No moderating effect of coping skills on the association between bullying experience and self-esteem: Results from K-CHILD study

IntroductionFew studies have investigated the moderating effect of coping skills on the association between bullying experience and low self-esteem. The aim of this study was to examine whether coping skills have a moderating effect on the association between bullying experience and self-esteem among Japanese students.MethodsData from the population-based Kochi Child Health Impact of Living Difficulty (K-CHILD) study conducted in 2016 were analyzed. Participants included fifth-and eighth-grade students living in Kochi Prefecture, Japan. A questionnaire for the students (n = 5,991) assessed the bullying experience, self-esteem (the Japanese Edition of the Harter’s Perceived Competence Scale for Children), and coping skills that comprised six types (The shortened version of coping skills for elementary school children). Multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between bullying experience and self-esteem and then the moderating effects of six types of coping as interaction terms on the association were considered.ResultsBullying experience was inversely associated with self-esteem. All six types of coping did not moderate the relationship between bullying experience and low self-esteem even after adjusting for cofounders (all P for interaction > 0.15).ConclusionCoping skills did not moderate the association between bullying experience and self-esteem, suggesting that intervention to boost coping skills to mitigate the adverse effect of bullying experience may not be promising

A posteriori error estimates for discontinuous Galerkin Methods for the Generalised Korteweg-de Vries Equation

We construct, analyze and numerically validate a posteriori error estimates for conservative discontinuous Galerkin (DG) schemes for the Generalized Korteweg-de Vries (GKdV) equation. We develop the concept of dispersive reconstruction, i.e., a piecewise polynomial function which satisfies the GKdV equation in the strong sense but with a computable forcing term enabling the use of a priori error estimation techniques to obtain computable upper bounds for the error. Both semidiscrete and fully discrete approximations are treated

Development of the Intimate Partner Violence During Pregnancy Instrument (IPVPI)

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy can lead to negative consequences for both the mother and offspring. Although IPV is recognized as a worldwide public health issue, its prevalence is considered to be underestimated because cases are likely underreported, suggesting that there might be unmeasured IPV. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to detect IPV in pregnant women.Methods: A total of 6,590 women in Aichi prefecture, Japan, who took part in a 3 or 4 month infant health checkup program, participated in the study. Questionnaires assessing history of IPV during pregnancy (physical abuse and verbal abuse), maternal characteristics, partner's characteristics, and household characteristics were mailed to women before, or distributed at, the checkup. Women returned the questionnaires to the checkup sites or mailed them back to the health centers. A prediction model for history of IPV was then generated using potential risk factors selected based on the literature.Results: Among 6,530 women who responded to either question on IPV during pregnancy (response rate = 67.3%), the rate of participants who experienced any IPV during pregnancy was 11.1% (physical IPV = 1.2%; verbal IPV = 10.8%). Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that maternal age (<25 years old), multiparity, history of artificial abortion, negative feelings when the pregnancy was confirmed (e.g., confused), having no one to provide support during pregnancy, having relationship problems with their partner, paternal smoking during pregnancy, and difficult financial status were associated with any abuse from the partner. Based on the analysis, the Intimate Partner Violence during Pregnancy Instrument (IPVPI) was developed, comprising of eight questions to detect unmeasured IPV in pregnant women, and showed moderate predictive power (area under receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.719, 95% confidence interval: 0.698 to 0.740) ranging from 0 to 16 with a cut-off point of 2 (sensitivity = 79.5%, specificity = 47.1%).Conclusion: The IPVPI, which allows to ask indirect questions rather that asking directly about experience of IPV, might be helpful to detect unmeasured IPV in pregnant women in fields of primary healthcare and obstetrics. Further research longitudinal studies are needed to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the IPVPI

Pathway of the Association Between Child Poverty and Low Self-Esteem: Results From a Population-Based Study of Adolescents in Japan

Child poverty leads to various negative consequences, including low self-esteem, which is a risk factor for mental illness, suicide, or poor academic achievement. However, little is known about why child poverty leads to low self-esteem. We aimed to elucidate the association of child poverty and low self-esteem based on the ecological model, which includes family-level, school-level, and community-level factors. Data were obtained from the Adachi Child Health Impact of Living Difficulty (A-CHILD) study in 2016, and participants included 1,652 children in fourth grade (534 pairs), sixth grade (530 pairs), and eighth grade (588 pairs) living in Adachi City, Tokyo, Japan. A questionnaire survey was implemented to assess child poverty, parental mental health, parental involvement with children, parental social capital by caregivers, and self-esteem and school social capital by children. The structural equation model was applied to elucidate the association between child poverty and low self-esteem, using family-level (parental mental health and parental involvement with children), school-level (school social capital), and community-level (parental social capital) factors. Child poverty was associated with low self-esteem. Child poverty leads to poor parental involvement, which can be indirectly associated with poor parental mental health and poor parental social capital, and poor parental involvement was directly or indirectly associated with low self-esteem through poor school social capital. To mitigate the impact of child poverty on low self-esteem, comprehensive health policies targeting family-level (parental mental health and parental involvement with children), school-level (school social capital), and community-level (parental social capital) factors may be effective

