Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Acsl6 Is Associated With The Number Of Cigarettes Smoked And Its Expression Is Altered By Chronic Nicotine Exposure, Jingchun Chen, Darlene H. Brunzell, Kia J. Jackson, Andrew Van Der Vaart, Jennie Z. Ma, Thomas J. Payne, Richard Sherva, Lindsay A. Farrer, Pablo Gejman, Douglas F. Levinson, Peter Holmans, Steven H. Aggen, Imad Damaj, Po-Hsiu Kuo, Bradley T. Webb, Raymond Anton, Henry R. Kranzler, Joel Gelemter, Minf D. Li, Kenneth S. Kendler, Xiangning Chen

Psychiatry Publications

Individuals with schizophrenia tend to be heavy smokers and are at high risk for tobacco dependence. However, the nature of the comorbidity is not entirely clear. We previously reported evidence for association of schizophrenia with SNPs and SNP haplotypes in a region of chromosome 5q containing the SPEC2, PDZ-GEF2 and ACSL6 genes. In this current study, analysis of the control subjects of the Molecular Genetics of Schizophrenia (MGS) sample showed similar pattern of association with number of cigarettes smoked per day (numCIG) for the same region. To further test if this locus is associated with tobacco smoking as measured …

Genome-Wide Gene-Environment Study Identifies Glutamate Receptor Gene Grin2a As A Parkinson's Disease Modifier Gene Via Interaction With Coffee, Taye H. Hamza, Honglei Chen, Erin M. Hill-Burns, Shannon L. Rhodes, Jennifer Montimurro, Denise M. Kay, Albert Tenesa, Victoria I. Kusel, Patricia Sheehan, Muthukrishnan Eaaswarkhanth, Dora Yearout, Ali Samii, John W. Roberts, Pinky Agarwal, Yvette Bordelon, Yikyung Park, Liyong Wang, Jianjun Gao, Jeffery M. Vance, Kenneth S. Kendler, Silviu-Alin Bacanu, William K. Scott, Beate Ritz, John Nutt, Stweart A. Factor, Cyrus P. Zabetian, Haydeh Payami

Psychiatry Publications

Our aim was to identify genes that influence the inverse association of coffee with the risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD). We used genome-wide genotype data and lifetime caffeinated-coffee-consumption data on 1,458 persons with PD and 931 without PD from the NeuroGenetics Research Consortium (NGRC), and we performed a genome-wide association and interaction study (GWAIS), testing each SNP's main-effect plus its interaction with coffee, adjusting for sex, age, and two principal components. We then stratified subjects as heavy or light coffee-drinkers and performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) in each group. We replicated the most significant SNP. Finally, we imputed the …

Schizophrenia Gene Networks And Pathways And Their Applications For Novel Candidate Gene Selection, Jingchun Sun, Peilin Jia, Ayman H. Fanous, Edwin Van Den Oord, Xiangning Chen, Brien P. Riley, Richard L. Amdur, Kenneth S. Kendler, Zhongming Zhao

Psychiatry Publications

Background

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a heritable, complex mental disorder. We have seen limited success in finding causal genes for schizophrenia from numerous conventional studies. Protein interaction network and pathway-based analysis may provide us an alternative and effective approach to investigating the molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We selected a list of schizophrenia candidate genes (SZGenes) using a multi-dimensional evidence-based approach. The global network properties of proteins encoded by these SZGenes were explored in the context of the human protein interactome while local network properties were investigated by comparing SZ-specific and cancer-specific networks that were extracted from the human interactome. …

