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Evidence of alterations in emotion processing in maltreated youth has been hypothesized to reflect latent vulnerability for psychopathology. However, previous studies have not systematically examined the influence of psychopathology on the results. Here, we examined emotion recognition and learning in youth who differed in terms of presence vs. absence of maltreatment and psychopathology and tested for potential sex effects. Maltreatment and psychopathology were assessed in 828 youth (514 females) aged 9–18 years using diagnostic interviews and self- and parent-report questionnaires. Emotion recognition was assessed via identification of morphed facial expressions of six universal emotions. For emotion learning, reward and punishment values were assigned to novel stimuli and participants had to learn to correctly respond/withhold response to stimuli to maximize points. A three-way interaction of maltreatment by psychopathology by emotion indicated that when psychopathology was low, maltreated youth were less accurate than non-maltreated youth for happy, fear and disgust. A three-way interaction of sex, maltreatment and emotion indicated that maltreated girls and boys were impaired for fear, but girls showed an impairment for happy, while boys for disgust. There were no effects of maltreatment, psychopathology, or sex on reward learning. However, a two-way interaction between sex and maltreatment showed that maltreated girls were worse at learning from punishment relative to non-maltreated girls, while maltreated boys were better than non-maltreated boys. The study provides the first clear evidence of latent-vulnerability in emotion recognition in maltreated youth and suggests that girls and boys might be characterized by distinct profiles of emotion recognition and learning following maltreatment.

With increasing frequency, clinical and laboratory-based mycologists are consulted on invasive fungal diseases caused by rare fungal species. This review aims to give an overview of the management of invasive aspergillosis (IA) caused by non-fumigatus Aspergillus spp.—namely A. flavus, A. terreus, A. niger and A. nidulans—including diagnostic and therapeutic differences and similarities to A. fumigatus. A. flavus is the second most common Aspergillus spp. isolated in patients with IA and the predominant species in subtropical regions. Treatment is complicated by its intrinsic resistance against amphotericin B (AmB) and high minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for voriconazole. A. nidulans has been frequently isolated in patients with long-term immunosuppression, mostly in patients with primary immunodeficiencies such as chronic granulomatous disease. It has been reported to disseminate more often than other Aspergillus spp. Innate resistance against AmB has been suggested but not yet proven, while MICs seem to be elevated. A. niger is more frequently reported in less severe infections such as otomycosis. Triazoles exhibit varying MICs and are therefore not strictly recommended as first-line treatment for IA caused by A. niger, while patient outcome seems to be more favorable when compared to IA due to other Aspergillus species. A. terreus-related infections have been reported increasingly as the cause of acute and chronic aspergillosis. A recent prospective international multicenter surveillance study showed Spain, Austria, and Israel to be the countries with the highest density of A. terreus species complex isolates collected. This species complex seems to cause dissemination more often and is intrinsically resistant to AmB. Non-fumigatus aspergillosis is difficult to manage due to complex patient histories, varying infection sites and potential intrinsic resistances to antifungals. Future investigational efforts should aim at amplifying the knowledge on specific diagnostic measures and their on-site availability, as well as defining optimal treatment strategies and outcomes of non-fumigatus aspergillosis. CA extern

Conduct Disorder (CD) is characterized by severe aggressive and antisocial behavior. The stress hormone system has frequently been investigated as a neurobiological correlate of CD, while other interacting neuroendocrine biomarkers of sex hormone or neuropeptide systems have rarely been studied, especially in females. We examined multiple basal neuroendocrine biomarkers in female and male adolescents with CD compared to healthy controls (HCs), and explored whether they mediate effects of environmental risk factors on CD. Within the FemNAT-CD study, salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), estradiol, progesterone, oxytocin, and arginine-vasopressin were measured under basal conditions in 166 pubertal adolescents with CD, and 194 sex-, age-, and puberty-matched HCs (60% females, 9–18 years). Further, environmental risk factors were assessed. Single hormone analyses showed higher DHEA-S, and lower estradiol and progesterone levels in both females and males with CD relative to HCs. When accounting for interactions between neuroendocrine systems, a male-specific sex hormone factor (testosterone/DHEA-S) predicted male CD, while estradiol and a stress-system factor (cortisol/alpha-amylase) interacting with oxytocin predicted female CD. Estradiol, progesterone, and oxytocin partly explained associations between early environmental risk and CD. Findings provide evidence for sex-specific associations between basal neuroendocrine measures and CD. Especially altered sex hormones (androgen increases in males, estrogen reductions in females) robustly related to CD, while basal stress-system measures did not. Early environmental risk factors for CD may act partly through their effects on the neuroendocrine system, especially in females. Limitations (e.g., basal neuroendocrine assessment, different sample sizes per sex, pubertal participants, exploratory mediation analyses) are discussed.

