Haitian women and domestic violence: an assessment of the influnce of the mother-daughter relationship

The current study uses a structured survey with a sample of 97 Haitian women who are or have been involved in violent domestic relationships, to examine the impact of the daughters’ levels of differentiation from their mothers, cultural expectations, religious beliefs, and other potential intervening variables that may mediate the decision to stay or leave the abuser. Analyses were conducted to ascertain whether characteristics of the mother-daughter relationship, level of individuation/fusion, culture, and/or religion plays a significant role in the women’s decision making process. It was hypothesized that daughter’s decisions regarding the relationship would be highly influenced by the type of relationship that they have with their mothers, hence, influencing them to remain or leave the perpetrator. Findings from the current study supported the second hypothesis that there would be a significant negative correlation between the degree of differentiation of a daughter from her mother and the likelihood of leaving an abusive relationship. Correlations were performed with the Personal Authority in the Family Systems Questionnaire and the Differentiation of Self Inventory and the findings from the tests revealed that women who obtained higher scores on the DSI were less likely to remain with their abusers. Furthermore, when the PAFS and the DSI were combined, they were a significant predictor of the outcome. Additionally, the hypothesis that women who are highly influenced by cultural factors will be more likely to stay in an abusive relationship than women who are not highly influenced by such factors, was not conclusive. There was no relationship between adhering to cultural beliefs and the decision regarding an abusive relationship. Findings regarding the influence of the women’s religious on their decision regarding the abusive relationship were also inconclusive. The discussion and conclusions focus on the clinical significance of the study’s findings. Implications for treatment with this population, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are also addressed

Tuberculose latente chez les réfugiés de l’Estrie

Les réfugiés en provenance de pays à forte incidence de tuberculose (TB) peuvent transmettre l’infection dans leur pays d’accueil. Les services de dépistage et le traitement offerts respectivement à la clinique des réfugiés (CDR) et au centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) aident à diminuer la morbidité associée à cette maladie et permettent d’éviter de nouveaux cas de TB active dans la communauté. Les objectifs de cette étude étaient de : (a) mesurer la prévalence de l’infection tuberculeuse latente (ITL) chez les réfugiés évalués à la CDR (b) décrire les caractéristiques démographiques, cliniques et thérapeutiques de ceux infectés (c) estimer les cas de TB active prévenus. Une étude transversale basée sur une révision des dossiers a été réalisée entre le 1er janvier 2010 et 31 décembre 2014. L’approbation éthique a été obtenue du comité d’éthique de la recherche en santé chez l’humain (CRCHUS) en juin 2016. Un total de 1 884 réfugiés a été évalué pour l’ITL à la CDR pour la période de l’étude dont 52,3 % étaient des femmes et 42,3 % des enfants âgés de 1 et 17 ans. De ceux-ci, 723 réfugiés avaient reçu un diagnostic d’ITL à la CDR. La prévalence globale était de 38,6 % (IC 95 % : 36,4 %–40,8 %). Les facteurs de risque d’évolution vers la TB active étaient répartis comme suit chez les patients avec une ITL : 1 sur 10 pour la co-infection VIH-TB, 5 sur 10 pour le diabète et 2 sur 4 pour l’insuffisance rénale. Parmi les 287 réfugiés qui avaient débuté leur traitement, le taux de complétion était de 62,0 % (IC 95 % : 56,3–64,4). La présence à 2 visites de suivi et plus (RC : 2,4 ; IC 95 % : 1,0–5,6), la réalisation de plus de 4 bilans de contrôle (RC : 10,3 ; IC 95 % : 3,0–35,8) et l’absence d’effets secondaires (RC : 10,8 ; IC 95 % : 3,0–32,9) sont des facteurs associés à la complétion du traitement. Le traitement offert aux 287 patients a permis d’éviter 5,4 cas de TB active. Les conclusions de l’étude démontrent que l’ITL est prévalente chez les réfugiés qui arrivent à Sherbrooke. Le taux de complétion du traitement offert à leur arrivée comme mesure préventive n’atteint pas les cibles attendues. Les résultats de cette étude devraient aider à mieux organiser les services entourant le traitement

Quaternary coastal uplift along the Talara Arc (Ecuador, Northern Peru) from new marine terrace data

