Maternal identity formation in a military sample: a longitudinal perspective

The individual growth curve perspective provided the foundation for a developmental framework of maternal identity formation and attainment in a military sample. Data from a military study of pregnancy adaptation to birth outcomes provided data for an investigation of change over time in conflict for prenatal maternal identity formation, and the impact of family adaptability, community support and military deployment on this trajectory. The individual slopes and intercepts of maternal identity formation were assessed for 421 active-duty women and wives of military servicemen in each trimester of pregnancy. Fitting of unconditional growth models indicated that significant variation in prenatal Acceptance of Pregnancy (ACCPREG) existed across time and rate of change for individuals. No evidence existed for significant change in Identification of the Motherhood Role (IDMORO). Significant variability existed in the conflict associated with IDMORO between individuals. Fitting of conditional growth models for ACCPREG and IDMORO predicted by Family Adaptability (FADAPT) and Community Support (SSI) showed that FADAPT and SSI significantly affected the conflict associated with ACCPREG and IDMORO, but not the pattern of change over time. First-trimester Deployment significantly affected conflict with ACCPREG. The ability of prenatal maternal identity formation to predict six-month postpartum maternal identity attainment was assessed for 113 women from the original iv sample. Identification of the Motherhood Role significantly impacted postpartum Satisfaction with Infant and Infant Care as well as Confidence in Motherhood Role and Tasks. Change over time in Family Adaptability and Community Support had significant affects on Confidence in Motherhood Role and Tasks. First-trimester Deployment on Identification of the Motherhood Role predicted Satisfaction with Infant and Infant Care. Prenatal Deployment was not predictive of any change in Confidence in Motherhood Role and Tasks. The findings provide information for appropriate timing of interventions to improve maternal-fetal and infant attachment and for policies impacting military families. First trimester maternal identity formation significantly impacted maternal role satisfaction at six-months postpartum. First trimester family adaptability and community support both decreased conflict associated with maternal identity formation and attainment. In addition, first trimester deployment, even with prenatal return from deployment continued to impact maternal identity at six-months postpartum

Seeing red over black and white: popular and media representations of inter-racial relationships as precursors to racial violence

The recent murder in the UK of Anthony Walker attests to the lingering antipathy, indeed hostility, toward intimate inter-racial relationships, especially those involving black men and white women. Seventeen year-old Walker was brutally beaten then fatally assaulted with an axe to his head - the 'provocation' for the attack was this young black man’s relationship with his white girl friend. This paper assesses the historical and contemporary images and mythologies that continue to stigmatize inter-racial relationships. Specifically, we look at the representations disseminated through varied popular media forms. The paper suggests that these mediated constructs condition an environment that facilitates, if not encourages, violence against those in inter-racial relationships

Systematic permutation testing in GWAS pathway analyses: identification of genetic networks in dilated cardiomyopathy and ulcerative colitis

Background: Genome wide association studies (GWAS) are applied to identify genetic loci, which are associated with complex traits and human diseases. Analogous to the evolution of gene expression analyses, pathway analyses have emerged as important tools to uncover functional networks of genome-wide association data. Usually, pathway analyses combine statistical methods with a priori available biological knowledge. To determine significance thresholds for associated pathways, correction for multiple testing and over-representation permutation testing is applied. Results: We systematically investigated the impact of three different permutation test approaches for over-representation analysis to detect false positive pathway candidates and evaluate them on genome-wide association data of Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Our results provide evidence that the gold standard - permuting the case–control status – effectively improves specificity of GWAS pathway analysis. Although permutation of SNPs does not maintain linkage disequilibrium (LD), these permutations represent an alternative for GWAS data when case–control permutations are not possible. Gene permutations, however, did not add significantly to the specificity. Finally, we provide estimates on the required number of permutations for the investigated approaches. Conclusions: To discover potential false positive functional pathway candidates and to support the results from standard statistical tests such as the Hypergeometric test, permutation tests of case control data should be carried out. The most reasonable alternative was case–control permutation, if this is not possible, SNP permutations may be carried out. Our study also demonstrates that significance values converge rapidly with an increasing number of permutations. By applying the described statistical framework we were able to discover axon guidance, focal adhesion and calcium signaling as important DCM-related pathways and Intestinal immune network for IgA production as most significant UC pathway

Marathon-Induced Cardiac Strain as Model for the Evaluation of Diagnostic microRNAs for Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background: The current gold standard biomarker for myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac troponin (cTn), is recognized for its high sensitivity and organ specificity; however, it lacks diagnostic specificity. Numerous studies have introduced circulating microRNAs as potential biomarkers for MI. This study investigates the MI-specificity of these serum microRNAs by investigating myocardial stress/injury due to strenuous exercise. Methods: MicroRNA biomarkers were retrieved by compre hensive review of 109 publications on diagnostic serum microRNAs for MI. MicroRNA levels were first measured by next-generation sequencing in pooled sera from runners (n = 46) before and after conducting a full competitive marathon. Hereafter, reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) of 10 selected serum microRNAs in 210 marathon runners was performed (>10,000 qPCR measurements). Results: 27 potential diagnostic microRNA for MI were retrieved by the literature review. Eight microRNAs (miR-1-3p, miR-21-5p, miR-26a-5p, miR-122-5p, miR-133a-3p, miR-142-5p, miR-191-5p, miR-486-3p) showed positive correlations with cTnT in marathon runners, whereas two miRNAs (miR-134-5p and miR-499a-5p) showed no correlations. Upregulation of miR-133a-3p (p = 0.03) and miR-142-5p (p = 0.01) went along with elevated cTnT after marathon. Conclusion: Some MI-associated microRNAs (e.g., miR-133a-3p and miR-142-5p) have similar kinetics under strenuous exercise and MI as compared to cTnT, which suggests that their diagnostic specificity could be lim ited. In contrast, several MI-associated microRNAs (miR-26a-5p, miR-134-5p, miR-191-5p) showed different release behavior; hence, combining cTnT with these microRNAs within a multi-marker strategy may add diagnostic accuracy in MI