Objective: Conduct disorder (CD) involves aggressive and antisocial behavior and is associated with blunted cortisol stress response in male youths. Far less is known about cortisol stress responsivity in female youths with CD or other neuroendocrine responses in both sexes. Although CD is linked to early adversity, the possibility that neuroendocrine alterations may mediate the relationship between early adversity and CD has not been systematically investigated. Method: Within the European FemNAT-CD multi-site study, salivary cortisol, testosterone, the testosterone/cortisol ratio, oxytocin, and psychological stress response to a standardized psychosocial stress test (the Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]), together with common pre- and postnatal environmental risk factors, were investigated in 130 pubertal youths with CD (63% female, 9-18 years of age) and 160 sex-, age-, and puberty-matched healthy controls (HCs). Results: The TSST induced psychological stress in both CD and HCs. In contrast, female and male youths with CD showed blunted cortisol, testosterone, oxytocin, and testosterone/cortisol stress responses compared to HCs. These blunted stress responses partly mediated the relationship between environmental risk factors and CD. Conclusion: Findings from this unique sample, including many female youths with CD, provide evidence for a widespread attenuated stress responsivity of not only stress hormones, but also sex hormones and neuropeptides in CD and its subgroups (eg, with limited prosocial emotions). Results are the first to demonstrate blunted neuroendocrine stress responses in both female and male youths with CD. Early adversity may alter neuroendocrine stress responsivity. Biological mechanisms should be investigated further to pave the way for personalized intervention, thereby improving treatments for CD.

We consider the uplink of firefly ultra dense networks which combine the promising features of ultra dense deployment and centralized processing. In these networks, a large number of remote radio units which we denote as firefly nodes (FNs) are spatially distributed over an area. The mobile devices (MDs) in the coverage area are simultaneously connected via sub-6 GHz radio frequency links to all FNs. Unlike the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture, in firefly ultra dense networks, the FNs forward the MDs’ data through multi-hop millimeter-wave (mmWave) links to one or multiple root nodes since the coverage radius of each mmWave link is limited. These root nodes then forward the data via optical fiber links further to a central unit (CU), where the MDs’ signals are decoded. The amount of data that is received at each FN is potentially huge, and hence, efficient signal processing is needed at each FN before the received signals can be forwarded to other FNs. Therefore, we propose a nonlinear processing strategy, which quantizes the received signals at each FN. In particular, we formulate an optimization problem for a local design strategy for the nonlinear forwarding at the FNs, and present an optimal solution by exploiting strong duality and using the Lagrangian method to convert the optimization problem into an unconstrained problem via its dual formulation. A closed-form solution for the primal variables and a bisection algorithm for finding the optimal dual variables are presented. Moreover, based on the cut-set bound, we develop an upper bound on the achievable sum rate of the considered firefly network. The proposed nonlinear forwarding strategy is shown to outperform a benchmark linear forwarding strategy and to approach the performance upper bound in relevant transmit power regimes at the expense of a higher computational complexity. Our results reveal that having more root nodes in the topology improves the performance of linear and nonlinear forwarding but requires additional optical fiber links to the CU.

European child & adolescent psychiatry (2022). doi:10.1007/s00787-022-01973-0, Published by Steinkopff, Darmstadt

Abstract. Friendships and their different qualities have been shown to be important for adolescents’ socio-emotional development and psychological adjustment. In empirical research on such friendship qualities, the Network of Relationship Inventory – Relationship Quality Version (NRI-RQV) is a widely used questionnaire. Here, we conduct an extensive validation of a German version of the NRI-RQV, investigating its factor structure, reliability, and concurrent validity, in a sample of N = 679 adolescents aged 13–18 years. Applying multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, we further test whether the factor structure of the friendship quality construct holds across groups of males and females. Results showed that a structure with nine correlated first-order factors fit the data well, indicating nine distinct friendship qualities in males and females. Measurement invariance testing suggested the same underlying friendship quality construct, albeit differences in mean scores per gender. As evidence for concurrent validity, closeness and discordant friendship qualities showed expected correlations with empathy and social problems, respectively, but not with aggressive behavior. Overall, results indicate good psychometric properties for the German version of the NRI-RQV as a measure of friendship qualities in both males and females.

