Maternal Modeling and the Acquisition of Fear and Avoidance in Toddlers: Influence of Stimulus Preparedness and Child Temperament

The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of maternal modeling on the acquisition of fear and avoidance towards fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant, novel stimuli in a sample of 71 toddlers. Children were shown a rubber snake or spider (fear-relevant objects) and a rubber mushroom or flower (fear-irrelevant objects), which were alternately paired with either negative or positive expression by their mothers. Both stimuli were presented again after a 1- and a 10-min delay, while mothers maintained a neutral expression. The toddlers showed increased fear and avoidance of the objects following negative reaction from their mothers than following positive maternal expression. This was similarly true for both fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli. In addition, no association was found between child temperament and behavioral responses and a weak association emerged between child temperament and emotional responses. The results demonstrate that young children can rapidly form conditioned emotional and behavioral responses via maternal reactions regardless of stimulus preparedness or child temperament. It is suggested that early maternal modeling may be relevant to a broad spectrum of fearful reaction

Die Bedeutung veganer Bioprodukte für die ökologische Landwirtschaft

Vegane Lebensmittel haben in den letzten Jahren deutlich an Stellenwert gewonnen. Im Projekt wurde untersucht, welche Bedeutung der Vegan-Trend für die Öko-Branche hat und wie diese auf den Vegan-Trend reagieren kann. Hierzu wurden Befragungen und Workshops mit Akteuren entlang der Wertschöpfungskette durchgeführt. In einer Verbraucherbefragung wurden 503 Personen mit unterschiedlichen Ernährungsstilen nach ihren Einstellungen zu veganen Lebensmitteln und ihrer Zahlungsbereitschaft für diese befragt. Für Personen, die auch Fleisch essen, spielten Umweltvorteile veganer Lebensmittel kaum eine Rolle und der Geschmack veganer Lebensmittel stellte ein Kaufhemmnis dar. Auch wenn die Befragten vegane Lebensmittel eher als teuer wahrnahmen, waren viele Verbraucher bereit, mehr Geld für vegane Produkte zu bezahlen. Öko-Hersteller und -händler sahen das Potenzial für vegane Produkte noch nicht ausgeschöpft, wenngleich eine fehlende Vernetzung ein Hemmnis darstellte. Eine Analyse von Webseiten zu veganen Lebensmitteln zeigte, dass auf diesen der gute Geschmack veganer Lebensmittel und Vorteile für Gesundheit und Umwelt betont werden. Bei einer veganen Landbewirtschaftung besteht besonders hinsichtlich der langfristigen Auswirkungen auf Nährstoff- und Humusgehalte der Böden noch Forschungsbedarf. Für Produkte aus veganem Anbau waren Verbraucher bereit, Preisaufschläge zu bezahlen, wenn ihnen zuvor die Besonderheiten der Anbauform vermittelt wurden. Herstellern veganer Öko-Lebensmittel ist u.a. zu empfehlen, in Kooperation mit dem Handel eine gemeinsame Marketingkampagne für vegane Öko-Lebensmittel zu starten. Landwirtschaftliche Öko-Betriebe können sich mit veganem Öko-Landbau im Wettbewerb abheben und Pioniervorteile erzielen. Im Bereich der Außer-Haus-Verpflegung sollte die Kompetenz der Köche im Umgang mit veganen Lebensmitteln gestärkt werden

Transferability of radiomic signatures from experimental to human interstitial lung disease

