Psychopathology In Adolescents With A History Of Foster Care

Despite the enormous cost of the foster care system, high rates of psychopathology and homelessness among young-adult foster care alumni provide a stark reminder of the challenges faced by this vulnerable population. This study characterizes the effect of a history of foster care on psychopathology in a group of 39 adolescents that had exited foster care and were reunified with their biological mothers. A history of foster care was defined as out-of-home placement by child welfare for at least one month; median foster stay was 1.5 years and median age at placement was 8.5 years. A control group of 78 adolescents was matched with the foster group using exact and logistic-regression nearest-neighbor methods. Matched variables included well-established, major childhood risk factors for the development of psychopathology: maternal substance abuse, maternal psychopathology, and childhood maltreatment (i.e. physical and sexual abuse, neglect and domestic violence). With the two groups matched in this way, recent research suggests that the two groups had comparable histories of adverse childhood events, and thus the major inter-group difference is a temporary separation from the biological mother, enforced by child welfare services (i.e foster care). Participants, and their mothers as second reporters, completed self-report, parent-report and structured interview assessments, providing data on major psychiatric diagnoses and symptom scales. The prevalence of externalizing diagnoses in the foster group was 41.0% (24.9% - 57.2%) compared with 19.2% (10.3% - 28.2%) in the control group (r = .25). Substance dependence prevalence was 25.6% (11.3% - 40.0%) compared with 5.1% (0.1% - 10.1%) in the control group (r = .30). The foster group also had more depression symptoms as measured by three assessments (p \u3c .05, r = .21 to .25); the foster group also had more overall externalizing symptoms (p = .015, r = .22), including conduct problems (p = .007, r = .25) and hyperactivity (p = .023, r = .21). For every comparison made, the foster group demonstrated more psychopathology than controls. Thus despite the protective goal of foster care, it may have detrimental effects on the child\u27s subsequent development. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these findings that have the potential to substantially alter child welfare policy by reducing the number of foster care placements in favor of other child and family support services

Holographic Measurement and Improvement of the Green Bank Telescope Surface

We describe the successful design, implementation, and operation of a 12 GHz holography system installed on the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). We have used a geostationary satellite beacon to construct high-resolution holographic images of the telescope mirror surface irregularities. These images have allowed us to infer and apply improved position offsets for the 2209 actuators which control the active surface of the primary mirror, thereby achieving a dramatic reduction in the total surface error (from 390 microns to ~240 microns, rms). We have also performed manual adjustments of the corner offsets for a few panels. The expected improvement in the radiometric aperture efficiency has been rigorously modeled and confirmed at 43 GHz and 90 GHz. The improvement in the telescope beam pattern has also been measured at 11.7 GHz with greater than 60 dB of dynamic range. Symmetric features in the beam pattern have emerged which are consistent with a repetitive pattern in the aperture due to systematic panel distortions. By computing average images for each tier of panels from the holography images, we confirm that the magnitude and direction of the panel distortions, in response to the combination of gravity and thermal gradients, are in general agreement with finite-element model predictions. The holography system is now fully integrated into the GBT control system, and by enabling the telescope staff to monitor the health of the individual actuators, it continues to be an essential tool to support high-frequency observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP. Contains 28 pages with 2 tables and 9 figures (several at reduced quality). The full resolution version is available at http://wwwlocal.gb.nrao.edu/ptcs/papers/Hunter2011/gbtholo.ps.gz (34MB gzip file unpacks to 134MB postscript

The Linkage Between Neighborhood and Voluntary Association Patterns: a Comparison of Black and White Urban Populations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68314/2/10.1177_089976407400300201.pd

Biomedical Discovery Acceleration, with Applications to Craniofacial Development

The profusion of high-throughput instruments and the explosion of new results in the scientific literature, particularly in molecular biomedicine, is both a blessing and a curse to the bench researcher. Even knowledgeable and experienced scientists can benefit from computational tools that help navigate this vast and rapidly evolving terrain. In this paper, we describe a novel computational approach to this challenge, a knowledge-based system that combines reading, reasoning, and reporting methods to facilitate analysis of experimental data. Reading methods extract information from external resources, either by parsing structured data or using biomedical language processing to extract information from unstructured data, and track knowledge provenance. Reasoning methods enrich the knowledge that results from reading by, for example, noting two genes that are annotated to the same ontology term or database entry. Reasoning is also used to combine all sources into a knowledge network that represents the integration of all sorts of relationships between a pair of genes, and to calculate a combined reliability score. Reporting methods combine the knowledge network with a congruent network constructed from experimental data and visualize the combined network in a tool that facilitates the knowledge-based analysis of that data. An implementation of this approach, called the Hanalyzer, is demonstrated on a large-scale gene expression array dataset relevant to craniofacial development. The use of the tool was critical in the creation of hypotheses regarding the roles of four genes never previously characterized as involved in craniofacial development; each of these hypotheses was validated by further experimental work

Investigation of inter- and intraspecies variation through genome sequencing of Aspergillus section Nigri