Marine Geology, v. 228, n. 1-4, p. 73-91, 2006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2006.01.004International audienceMarine terrace sequences have been investigated along the Talara Arc, a 1000-km-long stretch of the coast of Ecuador and northern Peru, characterized by subduction with a concave plan-view. Seven areas were investigated, evidencing flights of up to seven marine terraces with elevations reaching up to 360 m above mean sea level (amsl). Dating of the terraces was made using the Infra Red Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) technique on sands as old as MIS 9 (∼330 ka). 14 C and U-series dates were obtained from fossil shells for geochronological cross control. Mean uplift rates along the Talara Arc range from about 0.10 up to 0.50 mm/ yr. The strongest uplift is observed in the Manta Peninsula of Ecuador in front of the subduction of the Carnegie Ridge. The uplift rate tends to slow down towards the northern and southern ends of the Talara Arc and then the transition toward the stable or subsiding coasts of central Peru and northern Ecuador and Colombia is sharp. The uplift appears to be homogeneous and related to 1) the map view curvature of the Arc, 2) the concave subduction pattern and 3) the Carnegie Ridge subduction

The distribution and movement patterns of four woodland caribou herds in Quebec and Labrador

Recent studies of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in northern Quebec and central Labrador have demonstrated similar patterns of seasonal movements and distribution among four herds. Aerial surveys and radio-telemetry indicated that animals occupied forest-wetland habitat at densities of 0.03 caribou km2, or lower, for most of the year. Although females were widely dispersed at calving individuals demonstrated fidelity toward specific calving locations, in successive years. Caribou did not form large post-calving aggregations. Movement was greatest in the spring, prior to calving, and in the fall, during or immediately after rutting. Caribou were generally sedentary during summer and winter, although some moved relatively long distances to late-winter range. Although the herds occupy continuous range across Quebec and Labrador, our data indicate that the herds are largely discreete and should be managed individually

Review: Towards the agroecological management of ruminants, pigs and poultry through the development of sustainable breeding programmes. II. Breeding strategies

Agroecology uses ecological processes and local resources rather than chemical inputs to develop productive and resilient livestock and crop production systems. In this context, breeding innovations are necessary to obtain animals that are both productive and adapted to a broad range of local contexts and diversity of systems. Breeding strategies to promote agroecological systems are similar for different animal species. However, current practices differ regarding the breeding of ruminants, pigs and poultry. Ruminant breeding is still an open system where farmers continue to choose their own breeds and strategies. Conversely, pig and poultry breeding is more or less the exclusive domain of international breeding companies which supply farmers with hybrid animals. Innovations in breeding strategies must therefore be adapted to the different species. In developed countries, reorienting current breeding programmes seems to be more effective than developing programmes dedicated to agroecological systems that will struggle to be really effective because of the small size of the populations currently concerned by such systems. Particular attention needs to be paid to determining the respective usefulness of cross-breeding v. straight breeding strategies of well-adapted local breeds. While cross-breeding may offer some immediate benefits in terms of improving certain traits that enable the animals to adapt well to local environmental conditions, it may be difficult to sustain these benefits in the longer term and could also induce an important loss of genetic diversity if the initial pure-bred populations are no longer produced. As well as supporting the value of within-breed diversity, we must preserve between-breed diversity in order to maintain numerous options for adaptation to a variety of production environments and contexts. This may involve specific public policies to maintain and characterize local breeds (in terms of both phenotypes and genotypes), which could be used more effectively if they benefited from the scientific and technical resources currently available for more common breeds. Last but not least, public policies need to enable improved information concerning the genetic resources and breeding tools available for the agroecological management of livestock production systems, and facilitate its assimilation by farmers and farm technicians

Source apportionment of atmospheric trace gases and particulate matter: comparison of log-ratio and traditional approaches

In this paper we compare multivariate methods using both traditional approaches, which ignore issues of closure and provide relatively simple methods to deal with censored or missing data, and log-ratio methods to determine the sources of trace constituents in the atmosphere. The data set examined was collected from April to July 2008 at a sampling site near Woods Hole, Massachusetts, along the northeastern United States Atlantic coastline. The data set consists of trace gas mixing ratios (O3, SO2, NOx, elemental mercury [Hgo], and reactive gaseous mercury [RGM]), and concentrations of trace elements in fine (<2.5 μm) particulate matter (Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cs, Fe, Ga, Hg, K, La, Mg, Mn, Na, P, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sr, Th, Ti, V, Y, and Zn) with varying percentages of censored values for each species. The data were separated into two subcompositions: s1, which is comprised by RGM and particulate Hg (HgP), which are both highly censored; and s2 which includes all of the trace elements associated with particulate matter except Hg, and the trace gases O3, SO2, NOx, and Hgo. Principal factor analysis (PFA) was successful in determining the primary sources for constituents in s2 using both traditional and log-ratio approaches. Using the traditional approach, regression between factor scores and RGM and particulate Hg concentrations suggested that none of the sources identified during PFA led to positive contributions of either reactive mercury compound. This finding is counter to most conventional thinking and is likely specious, resulting from removal of censored data (up to >80% of the entire dataset) during the analysis. Log-ratio approaches to find relationships between constituents comprising s2 with RGM and HgP (i.e., s1) focused on log-ratio correlation and regression analyses of alr-transformed data, using Al as the divisor. Regression models accounted for large fractions of the variance in concentrations of the two reactive mercury species and generally agreed with conceptualizations about the formation and behavior of these species. An analysis of independence between the subcompositions demonstrated that the behavior of the two constituents comprising s1 (i.e., RGM and HgP) is dependent on changes in s2. Our findings suggest that although problems related to closure are largely unknown or ignored in the atmospheric sciences, much insight can be gleaned from the application of log-ratio methods to atmospheric chemistry data