BACKGROUND Interstitial lung disease (ILD) defines a group of parenchymal lung disorders, characterized by fibrosis as their common final pathophysiological stage. To improve diagnosis and treatment of ILD, there is a need for repetitive non-invasive characterization of lung tissue by quantitative parameters. In this study, we investigated whether CT image patterns found in mice with bleomycin induced lung fibrosis can be translated as prognostic factors to human patients diagnosed with ILD. METHODS Bleomycin was used to induce lung fibrosis in mice (n_control = 36, n_experimental = 55). The patient cohort consisted of 98 systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients (n_ILD = 65). Radiomic features (n_histogram = 17, n_texture = 137) were extracted from microCT (mice) and HRCT (patients) images. Predictive performance of the models was evaluated with the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC). First, predictive performance of individual features was examined and compared between murine and patient data sets. Second, multivariate models predicting ILD were trained on murine data and tested on patient data. Additionally, the models were reoptimized on patient data to reduce the influence of the domain shift on the performance scores. RESULTS Predictive power of individual features in terms of AUC was highly correlated between mice and patients (r = 0.86). A model based only on mean image intensity in the lung scored AUC = 0.921 ± 0.048 in mice and AUC = 0.774 (CI95% 0.677-0.859) in patients. The best radiomic model based on three radiomic features scored AUC = 0.994 ± 0.013 in mice and validated with AUC = 0.832 (CI95% 0.745-0.907) in patients. However, reoptimization of the model weights in the patient cohort allowed to increase the model's performance to AUC = 0.912 ± 0.058. CONCLUSION Radiomic signatures of experimental ILD derived from microCT scans translated to HRCT of humans with SSc-ILD. We showed that the experimental model of BLM-induced ILD is a promising system to test radiomic models for later application and validation in human cohorts

Staphylococcus aureus impairs dermal fibroblast functions with deleterious effects on wound healing.

Chronic wounds are a major disease burden worldwide. The breach of the epithelial barrier facilitates transition of skin commensals to invasive facultative pathogens. Therefore, we investigated the potential effects of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) on dermal fibroblasts as key cells for tissue repair. In co-culture systems combining live or heat-killed SA with dermal fibroblasts derived from the BJ-5ta cell line, healthy individuals, and patients with systemic sclerosis, we assessed tissue repair including pro-inflammatory cytokines, matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), myofibroblast functions, and host defense responses. Only live SA induced the upregulation of IL-1β/-6/-8 and MMP1/3 as co-factors of tissue degradation. Additionally, the increased cell death reduced collagen production, proliferation, migration, and contractility, prerequisite mechanisms for wound closure. Intracellular SA triggered inflammatory and type I IFN responses via intracellular dsDNA sensor molecules and MyD88 and STING signaling pathways. In conclusion, live SA affected various key tissue repair functions of dermal fibroblasts from different sources to a similar extent. Thus, SA infection of dermal fibroblasts should be taken into account for future wound management strategies

Impact of chronic health conditions and injury on school performance and health outcomes in New South Wales, Australia : a retrospective record linkage study protocol

Introduction: Children who have sustained a serious injury or who have a chronic health condition, such as diabetes or epilepsy, may have their school performance adversely impacted by the condition, treatment of the condition and/or time away from school. Examining the potential adverse impact requires the identification of children most likely to be affected and the use of objective measures of education performance. This may highlight educational disparities that could be addressed with learning support. This study aims to examine education performance, school completion and health outcomes of children in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, who were hospitalised with an injury or a chronic health condition compared with children who have not been hospitalised for these conditions. Method and analysis This research will be a retrospective population-level case-comparison study of hospitalised injured or chronically ill children (ie, diabetes, epilepsy, asthma or mental health conditions) aged ≤18 years in NSW, Australia, using linked health and education administrative data collections. It will examine the education performance, school completion and health outcomes of children who have been hospitalised in NSW with an injury or a chronic health condition compared with children randomly drawn from the NSW population (matched on gender, age and residential postcode) who have not been hospitalised for these conditions. Ethics and dissemination The study received ethics approval from the NSW Population Health Services Research Ethics Committee (2018HRE0904). Findings from the research will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific conferences

Predictors of Change Following Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Children with Anxiety Problems: A Preliminary Investigation on Negative Automatic Thoughts and Anxiety Control

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate negative automatic thoughts and anxiety control as predictors of change produced by cognitive-behavioral treatment of youths with anxiety disorders. Forty-five high-anxious children aged between 9 and 12 years who were selected from the primary school population, received a standardized CBT intervention that was provided in a group format. Before and after the intervention, children completed scales of negative automatic thoughts and perceived control over anxiety-related events as well as a questionnaire for measuring DSM-defined anxiety disorders symptoms, which was the outcome measure. Results indicated that CBT was effective in reducing children’s anxiety symptoms. Most importantly, the reduction of anxiety disorders symptoms was significantly associated with a decrease in negative automatic thoughts and an increase of anxiety control, which provides support for the notion that these variables are candidate mediators of CBT in anxious youths

Mental disorders and their impact on academic performance in Australia: a matched population-based cohort study.

