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The aim of this study was to better understand the role of hostile attribution bias (HAB) in the relationship between cluster B personality traits and reactive aggression. Sixty-three French-speaking adults were asked to complete online questionnaires assessing their personality traits, hostile attribution bias, and aggressive behaviors. While brain activity was recorded, they were asked to read scenarios involving daily life interactions and to imagine why the characters (whose intentions were ambiguous) behaved in a provocative manner toward them. Following each scenario, we analyzed the N400 component of the event-related brain potential associated with the presentation of unexpected hostile or nonhostile intentions after each scenario. Results showed a stronger N400 amplitude during the presentation of unexpected nonhostile intentions (hostile expectancy violations) in the centro-parietal regions. There was no mediating effect of hostile or nonhostile expectancy violation in the relationship between cluster B personality characteristics and reactive aggression. Further studies are needed to better understand the psychological processes underlying aggressive behaviors in cluster B personality disorders.

L’échelle d’impact des problèmes actuels de comportement (IMPAC) est un outil visant à mesurer l’impact des comportements problématiques chez les personnes ayant subi une lésion cérébrale acquise. Cette mesure évalue l’impact des comportements sur la personne cérébrolésée et son entourage selon cinq dimensions : les relations significatives, l’intégrité psychologique, l’accès aux services, l’intégrité physique et les interventions dispensées. Mis au point par des intervenants spécialisés en trouble du comportement chez la clientèle cérébrolésée, cet outil a fait l’objet d’une série de trois études de validation de contenu. Celles-ci ont été menées auprès d’experts et de professionnels du réseau de la réadaptation en déficience physique. Les résultats ont démontré que l’échelle IMPAC possède une validité de contenu satisfaisante, c’est-à-dire que les dimensions ciblées et les niveaux d’impact décrits pour chacune d’elles reposent sur des critères clairement définis et reconnus comme tels par les experts. L’échelle IMPAC constitue donc un instrument potentiellement utile pour les cliniciens qui souhaitent évaluer de manière objective l’impact des comportements problématiques d’un usager, et ainsi contribuer à guider les interventions prioritaires et à éclairer les décisions d’orientation vers des ressources d’hébergement ou des services spécialisés., The IMPAC Scale (Impact des problèmes actuels de comportement) is an instrument designed to evaluate the impact of challenging behaviour in people with acquired brain injury. This scale measures the impact of such behaviour on the brain-injured person and their social network based on five areas: significant relationships, psychological integrity, access to services, physical integrity and received interventions. The instrument was initially developed by specialized practitioners working with brain-injured persons exhibiting severe challenging behaviour. A series of three validation studies were conducted in which experts and practitioners in fields such as acquired brain injury rehabilitation were consulted. The results showed that the IMPAC Scale has satisfactory content validity — i.e. targeted impact areas and described impact levels are based on clearly defined criteria recognized as such by experts and practitioners. Therefore, the IMPAC Scale can be a useful tool for clinicians who need to objectively assess the impact of a user’s challenging behaviour, which can help prioritize interventions and recommend appropriate residential facilities or specialized services.

Concerns about road safety are at the forefront of discussions given the recent legalization of cannabis in many areas. Some studies have demonstrated that the frequency of cannabis use is a significant predictor of risky driving among young drivers. However, it is difficult to isolate the specific contribution of substance use from the influence of certain individual personality traits such impulsivity. Indeed, impulsivity traits (i.e., positive urgency, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, sensation seeking) are also correlated with risky driving. The present study examined the effect of the frequency of cannabis use on risky driving while taking into account the effect of five impulsivity traits. A community sample of 209 young drivers (aged 17–25 years) completed self-report questionnaires about their road behaviors, their cannabis use, and their impulsivity traits. The results showed that the frequency of cannabis use was significantly associated with risky driving beyond the five impulsivity traits measured. Positive urgency was the only impulsivity trait that remained significantly associated with risky driving once all covariates were entered into the model. Moreover, the frequency of cannabis use acted as a mediator in the relationship between sensation seeking and risky driving.

A research protocol was developed to test a theoretical model regarding impulsivity in borderline personality (BP) disorder. It was hypothesized that the impact of identity disturbance of individuals with BP features on their response-inhibition functions could be explained by the disposition of their self-concept to increase the intensity of negative emotions. Participants with different levels of BP features were assigned to a self-description condition (N=29) that had the potential to manipulate the identity coherence, or a control condition (N=27) prior to a response inhibition task with high and low arousal emotional stimuli. We also explored the relationship between participants' self-description and their performance on the inhibition task. The results showed a significant interaction between condition, level of BP features, valence, and stimulus intensity on commission errors. Post-hoc analysis did not reveal significant differences. In addition, a moderate correlation was found between a lesser differentiated description of the self and a higher mean of errors of commission. This preliminary study highlights the relevance of studying the relationship between the self-concept and inhibition regarding borderline impulsivity. The findings should be replicated with a larger sample and with individuals who meet the diagnostic criteria.

Introduction: Splitting, as a defense mechanism in Kernberg’s theory, plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of polarized and oscillating representations of self/other characteristics of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although the notion of splitting can be considered from a structural and a functional point of view, almost all empirical studies to date have focused on the former elements to the detriment of related cognitive processes. Methods: To further investigate the cognitive processes related to splitting, 60 participants were administered the Splitting Index and indexes of resistance to proactive interference (PI) using the interpersonal recent negative task with words that reflect negative or positive interactions compared to neutral words. Results: The use of splitting was uniquely and significantly predicted by a higher capacity to resist PI and a lower capacity to consistently maintain this resistance when presented with negative words, above and beyond BPD traits, primitive defenses, and the presentation of neutral words. Results showed no evidence of a relationship between splitting and resistance to PI with positive words. Conclusion: Results appear compatible with Kernberg’s conceptualization of splitting as an active defense process that relates to an unstable capacity to inhibit negative representations of the object from entering working memory.

