The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Coping Strategies in a Sample of Siblings of People With and Without Intellectual Disability: The Mediating Role of Sibling Relationship Quality

Background: The quality of sibling relationships is an important factor in the development of individuals, particularly in the context of a relationship with a brother or sister with disabilities. Aims: This research aims to assess the moderating role of the quality of the relationship with siblings between personality traits and coping strategies. Methods: The participants were 187 adults, of whom 97(51.9%) were Individuals with brothers or sisters with intellectual disabilities (S-IDs), aged 18 to 60 years (M=30.22; SD=12.17). The second group was 90 (48.1%) Individuals with typical developmental siblings (S-TDs) aged 18 to 76 years (M=28.56; SD=11.66). Respondents completed the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), the Coping Orientation to Problem Experiences (COPE), and the Adult Sibling Relationships Questionnaire (ASRQ). Results: The data show a correlation between personality traits and coping strategies. In addition, the size of the ASRQ was found to moderate the relationship between personality traits and coping strategies, albeit in a different way between the two groups. Conclusion: The quality of the reality with brothers or sisters turns out to be an important factor in the development, and it is found to mediate the relationship between personality traits and the development of coping strategies, both in S-TDs and S-IDs, presenting similarities and differences. Future research guidelines have been discussed

The representation of bullying in Italian primary school children: A mixed-method study comparing drawing and interview data and their association with self-report involvement in bullying events

Bullying continues to be a social issue affecting millions of students of all ages worldwide. Research on bullying seems to be dominated by quantitative research approaches employed standardized categories and measures, ultimately limiting our knowledge about children’s own view on bullying. Our research follows another direction, aiming to explore the representation of bullying in a sample of Italian primary school children by using and comparing the functioning of two qualitative research instruments: interviews, and children’s drawings. In addition, aided by quantitative analyses, we aimed to investigate whether students’ involvement in different bullying roles (as bullies, victims, or defenders), as measured by self-assessment, correlated with different characteristics of the representation of bullying emerging from children’s drawings and interviews. We recruited a convenient sample of 640 primary school students (mean age = 9.44; SD = 0.67), 53.3% of whom were male. The results showed that all forms of bullying, i.e., physical, verbal, and social bullying, could be identified in interview and drawing data, although references to all types of bullying were more frequent in interview data. In terms of bullying criteria, the presence of a power imbalance between the bully and the victim was most frequently detected in both the interview data and the drawing data, while repetition was more easily detected in the interview data. The interview data showed that sadness was the most frequently reported victim emotions, followed by fear, anger, and lack of emotion. The drawing data showed a similar pattern, although victims were more frequently described as lacking emotions compared to the interview data. In both interview and drawing data, age and female gender were positively associated with references to verbal bullying, and negatively associated with references to physical bullying. Additionally, bully/victim children were more likely than uninvolved children to depict physical bullying in the drawings, while this association was not detected in interview data. In summary, our study shows that, compared with drawings, interviews tend to provide a more comprehensive view of children’s own representation of bullying, while drawing data tend to show stronger connections with children’s current personal experiences of bullying

Effect of Sibutramine on Weight Management and Metabolic Control in Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical studies on the effects of sibutramine on weight loss and glycemic control in obese subjects with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Controlled clinical trials assessing the effect sizes of sibutramine on weight loss effects on glycemia in obese subjects with type 2 diabetes were identified and reviewed using the Cochrane Library, Medline, EMBASE, and a manual search. RESULTS—Eight placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trials of sibutramine were included. After sibutramine treatment, the decrease in body weight and waist circumference was significantly greater than in the placebo group. Fasting blood glucose and HbA1c significantly decreased after sibutramine treatment. Treatment benefits were seen in plasma triglycerides and HDL, without significant variations in serum total and LDL cholesterol. No differences in systolic blood pressure between the sibutramine and the placebo groups were seen, while recording of diastolic blood pressure and heart rate showed that sibutramine produced a small increase relative to placebo. CONCLUSIONS—A pharmacological approach in a weight management program for patients with type 2 diabetes may be helpful in glycemic control and in the management of other risk factors. Sibutramine may help improve glucose control because it is conducive to weight loss. The reviewed data on the effect of sibutramine further enforce the recommendations that weight management may be the most important therapeutic task for most obese subjects with type 2 diabetes

