The Role of Gender in Association between Emotional Intelligence and Self-Control among University Student-Athletes

The purpose of this study was to reveal the peculiarities of undergraduate studies university student-athletes’ emotional intelligence and self-control indicators, and the role of gender as a predictor in the association between emotional intelligence and self-control. The study included students regularly involved in training at least three times a week. The sample consisted of 1395 student athletes from Lithuanian universities, among them 59.2% female and 40.8% male. For measurement, the SSRI inventory and a self-control scale were used. All values of emotional intelligence indicators were significantly higher for males than females. Estimates of the components of the self-control construct varied. The score for the healthy habits component was significantly higher for women than for men, the self-discipline component did not differ significantly, and the other three components were higher for males. Estimates of the components of the self-control construct varied. Models for predicting the values of self-control components were proposed. Only one component of the emotional intelligence construct, optimism, was repeated in all forecasting models, as well as gender. Other components of emotional intelligence vary in models.

712 Preclinical characterization of GT-00A x IL15: A novel IL-15-based immunocytokine with unique tumor targeting properties

BackgroundIL-15 is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokine that enhances the differentiation, proliferation and cytolytic activity of NK cells and T cells. Due to the huge potential of IL-15 to activate both innate and adaptive anti-tumor immunity, several IL-15-based immunocytokines are currently in clinical development. However, all of them preferentially act in the periphery and not locally within the tumor. To further increase the efficacy and safety of IL-15-based immunocytokines, we developed GT-00A x IL15, an immunocytokine targeting a tumor-associated, glycosylated epitope of MUC-1 (TA-MUC1). GT-00A x IL15 was designed to induce anti-tumor responses directly within the tumor microenvironment for the treatment of solid tumors.MethodsGT-00A x IL15 was extensively studied in vitro and in vivo to adequately characterize its complex mechanisms of action and to analyze its anti-tumor efficacy. The relevance of TA-MUC1 binding as differentiation criteria against untargeted IL-15 (super)agonists was investigated in detail. In vitro cytotoxicity and 3D tumor spheroid immune cell infiltration mediated by GT-00A x IL15 was compared to the parental antibody GT-00A and an untargeted IL-15 control. In vivo, several pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, biodistribution and efficacy studies were performed in tumor-free or tumor-bearing mice.ResultsWe could show in vitro that GT-00A x IL15 increased the cytotoxic activity of PBMC against TA-MUC1-positive tumor cell lines compared to parental GT-00A and an untargeted IL-15 control construct. Additionally, dose-dependent infiltration of NK and T cells into MCF-7 tumor spheroids is mediated by GT-00A x IL15 but not the untargeted IL15 control construct or parental GT-00A. In vivo single agent efficacy of GT-00A x IL15 was shown in different tumor models by means of tumor growth inhibition and increased survival. Subsequent flow cytometric analysis of tumor samples confirmed activation and expansion of tumor-infiltrating NK and CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, in a biodistribution study using radioactively labelled GT-00A x IL15 we observed significantly increased enrichment in the tumor compared to the untargeted IL-15 control construct.ConclusionsOur results confirm the relevance of TA-MUC1-mediated tumor cell binding for the mechanisms of action of our immunocytokine. GT-00A x IL15 shows increased accumulation in the tumor and mediates enhanced cytotoxicity and immune cell infiltration compared to an untargeted IL-15 control construct highlighting the potential to increase the efficacy and safety of IL-15-based immunocytokines by tumor targeting. GT-00A x IL15 shows great promise for the treatment of TA-MUC1-positive solid tumors either as monotherapeutic agent or as valuable combination partner.

SWI/SNF complexes act through CBP-1 histone acetyltransferase to regulate acute functional tolerance to alcohol

Background SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling genes are required for normal acute responses to alcohol in C. elegans and are associated with alcohol use disorder in two human populations. In an effort to discover the downstream genes that are mediating this effect, we identified SWI/SNF-regulated genes in C. elegans. Results To identify SWI/SNF-regulated genes in adults, we compared mRNA expression in wild type and swsn-1(os22ts) worms under conditions that produce inactive swsn-1 in mature cells. To identify SWI/SNF-regulated genes in neurons, we compared gene expression in swsn-9(ok1354) null mutant worms that harbor a neuronal rescue or a control construct. RNA sequencing was performed to an average depth of 25 million reads per sample using 50-base, paired-end reads. We found that 6813 transcripts were significantly differentially expressed between swsn-1(os22ts) mutants and wild-type worms and 2412 transcripts were significantly differentially expressed between swsn-9(ok1354) mutants and swsn-9(ok1354) mutants with neuronal rescue. We examined the intersection between these two datasets and identified 603 genes that were differentially expressed in the same direction in both comparisons; we defined these as SWI/SNF-regulated genes in neurons and in adults. Among the differentially expressed genes was cbp-1, a C. elegans homolog of the mammalian CBP/p300 family of histone acetyltransferases. CBP has been implicated in the epigenetic regulation in response to alcohol in animal models and a polymorphism in the human CBP gene, CREBBP, has been associated with alcohol-related phenotypes. We found that cbp-1 is required for the development of acute functional tolerance to alcohol in C. elegans. Conclusions We identified 603 transcripts that were regulated by two different SWI/SNF complex subunits in adults and in neurons. The SWI/SNF-regulated genes were highly enriched for genes involved in membrane rafts, suggesting an important role for this membrane microdomain in the acute alcohol response. Among the differentially expressed genes was cbp-1; CBP-1 homologs have been implicated in alcohol responses across phyla and we found that C. elegans cbp-1 was required for the acute alcohol response in worms.