Given the limited number of middlemen in short food supply chains, producers marketing through such channels must carry out various tasks associated with production, processing (if applicable) and marketing. Since productivity increases with specialization, it is presumably difficult for such producers to achieve high levels of labor productivity in each of the tasks they perform (in terms of organizing the work and controlling for costs). This study reports on the results of a detailed analysis of the apparent labor productivity in each activity segment (production, processing and distribution) on farms in Quebec (Canada) that market through short food supply chains. We adapted the concept of a complex activity system and the Work Assessment method to reflect the context in Quebec and the unique features of integrated farming models based on direct marketing. In total, we analyzed work organization on 32 Quebec farms to determine how added value and work hours are allocated among different activity segments. Our analysis of apparent labor productivity highlights the heterogeneity of farms involved in direct marketing as every farm studied had a unique profile. In addition, work patterns reflected the background, choices and skillsets of farmers and different combinations of production factors were utilized. Overall, labor productivity was lower in production-related tasks, although this was often offset by higher productivity levels in other activity segments. Our results indicate that greater productivity in the areas of processing or distribution allows farms in short food supply chains to be financially sustainable. The findings of our study also confirm that farmers involved in direct marketing work hard to sustain their activity systems, even though net earnings are often low when compared to the amount of effort involved. However, farmers are partially compensated in other ways, such as through client appreciation and work enjoyment.

Animal lentiviruses (LVs) have been proven to have the capacity to cross the species barrier, to adapt in the new hosts, and to increase their pathogenesis, therefore leading to the emergence of threatening diseases. However, their potential for widespread diffusion is limited by restrictive cellular factors that block viral replication in the cells of many species. In previous studies, we demonstrated that the restriction of CAEV infection of sheep choroid plexus cells was due to aberrant post-translation cleavage of the CAEV Env gp170 precursor. Later, we showed that the lack of specific receptor(s) for caprine encephalitis arthritis virus (CAEV) on the surface of human cells was the only barrier to their infection. Here, we examined whether small ruminant (SR) cells can support the replication of primate LVs. Three sheep and goat cell lines were inoculated with cell-free HIV-1 and SIVmac viral stocks or transfected with infectious molecular clone DNAs of these viruses. The two recombinant lentiviral clones contained the green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter sequence. Infection was detected by GFP expression in target cells, and the infectious virus produced and released in the culture medium of treated cells was detected using the indicator TZM-bl cell line. Pseudotyped HIV-GFP and SIV-GFP with vesicular stomatitis virus G glycoprotein (VSV-G) allowed the cell receptors to be overcome for virus entry to further evaluate the viral replication/restriction in SR cells. As expected, neither HIV nor SIV viruses infected any of the SR cells. In contrast, the transfection of plasmid DNAs of the infectious molecular clones of both viruses in SR cells produced high titers of infectious viruses for human indicators, but not SR cell lines. Surprisingly, SR cells inoculated with HIV-GFP/VSV-G, but not SIV-GFP/VSV-G, expressed the GFP and produced a virus that efficiently infected the human indictor, but not the SR cells. Collectively, these data provide a demonstration of the lack of replication of the SIVmac genome in SR cells, while, in contrast, there was no restriction on the replication of the IV-1 genome in these cells. However, because of the lack of functional receptors to SIVmac and HIV-1 at the surface of SR cells, there is specific lentiviral entry.

We investigated the influences of hostile and non-hostile schemas activations in non-aggressive individuals on their intent attribution processes in various social contexts. 38 non-aggressive participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, one primed with negative words, to be conditioned as temporarily hostile (TH), and the other with positive words, be conditioned as temporarily non-hostile (TNH). They were asked to read social scenarios composed of positive or negative behaviors of others whose intentions are ambiguous followed by a disambiguation of others' real intentions (hostile vs non-hostile) behind their behaviors. Neural activity related to spontaneous intent attribution processes was measured using electroencephalography (EEG). The results showed that when non-hostile intentions were revealed following ambiguous-negative behaviors of others, the N400 effect was observed only in the TH group. Similarly, when hostile intentions were revealed following ambiguous-positive behaviors of others, the N400 effect was observed only in the TNH group. In other words, non-aggressive individuals were led to attribute either hostile or non-hostile intentions to the same ambiguous behaviors of others depending on which concepts or thoughts (hostile vs non hostile) were activated and accessible in memory by priming at the time of social interactions.

Summary Introduction The use of sexual coercion by university students is a prevalent and serious phenomenon. Studies have indicated that insecure attachment (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) is related to sexual coercion perpetration, but the mechanisms explaining this association remain misunderstood. Negative urgency, which refers to the tendency to react impulsively when experiencing intense negative emotions, may be one of these mechanisms. Objective The objective of the present study is to determine the role played by negative urgency in the relationship between attachment insecurity and past use of sexual coercion. Method Ninety-seven male university students completed online questionnaires measuring attachment style, negative urgency and past use of sexual coercion. Results Mediation analyses revealed that attachment anxiety – but not attachment avoidance – predicted past use of sexual coercion via negative urgency. Ultimately, this study suggests that the propensity to act impulsively under the effect of negative emotions reported by anxiously attached men may constitute a risk factor for sexual coercion perpetration. Discussion This study identifies negative urgency and anxious attachment as promising intervention targets to prevent the perpetration of sexual coercion and highlights the importance of verifying the causal role of these factors with longitudinal studies.

