Prevalence of intimate partner violence victimization and victims' relational and sexual well-being

Research shows that experiences with intimate partner violence (IPV) harm victims' individual well-being. Surprisingly, little is known about how IPV might impact on victims' well-being at the relationship level. Based on a population-based study in Flanders (the Northern part of Belgium), this study concentrates on how lifetime experience with IPV impacts on victims' relational and sexual well-being with their current partner. Ten percent of the population was confronted with physical violence and 56.7 % with psychological violence. Higher levels of IPV victimization corresponded with an adverse mental, relational (relationship satisfaction, attachment), and sexual (sexual satisfaction, sexual dysfunction, sexual communication) well-being in both women and men but except for the latter correlates, the effects were more pronounced for women than for men

Prevalence and Impact of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) among an ethnic minority population

The present study examined the prevalence of lifetime experiences of physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) among members of the Turkish ethnic minority population in Flanders. In addition, this study explored how lifetime IPV victimization affects ethnic minority victims’ current mental, relational, and sexual well-being. Using a population-based representative sample, data from 392 adult Turkish women and men were investigated. Lifetime experiences of physical violence were reported by 14.3% of the Turkish respondents, while 66.0% reported at least one incidence of psychological abuse. Women were much more likely than men to report physical IPV victimization, but no gender differences were found for psychological IPV. With regard to the impact of IPV, it was found that lifetime IPV experiences do not appear to affect victims’ current mental health. However, higher levels of physical and/or psychological IPV victimization were related to increased levels of relationship dissatisfaction, anxious and avoidant attachment orientations, sexual dissatisfaction, sexual dysfunction (with distress), and to decreased levels of sexual communication. These adverse relational and sexual outcomes of IPV victimization were mainly present among women but were also, to a lesser degree, relevant for me

Intimate partner violence victimization among non-heterosexuals: prevalence and associations with mental and sexual well-being

This study focused on intimate partner violence (IPV) among non-heterosexuals in Flanders. Prevalence rates were explored and compared with heterosexual IPV using a first representative sample consisting of 1690 heterosexuals and non-heterosexual individuals. A second convenience sample consisting of 2401 non-heterosexual individuals was used to determine differences between women and men and to explore associations between IPV and victims' well-being. Physical and psychological IPV inflicted by the current/former partner were reported by 14.5 and 57.9 % of the non-heterosexuals, respectively. Non-heterosexuals and heterosexuals were equally likely to report physical and psychological IPV. Furthermore, non-heterosexual women and men reported similar physical, sexual, and psychological IPV. However, female victims experienced more frequent acts of psychological IPV. IPV was negatively associated with victims' well-being

Plant development, yielding properties and kernel composition of winter wheat in relation to soil type and irrigation treatment under an organically elevated temperature

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Impact of crop husbandry practices and environmental conditions on wheat composition and quality : a review

The increasing interest in the production of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with specific quality traits requires a shift from the current breeding goal, being yield, to improved compositional and, consequently, functional traits. Since wheat is a key food crop, this must be attained while maintaining or even further increasing yield. Furthermore, as compositional requirements for specific applications are not well-defined, both protein and gluten content as well as the enzymatic activity remain most important. Given that these traits are majorly impacted by both genotype and environment, it is very complex to predict and ultimately control them. Different strategies, such as applying optimized agronomic practices, can temper these uncontrollable determinants which are equally important to steer wheat quality. As current research on their contribution to specific traits is highly fragmented, this report provides a comprehensive review of the influence of crop husbandry and environmental conditions on wheat yield and composition

Cost-effective and robust genotyping using double-mismatch allele-specific quantitative PCR

