Prenatal Stress & Socioemotional Outcomes in School-Aged Children: A Meta-Analytic Review

Prenatal stress has been linked to a myriad of adverse obstetric, infant, and childhood outcomes. Several prospective studies have linked maternal stress and distress during pregnancy with long-term neurocognitive, behavioral, and emotional consequences for the offspring, including decreased cognitive abilities as well as symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), depression, and anxiety. However, limited conclusions on the influence of type of stressors and the magnitude of the effect of prenatal stress on specific developmental trajectories can be drawn due to variation in study design and measured outcomes. This meta-analysis synthesized the state of the current literature and quantified the effects of prenatal stress on internalizing, externalizing, and ADHD symptoms among children ages 5 to 18. The current study also evaluated whether pregnancy specific (e.g., type of stressor), sociodemographic (e.g., child gender), and methodological factors (e.g., reporter of child outcome) moderated the association between prenatal stress and outcomes in school-aged children. A total of 29 studies met full inclusion criteria for data analysis. A small positive effect was observed between prenatal stress and internalizing (r = .15), externalizing (r = .13), and ADHD (r = .18), symptoms in school aged youth. Moderator analysis indicated effect sizes were stronger in younger women whose children were experiencing internalizing symptoms. Findings suggest maternal stress during pregnancy is associated with offspring emotional and behavioral developmental outcomes in school aged children and adolescents. Improvement in the operationalization of sociodemographic variables is needed to continue to explore alternative characteristics that could contribute to this association

Maternal Trauma Experience on Infant Cortisol Reactivity at 12 months

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major public health concern in the United States (US). One third of women in the US have experienced rape, physical assault or stalking by a former or current partner (Black et al., 2011). Evidence suggests that women experience increased risk for IPV during the perinatal period and exposure to IPV during and after pregnancy increases risk for adverse physical and mental health outcomes for victims. The “fetal programming” hypothesis proposes that prenatal experiences are also particularly impactful for offspring development in the short and long term; prenatal poor nutrition and stress have been linked to negative health outcomes for infants and children, including temperamental difficulties, decreased emotion regulation, and psychopathology (Bergman, Sarkar, O’Connor, Modi & Glover, 2007; Davis et al., 2004; Huizink, de Medina, Mulder, Visser, & Buitelaar, 2002). The Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) has been identified as a potential mechanism linking prenatal experience and maladaptive outcomes later on. However, there is a paucity of information about the influence of prenatal IPV, a common, often chronic, and highly detrimental stressor, on infant HPA axis development. The current study explores the influence of prenatal IPV exposure on the infant stress response using salivary cortisol, a hormonal indicator of the HPA axis. This study also evaluates the interactions between prenatal IPV exposure, and common co-occurring risk factors, including maternal childhood maltreatment history, and maternal postpartum depressive and PTSD symptoms. A more comprehensive understanding of the biopsychosocial concomitants of prenatal exposure to IPV is needed to inform future prevention and intervention efforts early in life

Molecular Biological Studies On The Rep Gene Of Escherichia Coli

My work has involved the sequencing of the Escherichia coli rep gene. This gene codes for the Rep helicase, a ssDNA-dependent ATPase required by some phages ({dollar}\Phi{dollar}X174, fd, P2) for their replication.;The section of E. coli chromosome known to contain the rep gene, which I have sequenced, has only one transcribed open reading frame of the correct size to encode the Rep protein. The predicted N-terminal amino acids and the predicted total amino acid composition are in agreement with those determined from purified Rep protein.;The proposed amino acid sequence of Rep contains in its N terminus a peptide common to all ATP-binding enzymes: G/A-X{dollar}\sb4{dollar}-GKT-X{dollar}\sb6{dollar}-I. It is also possible to use the primary amino acid sequence data to predict a secondary structure for the Rep protein. The amino acid sequence of the Rep protein was compared with others already present in the protein sequence data bank; DNA helicase II the uvrD gene product, was identified as the only protein with significant homology with Rep.;In order to correlate structural features with functional protein domains two approaches were used. The first approach involved creating minor deletions in the gene and assaying for some of Rep\u27s activities.;The second approach has been to investigate the dasC mutation (das stands for dnaA suppressor). This mutation had been mapped to the vicinity of the rep gene. The dasC phenotype (growth at 42{dollar}\sp\circ{dollar}C of an E. coli strain carrying the dnaA46 temperature sensitive allele) appears to be due to a lesion in the DNA downstream from the rep gene dasC which represses the ability of Rep to complement the dnaA46 mutant. The rep alleles isolated from dasC and wild type strains confer the temperature-resistant phenotype

