Caseworker-Perceived Caregiver Substance Abuse and Child Protective Services Outcomes

The authors used data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to examine associations of child protective services (CPS) caseworkers' perceptions of caregiver substance abuse with their perceptions of the severity of risk and harm a child experienced as a result of alleged maltreatment, as well as with whether a family experienced a range of CPS outcomes. The outcomes included whether the family received services from CPS, was substantiated for maltreatment, experienced child removal, and was subject to a termination of parental rights (TPR) petition. The authors also compared the magnitude of the association between caseworker-perceived caregiver substance abuse and each outcome to that of the association between other maltreatment-related risk factors and each outcome. Findings suggest that, all else equal, caseworker-perceived caregiver substance abuse is associated with increased caseworker perceptions that children have experienced severe risk and harm and also with an increased probability of each of the CPS outcomes except TPR. Moreover, these associations are equal in magnitude or larger than those between the other risk factors and the outcomes. These findings imply that CPS decisions are heavily influenced by caseworker perceptions of caregiver substance abuse, regardless of the presence of other risk factors for child maltreatment

Inhibition of BCL2 expression and activity increases H460 sensitivity to the growth inhibitory effects of polyphenon E

The anti-cancer properties of the green tea-derived mixture Polyphenon E (Poly E) have been demonstrated in a variety of cell culture and animal models. We recently discovered that the H460 lung cancer cell line is markedly resistant to the growth inhibitory effects of Poly E compared with SW480 colon and Flo-1 esophageal cancer cells. We investigated the mechanism of H460 resistance by comparing gene expression profiles of Poly E-sensitive and -resistant cells. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering revealed that Poly E-sensitive cells clustered separately from Poly E-resistant cells, and 6,242 genes were differentially expressed between the two groups at the 0.01 level of significance. We discovered that BCL2 gene and protein expression were significantly higher in H460 cells compared with SW480 and Flo-1 cells (10.60-fold higher gene expression; P < 0.0001). Inhibition of BCL2 expression and activity, using siRNA and the small molecule inhibitor HA14-1 respectively, restored sensitivity to Poly E and induced BCL2-related apoptosis by decreasing mitochondrial membrane potential and inducing PARP cleavage. Our results suggest that increased BCL2 expression may contribute to H460 resistance to the growth inhibitory effects of Poly E. If validated in additional laboratory and clinical models, BCL2 could ultimately be used as a marker of Poly E resistance

The maternal and early embryonic transcriptome of the milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo") studies of emerging model organisms focus on small numbers of candidate genes cloned individually using degenerate PCR. However, newly available sequencing technologies such as 454 pyrosequencing have recently begun to allow for massive gene discovery in animals without sequenced genomes. Within insects, although large volumes of sequence data are available for holometabolous insects, developmental studies of basally branching hemimetabolous insects typically suffer from low rates of gene discovery.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used 454 pyrosequencing to sequence over 500 million bases of cDNA from the ovaries and embryos of the milkweed bug <it>Oncopeltus fasciatus</it>, which lacks a sequenced genome. This indirectly developing insect occupies an important phylogenetic position, branching basal to Diptera (including fruit flies) and Hymenoptera (including honeybees), and is an experimentally tractable model for short-germ development. 2,087,410 reads from both normalized and non-normalized cDNA assembled into 21,097 sequences (isotigs) and 112,531 singletons. The assembled sequences fell into 16,617 unique gene models, and included predictions of splicing isoforms, which we examined experimentally. Discovery of new genes plateaued after assembly of ~1.5 million reads, suggesting that we have sequenced nearly all transcripts present in the cDNA sampled. Many transcripts have been assembled at close to full length, and there is a net gain of sequence data for over half of the pre-existing <it>O. fasciatus </it>accessions for developmental genes in GenBank. We identified 10,775 unique genes, including members of all major conserved metazoan signaling pathways and genes involved in several major categories of early developmental processes. We also specifically address the effects of cDNA normalization on gene discovery in <it>de novo </it>transcriptome analyses.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our sequencing, assembly and annotation framework provide a simple and effective way to achieve high-throughput gene discovery for organisms lacking a sequenced genome. These data will have applications to the study of the evolution of arthropod genes and genetic pathways, and to the wider evolution, development and genomics communities working with emerging model organisms.</p> <p>[The sequence data from this study have been submitted to GenBank under study accession number SRP002610 (<url>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra?term=SRP002610</url>). Custom scripts generated are available at <url>http://www.extavourlab.com/protocols/index.html</url>. Seven Additional files are available.]</p

Multidimensional Aspects of Social Networks: Implications for CPS Recurrence

This study examines the social network characteristics of 670 mothers reported to and investigated by the child protection system (CPS) in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin in 2016. Specifically, having a recurrent CPS investigation within one year of an index investigation that did not result in an ongoing CPS case is assessed as a function of positive social network ties, negative social network ties, and perceived neighborhood support. Few studies have explored these aspects of social networks comparatively and simultaneously in relation to CPS outcomes, or within this population. We used cluster analysis to identify particular combinations of network characteristics among mothers with recent investigations and then examined whether different cluster types are predictive of recurrent CPS involvement within one year. Clusters differed on the perceived levels of both positive and negative interpersonal ties as well as perceived neighborhood support and were associated with different levels of known child maltreatment risk factors. Clusters with lower levels of perceived neighborhood support were more likely to be associated with future CPS investigations, but this association becomes statistically insignificant when controlling for mothers’ depressive symptoms. The results of this study suggest that a more multi-faceted view of social networks can be helpful to understand the social contexts of mothers as they experience contact with CPS and raises questions about how these contexts interact with parental mental health in relation to CPS recurrence