Resume Introduction L’utilisation de coercition sexuelle chez les etudiants universitaires est un phenomene prevalent et serieux. Les etudes anterieures indiquent que l’attachement insecurisant (c’est-a-dire, l’anxiete face a l’abandon et l’evitement de l’intimite) est un facteur predicteur de l’utilisation de la coercition sexuelle, mais les mecanismes expliquant cette relation demeurent mal compris. Il est propose que l’urgence negative, c’est-a-dire la tendance a reagir de maniere impulsive face aux emotions negatives intenses, soit l’un de ces mecanismes. Objectif L’objectif de la presente etude est de determiner le role joue par l’urgence negative dans la relation entre l’attachement insecurisant et l’utilisation de coercition sexuelle. Methodes Quatre-vingt-dix-sept hommes etudiant a l’universite ont complete des questionnaires en ligne mesurant le style d’attachement, l’urgence negative et l’utilisation de la coercition sexuelle dans le passe. Resultats Des analyses de mediation ont revele que l’anxiete face a l’abandon, et non l’evitement de l’intimite, predisait l’utilisation de la coercition sexuelle via l’urgence negative. Autrement dit, cette etude suggere que la propension a agir de maniere impulsive sous l’effet d’emotions negatives rapportee par les hommes presentant de l’anxiete face a l’abandon contribue a les rendre plus susceptibles d’utiliser la coercition sexuelle. Discussion Cette etudie identifie l’urgence negative et l’anxiete face a l’abandon comme des pistes d’intervention prometteuses pour prevenir la commission de coercition sexuelle et souligne l’importance de verifier le role causal de ces facteurs au moyen d’etudes longitudinales.

Impulsivity is a common and debilitating sequela following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and should be assessed during the rehabilitation process. It is now accepted that impulsivity is a multidimensional construct and such a distinction may help in understanding the mechanisms underlying impulsivity and facilitate assessment. The goal of this study is to examine the link between impulsive behaviors and their underlying mechanisms in a TBI sample. Twenty-five TBI patients and twenty-four matched controls were administered performance tasks measuring prepotent response inhibition, resistance to proactive interference, and decision-making. Group comparisons show weaker performance on measures of inhibition and decision-making by the TBI participants. Finally, performance on the Modified Six Elements Task was associated with impulsive behaviors in everyday life as observed by treating clinicians. This study sheds light on the associations between executive functions and impulsivity in an acute rehabilitation setting.

Self-reported impulsivity has been found to predict the perpetration of sexual coercion in both sexual offenders and male college students. Impulsivity can be conceptualized as a generalized lack of self-control (i.e., general perspective) or as a multifaceted construct that can vary from one context to the other (i.e., domain-specific perspective). Delay discounting, the tendency to prefer sooner smaller rewards over larger delayed rewards, is a measure of impulsive decision making. Recent sexual adaptations of delay discounting tasks can be used to test domain-specific assumptions. The present study used the UPPS-P impulsivity questionnaire, a standard money discounting task, and a sexual discounting task to predict past use of sexual coercion in a sample of 98 male college students. Results indicated that higher negative urgency scores, less impulsive money discounting, and more impulsive sexual discounting all predicted sexual coercion. Consistent with previous studies, sexuality was discounted more steeply than money by both perpetrators and non-perpetrators of sexual coercion, but this difference was twice as large in perpetrators compared to non-perpetrators. Our study identified three different predictors of sexual coercion in male college students: a broad tendency to act rashly under negative emotions, a specific difficulty to postpone sexual gratification, and a pattern of optimal non-sexual decision making. Results highlight the importance of using multiple measures, including sexuality-specific measures, to get a clear portrait of the links between impulsivity and sexual coercion.

Abstract. Negative urgency defined as the tendency to act rashly when faced with intense negative emotions and hostile attribution bias (HAB) which refers to the tendency to interpret the intention of others as hostile when social context cues are ambiguous are two key psychological factors underlying reactive aggression. However, the specific associations between these factors in relation to reactive aggression have not been tested yet with competing models. The objective of the study was to test three putative models: (1) negative urgency moderates the association between HAB and reactive aggression; (2) HAB mediates the link between negative urgency and reactive aggression; (3) negative urgency mediates the relation between HAB and reactive aggression. One-hundred seventy-six participants were given self-report questionnaires to assess impulsivity, reactive aggression, as well as vignettes featuring a social situation measuring HAB in response to an ambiguous social provocation. The results showed that negative urgency constitutes a significant mediator in the association between HAB and reactive aggression. These results provide valuable insight into the cognitive processes underlying reactive aggression and may hold implications for diagnosis and intervention on aggressive behaviors.

This study tested the hypotheses that borderline personality (BP) features are characterized by a negativity bias and instability in spontaneous and deliberate evaluations of others. Undergraduate women (N = 204) watched two movie clips depicting either positive or negative conjugal interactions. Spontaneous and deliberate evaluations of the male character were assessed after each clip with an Evaluative Priming Task and a self-report measure, respectively. Participants with high BP features showed unstable spontaneous evaluations. Results revealed a non-significant trend toward more negative spontaneous evaluations after the negative clip and less positive and more negative deliberate evaluations after watching the positive clip first relative to participants with low BP features. These results provide preliminary evidence that impression formation in borderline personality may be characterized by negative and unstable evaluations that are shaped at least in part at earlier processing stages.

Risky and excessive behaviors, such as aggressive and compulsive behaviors, are frequently described in patients with brain damage and have dramatic psychosocial consequences. Although there is strong evidence that impulsivity constitutes a key factor at play in these behaviors, the literature about impulsivity in neuropsychology is to date scarce. In addition, examining and understanding these problematic behaviors requires the assumption that impulsivity is a multidimensional construct. Consequently, this article aims at shedding light on frequent risky and excessive behaviors in patients with brain damage by focusing on a unified, comprehensive, and well-validated model, namely, the UPPS model of impulsivity. This model considers impulsivity as a multidimensional construct that includes four facets: urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, and sensation seeking. Furthermore, we discuss the psychological mechanisms underlying the dimensions of impulsivity, as well as the laboratory tasks designed to assess each mechanism and their neural bases. We then present a scale specifically designed to assess these four dimensions of impulsivity in patients with brain damage and examine the data regarding this multidimensional approach to impulsivity in neuropsychology. This review supports the need to adopt a multifactorial and integrative approach toward impulsive behaviors, and the model presented provides a valuable rationale to disentangle the nature of brain systems and mechanisms underlying impulsive behaviors in patients with brain damage. It may also foster further relevant research in the field of impulsivity and improve assessment and rehabilitation of impulsive behaviors in clinical settings.

