress effects on depressive symptoms in a multi-wave longitudinal study. In doing so, we examined the different forms of negative inferential styles separately (causes, consequences, self-characteristics, composite, weakest link).

Adolescent C57BL/6J (but not DBA/2J) mice consume greater amounts of limited-access ethanol compared to adults and display continued elevated ethanol intake into adulthood.

Background: Alcohol use is common during the adolescent period, a time at which a number of crucial neurobiological, hormonal, and behavioral changes occur (Spear, 2000). In order to more fully understand the complex interaction between alcohol use and these age-typical neurobiological changes, animal models must be utilized. Rodents experience a developmental period similar to that of adolescence.

Activation of the alpha3 integrin affects TRAF6 function in the IL-1 signaling pathway of CACO-2 epithelial cells.

Intestinal epithelial cells express the alpha3beta1 integrin which binds to laminin-5. We have previously shown that activation of the alpha3 integrin through laminin-5 binding or a cross-linking antibody results in a suppression of IL-1 induced cytokine secretion and intracellular signaling through IKK to NF-kappaB and JNK to AP-1 in Caco-2 cells. In the present study, the effects of alpha3 integrin activation on the proximal events of IL-1 induced signaling were examined.

Hooking up: gender differences, evolution, and pluralistic ignorance.

"Hooking-up"--engaging in no-strings-attached sexual behaviors with uncommitted partners--has become a norm on college campuses, and raises the potential for disease, unintended pregnancy, and physical and psychological trauma. The primacy of sex in the evolutionary process suggests that predictions derived from evolutionary theory may be a useful first step toward understanding these contemporary behaviors. This study assessed the hook-up behaviors and attitudes of 507 college students.

Barriers to treatment seeking for anxiety disorders: initial data on the role of mental health literacy.

Background: Anxiety disorders represent the single largest mental health problem in the United States [Greenberg et al., 1999. J Clin Psychiatry 60:427-435; Rice and Miller, 1998.

Moving beyond an exclusive focus on harm avoidance in obsessive-compulsive disorder: behavioral validation for the separability of harm avoidance and incompleteness.

There is increasing recognition that symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be associated not only with harm avoidance, but also with sensations of things being incomplete or not "just right." Although preliminary research supports the presence of both harm avoidance and incompleteness in OCD, their validity as separate constructs has not been tested beyond the use of self-report measures. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to behaviorally validate the separability of harm avoidance and incompleteness using an unselected student sample.

Retrospective reports of behavioral inhibition and young adults' current symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and anxious arousal.

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the specificity of the social versus nonsocial components of self-reported behavioral inhibition during childhood with young adults' current symptoms of anhedonic depression, social anxiety, and anxious arousal. As hypothesized, the social component of BI demonstrated some specificity for symptoms of social anxiety versus other internalizing disorders. Furthermore, results support the hypothesis that the relationship between BI and depressive symptoms is mediated by levels of social anxiety and anxious arousal.

Social interactions and 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in adolescent and adult rats.

Human adolescents drink partly to facilitate their social interactions, a social facilitatory effect of ethanol also seen in adolescent rats tested under familiar test circumstances. To explore the role of hedonic affect in ethanol-induced social facilitation, this study assessed 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in pair-housed adolescent (P29-37) and adult (P71-79) Sprague-Dawley male rats during social interactions. On each of eight test days, animals were socially isolated for 3 h and then injected intraperitoneally with 0 (saline), 0.

Self-perceived competence and prospective changes in symptoms of depression and social anxiety.

The primary aim of the current study was to replicate and extend previous findings by examining the relation of self-perceived competence with symptoms of depression and social anxiety in older adolescents. Focusing first on cross-sectional relations, we found that older adolescents' depressive symptoms were similarly related to levels of perceived scholastic competence and social acceptance, whereas social anxiety was significantly more strongly related to perceived social acceptance. Next, examining symptom changes over a six-month follow-up, we found that perceived social acceptance and scholastic competence both independently predicted prospective changes in adolescents' depressive symptoms, whereas perceived social acceptance, but not scholastic competence, predicted prospective changes in social anxiety.

The Central Reinforcing Properties of Ethanol Are Mediated by Endogenous Opioid Systems: Effects of Mu and Kappa Opioid Antagonists.

Endogenous opioid systems are implicated in the reinforcing effects of ethanol and may play a substantial role in modulating the central reinforcing effects of ethanol early in ontogeny. This possibility was explored in the present study through the use of an olfactory conditioning paradigm with centrally administered ethanol serving as an unconditioned stimulus (US). In Experiment 1, newborn rat pups were treated with either a selective mu antagonist CTOP or kappa selective antagonist nor-BNI prior to olfactory conditioning.

Reward expectation alters learning and memory: the impact of the amygdala on appetitive-driven behaviors.

The capacity to seek and obtain rewards is essential for survival. Pavlovian conditioning is one mechanism by which organisms develop predictions about rewards and such anticipatory or expectancy states enable successful behavioral adaptations to environmental demands. Reward expectancies have both affective/motivational and discriminative properties that allow for the modulation of instrumental goal-directed behavior.

Reported history of childhood abuse and young adults' information-processing biases for facial displays of emotion.

The primary goal of this study was to examine the relations between young adults' reports of childhood abuse and their current attention and interpretation biases for facial displays of emotion. Consistent with prediction, individuals reporting a history of moderate to severe childhood abuse exhibited preferential attention to angry faces and increased sensitivity in the detection of angry expressions at lower levels of emotional intensity. Both the attention and interpretation biases were specific to angry rather than happy or sad faces.

Increasing hippocampal acetylcholine levels enhance behavioral performance in an animal model of diencephalic amnesia.

Pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency (PTD) was used to produce a rodent model of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome that results in acute neurological disturbances, thalamic lesions, and learning and memory impairments. There is also cholinergic septohippocampal dysfunction in the PTD model. Systemic (Experiment 1) and intrahippocampal (Experiment 2) injections of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine were administered to determine if increasing acetylcholine levels would eliminate the behavioral impairment produced by PTD.

Using drinking in the dark to model prenatal binge-like exposure to ethanol in C57BL/6J mice.

Animal models of prenatal ethanol exposure are necessary to more fully understand the effects of ethanol on the developing embryo/fetus. However, most models employ procedures that may produce additional maternal stress beyond that produced by ethanol alone. We employed a daily limited-access ethanol intake model called Drinking in the Dark (DID) to assess the effects of voluntary maternal binge-like ethanol intake on the developing mouse.