Using the Family Systems Model to Investigate the Relationship between Parental Sensitivity and Infant Attachment

This study investigates the relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ sensitivity and infants’ attachment relations within the context of the family. Family Systems models (crossover model and circular causal model) were used to assess the transaction of parental sensitivity across the family subsystems (i.e., mother- infant and father-infant) boundaries. Sixty-six families with infants participated in two home visits to test these models. When infants were six months old, their parents’ sensitivity was assessed using multiple measures: standardized observation, self rating (efficacy), and rating by the spouse. At 18 months, infants’ attachment security was assessed using the attachment Q-sort (Waters 1987). Parental sensitivity was found to cross the subsystem boundaries, but in a different pattern for mothers and fathers. Partial support of the crossover model was found: Higher levels of maternal sensitivity predicted a more secure infant- father attachment relationship, whereas higher levels of paternal sensitivity predicted a less secure infant-mother attachment relationship. The circular model also received partial support: A negative relationship was found between mothers’ ratings of fathers’ sensitivity and the infants’ attachment security to mothers, whereas a positive relationship was found between fathers’ ratings of the mothers’ sensitivity and infants’ attachment security to mothers

Short- and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption

Sleep plays a vital role in brain function and systemic physiology across many body systems. Problems with sleep are widely prevalent and include deficits in quantity and quality of sleep; sleep problems that impact the continuity of sleep are collectively referred to as sleep disruptions. Numerous factors contribute to sleep disruption, ranging from lifestyle and environmental factors to sleep disorders and other medical conditions. Sleep disruptions have substantial adverse short-and long-term health consequences. A literature search was conducted to provide a nonsystematic review of these health consequences (this review was designed to be nonsystematic to better focus on the topics of interest due to the myriad parameters affected by sleep). Sleep disruption is associated with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, metabolic effects, changes in circadian rhythms, and proinflammatory responses. In otherwise healthy adults, short-term consequences of sleep disruption include increased stress responsivity, somatic pain, reduced quality of life, emotional distress and mood disorders, and cognitive, memory, and performance deficits. For adolescents, psychosocial health, school performance, and risk-taking behaviors are impacted by sleep disruption. Behavioral problems and cognitive functioning are associated with sleep disruption in children. Long-term consequences of sleep disruption in otherwise healthy individuals include hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, weight-related issues, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and colorectal cancer. All-cause mortality is also increased in men with sleep disturbances. For those with underlying medical conditions, sleep disruption may diminish the health-related quality of life of children and adolescents and may worsen the severity of common gastrointestinal disorders. As a result of the potential consequences of sleep disruption, health care professionals should be cognizant of how managing underlying medical conditions may help to optimize sleep continuity and consider prescribing interventions that minimize sleep disruption

Two Functionally Distinct Classes of Growth Arrest States in Human Prokeratinocytes That Regulate Clonogenic Potential

Rapidly growing normal human neonatal prokeratinocytes (HPK) cultured in serum-free medium can be induced to undergo either reversible or irreversible growth arrest at distinct cell cycle states. Reversible G1 arrest was induced by culture of low-density cells in human lymphocyte conditioned medium, by culture in high-density stationary phase conditioned medium, and by culture in isoleucine-deficient medium. Irreversible arrest of HPK growth predominantly in G1 was induced by culture in growth factor-deficient medium. Irreversible arrest of HPK growth in G1 and G2 was also induced by culture in suspension in methylcellulose prepared in complete MCDB 153 medium or by culture in serum-containing medium. Finally, the drug razoxane was employed to induce irreversible arrest of HPK in G2. These data establish that there are 2 distinct classes of growth arrest states for HPK and suggest that each arrest mechanism may serve a unique role in the control of keratinocyte differentiation in normal cells. It is also possible that the development of selective defects in either of these processes could be of etiologic significance in certain epidermal disease states

Global Optimization by Energy Landscape Paving

We introduce a novel heuristic global optimization method, energy landscape paving (ELP), which combines core ideas from energy surface deformation and tabu search. In appropriate limits, ELP reduces to existing techniques. The approach is very general and flexible and is illustrated here on two protein folding problems. For these examples, the technique gives faster convergence to the global minimum than previous approaches.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2002