It has been pointed out that the definition of BPD impulsivity would be improved by incorporating neurobehavioral models in order to bridge the research and the DSM behavioral criterion. Moeller et al. [1] have proposed three neuropsychological diagnostic criterions related to impulsivity in psychiatric disorders: (1) rapid, unplanned reactions to stimuli before complete processing of information; (2) lack of regard for long-term consequences and; (3) decreased sensitivity to negative consequences of behavior. The goal of this paper was to review the neuropsychological literature of BPD impulsivity in line with these neuropsychological diagnostic criterions to verify if the evidence from neuropsychological data and measurements is sufficiently strong to be integrated into the DSM definition of BPD impulsivity. Results of the review highlight some evidence regarding neuropsychological deficits in BPD patients that may be underlying their impulsive self-damaging behaviors. However, at least five methodological challenges are pointed out and need to be addressed before these deficits can be successfully integrated into a definition of BPD impulsivity. Some solutions are proposed to face the main challenges in studying impulsivity in BPD.

Background Hostility and aggression have been found to be highly prevalent among depressed patients and are associated with higher comorbidity and illness severity levels. Although negative interpretation biases are a fundamental element of cognitive models of depression, few studies have examined the specific biases in information processing, mainly the hostile attribution bias, found in hostile individuals who present depressive symptoms. Method Using pre-collected data from a sample of 72 (male=41,6%, female=58,3%) undergraduate and community-based hostile (n = 26) and non-hostile (n = 46) adult participants, the authors aimed to examine the association between depression and the hostile attribution bias by determining whether depression level scores were uniquely related to electrophysiological measures of the hostile attribution bias. Results The hostile group showed higher measured levels of depression and reactive aggression compared to the non-hostile group. Also, depression scores were significant predictors of the N400 effect in the non-hostile task condition, while reactive aggression was not, whereas in the hostile condition, the overall model was significant, with depression and reactive aggression levels both showing strong trends towards significance. Limitations A small sample size limited the scope of our conclusions. Also, sample selection prevented us from examining specific group differences regarding the hostile attribution bias in depressed and non-depressed groups. Conclusion Clinical and research implications include the necessity to apply cognitive restructuring techniques to counter biased interpretation processes in settings where depression and aggression intersect, and the need to consider alternatives to self-evaluative methodologies.

Response inhibition is defined as one’s ability to voluntarily override an automatic or already initiated action when that action is inappropriate. Although a core mechanism of self-control, its association with sexual coercion perpetration and the impact of erotic cues on its exertion remain unknown. According to a domain-specific perspective on impulsivity, response inhibition performances should be disproportionately hindered by sexual cues in sexual coercion perpetrators. In total, 94 male college students completed a stop-signal task that included neutral, emotional, and erotic distracters. Results showed that men who reported past use of sexual coercion obtained overall poorer stop-signal task (SST) performances. Highly arousing sexual stimuli equally hindered the performances of perpetrators and non-perpetrators, whereas moderately arousing sexual and nonsexual positive stimuli did not significantly affect performances. Results do not support a domain-specific perspective on the link between response inhibition and sexual coercion, but rather suggest generally poorer inhibitory control among sexual coercion perpetrators.

Being sexually aroused can lead to a stronger propensity to engage in sexual risk-taking and sexually coercive behaviors possibly by narrowing attentional focus toward immediate gratification rather than long-term consequences. The goal of this paper was to investigate the attentional processes implicated in sexual self-regulation failure and its moderating factors, namely having a stronger sensitivity to sexual cues (dual control model) or being less able to implement behavioral intentions (action control theory) following a first effortful task. A total of 82 young adult heterosexual men completed a Dot Probe task to assess their attentional bias toward sexual stimuli. Effortful control was manipulated using a Stroop task. Regardless of conditions, higher sexual excitability was predictive of a stronger attentional bias toward sexual cues, while higher inhibition due to threat of performance failure was predictive of a lower bias for such cues. In the experimental condition, action-oriented individuals were able to negate this attentional bias by staying more focused on the task, while state-oriented participants showed higher orientation toward the sexual cues and thus a higher bias. These results suggest that both higher-order processes, like intention implementation, and lower-order processes, like sexual inhibition and excitation systems, are the key to regulation failure.

Resume L’impulsivite a ete identifiee comme un facteur de risque pour les comportements sexuels problematiques chez les adultes tel que l’infidelite conjugale, les comportements sexuels a risque et coercitifs. L’impulsivite peut etre comprise comme une caracteristique intrapersonnelle multidimensionnelle relativement stable conduisant les individus a agir de maniere inconsideree. Cependant, des etudes suggerent que certains individus pourraient presenter des difficultes de controle des impulsions specifiquement dans le domaine de la sexualite. La presente recension des ecrits a pour objectifs de presenter les etudes empiriques ayant observe des liens entre l’impulsivite et les comportements sexuels problematiques et d’examiner la contribution de la tâche de la devaluation temporelle et de la tâche du signal stop, deux tâches comportementales mesurant l’impulsivite, a l’avancement des connaissances dans le domaine de la sexualite humaine. Cet article vise egalement a souligner la pertinence d’adapter ces instruments psychometriques au domaine de la sexualite dans le but d’identifier des processus neuropsychologiques comme marqueurs potentiels d’impulsivite sexuelle. Les zones d’ombres qui doivent etre eclairees ainsi que les retombees cliniques potentielles de ces nouvelles mesures seront aussi abordees.

