Le rôle du père au sein du partenariat parental

Le rôle du père au sein du partenariat parental est examiné à partir d'une perspective systémique de l'évolution et de la famille. Une relation co-parentale s'établit lorsque deux personnes sont disponibles pour élever un enfant. Cette relation se développe dans le cadre de la relation d'attachement mère-enfant. L'entrée du père au sein de ce système a tendance à être déterminée par ses caractéristiques propres, qui fixent le fondement minimal de sa motivation à être parent, et par la propension maternelle de protection qui décourage ou facilite l'implication paternelle. Trois approches du partenariat parental sont présentées : les évaluations multidimensionnelles de la division du travail, l'alliance parentale et les interactions co-parentales. Les relations des pères au sein de sous-systèmes familiaux paraissent être moins différenciées que celles des mères ; le partenariat parental se trouve donc plus vulnérable à la satisfaction des pères quant à la famille et aux relations conjugales. L'engagement du père envers la famille et la capacité de la mère de lui accorder une certaine autonomie en tant que parent sont des facteurs critiques de la relation co-parentale.The Father's Role in the Coparenting Partnership The father's role in the coparenting partnership is reviewed from an evolutionary and family systems perspective. Whenever two individuals are available to parent a child, a coparenting relationship exists. The coparenting relationship is developed within the framework of the mother-child attachment relationship. The father's entrance into this system tends to be determined by individual characteristics of the father, which set a baseline level of the father's motivation to parent, and by maternal gatekeeping proclivities, which discourage or facilitate paternal involvement. Three approaches to the coparenting relationship are presented : multidimensional assessments of the division of labor, the parenting alliance, and coparenting interactions. Father's relationships within different family subsystems appear to be less differentiated than those of mothers, leaving coparenting partnerships vulnerable to father's satisfaction with family and marital relationships. The father's commitment to family and the mother's ability to allow fathers some autonomy in parenting are critical factors in coparenting relationships.El papel del padre en el seno de la colaboración parental En este artículo se explora el papel del padre en el seno de la colaboración parental a partir de una perspectiva systémica de la evolución y de la familia. Una relación co-parental se establece cuando dos personas son disponibles para criar a un hijo. Esta relación se desarolla a dentro del cuadro de la relación de apego madre-hijo. La entrada del padre en el seno de este systema tiene tendancia a ser determinada por sus proprias caractéristicas cuales fijan el fundamento minimal de su motivación a ser padre y por la propensión maternal de proteción que desalenta o facilita la implicación paternal. Se presentan tres modos de colaboración parental: las evaluaciones multidimensionales de la división del trabajo, la alianza parental y las interacíones co-parentales. Las relaciónes de los padres en el seno de sub-systemas familiares parecen estar menos diferenciadas que las de las madres; la colaboración parental se encuentra entonces más vulnerable a la satisfacción de los padres en cuanto a la familia y a las relaciónes conyugales. El empeño del padre con la familia y la capacidad de la madre de concederle una cierta autonomía como padre son factores critícos de la relación co-parental

Tracking Overhead ORTA Costs in Technology Transfer Activities

An ever shrinking Research and Development (R&D) budget, coupled with a widespread perception that the nation is not realizing an adequate return from its substantial investment in the federal laboratory system, has paved the way for an increase in the transfer of technology from the federal laboratories to the private sector. The objective of this research is to determine the indirect cost of performing technology transfer by identifying the resources consumed by several key Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA) organizations and the activities performed within these organizations. It was hypothesized that the ORTA organizations, which are considered indirect labor by most costing methods, would expend considerable portions of their resources on activities identified as not being performed by direct labor. This hypothesis was proven true, as all but two of the identified steps consumed a significant portion of the ORTA resources

Community-Engaged Scholarship and NSF's Broader Impacts

AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Laurie Van Egeren, Assistant Provost for University-Community Partnerships, Michigan State University, [email protected] (Corresponding Author).The National Science Foundation and many other funding agencies are encouraging investigators to consider the societal benefit of their work by ensuring that proposals incorporate "broader impacts" activities. Most broader impacts activities can also be considered community-engaged scholarship – community-engaged research, community-engaged creative activities, community-engaged teaching, community-engaged service, and commercialization. The speaker will describe the NSF broader impacts criterion, common and exemplar cases through which broader impacts are designed, and strategies for grant development and implementation within the larger context of engaged scholarship

Controlling long-term SARS-CoV-2 infections is important for slowing viral evolution

The rapid emergence and expansion of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants is an unpleasant surprise that threatens our ability to achieve herd immunity for COVID-19. These fitter SARS-CoV-2 variants often harbor multiple point mutations, conferring one or more traits that provide an evolutionary advantage, such as increased transmissibility, immune evasion and longer infection duration. In a number of cases, variant emergence has been linked to long-term infections in individuals who were either immunocompromised or treated with convalescent plasma. In this paper, we explore the mechanism by which fitter variants of SARS-CoV-2 arise during long-term infections using a mathematical model of viral evolution and identify means by which this evolution can be slowed. While viral load and infection duration play a strong role in favoring the emergence of such variants, the overall probability of emergence and subsequent transmission from any given infection is low, suggesting that viral variant emergence and establishment is a product of random chance. To the extent that luck plays a role in favoring the emergence of novel viral variants with an evolutionary advantage, targeting these low-probability random events might allow us to tip the balance of fortune away from these advantageous variants and prevent them from being established in the population.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02148-8First author draf

