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Molecular stable isotope ratios are a novel type of dietary biomarker with high sensitivity and specificity for certain foods. Among these, fatty acid carbon isotope ratios (CIRs) have strong potential but have not been investigated as dietary biomarkers.We evaluated whether fatty acid CIRs and mass proportions were associated with meat, fish and sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) intake.Thirty-two men (aged 46.2 ± 10.5 y; BMI: 27.2 ± 4.0 kg/m2) underwent a 12-wk inpatient dietary intervention at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Phoenix, Arizona. Men were randomly assigned to one of eight dietary treatments varying the presence/absence of dietary meat, fish and SSBs in all combinations. Fatty acid CIRs and mass proportions were measured in fasting blood samples and adipose tissue biopsies that were collected pre- and post-intervention. Dietary effects were analyzed using multivariable regression and receiver operating characteristic AUCs were calculated using logistic regression.CIRs of the most abundant saturated (14:0, 16:0, 18:0) and mono-unsaturated (16:1n-7, 18:1) fatty acids and arachidonic acid (20:4n-6) in plasma were strongly associated with meat, as were a subset of these fatty acids in RBC. Effect sizes in plasma ranged from 1.01 to 1.93‰ and were similar but attenuated in RBC. Mass proportions of those fatty acids were not associated with diet. CIRs of plasma 20:3n-6 and adipose 16:0 were weakly associated with SSB. Mass proportions of plasma odd-chain fatty acids i-15:0, 17:0, and 17:1 were associated with meat, and mass proportions of plasma EPA and DHA (20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3) were associated with fish.CIRs of plasma saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids show promise as sensitive and specific measures of dietary meat. These provide different information to that provided by fatty acid mass proportions, and are informative where mass proportion is not.

Introduction Latina women have a high burden of depression and other mental health issues, particularly in the perinatal period. Suboptimal maternal mental health can have adverse developmental and physiological impacts on child growth. The present study examines the impact of unplanned pregnancy and pregnancy relationship status on prenatal maternal depression in a sample of low-income Latina women. We hypothesized that the association between these prenatal stressors and newborn health would be mediated through prenatal depression. Method The present study included a sample 201 Latina mothers and their children recruited from prenatal clinics during their second or third trimesters. Depression symptomology, relationship status were collected prenatally. At birth, several indices of newborn health were examined, including head circumference percentile and birthweight. Finally, planned pregnancy status was retrospectively collected when the child was between 1 and 2 years old. Results Structural equation modelling revealed that single women, compared to partnered women, had higher levels of depression. Higher levels of depression, in turn, predicted poorer newborn health. Unplanned pregnancy was not significantly associated with newborn health. Discussion These results suggest that relationship status may be an important screening question for medical examiners to ask to pregnant Latina women during prenatal visits. These results are consistent with past research investigating the effects of maternal mental health on adverse birth outcomes that propose that stressful early environments shape developmental trajectories.

Three large and nationally representative datasets (NCDS, N = 5225, NLSY′79, N = 7598 and Project Talent, N = 76,150) are here examined in order to determine if models incorporating negative quadratic effects of IQ on fertility (which would indicate the presence of stabilizing phenotypic selection) improve model fit, relative to ones that only consider linear effects (which indicate directional phenotypic selection). Also considered were possible interactions among these terms and sex and race. For two datasets (NCDS and NLSY′79) the best fitting models did not include quadratic terms, however significant sex*IQ and race*IQ interactions were found respectively. Only in Project Talent did the inclusion of a quadratic effect (along with IQ*sex and IQ2* sex interactions) yield the best-fitting model. In this instance a small magnitude, significant negative quadratic term was found in addition to a larger magnitude linear term. Post hoc power analysis revealed that power was lacking in the two smaller samples (NCDS and NLSY′79) to detect the quadratic term, however the best fitting and most parsimonious models selected for these datasets did not include the quadratic term. The quadratic terms were furthermore several times smaller in magnitude than the linear terms in all models incorporating both terms. This indicates that stabilizing phenotypic selection is likely only very weakly present in these datasets. The dominance of linear effects across samples therefore suggests that phenotypic selection on IQ in these datasets is principally directional, although the magnitude of selection is relatively small, with IQ explaining at most 1% of the variance in fertility.

The purpose of this investigation was to test the replicability of the positive correlation between a general factor of personality (GFP) derived from the California Child Q-set (CCQ) and general intelligence. Analyses were performed using data from two samples of children in which the participants were administered both a test of general cognitive ability and had their personality judged by raters using the CCQ. The results were consistent with previous results in which a positive correlation was found between the CCQ Big Five-based GFP and general intelligence. Future research should help to determine why GFPs derived from some measures correlate positively with general intelligence while GFPs derived from other measures do not.

In his target article, Lynn compiles and reviews various convergent strands of evidence supportive of potential race differences in psychopathic personality. The origin of this group-difference is attributed to cold-selection in the Pleistocene. We contend that Life History Theory provides a better theoretical rubric within which to evaluate Lynn's arguments as a) it better accounts for the adaptive logic of the coherent pattern among the traits characteristic of so-called ‘psychopathic personality’, b) it provides a normatively free language with which group differences in behavior can be described, and c) it makes predictions at the level of both the individual and intra-individual (developmental) levels, which permit the role of environmental contributions to these dispositions to be better comprehended. Thus the Life History model is more empirically nuanced. We also consider the merits of future, more systematic studies along the lines of Lynn's contribution.

The purpose of the present study is to test an integrated model of human ecology, which takes into consideration variables and predictions derived from both life history and social privilege paradigms. Population-level statistics were collected from an assortment of Mexican national agencies on thirty-one Mexican States and the Federal District ( N = 32). The integrated model of human cognitive ecology specifically described how biodiversity impacts state-level life history strategies and cognitive abilities in Mexico. Results from the sequential canonical cascade analysis supported the three following hypotheses: (1) regional climatic factors affected regional life histories; (2) both regional life histories and climatic factors affected regional levels of human capital; and (3) both regional levels of human capital and regional climatic factors affected regional mean cognitive abilities. The integrated model of human cognitive ecology explained a preponderance of the pooled multivariate variance ( V = .66) in cognitive abilities. Implications and future directions within life history and intelligence research are discussed.

This retrospective essay appraises J. Philippe Rushton's application of life history to understanding the covariation among human traits in light of subsequent developments in the measurement and latent structure of Human Life History, covitality, and personality. We conclude that Rushton should be recognized for having initiated a theoretically and empirically highly fertile paradigm in human individual differences research.

Despite widespread acceptance of natural selection in biology and the life sciences, social and developmental scientists have resisted incorporating evolutionary frameworks into research and teaching curricula. Charlesworth (1992) has argued that developmentalists avoid evolution because they perceive it as running contrary to meliorist attitudes that are predominate in the field. Other scholars have suggested that evolution is ignored by social scientists because of a lack of knowledge about the theory. In this study, we suggest that resistance among developmentalists toward evolution may occur due to individual differences in life history and personality traits. We examine the meliorist attitudes, life history and personality traits of faculty, graduate and undergraduates in family studies in human development and the effect these variables have on the acceptance and usage of evolutionary theory in academia. Results reveal that life history may contribute to more meliorism, increasing disuse of evolutionary theory due to affective reasons.