Summary Impulsivity has been identified as a risk factor for problematic sexual behaviors in adults such as conjugal infidelity, risky sexual behaviors, and sexual coercion. Impulsivity can be conceptualized as a relatively stable intrapersonal characteristic leading individuals to engage in reckless, inconsiderate actions. However, studies have suggested that some individuals may present self-control deficits that are specific to or more pronounced in the sexual domain. The present review of the literature intends to survey the empirical studies having found links between impulsivity and problematic sexual behaviors and to examine how two behavioral measures of impulsivity, the delay discounting task and the stop signal task, have contributed to the generation of new scientific knowledge on human sexuality. This article will also highlight the relevance of adapting these tasks to the sexual domain in order to measure the neuropsychological processes that might mark sexual impulsivity. The remaining gaps in the body of literature as well as the potential outcomes will also be addressed.

Hostile attribution bias (e.g., tendency to interpret the intention of others as hostile in ambiguous social contexts) has been associated with impulsive aggression in adults, but the results are mixed and the complete sequence of hostile inferential processes leading to aggression has not been investigated yet. The goal of this event-related brain potentials (ERPs) study was to track the neural activity associated with the violation of expectations about hostile versus nonhostile intentions in aggressive and nonaggressive individuals and examine how this neural activity relates to self-reported hostile attributional bias and impulsive aggression in real life. To this end, scenarios with a hostile versus nonhostile social context followed by a character's ambiguous aversive behavior were presented to readers, and ERPs to critical words that specified the hostile versus nonhostile intent behind the behavior were analysed. Thirty-seven aggressive and fifty nonaggressive individuals participated in the study. The presentation of a critical word that violated hostile expectation caused an N400 response that was significantly larger in aggressive than nonaggressive individuals. Results also showed an enhanced late positive potential-like component in aggressive individuals when hostile intention scenarios took place in a nonhostile context, which is associated with impulsive aggression in real life even after having controlled for the effect of self-reported hostile attributional bias. The Hostile Expectancy Violation paradigm evaluated in this study represents a promising tool to investigate the relationship between the online processing of hostile intent in others and impulsive aggression. Aggr. Behav. 43:217-229, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

To develop a French version of the Overt Behaviour Scale (OBS) and examine some of its psychometric properties.The scale was adapted and validated according to standard guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of questionnaires (Échelle des comportements observables; ÉCO). The reliability and construct validity of the ÉCO were studied among 29 inpatients and outpatients who sustained an acquired brain injury. The instruments were administered by 12 clinicians located at eight rehabilitation centres and the local brain injury association.The ÉCO provided behaviour profile descriptives much like the original scale. It showed excellent reliability and good convergent and divergent validity, as reflected by significant associations with other measures that contained similar behavioural items and by the absence of signification correlations with broader constructs such as physical and cognitive abilities.This study provides evidence that the ÉCO behaves much like the original OBS, has promising initial findings with respect to reliability and validity and is a valuable research and clinical instrument to assess the severity and typology of challenging behaviour after an acquired brain injury and to monitor the evolution of behaviours after intervention in French and bilingual communities.

The Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea; takatakiaq in Inuttitut) breeds in the circumpolar Arctic and undertakes the longest known annual migration. In recent decades, Arctic Tern populations have been declining in some parts of their range, and this has been a cause of concern for both wildlife managers and Indigenous harvesters. However, limited scientific information is available on Arctic Tern abundance and distribution, especially within its breeding range in remote areas of the circumpolar Arctic. Knowledge held by Inuit harvesters engaged in Arctic Tern egg picking can shed light on the ecology, regional abundance and distribution of this marine bird. We conducted individual interviews and a workshop involving 12 Inuit harvesters and elders from Kuujjuaraapik, Nunavik (northern Québec), Canada, to gather their knowledge of Arctic Tern cultural importance, ecology, and stewardship. Interview contributors reported a regional decline in Arctic Tern numbers which appeared in the early 2000s on nesting islands near Kuujjuaraapik. Six possible factors were identified: (1) local harvest through egg picking; (2) nest disturbance and predation; (3) abandonment of tern nesting areas (i.e., islands that have become connected to the mainland due to isostatic rebound); (4) climate change; (5) natural abundance cycles within the Arctic Tern population; and (6) decline of the capelin (Mallotus villosus) in the region. Recommendations from Inuit contributors related to Arctic Tern stewardship and protection included: (1) conduct more research; (2) let nature take its course; (3) conduct an awareness campaign; (4) implement an egg picking ban; (5) coordinate local egg harvest; (6) start ‘tern farming’; (7) protect Arctic Terns across their migration route; and (8) harvest foxes predating on terns. Our study highlighted complementarities between Inuit knowledge and ecological science, and showed that Inuit harvesters can make substantial contributions to ongoing and future Arctic tern research and management initiatives.

Determining how environmental conditions interact with individual intrinsic properties is important for unravelling the underlying mechanisms that drive variation in reproductive decisions among migratory species. We investigated the influence of sea ice conditions and body condition at arrival on the breeding propensity, i.e. the decision to reproduce or not within a single breeding season, and timing of laying in migrating common eiders (Somateria mollissima) breeding in the Arctic. Using Radarsat satellite images acquired from 2002 to 2013, we estimated the proportion of open water in the intertidal zone in early summer to track the availability of potential foraging areas for pre-breeding females. Timing of ice-breakup varied by up to 20 days across years and showed strong relationship with both breeding propensity and the timing of laying of eiders: fewer pre-breeding individuals were resighted nesting in the colony and laying was also delayed in years with late ice-breakup. Interestingly, the effect of sea ice dynamics on reproduction was modulated by the state of individuals at arrival on the breeding grounds: females arriving in low condition were more affected by a late ice-breakup. Open water accessibility in early summer, a likely proxy of food availability, is thus crucial for reproductive decisions in a (partial) capital breeder. Our predictive capacity in determining how Arctic-breeding seabirds respond to changes in environmental conditions will require incorporating such cross-seasonal cumulative effects.