Objectives To compare scholastic performance and high school completion of young people hospitalised with a mental disorder compared to young people not hospitalised for a mental disorder by sex. Approach A population-based matched case-comparison cohort study of young people aged ≤18 years hospitalised for a mental disorder during 2005-2018 in New South Wales, Australia using linked birth, health, education and mortality records. The comparison cohort was matched on age, sex and residential postcode. Generalised linear mixed modelling examined risk of school performance below the national minimum standard (NMS) and generalised linear regression examined risk of not completing high school for young people with a mental disorder compared to matched peers. Results Young males with a mental disorder had over a 1.7 times higher risk of not achieving the NMS for numeracy (ARR: 1.71; 95%CI 1.35-2.15) and reading (ARR: 1.99; 95%CI 1.80-2.20) compared to matched peers. Young females with a mental disorder had around 1.5 times higher risk of not achieving the NMS for numeracy (ARR: 1.50; 95%CI 1.14-1.96) compared to matched peers. Both young males and females with a disorder had around a three times higher risk of not completing high school compared to peers. Young males with multiple disorders had up to a six-fold increased risk and young females with multiple disorders had up to an eight-fold increased risk of not completing high school compared to peers. Conclusions Early recognition and support could improve school performance and educational outcomes for young people who were hospitalised with a mental disorder. This support should be provided in conjunction with access to mental health services and school involvement and assistance

School-based intervention to improve the mental health of low-income, secondary school students in Santiago, Chile (YPSA): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Depression is common and can have devastating effects on the life of adolescents. Psychological interventions are the first-line for treating or preventing depression among adolescents. This proposal aims to evaluate a school-based, universal psychological intervention to reduce depressive symptoms among student's aged 13-14 attending municipal state secondary schools in Santiago, Chile.</p> <p>Study design</p> <p>This is a cluster randomised controlled trial with schools as the main clusters. We compared this intervention with a control group in a study involving 22 schools, 66 classes and approximately 2,600 students. Students in the active schools attended 11 weekly and 3 booster sessions of an intervention based on cognitive-behavioural models. The control schools received their usual but enhanced counselling sessions currently included in their curriculum. Mean depression scores and indicators of levels of functioning were assessed at 3 and 12 months after the completion of the intervention in order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. Direct and indirect costs were measured in both groups to assess the cost-effectiveness of this intervention.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>As far as we are aware this is the first cluster randomised controlled trial of a school intervention for depression among adolescents outside the Western world.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p><a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN19466209">ISRCTN19466209</a></p

Long noncoding RNA H19X is a key mediator of TGF-beta-driven fibrosis

TGFβ is a master regulator of fibrosis, driving the differentiation of fibroblasts into apoptosis resistant myofibroblasts and sustaining the production of extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Here, we identify the nuclear lncRNA H19X as a master regulator of TGFβ-driven tissue fibrosis. H19X was consistently upregulated in a wide variety of human fibrotic tissues and diseases and was strongly induced by TGFβ, particularly in fibroblasts and fibroblast-related cells. Functional experiments following H19X silencing revealed that H19X is an obligatory factor for the TGFβ-induced ECM synthesis as well as differentiation and survival of ECM-producing myofibroblasts. We showed that H19X regulates DDIT4L gene expression, specifically interacting with a region upstream of DDIT4L gene and changing the chromatin accessibility of a DDIT4L enhancer. These events resulted in transcriptional repression of DDIT4L and, in turn, in increased collagen expression and fibrosis. Our results shed light on key effectors of the TGFβ-induced ECM remodeling and fibrosis