Firefly ultra dense networks combine the promising properties of centralized processing and ultra dense deployment. We consider the uplink of the network, where a large number of remote radio units, referred to as firefly nodes (FNs), are spatially distributed over an area. In this coverage area, several mobile devices (MDs) are simultaneously connected to all FNs via sub-6 GHz radio frequency links. In contrast to the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture, the FNs in firefly ultra dense networks forward the MDs’ data through multi-hop millimeter-wave (mmWave) links to one or multiple root nodes, since the coverage radius of an individual mmWave link is limited. These root nodes then forward the data over optical fiber links further to a central unit (CU), where the MDs’ signals are decoded. The amount of data that is received at each FN is potentially huge, and therefore efficient signal processing is required at each FN before the received signals can be forwarded to other FNs. Thus, in this thesis, we propose several linear processing strategies and a nonlinear processing strategy. First, by deploying linear processing schemes, all received signal streams are linearly filtered at each FN before being forwarded over an available mmWave link. Our simulation results show significant performance improvement compared to a baseline scheme. Furthermore, we propose a nonlinear processing strategy that quantizes the received signals at each FN. In particular, for the nonlinear forwarding at the FNs, we formulate an optimization problem for a local design strategy and present an optimal solution by utilizing strong duality and using the Lagrangian method to transform the optimization problem into an unconstrained problem via its dual formulation. A bisection algorithm for finding the optimal dual variables and a closed-form solution for the primal variables are presented. In addition, based on the cut-set bound, we develop an upper bound of the achievable sum rate for the considered firefly network. It is shown that the proposed nonlinear forwarding strategy outperforms several linear forwarding strategies and approaches the performance upper bound in relevant transmit power regimes at the expense of higher computational complexity. Our simulation results reveal that having more root nodes in the topology improves the performance of linear and nonlinear forwarding but also requires additional optical fiber links to the CU. Firefly-Ultra-Dense-Netzwerke vereinen die vielversprechenden Eigenschaften von Centralized-Processing und Ultra-Dense-Deployment. Wir betrachten den Uplink des Netzwerkes, bei dem eine große Anzahl von Remote-Radio-Units, die als Firefly Nodes (FN) bezeichnet werden, räumlich über ein Gebiet verteilt ist. In diesem Abdeckungsgebiet sind mehrere Mobilgeräte (MDs) gleichzeitig mit allen FNs über das sub-6-GHz-Frequenzband verbunden. Im Gegensatz zur Cloud-Radio-Access-Network (C-RAN) Architektur, leiten die FNs in Firefly-Ultra-Dense-Netzwerken die Daten der MDs über Multihop-Millimeter-Wellen (mmWave) Verbindungen an einen oder mehrere Wurzelknoten weiter, da der Abdeckungsradius der einzelnen mmWave-Verbindung begrenzt ist. Diese Wurzelknoten wiederum leiten die Daten mittels Glasfaserleitungen zu einer Central-Unit (CU) weiter, bei der die Signale der MDs dekodiert werden. Die Datenmenge, die an jeder FN empfangen wird, ist potenziell groß, weshalb eine effiziente Signalverarbeitung an jeder FN erforderlich ist, bevor die empfangenen Signale an andere FNs weitergeleitet werden können. Daher stellen wir in dieser Arbeit mehrere lineare Verarbeitungsstrategien und eine nichtlineare Verarbeitungsstrategie vor. Mithilfe von linearer Verarbeitung werden alle empfangenen Signalströme an jeder FN linear gefiltert und anschließend über vorhandene mmWave Verbindungen weitergeleitet. Verglichen mit einem Vergleichsverfahren, zeigen unsere Simulationsergebnisse eine signifikante Leistungsverbesserung auf. Des Weiteren stellen wir eine nichtlineare Verarbeitungsstrategie vor, welche die empfangenen Signale an jeder FN quantisiert. Insbesondere wird ein Optimierungsproblem für eine lokale Designstrategie der nichtlinearen Weiterleitung formuliert und eine optimale Lösung präsentiert, wobei wir die starke Dualität und die Lagrangesche-Methode verwenden, um das Optimierungsproblem über seine duale Formulierung in ein einfacheres Problem umwandeln. Es wird ein Bisektionsalgorithmus zur Ermittlung der optimalen dualen Variablen und eine geschlossene Lösung für die primären Variablen vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus entwickeln wir auf der Grundlage der Cut-Set-Bound eine obere Schranke der erreichbaren Summenrate für das betrachtete Firefly-Netzwerk. Die vorgeschlagene nichtlineare Verarbeitungsstrategie übertrifft mehrere lineare Verarbeitungsstrategien und erreicht die obere Leistungsschranke in relevanten Sendeleistungsbereichen auf Kosten einer höhereren Berechnungskomplexität. Die Simulationsergebnisse zeigen, dass das Vorhandensein von mehr Wurzelknoten in der Topologie die Leistung der linearen und nichtlinearen Weiterleitung verbessert, jedoch weitere Glasfaserverbindungen zur CU nötig macht.