International audience; Novel HIV vaccine vectors and strategies are needed to control HIV/AIDS epidemic in humans and eradicate the infection. DNA vaccines alone failed to induce immune responses robust enough to control HIV-1. Development of lentivirus-based DNA vaccines deficient for integration and with a limited replication capacity is an innovative and promising approach. This type of vaccine mimics the early stages of virus infection/replication like the live-attenuated viruses but lacks the inconvenient integration and persistence associated with disease. We developed a novel lentivector DNA vaccine "CAL-SHIV-IN-" that undergoes a single round of replication in the absence of integration resulting in augmented expression of vaccine antigens in vivo. Vaccine gene expression is under control of the LTRs of a naturally attenuated lentivirus, Caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV) the natural goat lentivirus. The safety of this vaccine prototype was increased by the removal of the integrase coding sequences from the pal gene. We examined the functional properties of this lentivector DNA in cell culture and the immunogenicity in mouse models. Viral proteins were expressed in transfected cells, assembled into viral particles that were able to transduce once target permissive cells. Unlike the parental replication-competent SHIV-KU2 that was detected in DNA samples from any of the serial passage infected cells, CAL-SHIV-IN- DNA was detected only in target cells of the first round of infection, hence demonstrating the single cycle replication of the vaccine. A single dose DNA immunization of humanized NOD/SCID/beta 2 mice showed a substantial increase of IFN-gamma-ELISPOT in splenocytes compared to the former replication and integration defective Delta 4SHIV-KU2 DNA vaccine. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International audience; The most prominent structural feature of the parasitophorous vacuole (PV) in which the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii proliferates is a membranous nanotubular network (MNN), which interconnects the parasites and the PV membrane. The MNN function remains unclear. The GRA2 and GRA6 proteins secreted from the parasite dense granules into the PV have been implicated in the MNN biogenesis. Amphipathic alpha-helices (AAHs) predicted in GRA2 and an alpha-helical hydrophobic domain predicted in GRA6 have been proposed to be responsible for their membrane association, thereby potentially molding the MMN in its structure. Here we report an analysis of the recombinant proteins (expressed in detergent-free conditions) by circular dichroism, which showed that full length GRA2 displays an alpha-helical secondary structure while recombinant GRA6 and GRA2 truncated of its AAHs are mainly random coiled. Dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy showed that recombinant GRA6 and truncated GRA2 constitute a homogenous population of small particles (6-8 nm in diameter) while recombinant GRA2 corresponds to 2 populations of particles (∼8-15 nm and up to 40 nm in diameter, respectively). The unusual properties of GRA2 due to its AAHs are discussed.

The aim of this study was to verify the relevance of social information-processing (SIP) models in the study of impulsivity. 170 undergraduates completed the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale relevant to negative urgency, the SIP–AEQ and control measures. The SIP–AEQ consists of eight vignettes featuring a social situation measuring hostile attributional bias (HAB), emotional responses and impulsive behaviors in response to an ambiguous social provocation. Regression analyses showed negative urgency’s unique contribution to indirect HAB after controlling for the effects of aggressiveness, negative emotions and lack of perseverance, another UPPS dimension of impulsivity. Analyses also revealed that indirect HAB mediates the relationship between negative urgency and impulsive behaviors, after controlling for the effects of aggressiveness and negative emotions. Results suggest that SIP models are relevant to study the active social cognitive processes in impulsive behaviors of high-urgency individuals.

Impulsivity is a common and debilitating sequela following traumatic brain injury (TBI), but there is no consensual definition or measure to assess this construct. The following review aims to elucidate the differences and resemblances between impulsivity, disinhibition and other related terms following brain injury and the instruments that are commonly used to measure these constructs. To do so, a search through different databases was conducted in order to find articles that mention and define impulsivity, disinhibition, impulse control, regulation deficits, dyscontrol and risky behavior. The concepts that stand out from the literature, the measures used, the similarities, the differences between these concepts are observed. The fit with the UPPS model of impulsivity, according to which impulsivity is a multidimensional concept composed of four distinct dimensions (urgency, perseverance, premeditation and sensation-seeking) is discussed.

The perception of aversive stimuli is essential for human survival and depends largely on environmental context. Although aversive brain processing has been shown to involve the sensorimotor cortex, the neural and biochemical mechanisms underlying the interaction between two independent aversive cues are unclear. Based on previous work indicating ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) involvement in the mediation of context-dependent emotional effects, we hypothesized a central role for the vmPFC in modulating sensorimotor cortex activity using a GABAergic mechanism during an aversive–aversive stimulus interaction. This approach revealed differential activations within the aversion-related network (eg, sensorimotor cortex, midcingulate, and insula) for the aversive–aversive, when compared with the aversive–neutral, interaction. Individual differences in sensorimotor cortex signal changes during the aversive–aversive interaction were predicted by GABAA receptors in both vmPFC and sensorimotor cortex. Together, these results demonstrate the central role of GABA in mediating context-dependent effects in aversion-related processing.