Aspergillus section Nigri comprises filamentous fungi relevant to biomedicine, bioenergy, health, and biotechnology. To learn more about what genetically sets these species apart, as well as about potential applications in biotechnology and biomedicine, we sequenced 23 genomes de novo, forming a full genome compendium for the section (26 species), as well as 6 Aspergillus niger isolates. This allowed us to quantify both inter-and intraspecies genomic variation. We further predicted 17,903 carbohydrateactive enzymes and 2,717 secondary metabolite gene clusters, which we condensed into 455 distinct families corresponding to compound classes, 49% of which are only found in single species. We performed metabolomics and genetic engineering to correlate genotypes to phenotypes, as demonstrated for the metabolite aurasperone, and by heterologous transfer of citrate production to Aspergillus nidulans. Experimental and computational analyses showed that both secondary metabolism and regulation are key factors that are significant in the delineation of Aspergillus species.Peer reviewe

Case Reports1. A Late Presentation of Loeys-Dietz Syndrome: Beware of TGFβ Receptor Mutations in Benign Joint Hypermobility

Background: Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) and dissections are not uncommon causes of sudden death in young adults. Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) is a rare, recently described, autosomal dominant, connective tissue disease characterized by aggressive arterial aneurysms, resulting from mutations in the transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) receptor genes TGFBR1 and TGFBR2. Mean age at death is 26.1 years, most often due to aortic dissection. We report an unusually late presentation of LDS, diagnosed following elective surgery in a female with a long history of joint hypermobility. Methods: A 51-year-old Caucasian lady complained of chest pain and headache following a dural leak from spinal anaesthesia for an elective ankle arthroscopy. CT scan and echocardiography demonstrated a dilated aortic root and significant aortic regurgitation. MRA demonstrated aortic tortuosity, an infrarenal aortic aneurysm and aneurysms in the left renal and right internal mammary arteries. She underwent aortic root repair and aortic valve replacement. She had a background of long-standing joint pains secondary to hypermobility, easy bruising, unusual fracture susceptibility and mild bronchiectasis. She had one healthy child age 32, after which she suffered a uterine prolapse. Examination revealed mild Marfanoid features. Uvula, skin and ophthalmological examination was normal. Results: Fibrillin-1 testing for Marfan syndrome (MFS) was negative. Detection of a c.1270G > C (p.Gly424Arg) TGFBR2 mutation confirmed the diagnosis of LDS. Losartan was started for vascular protection. Conclusions: LDS is a severe inherited vasculopathy that usually presents in childhood. It is characterized by aortic root dilatation and ascending aneurysms. There is a higher risk of aortic dissection compared with MFS. Clinical features overlap with MFS and Ehlers Danlos syndrome Type IV, but differentiating dysmorphogenic features include ocular hypertelorism, bifid uvula and cleft palate. Echocardiography and MRA or CT scanning from head to pelvis is recommended to establish the extent of vascular involvement. Management involves early surgical intervention, including early valve-sparing aortic root replacement, genetic counselling and close monitoring in pregnancy. Despite being caused by loss of function mutations in either TGFβ receptor, paradoxical activation of TGFβ signalling is seen, suggesting that TGFβ antagonism may confer disease modifying effects similar to those observed in MFS. TGFβ antagonism can be achieved with angiotensin antagonists, such as Losartan, which is able to delay aortic aneurysm development in preclinical models and in patients with MFS. Our case emphasizes the importance of timely recognition of vasculopathy syndromes in patients with hypermobility and the need for early surgical intervention. It also highlights their heterogeneity and the potential for late presentation. Disclosures: The authors have declared no conflicts of interes

A large genome-wide association study of age-related macular degeneration highlights contributions of rare and common variants.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3448Advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, with limited therapeutic options. Here we report on a study of >12 million variants, including 163,714 directly genotyped, mostly rare, protein-altering variants. Analyzing 16,144 patients and 17,832 controls, we identify 52 independently associated common and rare variants (P < 5 × 10(-8)) distributed across 34 loci. Although wet and dry AMD subtypes exhibit predominantly shared genetics, we identify the first genetic association signal specific to wet AMD, near MMP9 (difference P value = 4.1 × 10(-10)). Very rare coding variants (frequency <0.1%) in CFH, CFI and TIMP3 suggest causal roles for these genes, as does a splice variant in SLC16A8. Our results support the hypothesis that rare coding variants can pinpoint causal genes within known genetic loci and illustrate that applying the approach systematically to detect new loci requires extremely large sample sizes.We thank all participants of all the studies included for enabling this research by their participation in these studies. Computer resources for this project have been provided by the high-performance computing centers of the University of Michigan and the University of Regensburg. Group-specific acknowledgments can be found in the Supplementary Note. The Center for Inherited Diseases Research (CIDR) Program contract number is HHSN268201200008I. This and the main consortium work were predominantly funded by 1X01HG006934-01 to G.R.A. and R01 EY022310 to J.L.H

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure