The Maternal Role in Promoting Emotional Competence: Predicting Head Start Mothers' Expressiveness, Perceived Role, and Receptivity to Support

Guided by Bioecological Systems Theory and Schema Theory, I investigated mothers' perceptions regarding the emotional development of their preschool children. Researchers acknowledge mothers' contributing role in influencing children's behavioral displays of emotion, but there is a dearth in the literature on mothers' emotion-related behaviors, beliefs, and needs. In my quantitative study, I collected self-report data from a mid-Atlantic, low-income, urban sample of Head Start mothers (n = 114) and assessed which child, mother, and/or community-based factors may predict the probability of mothers being high in negative expressiveness, low in positive expressiveness, not strongly supportive of the literature in their perceived role in emotional development, and not highly receptive to parent-focused support. I pretested my devised Perceived Role and Receptivity to Support measure and conducted interviewer-administered interviews (using my devised measure, the Parenting Stress Scale, the Early Childhood Behavior Problem Screening Scale, and the Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire). Results supported only a few instances of group uniformity, with mostly group variability in Head Start mothers' emotion-related behaviors, beliefs and needs. Further, logistic regression analyses suggested: (1) mothers are likely to be high in negative expressiveness when raising a preschooler with a combination of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, high in parenting stress, and obtaining at least an Associate's degree; (2) mothers are predicted to be less positive in expressiveness when raising a preschooler with a delay, not having had any child in the family receive specialized services, raising only one child, dropping out of high school, and not having received advice from Head Start staff; (3) mothers are predicted to be less supportive of the purported role of mothers in the literature when raising only one child and not having received behavior advice from Head Start staff; (4) mothers are predicted to be lower in receptiveness to parent-focused support when raising a preschooler with no perceived behavior concerns, anticipating maladaptive behaviors to improve with age, raising only one child, dropping out of high school, and having had fewer outreach efforts in the past. I discuss implications for research and practice, including how results may inform early screening and parenting intervention initiatives

Reconnecting a Stream Channel to its Floodplain: implications for benthic diatoms and macroinvertebrate trophic structure

Streams systems draining upland landscapes provide valuable ecosystem services, but they are vulnerable to incision and channelization caused by anthropogenic disturbance. Restoring a degraded stream to its pre-disturbance condition by reconnecting the channel to its historical floodplain aims to recover lost hydro-morphological processes and functions. Seeking evidence to indicate whether that aim is met in practice, we examined diatoms and the stream macroinvertebrate trophic structures in three reaches of Whychus Creek, Oregon, United States. Two reaches were reconnected to their pre-disturbance floodplains in 2012 and 2016. The third, control reach, was not restored and was selected to represent the degraded stream condition prior to restoration. Ordinations showed that benthic diatom species composition shifted from the control reach to the restored reaches. Compared to the control reach, reconnection decreased the percentages of diatoms with nitrogen (N)-fixing cyanobacterial endosymbionts in the 2012 restored reach and decreased diatoms tolerant to low N conditions in both the restored reaches. δ15N values in both stream macroinvertebrates and tree leaves in the riparian zone were higher in the restored reaches. These findings suggest that floodplain reconnection may modify hydro-morphological processes and ecosystem functions in ways that enhance organic matter retention and hyporheic exchange, resulting in increased nutrient availability, improved nutrient cycling, and greater primary productivity. More generally, our results suggest that characterizing diatom species composition and trophic interactions using stable isotopes provides the basis for identifying and evaluating the beneficial effects of stream restoration on ecosystem functions and the food-web

Does the Association Between Psychosocial Factors and Opioid Use After Elective Spine Surgery Differ by Sex in Older Adults?

Purpose: Psychosocial disorders have been linked to chronic postoperative opioid use and the development of postoperative pain. The potential interaction between sex and psychosocial factors with respect to opioid use after elective spine surgery in the elderly has not yet been evaluated. Our aim was to assess whether any observed association of anxiety or depression indicators with opioid consumption in the first 72 hours after elective spine surgery varies by sex in adults ≥65 years. Patients and methods: Secondary analysis of a retrospective cohort of 647 elective spine surgeries performed at Brigham and Women's Hospital, July 1, 2015-March 15, 2017, in patients ≥65. Linear mixed-effects models were used to test whether history of anxiety, anxiolytic use, history of depression, and antidepressant use were associated with opioid consumption 0-24, 24-48, and 48-72 post surgery, and whether these potential associations differed by sex. Results: History of anxiety, anxiolytic use, history of depression, and antidepressant use were more common among women (51.3% of the sample). During the first 24 hours after surgery, men with a preoperative history of anxiety consumed an adjusted mean of 19.5 morphine milligram equivalents (MME) (99.6% CI: 8.1, 31.0) more than men without a history of anxiety; women with a history of anxiety only consumed an adjusted mean 2.9 MME (99.6% CI: -3.1, 8.9) more than women without a history of anxiety (P value for interaction between sex and history of anxiety <0.001). No other interactions were detected between sex and psychosocial factors with respect to opioid use after surgery. Conclusion: Secondary analysis of this retrospective cohort study found minimal evidence that the association between psychosocial factors and opioid consumption after elective spine surgery differs by sex in adults ≥65.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reconnecting a stream channel to its floodplain: implications for benthic diatoms and macroinvertebrate trophic structure

