A MusD Retrotransposon Insertion in the Mouse Slc6a5 Gene Causes Alterations in Neuromuscular Junction Maturation and Behavioral Phenotypes

Glycine is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the spinal cord and some brain regions. The presynaptic glycine transporter, GlyT2, is required for sustained glycinergic transmission through presynaptic reuptake and recycling of glycine. Mutations in SLC6A5, encoding GlyT2, cause hereditary hyperekplexia in humans, and similar phenotypes in knock-out mice, and variants are associated with schizophrenia. We identified a spontaneous mutation in mouse Slc6a5, caused by a MusD retrotransposon insertion. The GlyT2 protein is undetectable in homozygous mutants, indicating a null allele. Homozygous mutant mice are normal at birth, but develop handling-induced spasms at five days of age, and only survive for two weeks, but allow the study of early activity-regulated developmental processes. At the neuromuscular junction, synapse elimination and the switch from embryonic to adult acetylcholine receptor subunits are hastened, consistent with a presumed increase in motor neuron activity, and transcription of acetylcholine receptors is elevated. Heterozygous mice, which show no reduction in lifespan but nonetheless have reduced levels of GlyT2, have a normal thermal sensitivity with the hot-plate test, but differences in repetitive grooming and decreased sleep time with home-cage monitoring. Open-field and elevated plus-maze tests did not detect anxiety-like behaviors; however, the latter showed a hyperactivity phenotype. Importantly, grooming and hyperactivity are observed in mouse schizophrenia models. Thus, mutations in Slc6a5 show changes in neuromuscular junction development as homozygotes, and behavioral phenotypes as heterozygotes, indicating their usefulness for studies related to glycinergic dysfunction

Motherhood, Moral Authority and the Charismatic Matriarch in the Aftermath of Lethal Violence

Images of maternal suffering are an evocative and powerful means of communication in a world where the private grief of victims has increasingly become subject to commodification and public consumption. This article looks at the influence of bereaved mothers as symbols of respect, peace and dignity in the aftermath of violence, and as a result their persuasive presence in family activism. Drawing upon two case studies, this article explores the importance of victims’ stories in public life and, in particular, the presence of the charismatic matriarch in creating communities of solidarity, raising awareness of harms that have previously gone unheard and prompting policy change. It considers the ‘canonical’ story of the mother in public life and concludes by arguing that more attention should be paid to victims’ stories and their influence on policy-making, politics and eventually in becoming public grievances

The role of performance quality in adolescents' self-evaluation and rumination after a speech: Is it contingent on social anxiety level?

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has relatively poor outcomes for youth with social anxiety, possibly because broad-based CBT is not tailored to their specific needs. Treatment of social anxiety in youth may need to pay more attention to negative social cognitions that are considered a key factor in social anxiety development and maintenance. Aims: The aim of the present study was to learn more about the role of performance quality in adolescents’ cognitions about their social performance and, in particular, the moderating role social anxiety plays in the relationship between performance quality and self-cognitions. Method: A community sample of 229 participants, aged 11 to 18 years, gave a speech and filled in questionnaires addressing social anxiety, depression, expected and self-evaluated performance, and post-event rumination. Independent observers rated the quality of the speech. The data were analysed using moderated mediation analysis. Results: Performance quality mediated the link between expected and self-evaluated performance in adolescents with low and medium levels of social anxiety. For adolescents with high levels of social anxiety, only a direct link between expected and self-evaluated performance was found. Their self-evaluation was not related to the quality of their performance. Performance quality also mediated the link between expected performance and rumination, but social anxiety did not moderate this mediation effect. Conclusions: Results suggest that a good performance does not help socially anxious adolescents to replace their negative self-evaluations with more realistic ones. Specific cognitive intervention strategies should be tailored to the needs of socially anxious adolescents who perform well.Pathways through Adolescenc

The Effectiveness of School-Based Skills-Training Programs Reducing Performance or Social Anxiety: Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: Given that high levels of stress during adolescence are associated with negative consequences, it is important that adolescents with psychological needs are supported at an early stage, for instance with interventions at school. However, knowledge about the potential of school-based programs targeting adolescents with psychological needs, aimed at reducing school or social stress, is lacking. Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of two targeted school-based skills-training programs, addressing either skills to deal with performance anxiety or social skills. Methods: Two randomized controlled trials were performed with participants who self-selected to one of the programs. The sample comprised of N = 361 adolescents (Mage = 13.99 years, SD = 0.83) from various educational levels and ethnic identity backgrounds. The performance anxiety program included N = 196 participants (N = 95 in the experimental group), while the social skills program included N = 165 participants (N = 86 in the experimental group). MANCOVA’s were performed. Results: The performance anxiety program had a small effect on reducing adolescents’ test anxiety. Furthermore, for adolescents who attended more than half of the sessions, the program had small effects on reducing test anxiety and fear of failure. The program did not improve adolescents’ coping skills or mental health. The social skills program was not effective in improving social skills, social anxiety, and mental health. Conclusions: A relatively short, targeted program addressing skills to deal with performance anxiety can have the potential to reduce adolescents’ performance anxiety. Trial registration: International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (Netherlands Trial Register, number NTR7680). Registered 12 December 2018. Study protocol van Loon et al., (2019)