Multiple Independent Loci At Chromosome 15q25.1 Affect Smoking Quantity: A Meta-Analysis And Comparison With Lung Cancer And Copd, Nancy L. Saccone, Robert C. Culverhouse, Tae-Hwi Schwantes-An, Dale S. Cannon, Xiangning Chen, Sven Cichon, Ina Giegling, Shizhong Han, Younghun Han, Kaisu Keskitalo-Vuokko, Xiangyang Kong, Maria T. Landi, Jennie Z. Ma, Susan E. Short, Sarah H. Stephens, Victoria L. Stevens, Lingwei Sun, Yufei Wang, Angela S. Wenzlaff, Steven H. Aggen, Naomi Breslau, Peter Broderick, Nilanjan Chatterjee, Jingchun Chen, Andrew C. Heath, Marku Heliovaara, Nicole R. Hoft, David J. Hunter, Majken K. Jensen, Nicholas G. Martin, Grant W. Montgomery, Tianhua Niu, Thomas J. Payne, Leena Peltonen, Michele L. Pergadia, John P. Rice, Richard Sherva, Margaret R. Spitz, Juzhong Sun, Jen C. Wang, Robert B. Weiss, William Wheeler, Stephanie H. Witt, Bao-Zhu Yang, Neil E. Caporaso, Marissa A. Ehringer, Tim Eisen, Susan M. Gapstur, Joel Gelemter, Richard Houlston, Jaakko Kaprio, Kenneth S. Kendler, Peter Kraft, Mark F. Leppert, Ming D. Li, Pamela A. F. Madden, Markus M. Nothen, Sreekumar Pillai, Marcella Rietschel, Dan Rujescu, Ann Schwartz, Christopher I. Amos, Laura J. Bierut

Psychiatry Publications

Recently, genetic association findings for nicotine dependence, smoking behavior, and smoking-related diseases converged to implicate the chromosome 15q25.1 region, which includes the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 cholinergic nicotinic receptor subunit genes. In particular, association with the nonsynonymous CHRNA5 SNP rs16969968 and correlates has been replicated in several independent studies. Extensive genotyping of this region has suggested additional statistically distinct signals for nicotine dependence, tagged by rs578776 and rs588765. One goal of the Consortium for the Genetic Analysis of Smoking Phenotypes (CGASP) is to elucidate the associations among these markers and dichotomous smoking quantity (heavy versus light smoking), lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary …

New Genomic Structure For Prostate Cancer Specific Gene Pca3 Within Bmcc1: Implications For Prostate Cancer Detection And Progression, Raymond A. Clarke, Zhongming Zhao, An-Yuan Guo, Kathrein Roper, Linda Teng, Zhi-Ming Fang, Hema Samaratunga, Martin F. Lavin, Robert A. Gardiner

Psychiatry Publications

Background

The prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3/DD3) gene is a highly specific biomarker upregulated in prostate cancer (PCa). In order to understand the importance of PCA3 in PCa we investigated the organization and evolution of the PCA3 gene locus.

Methods/Principal Findings

We have employed cDNA synthesis, RTPCR and DNA sequencing to identify 4 new transcription start sites, 4 polyadenylation sites and 2 new differentially spliced exons in an extended form of PCA3. Primers designed from these novel PCA3 exons greatly improve RT-PCR based discrimination between PCa, PCa metastases and BPH specimens. Comparative genomic analyses demonstrated that PCA3 has …

Genome-Wide Association Identifies A Common Variant In The Reelin Gene That Increases The Risk Of Schizophrenia Only In Women, Sagiv Shifman, Martina Johannesson, Michal Bronstein, Sam X. Chen, David A. Collier, Nicholas J. Craddock, Kenneth S. Kendler, Tao Li, Michael C. O'Donovan, F. Anthony O'Neill, Michael J. Owen, Dermot Walsh, Daniel R. Weinberger, Cuie Sun, Jonathan Flint, Ariel Darvasi

Psychiatry Publications

Sex differences in schizophrenia are well known, but their genetic basis has not been identified. We performed a genome-wide association scan for schizophrenia in an Ashkenazi Jewish population using DNA pooling. We found a female-specific association with rs7341475, a SNP in the fourth intron of the reelin (RELN) gene (p = 2.9 × 10−5 in women), with a significant gene-sex effect (p = 1.8 × 10−4). We studied rs7341475 in four additional populations, totaling 2,274 cases and 4,401 controls. A significant effect was observed only in women, replicating the initial result (p = 2.1 × 10−3 in …