The impact of national and international guidelines on newborn care in the nurseries of Piedmont and Aosta Valley, Italy

BACKGROUND: Care procedures for preventing neonatal diseases are carried out according to nurseries' traditions and may be not consistent with the evidence based medicine issues. METHODS: A multi-centric survey was conducted in 2 Regions located in NW Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley) in order to collect information on some healthy newborn care procedures. During 2001, a questionnaire was sent to the chief pediatrician in charge to the all 33 nurseries of the region asking the methods used during 2000 as prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum, early and late hemorrhagic disease of newborn, umbilical cord care and recommendations of vitamin D administration. Thereafter, during 2004 the same questionnaire was sent to the 34 chief pediatrician of nurseries to evaluate if the procedures were changed during 2003 according to guidelines. The nurseries care for 32,516 newborns in 2000 and 37,414 in 2003. RESULTS: Aminoglycoside eyes drops as prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum were the first choice in both periods (23 out 33 nurseries in 2000 and 24 out 34 in 2003 p > 0.05; the corresponding figures for newborns were18,984 out 32,516 newborns vs. 28,180 out of 37,414 p < 0.05). The umbilical cord care was carried out with alcohol in 12/33 centers (13,248 newborns) and dry gauze in 3/33 centers (2,130 newborns) in 2000, the corresponding figures in 2003 were 6/34 centers (p > 0.05), (6,380 newborns, p < 0.05) and 12/34 centers (p < 0.05), (18,123 newborns, p < 0.05). The percentage of newborns receiving of i.m. vitamin K. at birth increased during the study period (15,923/32,104 in 2000 vs. 19,684/37,414 in 2003, p < 0.01), but not the number of nurseries (16 in 2000 and 17 in 2003 p > 0.05). The numbers of parents of newborns who receive the recommendations of oral vitamin K during the first months life decreased from 2000 (25,516/30,606) to 2003 (29,808/37,414, p < 0.01) as well as for Vitamin D recommendation (14,582/30,616 in 2000 vs. 11,051/37,414 in 2003, p < 0.01). Oral vitamin K during the first months of life was recommended by 25 nurseries in 2000 and 27 in 2003 (p > 0.05), the corresponding figures for Vitamin D were 15 and 14 (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: In the present study a large variability of procedures among the nurseries was observed. During the study periods, guidelines and evidence based medicine issues have only partially modified the neonatal care procedures In Piedmont and Aosta Valley nurseries. These observations suggest to implement local forum/consensus conference to standardized procedures as much as possible

Identification of novel amplification gene targets in mouse and human breast cancer at a syntenic cluster mapping to mouse identification of novel amplification gene targets in mouse and human breast cancer at a syntenic cluster mapping to mouse ch8a1 and human ch13q34