Agro-materials : a bibliographic review

Facing the problems of plastic recycling and fossil resources exhaustion, the use of biomass to conceive new materials appears like a reasonable solution. Two axes of research are nowadays developed : on the one hand the synthesis of biodegradable plastics, whichever the methods may be, on the other hand the utilization of raw biopolymers, which is the object of this paper. From this perspective, the “plastic” properties of natural polymers, the caracteristics of the different classes of polymers, the use of charge in vegetable matrix and the possible means of improving the durability of these agro-materials are reviewed

Criminal redress in cases of environmental victimisation: a defence

In recent years growing concern has been voiced in the environmental justice literature regarding the ability of criminal justice mechanisms to adequately address environmental harms, especially when such harms are perpetrated by large corporations. Commentators argue that criminal justice processes are often ill-suited to the particular features of environmental cases, where the chain of causation between wrongful actions/omissions and environmentally harmful consequence can be very complex and extend over the course of many years. As an alternative, many such commentators now favour the adoption of more administrative resolutions when corporate bodies breach their environmental obligations (which may or may not amount to ‘crimes’). Others favour the use of civil sanction regimes, which is now the preferred approach of the UK Environment Agency. In this paper I will argue that the debate on how best to respond to environmental harm has so far neglected to factor in the perspective of the victims of those harms and, in particular, their need for redress. I will argue that by incorporating such a perspective, as opposed to focusing largely on questions of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, the criminal justice route still has much to recommended it, especially in relation to the provision of meaningful redress and/or compensation to the victims of environmental harm. Consequently, this paper will provide a victimological defence of the criminal justice process, and of criminal penalties, in their application to cases of environmental harms

The mouse Gene Expression Database (GXD): 2021 update.

The Gene Expression Database (GXD; www.informatics.jax.org/expression.shtml) is an extensive and well-curated community resource of mouse developmental gene expression information. For many years, GXD has collected and integrated data from RNA in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR, northern blot, and western blot experiments through curation of the scientific literature and by collaborations with large-scale expression projects. Since our last report in 2019, we have continued to acquire these classical types of expression data; developed a searchable index of RNA-Seq and microarray experiments that allows users to quickly and reliably find specific mouse expression studies in ArrayExpress (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) and GEO (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/); and expanded GXD to include RNA-Seq data. Uniformly processed RNA-Seq data are imported from the EBI Expression Atlas and then integrated with the other types of expression data in GXD, and with the genetic, functional, phenotypic and disease-related information in Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI). This integration has made the RNA-Seq data accessible via GXD\u27s enhanced searching and filtering capabilities. Further, we have embedded the Morpheus heat map utility into the GXD user interface to provide additional tools for display and analysis of RNA-Seq data, including heat map visualization, sorting, filtering, hierarchical clustering, nearest neighbors analysis and visual enrichment

Trajectories of adolescent perceived stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic

Adolescents might be particularly affected by the drastic social changes as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, given the increased stress-sensitivity and importance of the social environment in this developmental phase. In order to examine heterogeneity during the pandemic, the current study aimed to identify whether subgroups of adolescents could be distinguished based on their levels of perceived stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety. In addition, we examined which prepandemic factors predicted these trajectories. Adolescents were assessed before the pandemic (N = 188, Mage = 13.49, SD = 0.81) and at three timepoints during the pandemic (i.e., eight, ten, and 15 months after the start of the pandemic in the Netherlands). Results showed no support for distinct trajectories of perceived stress, adolescents experienced stable moderate levels during the pandemic. In contrast, results showed three trajectories for depression and anxiety. The majority of adolescents reported stable low or moderate levels and one small subgroup reported high levels of depression and anxiety that decreased during the pandemic. Certain prepandemic factors predicted higher initial levels of stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety during the pandemic. To support adolescents with prepandemic vulnerabilities, strategies could be developed, for instance enhancing adolescents’ social support