For a wide range of diseases, SNPs in the genome are the underlying mechanism of dysfunction. Therefore, targeted detection of these variations is of high importance for early diagnosis and (familial) screenings. While allele-specific PCR has been around for many years, its adoption for SNP genotyping or somatic mutation detection has been hampered by its low discriminating power and high costs. To tackle this, we developed a cost-effective qPCR based method, able to detect SNPs in a robust and specific manner. This study describes how to combine the basic principles of allele-specific PCR (the combination of a wild type and variant primer) with the straightforward readout of DNA-binding dye based qPCR technology. To enhance the robustness and discriminating power, an artificial mismatch in the allele-specific primer was introduced. The resulting method, called double-mismatch allele-specific qPCR (DMAS-qPCR), was successfully validated using 12 SNPs and 15 clinically relevant somatic mutations on 48 cancer cell lines. It is easy to use, does not require labeled probes and is characterized by high analytical sensitivity and specificity. DMAS-qPCR comes with a complimentary online assay design tool, available for the whole scientific community, enabling researchers to design custom assays and implement those as a diagnostic test

Maize meal fortification and its impact on maize porridge quality

Food fortification involves adding essential vitamins and minerals to foods to prevent micronutrient malnutrition and birth defects and thus improve overall health. Although maize meal is an important staple food in many African countries, only 30% of the industrially milled maize meal on the continent is fortified so the potential for better health is still enormous. A major drawback for maize meal fortification however is that it may provoke sensory (colour, taste) changes in the cooked maize porridge leading to rejection by the population. To get insight in the mechanisms driving this food quality issue, the impact of fortification premixes and some of its components (Fe and Zn fortificants) on porridge quality was studied for maize meal stored up to 10 weeks. Furthermore, the interaction with type of maize meal (super or special), type of water (demi or tap water) and type of cooking pot (stainless steel and aluminum) was investigated. Porridges were produced with a standardized cooking trial. Porridge colour was measured with a colorimeter (L*a*b*) and a rheometer was used to perform pasting experiments on the maize meal. It was found that Fe and Zn fortificants, did not impact porridge colour when demi water was used for porridge production. When applying tap water for porridge production, colour changes were observed for all Fe fortificants (ferrous sulphate, ferrous fumarate, NaFeEDTA)

Inhibition of CDK4/6 as a novel therapeutic option for neuroblastoma

Background: Neuroblastoma is a neural crest-derived tumor and is the most common cancer in children less than 1 year of age. We hypothesized that aberrations in genes that control the cell cycle could play an important role in the pathogenesis of neuroblastoma and could provide a tractable therapeutic target. Methods: In this study, we screened 131 genes involved in cell cycle regulation at different levels by analyzing the effect of siRNA-mediated gene silencing on the proliferation of neuroblastoma cells. Results: Marked reductions in neuroblastoma cellular proliferation were recorded after knockdown of CCND1 or PLK1. We next showed that pharmacological inhibition of cyclin D1 dependent kinases 4/6 (CDK4/6) with PD 0332991 (palbociclib) reduced the growth of neuroblastoma cell lines, induced G1 cell cycle arrest, and inhibited the cyclin D1-Rb pathway. Conclusion: Selective inhibition of CDK4/6 using palbociclib may provide a new therapeutic option for treating neuroblastoma

Balancing Selection of a Frame-Shift Mutation in the MRC2 Gene Accounts for the Outbreak of the Crooked Tail Syndrome in Belgian Blue Cattle

We herein describe the positional identification of a 2-bp deletion in the open reading frame of the MRC2 receptor causing the recessive Crooked Tail Syndrome in cattle. The resulting frame-shift reveals a premature stop codon that causes nonsense-mediated decay of the mutant messenger RNA, and the virtual absence of functional Endo180 protein in affected animals. Cases exhibit skeletal anomalies thought to result from impaired extracellular matrix remodeling during ossification, and as of yet unexplained muscular symptoms. We demonstrate that carrier status is very significantly associated with desired characteristics in the general population, including enhanced muscular development, and that the resulting heterozygote advantage caused a selective sweep which explains the unexpectedly high frequency (25%) of carriers in the Belgian Blue Cattle Breed