Healthy babies through infant-centered feeding protocol: an intervention targeting early childhood obesity in vulnerable populations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Poor feeding practices during infancy contribute to obesity risk. As infants transition from human milk and/or formula-based diets to solid foods, these practices interfere with infant feeding self-regulation and healthy growth patterns. Compared with other socioeconomic groups, lower-income mothers are more likely to experience difficulty feeding their infants. This may include misinterpreting feeding cues and using less-than-optimal feeding styles and practices, such as pressuring infants during mealtimes and prematurely introducing solid food and sweetened beverages. The Healthy Babies trial aims to determine the efficacy of a community-based randomized controlled trial of an in-home intervention with economically and educationally disadvantaged mother-infant dyads. The educational intervention is being conducted during the infant's first 6 months of life to promote healthy transition to solids during their first year and is based on the theory of planned behavior.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>We will describe our study protocol for a multisite randomized control trial being conducted in Colorado and Michigan with an anticipated sample of 372 economically and educationally disadvantaged African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian mothers with infants. Participants are being recruited by county community agency staff. Participants are randomly assigned to the intervention or the control group. The intervention consists of six in-home visits by a trained paraprofessional instructor followed by three reinforcement telephone contacts when the baby is 6, 8, and 10 months old. Main maternal outcomes include a) maternal responsiveness, b) feeding style, and c) feeding practices. Main infant outcome is infant growth pattern. All measures occur at baseline and when the infant is 6 and 12 months old.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>If this project is successful, the expected outcomes will address whether the home-based early nutrition education intervention is effective in helping mothers develop healthy infant feeding practices that contribute to improving infant health and development and reducing the risk of early-onset childhood obesity.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials <a href="http://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN126100000415000.aspx">ACTRN126100000415000</a></p

Controlling long-term SARS-CoV-2 infections can slow viral evolution and reduce the risk of treatment failure.

The rapid emergence and expansion of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants threatens our ability to achieve herd immunity for COVID-19. These novel SARS-CoV-2 variants often harbor multiple point mutations, conferring one or more evolutionarily advantageous traits, such as increased transmissibility, immune evasion and longer infection duration. In a number of cases, variant emergence has been linked to long-term infections in individuals who were either immunocompromised or treated with convalescent plasma. In this paper, we used a stochastic evolutionary modeling framework to explore the emergence of fitter variants of SARS-CoV-2 during long-term infections. We found that increased viral load and infection duration favor emergence of such variants. While the overall probability of emergence and subsequent transmission from any given infection is low, on a population level these events occur fairly frequently. Targeting these low-probability stochastic events that lead to the establishment of novel advantageous viral variants might allow us to slow the rate at which they emerge in the patient population, and prevent them from spreading deterministically due to natural selection. Our work thus suggests practical ways to achieve control of long-term SARS-CoV-2 infections, which will be critical for slowing the rate of viral evolution.DGE-1762114 - National Science FoundationPublished versio

Individually Optimal Choices Can Be Collectively Disastrous in COVID-19 Disease Control

Background: The word \u27pandemic\u27 conjures dystopian images of bodies stacked in the streets and societies on the brink of collapse. Despite this frightening picture, denialism and noncompliance with public health measures are common in the historical record, for example during the 1918 Influenza pandemic or the 2015 Ebola epidemic. The unique characteristics of SARS-CoV-2-its high basic reproduction number (R0), time-limited natural immunity and considerable potential for asymptomatic spread-exacerbate the public health repercussions of noncompliance with interventions (such as vaccines and masks) to limit disease transmission. Our work explores the rationality and impact of noncompliance with measures aimed at limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Methods: In this work, we used game theory to explore when noncompliance confers a perceived benefit to individuals. We then used epidemiological modeling to predict the impact of noncompliance on control of SARS-CoV-2, demonstrating that the presence of a noncompliant subpopulation prevents suppression of disease spread. Results: Our modeling demonstrates that noncompliance is a Nash equilibrium under a broad set of conditions and that the existence of a noncompliant population can result in extensive endemic disease in the long-term after a return to pre-pandemic social and economic activity. Endemic disease poses a threat for both compliant and noncompliant individuals; all community members are protected if complete suppression is achieved, which is only possible with a high degree of compliance. For interventions that are highly effective at preventing disease spread, however, the consequences of noncompliance are borne disproportionately by noncompliant individuals. Conclusions: In sum, our work demonstrates the limits of free-market approaches to compliance with disease control measures during a pandemic. The act of noncompliance with disease intervention measures creates a negative externality, rendering suppression of SARS-CoV-2 spread ineffective. Our work underscores the importance of developing effective strategies for prophylaxis through public health measures aimed at complete suppression and the need to focus on compliance at a population level

Computational identification of antibody-binding epitopes from mimotope datasets

Introduction: A fundamental challenge in computational vaccinology is that most B-cell epitopes are conformational and therefore hard to predict from sequence alone. Another significant challenge is that a great deal of the amino acid sequence of a viral surface protein might not in fact be antigenic. Thus, identifying the regions of a protein that are most promising for vaccine design based on the degree of surface exposure may not lead to a clinically relevant immune response.Methods: Linear peptides selected by phage display experiments that have high affinity to the monoclonal antibody of interest (“mimotopes”) usually have similar physicochemical properties to the antigen epitope corresponding to that antibody. The sequences of these linear peptides can be used to find possible epitopes on the surface of the antigen structure or a homology model of the antigen in the absence of an antigen-antibody complex structure.Results and Discussion: Herein we describe two novel methods for mapping mimotopes to epitopes. The first is a novel algorithm named MimoTree that allows for gaps in the mimotopes and epitopes on the antigen. More specifically, a mimotope may have a gap that does not match to the epitope to allow it to adopt a conformation relevant for binding to an antibody, and residues may similarly be discontinuous in conformational epitopes. MimoTree is a fully automated epitope detection algorithm suitable for the identification of conformational as well as linear epitopes. The second is an ensemble approach, which combines the prediction results from MimoTree and two existing methods