Les jeunes de la rue présentent des comportements à risque liés à la consommation et à des comportements sexuels ayant des implications majeures sur leur santé et leur sécurité. En plus des problèmes de santé mentale, les traits impulsifs de la personnalité peuvent être un facteur de risque important par rapport à plusieurs de ces comportements problématiques.La présente étude visait d’abord à dresser un portrait des jeunes de la rue, puis à vérifier la valeur de prédiction des traits impulsifs de la personnalité sur les comportements à risque au-delà des problèmes de santé mentale. 31 jeunes de la rue ont été soumis à l’UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale mesurant cinq dimensions de l’impulsivité, ainsi qu’à d’autres instruments mesurant les problèmes de santé mentale (IBS), la consommation d’alcool et de drogues (DÉBA-Alcool/Drogues) et les comportements sexuels à risque (RBS).Les jeunes de la rue rapportent plusieurs problèmes significatifs de santé mentale, plusieurs problématiques liées à la consommation d’alcool et de drogues, ainsi que plusieurs comportements sexuels à risque. Concernant la valeur de prédiction des traits impulsifs de la personnalité, les analyses de régression démontrent que l’Urgence positive contribue de manière unique à prédiction de la dépendance et des conséquences négatives associées à la consommation d’alcool alors que la Recherche de sensations n’est pas associée de manière significative à aucun des comportements à risque. De plus, seul le manque de Persévérance contribue de manière unique à la prédiction des conséquences négatives associées à la consommation de drogues, alors que seul le manque de Préméditation est associé significativement à la quantité d’alcool consommée. Ces résultats démontrent l’importance d’évaluer et d’intervenir sur les traits impulsifs de la personnalité de manière à augmenter l’efficacité des interventions de prévention des comportements à risque chez les jeunes de la rue., Substance use and unsafe sex are dangerous behaviors that greatly impact street youths’ health and security. In addition to mental health issues, impulsive personality traits can be a significant risk factor to several of these problem behaviors.The primary objective of this study was to draw a portrait of street youth, and then verify the predictive value of impulsive personality traits on risky behaviors over and above mental health issues. Thirty-one street youth answered the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale, which measures five dimensions of impulsivity, and other instruments which measure mental health problems (BSI), alcohol and drug use (ASAN-Alcohol/Drugs) and risky sexual behaviors (RBS).Street youth mention various significant mental health issues, multiple alcohol and drug-related problems, as well as numerous risky sexual behaviors. As for the predictive value of impulsive personality traits, regression analyses show positive Urgency as the best unique predictor of alcohol dependence and negative consequences related to it, while Sensation seeking is not significantly related to any risky behavior. Furthermore, lack of Perseverance is the unique predictor of negative consequences related to drug use, while lack of Premeditation is the only dimension significantly related to the quantity of alcohol consumed. These results show the importance of clinically evaluating and intervening on impulsive personality traits to better prevent risky behavior among street youth., Los jóvenes de la calle presentan comportamientos de riesgo relacionados con el consumo de drogas y alcohol y conductas sexuales que tienen consecuencias importantes sobre su salud y su seguridad. Además de los problemas de salud mental, los rasgos impulsivos de la personalidad pueden constituir un factor de riesgo importante con respecto a numerosos de estos problemas de comportamiento.El presente estudio tiene como objetivo, en primer lugar, establecer un retrato de los jóvenes de la calle y, en segundo lugar, verificar el valor que tienen los rasgos impulsivos de la personalidad como elementos de predicción de los comportamientos a riesgo, más allá de los problemas de salud mental. Se aplicó a 31 jóvenes de la calle la Escala de Conducta Impulsiva (UPPS-P), que mide cinco dimensiones de impulsividad, así como otros instrumentos que miden los problemas de salud mental (IBS), el consumo de alcohol y drogas (DÉBA-Alcohol/Drogas) y los comportamientos sexuales a riesgo (RBS).Los jóvenes de la calle presentan diversos problemas importantes de salud mental, muchos problemas relacionados con el consumo de alcohol y de drogas y numerosos comportamientos sexuales riesgosos. En lo que se refiere al valor de predicción de los rasgos impulsivos de la personalidad, los análisis de regresión demuestran que la Urgencia positiva contribuye de manera singular a predecir la dependencia y las consecuencias negativas relacionadas con el consumo de alcohol, mientras que la Búsqueda de sensaciones no está asociada de manera significativa a ninguno de los comportamientos de riesgo, Además, solamente la falta de Perseverancia contribuye de manera exclusiva a la predicción de consecuencias negativas relacionadas con el consumo de drogas, mientras que sólo la falta de Premeditación está vinculada de manera significativa con la cantidad de alcohol consumido. Estos resultados indican la importancia de evaluar los rasgos impulsivos de la personalidad y de intervenir sobre los mismos para aumentar la eficacia de las intervenciones de prevención de los comportamientos a riesgo entre los jóvenes de la calle.

Although cognitive distortions are widely acknowledged in the explanation of impulsivity-related psychopathologies (and more recently in the explanation of specific impulsive behaviors), no study has systematically verified whether they can also explain the cognitive processes underlying these impulsivity traits of personality: urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking (UPPS). Moreover, childhood maltreatment has been frequently associated with both cognitive distortions and impulsive behaviors but never with UPPS traits. A study was conducted on undergraduate students to examine the influence of cognitive distortions and childhood maltreatment on four dimensions of impulsivity from the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale. Regression analyses revealed that Premature Processing, a term applied to a group of seven cognitive distortions such as emotional reasoning and confusing needs and wants, as well as childhood maltreatment, was able to predict significantly and independently the Negative Urgency dimension of impulsivity, above and beyond gender and the three other subscales of the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale. Coherent with Beck’s cognitive model, these results suggest that the Negative Urgency trait is associated with cognitive distortions that can undermine thought processes in a variety of ways, increasing the likelihood of acting rashly. However, more studies are needed to develop instruments and identify specific forms of cognitive distortions associated with impulsivity traits.

Although the perception of hostile intentions in other people can have a clear adaptive function, researchers have paid little attention to the capacity of nonaggressive individuals to infer hostile intentions in others. The goal of the present study was to study brain mechanisms associated with expectations of hostile/non-hostile intent and their on-line evaluation. Scenarios with a hostile versus non-hostile social context followed by a character's ambiguous aversive behavior were presented to readers, and we recorded and analyzed event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to critical words that disambiguated the hostile versus non-hostile intent behind the behavior. Fifty nonaggressive individuals participated in the study. Non-hostile critical words that violated hostile intention expectations elicited a larger negative-going ERP deflection with central and posterior maximums between 400 and 600 ms after word onset compatible with an N400 effect. Finally, there were marginally significant correlations between N400 effect sizes and hostile as well as neutral attribution bias measured by a self-report questionnaire. The results suggest that nonaggressive individuals evaluate rapidly, on-line, their attributions of the hostile intent of others. The methodology we developed provides the field with a new paradigm with which to study social attributions of hostile intent likely to contribute to hostile or aggressive reactions.