Marathon-Induced Cardiac Strain as Model for the Evaluation of Diagnostic microRNAs for Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background: The current gold standard biomarker for myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac troponin (cTn), is recognized for its high sensitivity and organ specificity; however, it lacks diagnostic specificity. Numerous studies have introduced circulating microRNAs as potential biomarkers for MI. This study investigates the MI-specificity of these serum microRNAs by investigating myocardial stress/injury due to strenuous exercise. Methods: MicroRNA biomarkers were retrieved by comprehensive review of 109 publications on diagnostic serum microRNAs for MI. MicroRNA levels were first measured by next-generation sequencing in pooled sera from runners (n = 46) before and after conducting a full competitive marathon. Hereafter, reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) of 10 selected serum microRNAs in 210 marathon runners was performed (>10,000 qPCR measurements). Results: 27 potential diagnostic microRNA for MI were retrieved by the literature review. Eight microRNAs (miR-1-3p, miR-21-5p, miR-26a-5p, miR-122-5p, miR-133a-3p, miR-142-5p, miR-191-5p, miR-486-3p) showed positive correlations with cTnT in marathon runners, whereas two miRNAs (miR-134-5p and miR-499a-5p) showed no correlations. Upregulation of miR-133a-3p (p = 0.03) and miR-142-5p (p = 0.01) went along with elevated cTnT after marathon. Conclusion: Some MI-associated microRNAs (e.g., miR-133a-3p and miR-142-5p) have similar kinetics under strenuous exercise and MI as compared to cTnT, which suggests that their diagnostic specificity could be limited. In contrast, several MI-associated microRNAs (miR-26a-5p, miR-134-5p, miR-191-5p) showed different release behavior; hence, combining cTnT with these microRNAs within a multi-marker strategy may add diagnostic accuracy in MI

Energy Metabolites as Biomarkers in Ischemic and Dilated Cardiomyopathy

With more than 25 million people affected, heart failure (HF) is a global threat. As energy production pathways are known to play a pivotal role in HF, we sought here to identify key metabolic changes in ischemic- and non-ischemic HF by using a multi-OMICS approach. Serum metabolites and mRNAseq and epigenetic DNA methylation profiles were analyzed from blood and left ventricular heart biopsy specimens of the same individuals. In total we collected serum from n = 82 patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) and n = 51 controls in the screening stage. We identified several metabolites involved in glycolysis and citric acid cycle to be elevated up to 5.7-fold in DCM (p = 1.7 × 10−6 ). Interestingly, cardiac mRNA and epigenetic changes of genes encoding rate-limiting enzymes of these pathways could also be found and validated in our second stage of metabolite assessment in n = 52 DCM, n = 39 ischemic HF and n = 57 controls. In conclusion, we identified a new set of metabolomic biomarkers for HF. We were able to identify underlying biological cascades that potentially represent suitable intervention targets

In the Round: The Future of Food

In collaboration with PopTech, the Center for Complexity (CfC) hosted a two day convening in March 2019 to discuss the future of food, conducted in-the-round. Conversations-in-the-round offer an experimental and collaborative forum where a variety of perspectives collide to reimagine how we should approach navigating complex challenges. 30 professionals, community leaders, ag-tech startups, policymakers, local activists, global aid administrators, and many other important voices in the food industry were in attendance. We did not set out to create solutions, rather we devoted our time to exploration — a process that allowed us to assess, discover, reality-check, and strategically plan the next phase of the journey. A publication was created to capture the discussions, workshops, proposals, deign principles and actionable next steps. The outcomes of this first convening will guide what comes next. Our aim is to initiate a series of projects conducted by the CfC and our partners to advance the future of food according to shared design principles. We are working with PopTech to host further convenings.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/cfc_projectsprograms_globalsecurity_futureoffood/1000/thumbnail.jp

Meeting Report: Validation of Toxicogenomics-Based Test Systems: ECVAM–ICCVAM/NICEATM Considerations for Regulatory Use

This is the report of the first workshop “Validation of Toxicogenomics-Based Test Systems” held 11–12 December 2003 in Ispra, Italy. The workshop was hosted by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) and organized jointly by ECVAM, the U.S. Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM). The primary aim of the workshop was for participants to discuss and define principles applicable to the validation of toxicogenomics platforms as well as validation of specific toxicologic test methods that incorporate toxicogenomics technologies. The workshop was viewed as an opportunity for initiating a dialogue between technologic experts, regulators, and the principal validation bodies and for identifying those factors to which the validation process would be applicable. It was felt that to do so now, as the technology is evolving and associated challenges are identified, would be a basis for the future validation of the technology when it reaches the appropriate stage. Because of the complexity of the issue, different aspects of the validation of toxicogenomics-based test methods were covered. The three focus areas include a) biologic validation of toxicogenomics-based test methods for regulatory decision making, b) technical and bioinformatics aspects related to validation, and c) validation issues as they relate to regulatory acceptance and use of toxicogenomics-based test methods. In this report we summarize the discussions and describe in detail the recommendations for future direction and priorities