Affective Contributions to Instrumental and Reactive Aggression in Middle Childhood: Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches

OBJECTIVE

Research on the role of affect in childhood aggression motives has largely focused on domain-level affective traits. Lower-order affective facets may show more distinct relationships with instrumental and reactive aggression - at both the variable and individual levels - and offer unique insights into whether and how several forms of affect are involved in aggression motives.

METHOD

Caregivers (98% mothers) of 342 children (Mage = 9.81 years, 182 girls, 31% White) reported on children's aggression and affect-relevant personality traits, personality pathology, and callous-unemotional traits.

RESULTS

Both reactive and instrumental aggressions were characterized by higher levels of trait irritability, fear, withdrawal, sadness, and callous-unemotional traits in zero-order analyses. Instrumental aggression was characterized by low trait positive emotions. Reactive aggression was uniquely associated with irritability, fear, withdrawal, and sadness, whereas instrumental aggression was uniquely associated with callous-unemotional traits and (low) positive emotions. Groups identified by latent profile analyses were differentiated only by aggression severity.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings support both the similarity and distinction of reactive and instrumental aggression vis-à-vis their affective phenomenology. Consistent with existing theories, reactive aggression was linked to multiple forms of negative emotionality, whereas instrumental aggression was linked to higher levels of callous-unemotional traits. In a novel finding, instrumental aggression was uniquely characterized by lower positive emotions. The findings highlight the utility of pre-registered approaches employing comprehensive personality-based affective frameworks to organize and understand similarities and differences between aggression functions.

Validity and utility of Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): II. Externalizing superspectrum

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is an empirical effort to address limitations of traditional mental disorder diagnoses. These include arbitrary boundaries between disorder and normality, disorder co-occurrence in the modal case, heterogeneity of presentation within dis-orders, and instability of diagnosis within patients. This paper reviews the evidence on the validity and utility of the disinhibited externalizing and antagonistic externalizing spectra of HiTOP, which together constitute a broad externalizing superspectrum. These spectra are composed of elements subsumed within a variety of mental disorders described in recent DSM nosologies, including most notably substance use disorders and "Cluster B" personality disorders. The externalizing superspectrum ranges from normative levels of impulse control and self-assertion, to maladaptive disinhibition and antagonism, to extensive polysubstance involvement and personality psychopathology. A rich literature supports the validity of the externalizing superspectrum, and the disinhibited and antagonistic spectra. This evidence encompasses common genetic influences, environmental risk factors, childhood antecedents, cognitive abnormalities, neural alterations, and treatment response. The structure of these validators mirrors the structure of the phenotypic externalizing superspectrum, with some correlates more specific to disinhibited or antagonistic spectra, and others relevant to the entire externalizing superspectrum, underlining the hierarchical structure of the domain. Compared with traditional diagnostic categories, the externalizing superspectrum conceptualization shows improved utility, reliability, explanatory capacity, and clinical applicability. The externalizing superspectrum is one aspect of the general approach to psychopathology offered by HiTOP and can make diagnostic classification more useful in both research and the clinic.

Swelling of Transported Smoke from Savanna fires over the Southeast Atlantic Ocean

We use the recently released Cloud Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) Version 4.1 (V4) lidar data to study the smoke plumes transported from Southern African biomass burning areas. Significant improvements in the CALIPSO V4 Level 1 calibration and V4 Level 2 algorithms lead to a better representation of their optical properties, with the aerosol subtype improvements being particularly relevant to smoke over this area. For the first time, we show evidence of smoke particles increasing in size, evidenced in their particulate color ratios, as they are transported over the South Atlantic Ocean from the source regions over Southern Africa. We hypothesize that this is due to hygroscopic swelling of the smoke particles and is reflected in the higher relative humidity in the middle troposphere for profiles with smoke. This finding may have implications for radiative forcing estimates over this area and is also relevant to the ORACLES field mission.

Enhancements to the caliop aerosol subtyping and lidar ratio selection algorithms for level II version 4

Several enhancements have been implemented for the version 4 aerosol subtyping and lidar ratio selection algorithms of Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP). Version 4 eliminates the confusion between smoke and clean marine aerosols seen in version 3 by modifications to the elevated layer flag definitions used to identify smoke aerosols over the ocean. To differentiate between mixtures of dust and smoke, and dust and marine aerosols, a new aerosol type will be added in the version 4 data products. In the marine boundary layer, moderately depolarizing aerosols are no longer modeled as mixtures of dust and smoke (polluted dust) but rather as mixtures of dust and seasalt (dusty marine). Some lidar ratios have been updated in the version 4 algorithms. In particular, the dust lidar ratios have been adjusted to reflect the latest measurements and model studies.

Anterior and posterior lumbar interbody fusion with percutaneous pedicle screws: comparison to muscle damage and minimally invasive techniques

STUDY DESIGN

Retrospective analysis of patients whom underwent one-level anterior lumbar interbody fusion or posterior lumbar interbody fusion with percutaneous pedicle screws.

OBJECTIVE

To determine which minimally invasive fusion technique, anterior or posterior lumbar fusions, induces the least amount of muscle damage.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA

Creatine phosphokinase is recognized as a good marker for muscle damage occurring in patients after spine surgery. Minimally invasive fusions are known to reduce the amount of muscle damage. Which surgery induces the least amount of muscle damage is yet to be determined.Minimally invasive spine surgery is becoming increasing popular due to the benefits of less muscle damage, shorter hospital length and quicker recovery. Lumbar fusions are one of the most common surgeries and is becoming less invasive with the use of percutaneous pedicle screws.

METHODS

Seventy-four patients whom underwent either anterior or posterior lumbar interbody fusions with percutaneous pedicle screws had preoperative and postoperative creatine kinase levels. Statistical analysis then compared the average change between the 2 groups.

RESULTS

Minimally invasive anterior lumbar interbody fusions with percutaneous pedicle screws had significantly less muscle damage (P < 0.05) than minimally invasive posterior lumbar interbody fusions with percutanoues screws.

CONCLUSION

Minimally invasive anterior lumbar interbody fusions with percutaneous pedicle screws cause significantly less muscle damage than minimally invasive posterior lumbar interbody fusions with percutaneous screws. Furthermore minimally invasive anterior lumbar body interbody fusions demonstrated near the same amount of muscle damage to previously published literature on lumbar microdikectomies.

Dural laceration

OBJECT

The authors describe 4 cases of delayed dural laceration by hydroxyapatite (HA) spacer causing tetraparesis following double-door laminoplasty. There are few reports of iatrogenic spinal cord lesions developing after double-door laminoplasty, although some complications such as postoperative C-5 paralysis or axial symptoms have been reported. The purpose of this report is to draw attention to the possibility of delayed dural laceration and its triggering mechanism.

METHODS

One hundred thirty patients treated for cervical myelopathy were followed up for an average of 2 years and 9 months after laminoplasty.

RESULTS

Four patients experienced aggravation of cervical myelopathy. Anterior dislodgement of HA spacers was shown on plain lateral radiographs. Follow-up T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated that the dislodged HA spacers were surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid at the time of aggravation. The dislodged HA spacers were removed and the dural membrane defects were repaired by patching with the fascia of the gluteus maximus muscle. The preoperative symptoms improved after the second operation in all patients.

CONCLUSIONS

It is hypothesized that the loosening of the HA spacer in split spinous processes could occur with the movement of the cervical spine and/or the breakage of the suture before bone bonding. Anterior dislodgement of the HA spacer toward the spinal canal would cause dural laceration by direct friction between the dural membrane and the dislodged HA spacer, resulting in clinical aggravation. Despite the well-documented advantages of using HA spacers for double-door laminoplasty, possible laceration due to a dislodged HA spacer should be considered as a late complication.

Reduction of fast carrier-envelope phase jitter in femtosecond laser amplifiers

The phase noise of the f-to-2f interferometer used for stabilizing the carrier-envelope phase of a femtosecond laser oscillator was studied by adding a He-Ne laser beam co-propagating with the short pulse laser beam. The noise was reduced to ~60 mrad by stabilizing the optical path length difference of the interferometer. This suppressed the fast jitter of the carrier-envelope phase of the amplified laser pulses from 79 to 48 mrad.