Factorial Validity and Invariance of the 7-Item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) Among Populations With and Without Self-Reported Psychiatric Diagnostic Status

The 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) is commonly used to monitor anxiety symptoms. However, its factor structure has been inconsistent among competing models: unidimensional, two-dimensional, or higher order models. Additionally, it is unknown whether the scale has measurement invariance between populations with and without self-reported psychiatric diagnostic status. Participants were Japanese adults with self-reported anxiety disorder (AD; n = 479), self-reported AD and major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 314), or without self-reported psychiatric diagnostic status (self-reported non-MDD/AD; n = 654), who completed this questionnaire on the Internet. Confirmatory factor analyses showed the higher order model had similar fit indices to the unidimensional and two-dimensional factor models. For the higher order model of GAD-7, metric invariance was supported between the self-reported non-MDD/AD and self-reported AD status groups, and scalar invariance was supported between the self-reported AD status and self-reported AD with MDD status groups. Moreover, convergent and discriminant validity were consistent with previous findings in Western cultures. These results suggest that factor loadings are equivalent and the construct has the same meaning between the self-reported non-MDD/AD and self-reported AD status groups, and the total or sub-scale scores were comparable between self-reported AD status and self-reported AD with MDD status groups. The major limitation of this study is that the participants’ diagnoses were self-reported, not confirmed by clinical structured interview. Further studies that incorporate clinical structured interviews are needed

Regulation of the tubulin polymerization-promoting protein by Ca2+/S100 proteins

To elucidate S100 protein-mediated signaling pathways, we attempted to identify novel binding partners for S100A2 by screening protein arrays carrying 19,676 recombinant glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fused human proteins with biotinylated S100A2. Among newly discovered putative S100A2 interactants, including TMLHE, TRH, RPL36, MRPS34, CDR2L, OIP5, and MED29, we identified and characterized the tubulin polymerization-promoting protein (TPPP) as a novel S100A2-binding protein. We confirmed the interaction of TPPP with Ca2+/S100A2 by multiple independent methods, including the protein array method, S100A2 overlay, and pulldown assay in vitro and in transfected COS-7 cells. Based on the results from the S100A2 overlay assay using various GST-TPPP mutants, the S100A2-binding region was identified in the C-terminal (residues 111-160) of the central core domain of a monomeric form of TPPP that is involved in TPPP dimerization. Chemical cross-linking experiments indicated that S100A2 suppresses dimer formation of His-tagged TPPP in a dosedependent and a Ca2+-dependent manner. In addition to S100A2, TPPP dimerization is disrupted by other multiple S100 proteins, including S100A6 and S100B, in a Ca2+-dependent manner but not by S100A4. This is consistent with the fact that S100A6 and S100B, but not S100A4, are capable of interacting with GST-TPPP in the presence of Ca2+. Considering these results together, TPPP was identified as a novel target for S100A2, and it is a potential binding target for other multiple S100 proteins, including S100A6 and S100B. Direct binding of the S100 proteins with TPPP may cause disassembly of TPPP dimer formation in response to the increasing concentration of intracellular Ca2+, thus resulting in the regulation of the physiological function of TPPP, such as microtubule organization

Malignant Mesothelioma in the Thoracic Cavity of a Crj:CD(SD) Rat Characterized by Round Hyalinous Stroma

Spontaneous malignant mesothelioma was found in a 104-week-old male Crj:CD(SD) rat. The tumor was scattered on the surface of the lung, heart, mediastinal pleura and thoracic wall and metastasized to the alveolar septa. Histopathologically, small flattened or cuboidal tumor cells proliferated with stroma, formed almost normal papillary structures and reacted positively to colloidal iron stain and immunohistochemical staining for mesothelin. Round hyalinous stromata were pronounced, which is a characteristic feature, and the possible reason for this is as follows; at first, a small amount of collagen fibers was formed in the center of the clusters of several tumor cells, and then the cell clusters expanded like balloons with an increase in the collagen fibers