Linkage Analysis Of A Model Quantitative Trait In Humans: Finger Ridge Count Shows Significant Multivariate Linkage To 5q14.1, Sarah E. Medland, Danuta Z. Loesch, Bogdan Mdzewski, Gu Zhu, Grant W. Montgomery, Nicholas G. Martin

Psychiatry Publications

The finger ridge count (a measure of pattern size) is one of the most heritable complex traits studied in humans and has been considered a model human polygenic trait in quantitative genetic analysis. Here, we report the results of the first genome-wide linkage scan for finger ridge count in a sample of 2,114 offspring from 922 nuclear families. Both univariate linkage to the absolute ridge count (a sum of all the ridge counts on all ten fingers), and multivariate linkage analyses of the counts on individual fingers, were conducted. The multivariate analyses yielded significant linkage to 5q14.1 (Logarithm of odds …

The Role Of Familial Conflict In The Adaptation To Menarche: Sequential Analysis Of Family Interaction, Grayson N. Holmbeck

Theses and Dissertations

Past research has suggested that temporary perturbations characterize parent-adolescent relations after the onset of pubertal change. The purpose of this study was to further delineate the characteristics of these disruptions in families with seventh-grade girls. Current operational definitions of family conflict in an observational context are inadequate and a potentially more useful definition was offered: conflict is believed to exist when there is the simultaneous occurrence of opposing interpersonal forces.

Two studies were conducted. A validation study was done to determine the psychosocial correlates of the following conflict variables: frequencies and reciprocal dyadic sequences of interruptions and disagreements. The affective …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Substance Abuse Awareness And Prevention Program Developed For Use With University-Level Varsity Student-Athletes, Robert Joseph Marcello

Theses and Dissertations

Substance abuse problems affect all segments of society including collegiate athletics. Drug testing programs are viewed as one method of combating this problem, however, more emphasis should be placed upon developing effective prevention programs. Towards this end, the first purpose of this study was to draw from available literature to design a prevention program which would cater to the specific needs of student- athletes. The position is taken that since multiple factors such as genetic predisposition, the pharmacological properties of various substances, psychological variables, and environmental/socio-cultural influences are implicated in the etiology of substance abuse difficulties, multi-focused/broad-spectrum intervention programs would …

Phonetic Ambiguity Perception In Reading Disabled And Non-Disabled Children And Adolescents, Elizabeth A. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

There are speculations that disabled readers may fail to correctly decode written words because they are insensitive to language's phonetic form. This insensitivity is presumed by some to be due to a speech perceptual deficit. The purpose of the current study was to assess differences between disabled and non-disabled adolescents and elementary school students in their perceptual accuracy in decoding phonetically ambiguous speech. The effects of two processing factors derived from previous research, priming and word form (e.g., Spencer & Carter, 1982), were also examined to assess how perceptual processes may differ between groups. Clinical evidence of some verbal problems …

An Assessment Of The Perception Of Phonetic Ambiguities In 4 And 5 Year Olds, Elizabeth A. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

The question of how humans clearly perceive speech, which is anything but clear when analyzed acoustically, has prompted researchers to look at the phenomenon of phonetic ambiguity. In adults, phonetic ambiguity perception has been shown to be aided by the listener using expectations due to the saliency (i.e., familiarity of the ambiguous word or phrase) and to pre-exposure (i.e., priming) to the items prior to testing. Priming makes the subject aware of the alternative (i.e., unfamiliar or rare) member of a phonetic ambiguity pair. In the present study, thirty-two 4 and 5 year olds were exposed to a tape containing …

Relaxation Therapy As An Adjunct Strategy For The Treatment Of Bronchial Asthma: An Examination Of Pertinent Psychological And Illness Variables, Robert Joseph Marcello

Theses and Dissertations

Bronchial asthma is described as a relatively common and heterogeneous disorder. The complexity of the pathophysiological process and the myriad of etiological and precipitating factors are discussed. Such factors include: heredity, allergies, and psychological precipitants. The position is taken that regardless of what caused the initial onset of symptoms, psychological factors may contribute to the intractability and severity of the disorder. The utility of Behavior Therapy Techniques such as: Relaxation Therapy, Biofeedback- Assisted Relaxation Therapy, and Systematic Desensitization; as adjunct strategies for the treatment of bronchial asthma is discussed. It is concluded that while each of these arousal reducing strategies …

