Intelligence assessment in high-risk babies considerations about the emotional attitude of the child and the mother

El objetivo de la investigación fue evaluar el desarrollo cognitivo en bebés de alto riesgo y conocer si la actitud emocional durante la evaluación, tanto de parte de la madre como del bebé, podría influir en el rendimiento cognitivo. La muestra estuvo formada por 35 díadas madre-bebé. Se administró la Escala Argentina de Inteligencia Sensorio-Motriz y la Grilla de Observación de la Actitud Emocional. La investigación se desarrolló en un hospital público en la provincia de San Luis, Argentina. En la evaluación cognitiva, 28 bebés obtuvieron percentiles dentro de la normalidad, otros 7 bebés obtuvieron percentiles de riesgo o retraso. Se halló una asociación entre la actitud emocional del bebé y de la madre durante la evaluación, también entre la actitud del bebé y el nivel de desarrollo cognitivo alcanzado. No se halló asociación entre la actitud de la madre y el nivel de desarrollo cognitivo del infante.The objective of the research was to evaluate the cognitive development in high- risk babies and to know if the emotional attitude during the evaluation, both on the part of the mother and the baby, could influence the cognitive performance. The sample consisted of 35 mother-baby dyads. The Argentine Sensory-Motor Intelligence Scale and the Observation Grid for Emotional Attitude were administered. The research was conducted in a public hospital in the province of San Luis, Argentina. In the cognitive evaluation, 28 babies obtained percentiles within normality, other 7 babies obtained percentiles of risk or delay. An association was found between the emotional attitude of the baby and the mother during the assessment, also between the baby's attitude and the level of cognitive development achieved. No association was found between the attitude of the mother and the level of cognitive development of the infant.Fil: Hauser, Maria Paulina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Psicología; Argentin

Conversing with ‘monsters’? Narratives about men who sexually abuse(d) children

This research has examined multiperspectival narratives told about and by men who sexually abuse(d) children. Drawing on institutional, public and private narratives, I have explored how men who sexually abuse(d) children are characterised, how meanings about these men are created, and how their reintegrative prospects are understood. The project has encompassed five research elements: historical narratives evident in archival materials; media narratives evident in news articles; public discourse reflected in five focus groups; the accounts of support people of men who sexually abused reflected in one focus group; and the stories of ten men imprisoned for sexually abusing children elicited through pre-release and post-release conversations. These multiple levels of narration have allowed me to look within and across these settings to establish links and to demarcate points of convergence and departure of these diverse narratives. Results have suggested a mismatch between narratives about men who offend(ed) with those evident in the stories of support persons and the men themselves. The latter are anchored in, but contest the former; in particular the narrow representations of these men as inherently evil and not rehabilitatable. Subtle disruptions that question commonly held assumptions about men who sexually abuse(d) children and tell of alternative possibilities are evident in some narratives. My research shows that narratives can accumulate and reinforce assumptions over time and in many respects be discriminatory and exclusionary as well as being liberatory, enveloped in healing and open to change. By locating these men in their social environment and contextualising the crime, I examine the issues of child sex abuse from various angles. This research offers a more inclusive perspective on men who offend(ed) against children that can contribute to broadening public dialogue regarding the characterizations of these men, issues of community reintegration and repairing people’s lives

Māori women and intimate partner violence: Some sociocultural influences

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has recently been acknowledged as a worldwide phenomenon, with approximately one in four intimate relationships containing some form of violence. This study explores the interaction between relationship dynamics, IPV and whānau and community influences. We completed narrative interviews with two Māori women in December 2010. Our findings confirm the results of earlier studies which have found that childhood experiences of violence, actual or witnessed, have a powerful effect that reverberate within adult lives and into the formation of intimate relationships. Our interviews show that Māori whānau and women are textured by the same patriarchal expectations that privilege men in the Pākehā world. We also found that seeking help from whānau to escape a violent relationship may not be the most welcomed course of action. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions

kClust: fast and sensitive clustering of large protein sequence databases

Background: Fueled by rapid progress in high-throughput sequencing, the size of public sequence databases doubles every two years. Searching the ever larger and more redundant databases is getting increasingly inefficient. Clustering can help to organize sequences into homologous and functionally similar groups and can improve the speed, sensitivity, and readability of homology searches. However, because the clustering time is quadratic in the number of sequences, standard sequence search methods are becoming impracticable. Results: Here we present a method to cluster large protein sequence databases such as UniProt within days down to 20\%-30\% maximum pairwise sequence identity. kClust owes its speed and sensitivity to an alignment-free prefilter that calculates the cumulative score of all similar 6-mers between pairs of sequences, and to a dynamic programming algorithm that operates on pairs of similar 4-mers. To increase sensitivity further, kClust can run in profile-sequence comparison mode, with profiles computed from the clusters of a previous kClust iteration. kClust is two to three orders of magnitude faster than clustering based on NCBI BLAST, and on multidomain sequences of 20\%-30\% maximum pairwise sequence identity it achieves comparable sensitivity and a lower false discovery rate. It also compares favorably to CD-HIT and UCLUST in terms of false discovery rate, sensitivity, and speed. Conclusions: kClust fills the need for a fast, sensitive, and accurate tool to cluster large protein sequence databases to below 30\% sequence identity. kClust is freely available under GPL at ftp://toolkit.lmb.uni-muenchen.de/pub/kClust/

Repeat or not repeat?—Statistical validation of tandem repeat prediction in genomic sequences

Tandem repeats (TRs) represent one of the most prevalent features of genomic sequences. Due to their abundance and functional significance, a plethora of detection tools has been devised over the last two decades. Despite the longstanding interest, TR detection is still not resolved. Our large-scale tests reveal that current detectors produce different, often nonoverlapping inferences, reflecting characteristics of the underlying algorithms rather than the true distribution of TRs in genomic data. Our simulations show that the power of detecting TRs depends on the degree of their divergence, and repeat characteristics such as the length of the minimal repeat unit and their number in tandem. To reconcile the diverse predictions of current algorithms, we propose and evaluate several statistical criteria for measuring the quality of predicted repeat units. In particular, we propose a model-based phylogenetic classifier, entailing a maximum-likelihood estimation of the repeat divergence. Applied in conjunction with the state of the art detectors, our statistical classification scheme for inferred repeats allows to filter out false-positive predictions. Since different algorithms appear to specialize at predicting TRs with certain properties, we advise applying multiple detectors with subsequent filtering to obtain the most complete set of genuine repeat

Estudio piloto de interacciones tempranas y su relación con el desarrollo en infantes de alto-riesgo

Las características de las interacciones tempranas son fundamentales durante los primeros tres años de vida y pueden afectar el crecimiento, el desarrollo y el comportamiento del niño. Los bebés de alto riesgo tienen un riesgo elevado de sufrir secuelas, especialmente aquellos con antecedentes de prematuridad, bajo peso al nacer, patologías neonatales y problemas psicosociales importantes. El objetivo fue determinar si las interacciones madre-hijo durante los primeros 12 meses de edad corregida afectan el desarrollo logrado por los bebés de alto riesgo. Las interacciones en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Neonatales se observaron utilizando una Escala de Observación (N-EOV-INC) y se utilizó la Escala de observación del vínculo madre-hijo en el Consultorio de Seguimiento. Se observaron 36 díadas durante los primeros 12 meses de edad corregida. Los resultados muestran que el mayor porcentaje de bebés con dificultades en el desarrollo pertenecía al tipo de vínculo madre-hijo “Desencontrado”. Nuestros resultados sugieren una relación entre el tipo de vínculo y el desarrollo infantil. Nuestro estudio representa un primer intento de explorar las diferentes formas de vinculación entre las madres y sus bebés de alto riesgo, y la incidencia que pueden tener en el desarrollo psicomotor y cognitivo de los bebés.The characteristics of early interactions are fundamental during the first three years of the child, as these early experiences may affect child´s growth, development and behavior. High-risk infants have a high-risk of sequelae, especially those with a history of premature birth, low birth weight, neonatal pathologies and important psychosocialproblems. This pilot study aimed to determine whether the mother-child interactions during the first 12 months of corrected age affect the development achieved by high-risk infants. Interactions in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit were observed using an Observational Scale (N-EOVINC)and the Scale of observation of mother-child bond was used for observations at the follow-up Office. We observed 36 dyads during the children first 12 months of corrected age. The results show that the highest percentage of infants with difficulties in development belonged to the ?Mismatch? Type of mother-infant bond. Our tentative findings suggest a relation between mother?infant type of bond and child development. Our study represents a first attempt to explore the different ways of bonding between mothers and their high-risk infant, and the incidence these may have on the psychomotor and cognitive developmentof infants.Fil: Hauser, Maria Paulina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones en Psicología Matemática y Experimental Dr. Horacio J. A. Rimoldi; ArgentinaFil: Milan, Teresita Ana. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Psicología; ArgentinaFil: Oiberman, Alicia Juana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones en Psicología Matemática y Experimental Dr. Horacio J. A. Rimoldi; Argentin