PLOS ONE 17(1), 1-7 (2022). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261691, Published by PLOS, San Francisco, California, US

Journal of the American Heart Association 10(4), e017405 (2021). doi:10.1161/JAHA.120.017405, Published by American Heart Association, New York, NY

Less is known about the relationship between conduct disorder (CD), callous–unemotional (CU) traits, and positive and negative parenting in youth compared to early childhood. We combined traditional univariate analyses with a novel machine learning classifier (Angle-based Generalized Matrix Learning Vector Quantization) to classify youth (N = 756; 9–18 years) into typically developing (TD) or CD groups with or without elevated CU traits (CD/HCU, CD/LCU, respectively) using youth- and parent-reports of parenting behavior. At the group level, both CD/HCU and CD/LCU were associated with high negative and low positive parenting relative to TD. However, only positive parenting differed between the CD/HCU and CD/LCU groups. In classification analyses, performance was best when distinguishing CD/HCU from TD groups and poorest when distinguishing CD/HCU from CD/LCU groups. Positive and negative parenting were both relevant when distinguishing CD/HCU from TD, negative parenting was most relevant when distinguishing between CD/LCU and TD, and positive parenting was most relevant when distinguishing CD/HCU from CD/LCU groups. These findings suggest that while positive parenting distinguishes between CD/HCU and CD/LCU, negative parenting is associated with both CD subtypes. These results highlight the importance of considering multiple parenting behaviors in CD with varying levels of CU traits in late childhood/adolescence.

The journal of child psychology and psychiatry 63(2), 218-228 (2022). doi:10.1111/jcpp.13428, Published by Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford

As most research on conduct disorder (CD) has been conducted on male participants, it has been suggested that female-specific symptoms may be underestimated based on current DSM-5 criteria. In particular, relational aggression, i.e. the hurtful, often indirect, manipulation of relationships with the intention of damaging the other's social position, has been proposed as a characteristic of CD that is more common in females. In addition, sex-specific studies on correlates of relational aggressive behavior are lacking. Relational aggression may be strongly related to the correlates of proactive aggression, namely low affective empathy, and high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and relational victimization. Thus, the present study investigated sex differences in relational aggression, and associations between relational aggression and correlates of proactive aggression in 662 adolescents with CD (403 females) and 849 typically-developing controls (568 females) aged 9-18 years (M = 14.74, SD = 2.34) from the European multi-site FemNAT-CD study. Females with CD showed significantly higher levels of relational aggression compared to males with CD, whereas no sex differences were seen in controls. Relational aggression was only partly related to correlates of proactive aggression in CD: Independent of sex, CU traits showed a positive association with relational aggression. In females only, cognitive, but not affective empathy, was negatively associated with relational aggression. Relational victimization was more strongly associated with relational aggression in males compared to females. Despite interesting sex specific correlates of relational aggression, effects are small and the potential clinical implications should be investigated in future studies.

Background: This article reports reliability, validity, and norms for the German version of the multi-informant questionnaire Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits (ICU). Method: The ICU was filled in by nonreferred children aged 13 to 18 years old ( n = 645), parents of children aged 6 to 18 years old ( n = 1,005), and their teachers ( n = 955). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a two-factor solution giving the best fit. Still none of the models showed an adequate model-fit applying the chi-square exact fit test. The internal consistency of the parent’s, teacher’s, and self-report version were α = .830, α = .877 and α = .769, respectively. Interrater reliability was moderate. Convergent validity with the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory, the externalizing scores of the Youth Self-Report/Child Behavior Checklist, and with the German oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder Rating Scale “FBB-SSV” were good. German norms were calculated. Conclusions: The ICU is a reliable and valid dimensional measure to describe callous–unemotional traits.