The Influence Of Assertiveness Characteristics Of Raters On Perceived Assertiveness In Others, Elise Heffelfinger Labe Sloan

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the perceptions of assertiveness, limited to the situation of ability to refuse requests, by assertive and nonassertive subjects as they rated assertive and nonassertive encoders. Gender differences were also assessed. Subjects were 40 Caucasion male and female undergraduate General Psychology students at a large urban university. Within each gender group there were 10 high-assertive and 10 low-assertive subjects as determined by their scores on the second part of the Conflict Resolution Inventory. The subjects rated videotaped assertive and unassertive encoders on an attractiveness scale, assertiveness scale, and on the Impact Message Inventory, (an interpersonal assessment instrument). …

An Investigation Of Central Nervous System Conduction Properties In Diabetes Mellitus Using Brainstem Auditory And Somatosensory Evoked Potentials, Randy L. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

In this study brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs), median nerve conduction velocities (CV) and early somatosensory evoked potentials ( SEPs), were employed as indices of neural conduction properties in a group of young insulin dependent diabetics (five males and five females) and a group of nondiabetic controls (five males and five females). The median nerve CV was determined from 64 summated nerve responses recorded at the elbow. The nerve was stimulated at the wrist using 0.2 msec square wave electrical pulses. The SEP was recorded from scalp electrodes using the same median nerve stimulation technique as for the CV measure. …

The Relationship Between Type A Coronary-Prone Behavior Pattern, Achievement, And Life Satisfaction, Larraine A. Felland

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern, academic achievement and life satisfaction. The subjects were 87 undergraduates selected for their extreme scores on the Jenkins Activity Survey, Form T. There were 41 Type As and 46 Type Bs. Along with the Jenkins Activity Survey, Form T the participants were administered a life satisfaction survey similar to Soper's (1979) and their official academic gradepoint average was obtained from the Academic Records office. A point-biserial correlation indicated that there was a significant (p

The various relationships and their possible explanations and indications were discussed in depth. Significance of …

The Effect Of The Interviewer's Status Upon The Linguistic Style And Impact Messages Cenerated By The "Obsessive Personality", Vincent B. Greenwood

Theses and Dissertations

The present study addressed some of the peripheral statements emanating from Kiesler’s (Kiesler, Bernstein & Anchin, 1976) core communications theory by examining (1) a specific component of the communication style of the obsessive personality, (2) the distinctive emotional engagements the obsessive personality elicits when interacting with others, and (3) a situational determinant that is hypothesized to trigger relatively intense expression of the obsessive’s self-defeating communication style, as well as a higher level of state anxiety.

Specifically, the study examined the effects of a high or low status interviewer upon one expressive measure of speech and upon relationship consequences for groups …

The Effect Of Security And Dominance On Task Perseverance, Gary M. Katz

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated Maslow's assertion that individuals who were insecure and dominant would express their insecurity in a different manner than those individuals who were insecure and submissive. The amount of time spent on a puzzle solving task was used as an index of the expression of insecurity. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant interaction of security and dominance on the amount of time spent on the puzzle solving task, with the insecure-dominant group demonstrating more persistence than the insecure-submissive group at the task.

A pool of potential subjects completed Maslow's (1952) Security-Insecurity Inventory and the …

Effects Of Winning And Losing On The Interaction Pattern Of Group Partners, Jarell F. Killian

Theses and Dissertations

Of special interest in the field of social psychology are the differences among groups in their functioning that distinguishes them from one another. Cartwright and Zander (1960) speak of this in pointing out that some groups work together with a great deal more success, satisfaction, and with a greater sense of togetherness than others. Some groups are racked with dissent, insouciance, and such a failure to meet goals and standards as to result in a slow death of inactivity. These differences persist even under basically identical circumstances. Concerning this point, Pepitone and Kleiner (1957, p. 192) state:

Everyday observations of …