The effects length of hospitalization in neonatal therapy has on interactions between mother and high-risk baby

Se consideran como bebés de alto riesgo a aquellos que requieren cuidados especiales, independientemente de su edad gestacional o su peso de nacimiento. Esto implica que las primeras interacciones madre-hijo tendrán lugar en una Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Neonatales. Se presentan los resultados preliminares de una investigación, en la cual se aplicó la Escala de observación del vínculo madre-bebé internado en una Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Neonatales, con el propósito de describir las interacciones madre-bebé. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 36 duplas y se realizaron 166 observaciones que se clasificaron de acuerdo a la puntuación obtenida en la Escala de Observaciones (Adecuadas, Poco adecuadas, Inadecuadas), la cual se ha relacionado con el tiempo de internación del bebé en la unidad de terapia neonatal, con la finalidad de investigar si existe una asociación entre estas variables. Conocer el modo en cómo se presentan las interacciones durante la internación permitiría realizar una detección temprana de las dificultades, con el fin de evitar que resulten en trastornos durante la infancia.High-risk babies require special cares regardless of their gestational age or birth weight. Due to this, the first mother-baby interactions will be developed in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Preliminary results of an investigation are presented, and for this study an Observational Scale of the bond between mother and baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was applied for the purpose of describing these mother-baby interactions. The sample was composed of 36 pairs, reaching a total of 166 observations which were classified according to the observational scale score (Appropriate, Slightly Appropriate, Not Appropriate), which was correlated to the length of time the babies stayed in the neonatal therapy in order to investigate whether there was an association between these variables. Understanding how interactions occur during hospitalization will allow early detection of bonding difficulties and the prevention of infant disorders.Fil: Hauser, Maria Paulina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Milan, Teresita Ana. Universidad Nacional de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: González, María Cristina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Oiberman, Alicia Juana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones en Psicología Matemática y Experimental Dr. Horacio J. A. Rimoldi; Argentin

The association of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3β) gene polymorphism with kidney function in long-term lithium-treated bipolar patients

BACKGROUND: Most bipolar patients experience a reduction in urinary concentrating ability within a few weeks of starting lithium treatment. This phenomenon may be connected with the effect of lithium on the glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3β) present in the renal tubules. The GSK-3β gene is located on chromosome 3q13 and possesses a functional -50 C/T polymorphism. In the present study, we estimated this polymorphism in a group of long-term lithium-treated patients and assessed its association with various parameters of kidney function, including novel markers of kidney injury such as serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and urinary beta2-microglobulin (β2-MG). METHODS: The study comprised 78 patients with bipolar mood disorder (25 males, 53 females), aged 36 to 82 (60 ± 11) years. The mean duration of bipolar illness was 6 to 50 (24 ± 10) years, and the patients have been receiving lithium for 5 to 38 (16 ± 9) years. All the patients had the following features, regarded as the phenotypes of kidney functions measured: urine examination for specific gravity evaluation, serum creatinine concentration, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) evaluation, as well as the serum concentrations of NGAL and urinary β2-MG. Genotyping of GSK-3β gene -50 C/T polymorphism was done by polymerase chain reaction analysis. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Thirty-four patients (6 males, 28 females) had the T/T genotype, 37 patients (16 males, 21 females) had the T/C genotype, and 7 patients (3 males, 4 females) had the C/C genotype. Patients homozygous for C allele had significantly higher urine specific gravities (1.019 ± 0.008) compared to the remaining genotypes (1.013 ± 0.007) (p = 0.035), with no influence of the duration of lithium treatment. Other parameters of kidney function (serum creatinine, eGFR, serum NGAL, and urinary β2-MG levels) were not different between genotypes and, again, were not affected by the duration of lithium treatment. There was no correlation between urine specific gravity and other kidney function parameters. The results of our study indicate that the GSK-3β genotype may be connected with lithium-induced impairment of renal concentrating ability in long-term lithium-treated bipolar patients. Limitations of the study include small size of the sample, small number of C/C genotype patients, and a lack of multiple testing analysis of genotypic differences in various measures of kidney function