Warfarin : from rat poison to oral anticoagulant

Warfarin is now the most widely used long term oral anticoagulant. Due to the narrow therapeutic index and the complexity associated with warfarin therapy, a sound knowledge of the drug is required. This review is aimed at providing some basic concepts on warfarin in use and takes on a UK perspective.peer-reviewe

Instruction and program design through assessment

True to the intention of this chapter, we begin with learning outcomes and use them as the chapter\u27s organizational structure. Learning outcomes represent what we want you to be able to do as a result of active engagement with this material. Within each outcome we include a short discussion of each topic along with many examples and practical applications of the concept under discussion. We hope that this format illustrates the concepts in a holistic manner and facilitates your understanding and learning

Limitless Information – The Challenge for Copyright: A Panel Presentation at the CCI Symposium

This CCI funded research explores the underlying tension under the current copyright law between freedom and control, market and monopoly and free use and ownership rights

Fiction Fix 12

https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/fiction_fix/1004/thumbnail.jp

A comparison in a youth population between those with and without a history of concussion using biomechanical reconstruction

OBJECTIVE: Concussion is a common topic of research as a result of the short- and long-term effects it can have on the affected individual. Of particular interest is whether previous concussions can lead to a biomechanical susceptibility, or vulnerability, to incurring further head injuries, particularly for youth populations. The purpose of this research was to compare the impact biomechanics of a concussive event in terms of acceleration and brain strains of 2 groups of youths: those who had incurred a previous concussion and those who had not. It was hypothesized that the youths with a history of concussion would have lower-magnitude biomechanical impact measures than those who had never suffered a previous concussion. METHODS: Youths who had suffered a concussion were recruited from emergency departments across Canada. This pool of patients was then separated into 2 categories based on their history of concussion: those who had incurred 1 or more previous concussions, and those who had never suffered a concussion. The impact event that resulted in the brain injury was reconstructed biomechanically using computational, physical, and finite element modeling techniques. The output of the events was measured in biomechanical parameters such as energy, force, acceleration, and brain tissue strain to determine if those patients who had a previous concussion sustained a brain injury at lower magnitudes than those who had no previously reported concussion. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that there was no biomechanical variable that could distinguish between the concussion groups with a history of concussion versus no history of concussion. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that there is no measureable biomechanical vulnerability to head impact related to a history of concussions in this youth population. This may be a reflection of the long time between the previous concussion and the one reconstructed in the laboratory, where such a long period has been associated with recovery from injury

Evaluating a digital sepsis alert in a London multisite hospital network: a natural experiment using electronic health record data.

OBJECTIVE: The study sought to determine the impact of a digital sepsis alert on patient outcomes in a UK multisite hospital network. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A natural experiment utilizing the phased introduction (without randomization) of a digital sepsis alert into a multisite hospital network. Sepsis alerts were either visible to clinicians (patients in the intervention group) or running silently and not visible (the control group). Inverse probability of treatment-weighted multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the effect of the intervention on individual patient outcomes. OUTCOMES: In-hospital 30-day mortality (all inpatients), prolonged hospital stay (≥7 days) and timely antibiotics (≤60 minutes of the alert) for patients who alerted in the emergency department. RESULTS: The introduction of the alert was associated with lower odds of death (odds ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.70-0.84; n = 21 183), lower odds of prolonged hospital stay ≥7 days (OR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.88-0.99; n = 9988), and in patients who required antibiotics, an increased odds of receiving timely antibiotics (OR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.57-1.87; n = 4622). DISCUSSION: Current evidence that digital sepsis alerts are effective is mixed. In this large UK study, a digital sepsis alert has been shown to be associated with improved outcomes, including timely antibiotics. It is not known whether the presence of alerting is responsible for improved outcomes or whether the alert acted as a useful driver for quality improvement initiatives. CONCLUSIONS: These findings strongly suggest that the introduction of a network-wide digital sepsis alert is associated with improvements in patient outcomes, demonstrating that digital based interventions can be successfully introduced and readily evaluated