Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Sleep Quality, Stress, Caregiver Burden, and Quality of Life in Maternal Caregivers of Young Children with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia.

Little is known about the influence of sleep quality, stress, and caregiver burden on quality of life in maternal caregivers of young children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). In 61 maternal caregivers (mean age 29.59 years) of young children with BPD (mean age 13.93 months), caregivers reported sleeping a mean of 5.8 hours, and significant correlations were found between sleep quality and depressive symptoms and stress, as well as an inverse correlation with quality of life. Sleep quality was found to be the most significant predictor of quality of life in maternal caregivers

The children's report of sleep patterns: Validity and reliability of the sleep Hygiene Index and Sleep Disturbance Scale in adolescents

Reynolds, AC ORCiD: 0000-0001-9534-8699Objective: Sleep is critical for adolescent health and well-being. However, there are a limited number of validated self-report measures of sleep for adolescents and no well-validated measures of sleep that can be used across middle childhood and adolescence. The Children's Report of Sleep Patterns (CRSP) has been validated in children aged 8-12 years. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the CRSP, a multidimensional, self-report sleep measure for adolescents. Methods: The participants included 570 adolescents 13-18 years, 60% female, recruited from pediatricians' offices, sleep clinics, children's hospitals, schools, and the general population. A multi-method, multi-reporter approach was used to validate the CRSP. Along with the CRSP, a subset of the sample completed the Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS), with a different subset of adolescents undergoing polysomnography. Results: The CRSP demonstrated good reliability and validity. Group differences on the CRSP were found for adolescents presenting to a sleep or medical clinic (vs. a community sample), for older adolescents (vs. younger adolescents), for those who regularly napped (vs. infrequently napped), and for those with poor sleep quality (vs. good sleep quality). Self-reported sleep quality in adolescents was also associated with higher apnea-hypopnea index scores from polysomnography. Finally, the CRSP Sleep Hygiene Indices were significantly correlated with indices of the ASHS. Conclusions: The CRSP is a valid and reliable measure of adolescent sleep hygiene and sleep disturbances. With a parallel version for middle childhood, the CRSP likely provides clinicians and researchers the ability to measure self-reported sleep across development. © 2014 Elsevier B.V