Youth with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD; Oppositional defiant disorder and/or conduct disorder) are known to show impaired social relationships. Little is known about positive (PFQ) and negative best friendship quality (NFQ) in youth with DBD, and their relations with DBD specific symptoms such as aggression subtypes, empathic abilities, and callous unemotional (CU)-traits. The current study includes N = 115 youth with and N = 146 without DBD (Mage = 13.98, SD = 2.2). A diagnostic interview and self-rating questionnaires assessed ODD/CD diagnosis, friendship quality, aggression, empathy, and CU-traits. When examined on a categorical level, youth with and without DBD did not differ in friendship quality. On a dimensional level across groups, perspective taking was positively associated with PFQ. Proactive aggression was positively associated with NFQ. CU-traits in females were positively, while CU-traits in males were negatively, associated with NFQ. Results highlight that behavioral and cognitive symptoms, rather than clinical categories, are important to consider when discussing friendship qualities.

The tendency to interpret nonverbal social signals as hostile in intention is associated with aggressive responding, poor social functioning and mental illness, and can already be observed in childhood. To investigate the neural correlates of such hostile attributions of social intention, we performed a functional magnetic imaging study in 10-18 year old children and adolescents. Fifty healthy participants rated videos of laughter, which they were told to imagine as being directed towards them, as friendly versus hostile in social intention. Hostile intention ratings were associated with neural response in the right temporal voice area (TVA). Moreover, self-reported trait physical aggression modulated this relationship in both the right TVA and bilateral lingual gyrus, with stronger associations between hostile intention ratings and neural activation in children with higher trait physical aggression scores. Functional connectivity results showed decreased connectivity between the right TVA and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with increasing trait physical aggression for making hostile social intention attributions. We conclude that children's social intention attributions are more strongly related to activation of early face and voice-processing regions with increasing trait physical aggression.

Human laughter is a powerful means of communicating social intention, ranging from welcoming and friendly to hostile and ridiculing. To be communicated accurately, the recipient must correctly identify the laugher's underlying social intention. Regular misattribution of the social intention of others has been associated with maladaptive psychosocial development, in particular with aggressive behavior. We investigated the relationship between self-reported aggressive behavior and the neural correlates of social intention attributions to different audiovisual laughter types in 50 healthy children and adolescents (29 female, 10-18 years, M 15.5, SD 2.2) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Trial-by-trial associations of neural response and behavioral attributions were distinctly modulated by aggression for benevolent versus taunting and tickling laughter. With increasing aggression, hostile misattributions of benevolent laughter were associated with decreased dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior insular cortex activation. In contrast, hostile attributions of taunting and tickling laughter were associated with increased superior frontal, superior temporal, medial prefrontal, supplementary motor, and anterior and mid-cingulate cortex activation. We argue that aggression may be associated with down-regulated emotional saliency of benevolent laughter, whereas up-regulated neural responses to taunting laughter may underlie a heightened sensitivity to hostility or acceptance of taunting behavior in more aggressive individuals.

Conduct disorder (CD) with high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CD/HCU) has been theoretically linked to specific difficulties with fear and sadness recognition, in contrast to CD with low levels of callous-unemotional traits (CD/LCU). However, experimental evidence for this distinction is mixed, and it is unclear whether these difficulties are a reliable marker of CD/HCU compared to CD/LCU. In a large sample (N = 1263, 9–18 years), we combined univariate analyses and machine learning classifiers to investigate whether CD/HCU is associated with disproportionate difficulties with fear and sadness recognition over other emotions, and whether such difficulties are a reliable individual-level marker of CD/HCU. We observed similar emotion recognition abilities in CD/HCU and CD/LCU. The CD/HCU group underperformed relative to typically developing (TD) youths, but difficulties were not specific to fear or sadness. Classifiers did not distinguish between youths with CD/HCU versus CD/LCU (52% accuracy), although youths with CD/HCU and CD/LCU were reliably distinguished from TD youths (64% and 60%, respectively). In the subset of classifiers that performed well for youths with CD/HCU, fear and sadness were the most relevant emotions for distinguishing them from youths with CD/LCU and TD youths, respectively. We conclude that non-specific emotion recognition difficulties are common in CD/HCU, but are not reliable individual-level markers of CD/HCU versus CD/LCU. These findings highlight that a reduced ability to recognise facial expressions of distress should not be assumed to be a core feature of CD/HCU.