Predicting risk of school refusal: examining the incremental role of trait EI beyond personality and emotion regulation

Research has not yet been deepened in the link between personality factors and risk of school refusal. Furthermore, previous studies fail to verify the direct relation between trait EI and the risk of school refusal. The present study examined personality traits, emotion regulation and trait EI for the contributory role they may play in predicting the risk of school refusal. The sample consisted of 311 participants, 112 males (36%) and 199 females (64%) with an average age of 14.19 (SD = .60), from a high school in the city of Messina (Sicily, Italy). Results show that the risk of school refusal is positively related to neuroticism and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, while it is negatively related to the extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness and trait EI. Moreover, trait EI can be considered as a strong incremental negative predictor of risk of school refusal over and above personality traits and emotion regulation

Serum coding and non-coding RNAs as biomarkers of NAFLD and fibrosis severity

BACKGROUND & AIMS: In patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), liver biopsy is the gold standard to detect non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and stage liver fibrosis. We aimed to identify differentially expressed mRNAs and non-coding RNAs in serum samples of biopsy-diagnosed mild and severe NAFLD patients with respect to controls and to each other. METHODS: We first performed a whole transcriptome analysis through microarray (n = 12: four Control: CTRL; four mild NAFLD: NAS 64 4 F0; four severe NAFLD NAS 65 5 F3), followed by validation of selected transcripts through real-time PCRs in an independent internal cohort of 88 subjects (63 NAFLD, 25 CTRL) and in an external cohort of 50 NAFLD patients. A similar analysis was also performed on liver biopsies and HepG2 cells exposed to oleate:palmitate or only palmitate (cellular model of NAFL/NASH) at intracellular/extracellular levels. Transcript correlation with histological/clinical data was also analysed. RESULTS: We identified several differentially expressed coding/non-coding RNAs in each group of the study cohort. We validated the up-regulation of UBE2V1, BNIP3L mRNAs, RP11-128N14.5 lncRNA, TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 coding/lncRNA in patients with NAS 65 5 (vs NAS 64 4) and the up-regulation of HBA2 mRNA, TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 coding/lncRNA in patients with Fibrosis stages = 3-4 (vs F = 0-2). In in vitro models: UBE2V1, RP11-128N14.5 and TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 had an increasing expression trend ranging from CTRL to oleate:palmitate or only palmitate-treated cells both at intracellular and extracellular level, while BNIP3L was up-regulated only at extracellular level. UBE2V1, RP11-128N14.5, TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 and HBA2 up-regulation was also observed at histological level. UBE2V1, RP11-128N14.5, BNIP3L and TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 correlated with histological/biochemical data. Combinations of TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 + Fibrosis Index based on the four factors (FIB-4) showed an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.891 (P = 3.00E-06) or TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 + Fibroscan (AUC = 0.892, P = 2.00E-06) improved the detection of F = 3-4 with respect to F = 0-2 fibrosis stages. CONCLUSIONS: We identified specific serum coding/non-coding RNA profiles in severe and mild NAFLD patients that possibly mirror the molecular mechanisms underlying NAFLD progression towards NASH/fibrosis. TGFB2/TGFB2-OT1 detection improves FIB-4/Fibroscan diagnostic performance for advanced fibrosis discrimination

Prospective memory performance in older people, adults and youth

The aims of this study were to verify the potential differences in prospective memory (PM) among young people, adults and the elderly; analyze the relationships between variables of comprehension and verbal fluency and PM; and finally, verify the existence of a relationship between self-reported health status and performance on PM. A cross- sectional design was used. The study involved 270 participants divided into three age groups: young people aged 18 to 28 years; adults 45 to 55, and seniors 60 to 80. Their comprehension and verbal fluency skills were assessed as well as their self-perceived health status. Subsequently, an experiment was carried out where participants were presented with paragraphs of three sentences on a computer screen and they had to recognize previously agreed words that would indicate their level of MP. The results established significant differences in prospective memory between adults and older people and between young people and the elderly. But no differences between youth and adults were found..The importance of verbal comprehension and verbal fluency in solving prospective memory experimental tasks was also significant. In addition, a better self-perception of well-being was linked to a higher performance in PMEste trabajo fue posible gracias a la financiación del grupo de investigación HUM634 de la Junta de Andalucía y al contrato OTRI de este grupo con la Diputación provincial de Cádiz. El primer autor fue becario AECID en el Departamento de Psicología de la UCA durante la realización del estu

Identification of nuclear retention domains in the alternative splicing regulator RBM20

RNA binding motif protein type 20 (RBM20) is a nuclear protein which regulates alternative splicing of expressed genes that have a key role in cardiac functions. Mutations in the RBM20 gene are linked to familial dilated cardiomyopathy and most of them alter residues in the RS domain of the protein. Functional motifs in the RBM20 protein have been poorly characterized. Our study provides functional annotations to structural domains within the RBM20 protein required for its nuclear localization. By cloning the human and mouse RBM20 genes, producing expressing vectors for truncated proteins and comparing their sub-cellular distribution in transfected cells, we have identified the sequences necessary for RBM20 full nuclear retention. The region overlaps both an RNA binding motif and a serine-arginine domain. The sequence is conserved in many species but belongs only to RBM20 protein orthologs. The RMB20 tissue specificity, together with the properties of its nuclear localization determinant, demonstrates a specific evolutionary selection for post-transcriptional regulation in the heart, highlighting RBM20 as a key factor for regulation of splicing events required for cardiac function

Molecular characterization of the RNA binding motif protein 20: determination of nuclear localization signals.

RNA splicing is a tightly regulated process that involves the spliceosome and additional RNA binding proteins that can repress or activate splice sites selection. Recent studies have indicated that mutations in RBM20, a gene encoding a novel ribonucleic acid - binding protein, are associated to human dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). RBM20 regulates alternative splicing of expressed genes that have a key role in cardiac function, including ion homeostasis, sarcomere biology, and signal transduction. The functional motifs of the RBM20 protein have been poorly investigated.The focus of this study is to characterize the protein domains that contribute to the nuclear function of RBM20. Predictive in silico analysis of the translated RBM20 gene identifies an RNA recognition motif (RRM motif), a serine /arginine (RS) domain and Zn2+ finger domains. We have produced GFP-RBM20 fusion proteins in order to map the functional domains of the protein that contribute to subcellular distribution. We have produced truncated mutants of the RBM20 proteins and analyzed separately in immunofluorescence assays in transfected cells. We identified a region necessary and sufficient to nuclear localization of RBM20 protein that maps between the RRM and the RS domain. Actually we are producing RBM20 mutant proteins in order to characterize the nuclear localization signal (NLS). Further structural and functional characterization of RBM20 may contribute to understand the molecular pathogenesis of familiar DCM

Preliminary evaluation of a self-report tool for Learned Helplessness and Mastery Orientation in Italian students

Learned helplessness (LH) is defined as a passive behavior characterized by an inability to learn that may affect the academic success of students. Conversely, students who show good motivation skills, optimism and perseverance are more focused on tasks and ‘mastery oriented’ (derived from Mastery Orientation, MO). The purpose of this study was to develop a self-report measurement of LH and MO - the Learned Helplessness Questionnaire (LHQ) - for the Italian scholastic context. We translated and adapted a student self-evaluation register, the Student behaviour checklist, and administered the questionnaire to Italian students in order to provide a preliminary factor structure. Exploratory factor analyses conducted support a two-factor model and acceptable internal reliability of the Italian LHQ.The results encourage the conduction of further analysis to assess the psychometric characteristics of the LHQ in depth