ISTRAŽIVANJE MOGUĆNOSTI RASTA KOMARČI DRŽANIH U KOMERCIJALNOM RECIRKULACIJSKOM SISTEMU I TRETIRANIH NUSPROIZVODOM INDUSTRIJSKE PROIZVODNJE GOVEĐEG HORMONA RASTA

Gilthead sea bream, maintained in a commercial scale recirculation system, were subjected to three injections (0,5 and 10 µg -1 body weight) with a by-product from the industrial production of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH). Injections were provided at experiment start and at 3 and 6 weeks. Growth performance of animals was evaluated over a period of 8 weeks (n = 171 per treatment). At trial end fish were examined for proximate composition, fillet yield and visceral indices. No differences were recorded in individual growth performance between the three treatment groups (P > 0.05). Examination of protein productive value and protein efficiency ratio indicated approximately 20% of dietary protein was incorporated into animals irrespective of treatment. However incorporation of dietary lipid decreased with increasing dose of rbGH. High dose GH decreased liver weight (P 0,05). Istraživanje vrijednosti produktivnog proteina i količine efikasnosti proteina pokazalo je da je približno 20% proteina bilo inkorporirano u životinje neovisno o tretmanu. No inkorporacija lipida bila je smanjena povećanjem doze hormona rasta (rbGH). Visoka doza hormona rasta smanjila je težinu jetre (P < 0,05) u usporedbi s kontrolom s istodobnim smanjenjem hepatosomatskog indeksa (P < 0,05). Težina i postotak fileta bili su viši u životinja tretiranih dozom od 10 µg g -1 tjelesne težine u usporedbi s niskom dozom rbGH tretiranih riba (P < 0,05)

Lives in Chemistry: Inspirational Autobiographies

On September 7th, 2021, the project “Lives in Chemistry” (LiC) became visible through the virtual global launch event l-i-c.org/launch.html.

ISTRAŽIVANJE MOGUĆNOSTI RASTA KOMARČI DRŽANIH U KOMERCIJALNOM RECIRKULACIJSKOM SISTEMU I TRETIRANIH NUSPROIZVODOM INDUSTRIJSKE PROIZVODNJE GOVEĐEG HORMONA RASTA

Gilthead sea bream, maintained in a commercial scale recirculation system, were subjected to three injections (0,5 and 10 µg -1 body weight) with a by-product from the industrial production of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH). Injections were provided at experiment start and at 3 and 6 weeks. Growth performance of animals was evaluated over a period of 8 weeks (n = 171 per treatment). At trial end fish were examined for proximate composition, fillet yield and visceral indices. No differences were recorded in individual growth performance between the three treatment groups (P > 0.05). Examination of protein productive value and protein efficiency ratio indicated approximately 20% of dietary protein was incorporated into animals irrespective of treatment. However incorporation of dietary lipid decreased with increasing dose of rbGH. High dose GH decreased liver weight (P 0,05). Istraživanje vrijednosti produktivnog proteina i količine efikasnosti proteina pokazalo je da je približno 20% proteina bilo inkorporirano u životinje neovisno o tretmanu. No inkorporacija lipida bila je smanjena povećanjem doze hormona rasta (rbGH). Visoka doza hormona rasta smanjila je težinu jetre (P < 0,05) u usporedbi s kontrolom s istodobnim smanjenjem hepatosomatskog indeksa (P < 0,05). Težina i postotak fileta bili su viši u životinja tretiranih dozom od 10 µg g -1 tjelesne težine u usporedbi s niskom dozom rbGH tretiranih riba (P < 0,05)

Continuous extremal optimization for Lennard-Jones Clusters

In this paper, we explore a general-purpose heuristic algorithm for finding high-quality solutions to continuous optimization problems. The method, called continuous extremal optimization(CEO), can be considered as an extension of extremal optimization(EO) and is consisted of two components, one is with responsibility for global searching and the other is with responsibility for local searching. With only one adjustable parameter, the CEO's performance proves competitive with more elaborate stochastic optimization procedures. We demonstrate it on a well known continuous optimization problem: the Lennerd-Jones clusters optimization problem.Comment: 5 pages and 3 figure