Modeling time delay in the NFκB signaling pathway following low dose IL-1 stimulation

Stimulation of human epithelial cells with IL-1 (10 ng/ml) + UVB radiation results in sustained NFκB activation caused by continuous IKKβ phosphorylation. We have recently published a strictly reduced ordinary differential equation model elucidating the involved mechanisms. Here, we compare model extensions for low IL-1 doses (0.5 ng/ml), where delayed IKKβ phosphorylation is observed. The extended model including a positive regulatory element, most likely auto-ubiquitination of TRAF6, reproduces the observed experimental data most convincingly. The extension is shown to be consistent with the original model and contains very sensitive processes which may serve as potential intervention targets

Photoperiod affects the phenotype of mitochondrial complex I mutants

Plant mutants for genes encoding subunits of mitochondrial Complex I (CI, NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase), the first enzyme of the respiratory chain, display various phenotypes depending on growth conditions. Here, we examined the impact of photoperiod, a major environmental factor controlling plant development, on two Arabidopsis thaliana CI mutants: a new insertion mutant interrupted in both ndufs8.1 and ndufs8.2 genes encoding the NDUFS8 subunit, and the previously characterized ndufs4 CI mutant. In long day (LD) condition, both ndufs8.1 and ndufs8.2 single mutants were indistinguishable from Col-0 at phenotypic and biochemical levels, whereas the ndufs8.1 ndufs8.2 double mutant was devoid of detectable holo-CI assembly/activity, showed higher AOX content/activity and displayed a growth-retardation phenotype similar to that of the ndufs4 mutant. Although growth was more affected in ndufs4 than ndufs8.1 ndufs8.2 under short day (SD) condition, both mutants displayed a similar impairment of growth acceleration after transfer to LD as compared to the WT. Untargeted and targeted metabolomics showed that overall metabolism was less responsive to the SD-to-LD transition in mutants than in the WT. The typical LD acclimation of carbon, nitrogen-assimilation and redox-related parameters was not observed in ndufs8.1 ndufs8. Similarly, NAD(H) content, that was higher in SD condition in both mutants than in Col-0, did not adjust under LD. We propose that altered redox homeostasis and NAD(H) content/redox state control the phenotype of Complex I mutants and photoperiod acclimation in Arabidopsis

TRAF-6 Dependent Signaling Pathway Is Essential for TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) Induces Osteoclast Differentiation

Human osteoclast formation from mononuclear phagocyte precursors involves interactions between tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ligand superfamily members and their receptors. Recent evidence indicates that in addition to triggering apoptosis, the TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) induces osteoclast differentiation. To understand TRAIL-mediated signal transduction mechanism in osteoclastogenesis, we demonstrated that TRAIL induces osteoclast differentiation via a Tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF-6)-dependent signaling pathway. TRAIL-induced osteoclast differentiation was significantly inhibited by treatment with TRAF-6 siRNA and TRAF6 decoy peptides in both human monocytes and murine RAW264.7 macrophage cell lines, as evaluated in terms of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive multinucleated cells and bone resorption activity. Moreover, TRAIL-induced osteoclast differentiation was also abolished in TRAF6 knockout bone marrow macrophages. In addition to induction of NFATc1, treatment of TRAIL also induced ubiquitination of TRAF6 in osteoclast differentiation. Thus, our data demonstrate that TRAIL induces osteoclastic differentiation via a TRAF-6 dependent signaling pathway. This study suggests TRAF6-dependent signaling may be a central pathway in osteoclast differentiation, and that TNF superfamily molecules other than RANKL may modify RANK signaling by interaction with TRAF6-associated signaling