Streams systems draining upland landscapes provide valuable ecosystem services, but they are vulnerable to incision and channelization caused by anthropogenic disturbance. Restoring a degraded stream to its pre‐disturbance condition by reconnecting the channel to its historical floodplain aims to recover lost hydro‐morphological processes and functions. Seeking evidence to indicate whether that aim is met in practice, we examined diatoms and the stream macroinvertebrate trophic structures in three reaches of Whychus Creek, Oregon, United States. Two reaches were reconnected to their pre‐disturbance floodplains in 2012 and 2016. The third, control reach, was not restored and was selected to represent the degraded stream condition prior to restoration. Ordinations showed that benthic diatom species composition shifted from the control reach to the restored reaches. Compared to the control reach, reconnection decreased the percentages of diatoms with nitrogen (N)‐fixing cyanobacterial endosymbionts in the 2012 restored reach and decreased diatoms tolerant to low N conditions in both the restored reaches. δ15N values in both stream macroinvertebrates and tree leaves in the riparian zone were higher in the restored reaches. These findings suggest that floodplain reconnection may modify hydro‐morphological processes and ecosystem functions in ways that enhance organic matter retention and hyporheic exchange, resulting in increased nutrient availability, improved nutrient cycling, and greater primary productivity. More generally, our results suggest that characterizing diatom species composition and trophic interactions using stable isotopes provides the basis for identifying and evaluating the beneficial effects of stream restoration on ecosystem functions and the food‐web

Global phylogeography and ancient evolution of the widespread human gut virus crAssphage

Microbiomes are vast communities of microorganisms and viruses that populate all natural ecosystems. Viruses have been considered to be the most variable component of microbiomes, as supported by virome surveys and examples of high genomic mosaicism. However, recent evidence suggests that the human gut virome is remarkably stable compared with that of other environments. Here, we investigate the origin, evolution and epidemiology of crAssphage, a widespread human gut virus. Through a global collaboration, we obtained DNA sequences of crAssphage from more than one-third of the world's countries and showed that the phylogeography of crAssphage is locally clustered within countries, cities and individuals. We also found fully colinear crAssphage-like genomes in both Old-World and New-World primates, suggesting that the association of crAssphage with primates may be millions of years old. Finally, by exploiting a large cohort of more than 1,000 individuals, we tested whether crAssphage is associated with bacterial taxonomic groups of the gut microbiome, diverse human health parameters and a wide range of dietary factors. We identified strong correlations with different clades of bacteria that are related to Bacteroidetes and weak associations with several diet categories, but no significant association with health or disease. We conclude that crAssphage is a benign cosmopolitan virus that may have coevolved with the human lineage and is an integral part of the normal human gut virome

An inclusive Research and Education Community (iREC) model to facilitate undergraduate science education reform

Funding: This work was supported by Howard Hughes Medical Institute grants to DIH is GT12052 and MJG is GT15338.Over the last two decades, there have been numerous initiatives to improve undergraduate student outcomes in STEM. One model for scalable reform is the inclusive Research Education Community (iREC). In an iREC, STEM faculty from colleges and universities across the nation are supported to adopt and sustainably implement course-based research – a form of science pedagogy that enhances student learning and persistence in science. In this study, we used pathway modeling to develop a qualitative description that explicates the HHMI Science Education Alliance (SEA) iREC as a model for facilitating the successful adoption and continued advancement of new curricular content and pedagogy. In particular, outcomes that faculty realize through their participation in the SEA iREC were identified, organized by time, and functionally linked. The resulting pathway model was then revised and refined based on several rounds of feedback from over 100 faculty members in the SEA iREC who participated in the study. Our results show that in an iREC, STEM faculty organized as a long-standing community of practice leverage one another, outside expertise, and data to adopt, implement, and iteratively advance their pedagogy. The opportunity to collaborate in this manner and, additionally, to be recognized for pedagogical contributions sustainably engages STEM faculty in the advancement of their pedagogy. Here, we present a detailed pathway model of SEA that, together with underpinning features of an iREC identified in this study, offers a framework to facilitate transformations in undergraduate science education.Peer reviewe

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