Serial analysis of gene expression from aggressive mammary tumors derived from transplantable p53 null mouse mammary outgrowth lines revealed significant up-regulation of Tfdp1 (transcription factor Dp1), Lamp1 (lysosomal membrane glycoprotein 1) and Gas6 (growth arrest specific 6) transcripts. All of these genes belong to the same linkage cluster, mapping to mouse chromosome band 8A1. BAC-array comparative genomic hybridization and fluorescence in situ hybridization analyses revealed genomic amplification at mouse region ch8A1.1. The minimal region of amplification contained genes Cul4a, Lamp1, Tfdp1, and Gas6, highly overexpressed in the p53 null mammary outgrowth lines at preneoplastic stages, and in all its derived tumors. The same amplification was also observed in spontaneous p53 null mammary tumors. Interestingly, this region is homologous to human chromosome 13q34, and some of the same genes were previously observed amplified in human carcinomas. Thus, we further investigated the occurrence and frequency of gene amplification affecting genes mapping to ch13q34 in human breast cancer. TFDP1 showed the highest frequency of amplification affecting 31% of 74 breast carcinomas analyzed. Statistically significant positive correlation was observed for the amplification of CUL4A, LAMP1, TFDP1, and GAS6 genes (P < 0.001). Meta-analysis of publicly available gene expression data sets showed a strong association between the high expression of TFDP1 and decreased overall survival (P = 0.00004), relapse-free survival (P = 0.0119), and metastasis-free interval (P = 0.0064). In conclusion, our findings suggest that CUL4A, LAMP1, TFDP1, and GAS6 are targets for overexpression and amplification in breast cancers. Therefore, overexpression of these genes and, in particular, TFDP1 might be of relevance in the development and/or progression in a significant subset of human breastFil: Abba, Martín Carlos. University of Texas; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fabris, Victoria Teresa. University of Texas; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Hu, Yuhui. University of Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Kittrell, Frances S.. Baylor College of Medicine; Estados Unidos. University of Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Cai, Wei Wen. University of Texas; Estados Unidos. Baylor College of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Donehower, Lawrence A.. University of Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Sahin, Aysegui. University of Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Medina, Daniel. University of Texas; Estados Unidos. Baylor College of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Aldaz, Claudio Marcelo. University of Texas; Estados Unido

Teacher sentiments about physical appearance and risk of bullying victimization: the mediating role of quality of student–teacher relationships and psychological adjustment

IntroductionThis study investigated the relationship between teachers’ sentiments about physical appearance, student–teacher relationships, psychological adjustment, and the risk of becoming a victim of bullying.MethodParticipants consisted of 995 students (471 females, 47.3%; Mage = 11.3, SDage = 1.49) and 64 teachers (56 females, 87.5%; Mage = 47.59). Students reported their levels of psychological adjustment and their involvement with bullying victimization, while teachers rated relationship quality with their students and reported their sentiments about students’ physical appearance. Teachers’ sentiments about physical appearance were analyzed using the NRC Emotion Lexicon. Correlation and mediation analyses were conducted with Mplus, using a multicategorical antecedent.ResultsResults indicate that teachers’ positive ratings of students’ physical appearance were correlated with close teacher–student relationships, less conflictual relationships, whereas negative ratings were correlated with more conflictual student–teacher relationships and increased bullying victimization risk. Psychological adjustment mediated the relationship, with positive adjustment associated with closer relationships and negative adjustment associated with more conflict.DiscussionThis study suggests the importance of teachers’ sentiments about students’ physical appearance. Positive sentiments promote supportive relationships and reduce the risk of bullying victimization, while negative sentiments erano correlate ad una relazione studente-insegnante netagativa and increased risk of bullying victimization. Promoting positive interactions between teachers and students and addressing appearance biases are critical to creating inclusive educational environments. Further research should focus on understanding and examining the impact of teacher attitudes on student well-being and bullying dynamics

Detection of bovine alpha-S1-casein in term and preterm human colostrum with proteomic techniques

Due to increased social awareness of allergens and population hyper-sensitization, the reported incidence of allergic reactions to food allergens has increased over the past two decades. Cow's milk proteins (CMPs) are among the most common food allergens. The aim of this study was to use proteomics techniques to investigate cow's milk allergens in both full-term human colostrum and in preterm newborns' mothers - where both groups showed no prior allergen detection – in order to understand whether cow's milk allergens could be a cause of sensitization established through lactation. The most relevant finding was the detection of the intact bovine alpha-S1-casein in both term and preterm colostrum. Using techniques detailed in this paper and which allowed for direct protein identification, β-lactoglobulin was not detected in any of the colostrum samples. According to our results, bovine alpha 1 casein is considered a major cow's milk allergen, is readily secreted in human milk, and so could be considered a possible cause of sensitization in exclusively breastfed infants