Antecedents of parental psychological control: A narrative review grounded in Self-Determination Theory perspective

Self-determination theory has become a consolidated theoretical framework to deepen the psychological control construct. Numerous studies have widely investigated the consequences of the use of this parenting strategy during the life cycle. Although studies focused on the antecedents of parental psychological control are not so numerous, they provide an interesting picture that needs to be systematized and organized. For this reason, this narra-tive review was aimed at describing the studies on the antecedents of psychological control that used SDT as a theoretical framework. These studies were structured according to three categories: Parental Characteristics (or pressure from within), Child Characteristics (pres-sure from below), and Family Social Environment Characteristics (pressure from above). The results highlighted a wealth of studies in each category and indicating the need to con-tinue this line of studies in the future through the integration of the different types of ante-cedents too.

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Short Grit Scale

Grit, the passion and perseverance for long-term goals, has received attention from personality psychologists because it predicts success and academic achievement. Grit has also been criticized as simply another measure of self-control or conscientiousness. A precise psychometric representation of grit is needed to understand how the construct is unique and how it overlaps with other constructs. Previous research suggests that the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) has several psychometric limitations, such as uncertain factor structure within and across populations, uncertainty about reporting total or subscale scores, and different assessment precision at low and high levels on the construct. We conducted modern psychometric techniques including parallel analysis, measurement invariance, extrinsic convergent validity, and Item Response Theory models on two American samples. Our results suggest that the Grit-S is essentially unidimensional and that there is construct overlap with the self-control construct. Subscale factors were the result of an item doublet, where two items had highly correlated uniquenesses, showed similar item information, and were more likely to exhibit measurement bias. Findings replicated across samples. Finally, we discuss recommendations for the use of the Grit-S based on the theoretical interpretation of the unidimensional factor and our empirical findings.

Strategy and processing speed eclipse individual differences in control ability in conflict tasks

The construct of response control or response inhibition is one of the cornerstones of modern cognitive psychology, featuring prominently in theories of executive functioning and impulsive behaviour. However, repeated failures to observe correlations between commonly applied tasks have led some theorists to question whether common or overlapping response conflict processes even exist. A challenge to answering this question is that behaviour is multifaceted, with both conflict and non-conflict processes (e.g. strategy, processing speed) contributing to individual differences. Here, we use a cognitive model to dissociate these processes; the diffusion model for conflict tasks (Ulrich et al., 2015). In a meta-analysis of fits to 7 empirical datasets, we observed weak (rho<.05) correlations between tasks in parameters reflecting conflict processing, seemingly challenging a general control construct. However, we saw consistent positive correlations in parameters representing processing speed and strategy. We then use model simulations to evaluate whether correlations in behavioural costs are diagnostic of the presence or absence of common mechanisms of conflict processing. We compare correlations in simulated behaviour in scenarios where we impose correlations in conflict parameters to scenarios in which only non-conflict parameters are correlated. We find that correlations in behaviour are neither necessary nor sufficient evidence for correlations in conflict parameters. Our data provide converging evidence to claims that non-conflict processes contribute substantially to individual differences in conflict tasks and illustrate that correlations between conflict tasks are only weakly informative about common conflict mechanisms.

Organization of ATP-gated P2X1 receptor intracellular termini in apo and desensitized states

The human P2X1 receptor (hP2X1R) is a trimeric ligand-gated ion channel opened by extracellular ATP. The intracellular amino and carboxyl termini play significant roles in determining the time-course and regulation of channel gating—for example, the C terminus regulates recovery from the desensitized state following agonist washout. This suggests that the intracellular regions of the channel have distinct structural features. Studies on the hP2X3R have shown that the intracellular regions associate to form a cytoplasmic cap in the open state of the channel. However, intracellular features could not be resolved in the agonist-free apo and ATP-bound desensitized structures. Here we investigate the organization of the intracellular regions of hP2X1R in the apo and ATP-bound desensitized states following expression in HEK293 cells. We couple cysteine scanning mutagenesis of residues R25-G30 and H355-R360 with the use of bi-functional cysteine reactive cross-linking compounds of different lengths (MTS-2-MTS, BMB, and BM(PEG)2), which we use as molecular calipers. If two cysteine residues come into close proximity, we predict they will be cross-linked and result in ∼66% of the receptor subunits running on a Western blot as dimers. In the control construct (C349A) that removed the free cysteine C349, and some cysteine-containing mutants, cross-linker treatment does not result in dimerization. However, we detect efficient dimerization for R25C, G30C, P358C, K359C, and R360C. This selective pattern indicates that there is structural organization to these regions in the apo and desensitized states in a native membrane environment. The existence of such precap (apo) and postcap (desensitized) organization of the intracellular domains would facilitate efficient gating of the channel.

Assessing Two Measurements of Self-Control for Juvenile Delinquency in China

The purpose of the present study is to examine the theoretical efficiency of Hirschi’s reconceptualization of self-control in two groups of Chinese adolescents. The study also incorporates the well-established attitudinal scale from Grasmick et al. to examine whether there are any differences in the explanatory power between the two self-control scales among a comparison group of Chinese adolescents ( N = 2,048). Structural equation modeling is applied to investigate the underlying theoretical structure of the self-control construct and the robustness of the scales across diverse samples. Our results provide evidence that Grasmick’s attitudinal scale has more explanatory power than that of Hirschi’s revised measure in predicting Chinese juvenile delinquency. Both measures show a better model fit in the offender sample than in the student counterparts. Our empirical test provides solid evidence for Grasmick’s attitudinal scale as a consistent predictor of Chinese juvenile delinquency compared with Hirschi’s revised measure. Theoretical and empirical directions for future research are discussed.