Purpose: To compare the performance of plastic scintillation detectors (PSD) for quality assurance (QA) in stereotactic radiosurgery conditions to a microion-chamber (IC), Gafchromic EBT2 films, 60 008 shielded photon diode (SD) and unshielded diodes (UD), and assess a new 2D crosshair array prototype adapted to small field dosimetry. Methods: The PSD consists of a 1 mm diameter by 1 mm long scintillating fiber (BCF-60, Saint-Gobain, Inc.) coupled to a polymethyl-methacrylate optical fiber (Eska premier, Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Output factors (S{sub c,p}) for apertures used in radiosurgery ranging from 4 to 40 mm in diameter have been measured. The PSD crosshair array (PSDCA) is a water equivalent device made up of 49 PSDs contained in a 1.63 cm radius area. Dose profiles measurements were taken for radiosurgery fields using the PSDCA and were compared to other dosimeters. Moreover, a typical stereotactic radiosurgery treatment using four noncoplanar arcs was delivered on a spherical phantom in which UD, IC, or PSD was placed. Using the Xknife planning system (Integra Radionics Burlington, MA), 15 Gy was prescribed at the isocenter, where each detector was positioned. Results: Output Factors measured by the PSD have a mean difference of 1.3% with Gafchromic EBT2more » when normalized to a 10 x 10 cm{sup 2} field, and 1.0% when compared with UD measurements normalized to the 35 mm diameter cone. Dose profiles taken with the PSD crosshair array agreed with other single detectors dose profiles in spite of the presence of the 49 PSDs. Gamma values comparing 1D dose profiles obtained with PSD crosshair array with Gafchromic EBT2 and UD measured profiles shows 98.3% and 100.0%, respectively, of detector passing the gamma acceptance criteria of 0.3 mm and 2%. The dose measured by the PSD for a complete stereotactic radiosurgery treatment is comparable to the planned dose corrected for its SD-based S{sub c,p} within 1.4% and 0.7% for 5 and 35 mm diameter cone, respectively. Furthermore, volume averaging of the IC can be observed for the 5 mm aperture where it differs by as much as 9.1% compared to the PSD measurement. The angular dependency of the UD is also observed, unveiled by an under-response around 2.5% of both 5 and 35 mm apertures. Conclusions: Output Factors and dose profiles measurements performed, respectively, with the PSD and the PSDCA were in agreement with those obtained with the UD and EBT2 films. For stereotactic radiosurgery treatment verification, the PSD gives accurate results compared to the planning system and the IC once the latter is corrected to compensate for the averaging effect of the IC. The PSD provides precise results when used as a single detector or in a dense array, resulting in a great potential for stereotactic radiosurgery QA measurements.« less

The in vitroO-glycosylation reaction of the MUCSAC mucin motif peptide, TTSAPTTS (in one-letter code), was achieved with human gastric microsomal homogenates. The analyses using capillary electrophoresis online coupled with electrospray mass spectrometry and further Edman degradation of the purified products (obtained by capillary electrophoresis at preparative scale) allowed us to distinguish two components at close masses: the addition of a mass of 202 corresponded to an N-terminal elongation of the peptide TTSAPTTS with the dipeptide (TT) and the addition of a mass of 203 corresponded to an N-acetylgalactosamine O-linkage. Using different peptidase inhibitors, a dipeptidyl peptidase/transferase activity was further characterized. A thiol dependence and an inhibition by H-Gly-PheCHN2 (specific to cathepsin C activity) were found. Moreover, besides TTSAPTTS, other MUCSAC motif peptides (GTTPSPVP, TSAPTTS) were also dipeptide donors (GT and TS, respectively) and our results suggested the involvement of a single dipeptidyl peptidase/transferase activity. Finally, this latter activity modified the in vitro GalNAc incorporation rates when using our selected MUCSAC motif peptides. Our study therefore shows that caution must be taken to prevent peptidic substrate elongation while performing in vitroO-glycosylation with microsomal preparations as the enzyme source. In fact, the results of the N-acetylgalactosamine incorporation rates and thus the microsomal N-acetylgalactosamine transferase affinity can be misinterpreted if dipeptidyl peptidase/transferase activity is not inhibited by the thiol inhibitor E-64 or the cathepsin C inhibitor H-Gly-PheCHN2. © Munksgaard 1998.

C1r is one of the two serine proteases of C1, the first component of complement, in which it is associated in a calcium-dependent manner to the homologous serine protease C1s. This interaction is mediated by the N-terminal region of C1r, which comprises a single epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like module containing the consensus sequence required for calcium binding, surrounded by two CUB modules. With a view to determine the structure of the EGF-like module of C1r and evaluate its contribution to calcium binding, this module [C1r(123-175)] was synthesized by automated solid-phase methodology using the Boc strategy. A first synthesis using the Boc-His(Z) derivative gave very low yield, due to partial deprotection of His residues leading to chain termination by acetylation, and to insertion of glycine residues. This could be circumvented by using the Boc-His(DNP) derivative and by condensation of appropriate glycine-containing segments. The synthetic peptide was efficiently folded under redox conditions to the species with three correct disulfide bridges, as determined by mass spectrometry and N-terminal sequence analyses of thermolytic fragments. The homogeneity of the synthetic peptide was assessed by reversed-phase HPLC and electrospray mass spectrometry. One-dimensional 1H NMR spectroscopic analysis provided evidence that the EGF-like module had a well defined structure, and was able to bind calcium with an apparent Kd of 10 mM. This value, comparable to that found for the isolated EGF-like modules of coagulation factors IX and X, is much higher than that measured for native C1r. As already proposed for factors IX and X, it is suggested that neighbouring module(s), most probably the N-terminal CUB module, contribute(s) to the calcium binding site.