The Differential Impact of Physical Abuse, Witnessing Violence, and Psychological Abuse on Children\u27s Internalizing, Externalizing, and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

Children commonly witness violence in their family, fall victim to violent acts by caregivers, or suffer from psychological abuse from caregivers. Independent examinations of these experiences have suggested that each can act as a precursor to internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and posttraumatic stress symptoms later in life. There is growing recognition that these forms of maltreatment are highly correlated, and some research has already shown that accounting for multiple forms of maltreatment can alter associations with psychological difficulties. This research sought to simultaneously explore the unique relations of psychological abuse, physical abuse, and witnessing familial violence to internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. The study also probed the possibility that each of the three forms of maltreatment might impact the relation between the other types of maltreatment and the psychological adjustment outcomes. Further, the project sought to explore the specificity of the results by evaluating the possibility that associations between each of the psychological adjustment outcomes could alter the findings of the first three goals. Results identifies several unique associations for the maltreatment variables that varied by outcome and suggested that several important interactions may exist. Further, accounting for correlated outcome variables in the analyses resulted in some deviations in these results, suggesting that specificity is a concern for research of this type. Overall, the study suggested that psychological abuse may be a particularly robust predictor of each of the three outcomes variables, and that violence-related maltreatment may have a closer nexus with posttraumatic stress symptoms

Magnetostratigraphy and paleomagnetic poles from Late Triassic-earliest Jurassic strata of the Newark basin: Discussion and reply

The Discussion of Lucas and others underscores the potential usefulness of magnetostratigraphy for correlation between red beds of the broadly coeval Chinle Group of the western interior and the Newark Supergroup of eastern North America. Detailed magnetostratigraphic correlation between the Newark and the Chinle is very likely to change significantly, however, with the addition of new data from both of these units, and hence such an attempt as proposed in the Discussion may be premature

Archaeology and Language: The Indo-Iranians

This review of recent archaeological work in Central Asia and Eurasia attempts to trace and date the movements of the IndoIraniansspeakers of languages of the eastern branch of ProtoIndoEuropean that later split into the Iranian and Vedic families. Russian and Central Asian scholars working on the contemporary but very different Andronovo and Bactrian Margiana archaeological complexes of the 2d millennium b.c. have identified both as IndoIranian, and particular sites so identified are being used for nationalist purposes. There is, however, no compelling archaeological evidence that they had a common ancestor or that either is IndoIranian. Ethnicity and language are not easily linked with an archaeological signature, and the identity of the IndoIranians remains elusive

Extracellular Matrix Aggregates from Differentiating Embryoid Bodies as a Scaffold to Support ESC Proliferation and Differentiation

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have emerged as potential cell sources for tissue engineering and regeneration owing to its virtually unlimited replicative capacity and the potential to differentiate into a variety of cell types. Current differentiation strategies primarily involve various growth factor/inducer/repressor concoctions with less emphasis on the substrate. Developing biomaterials to promote stem cell proliferation and differentiation could aid in the realization of this goal. Extracellular matrix (ECM) components are important physiological regulators, and can provide cues to direct ESC expansion and differentiation. ECM undergoes constant remodeling with surrounding cells to accommodate specific developmental event. In this study, using ESC derived aggregates called embryoid bodies (EB) as a model, we characterized the biological nature of ECM in EB after exposure to different treatments: spontaneously differentiated and retinoic acid treated (denoted as SPT and RA, respectively). Next, we extracted this treatment-specific ECM by detergent decellularization methods (Triton X-100, DOC and SDS are compared). The resulting EB ECM scaffolds were seeded with undifferentiated ESCs using a novel cell seeding strategy, and the behavior of ESCs was studied. Our results showed that the optimized protocol efficiently removes cells while retaining crucial ECM and biochemical components. Decellularized ECM from SPT EB gave rise to a more favorable microenvironment for promoting ESC attachment, proliferation, and early differentiation, compared to native EB and decellularized ECM from RA EB. These findings suggest that various treatment conditions allow the formulation of unique ESC-ECM derived scaffolds to enhance ESC bioactivities, including proliferation and differentiation for tissue regeneration applications. © 2013 Goh et al

Chronic exposure to arsenic in the drinking water alters the expression of immune response genes in mouse lung

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Environmental Health Perspectives 117 (2009): 1108-1115, doi:10.1289/ehp.0800199.Chronic exposure to drinking water arsenic is a significant worldwide environmental health concern. Exposure to As is associated with an increased risk of lung disease, which may make it a unique toxicant, because lung toxicity is usually associated with inhalation rather than ingestion. The goal of this study was to examine mRNA and protein expression changes in the lungs of mice exposed chronically to environmentally relevant concentrations of As in the food or drinking water, specifically examining the hypothesis that As may preferentially affect gene and protein expression related to immune function as part of its mechanism of toxicant action. C57BL/6J mice fed a casein-based AIN-76A defined diet were exposed to 10 or 100 ppb As in drinking water or food for 5–6 weeks. Whole genome transcriptome profiling of animal lungs revealed significant alterations in the expression of many genes with functions in cell adhesion and migration, channels, receptors, differentiation and proliferation, and, most strikingly, aspects of the innate immune response. Confirmation of mRNA and protein expression changes in key genes of this response revealed that genes for interleukin 1β, interleukin 1 receptor, a number of toll-like receptors, and several cytokines and cytokine receptors were significantly altered in the lungs of As-exposed mice. These findings indicate that chronic low-dose As exposure at the current U.S. drinking-water standard can elicit effects on the regulation of innate immunity, which may contribute to altered disease risk, particularly in lung.This work was supported by National Institute of Environmental Health Science grant P42 ES007373 [J.W.H., Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) project 2]. C.D.K., A.P.N., and J.A.G. were supported by graduate and postdoctoral fellowships from P42 ES007373 (SBRP, Training Core). C.D.K. was also supported by National Institutes of Health training grant predoctoral fellowship T32-DF007301. P.L.E. and D.J.W. were supported by Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Research grant HL081289

Building genomic infrastructure: Sequencing platinum-standard reference-quality genomes of all cetacean species.

International audienc

Escherichia coli O157 Exposure in Wyoming and Seattle: Serologic Evidence of Rural Risk

We tested the hypothesis that rural populations have increased exposure to Escherichia coli O157:H7. We measured circulating antibodies against the O157 lipopolysaccharide in rural Wyoming residents and in blood donors from Casper, Wyoming, and Seattle, Washington, by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). EIA readings were compared by analysis of variance and the least squares difference multiple comparison procedure. Rural Wyoming residents had higher antibody levels to O157 LPS than did Casper donors, who, in turn, had higher levels than did Seattle donors (respective least squares means: 0.356, 0.328, and 0.310; p<0.05, Seattle vs. Casper, p<0.001, rural Wyoming vs. either city). Lower age was significantly correlated with EIA scores; gender; and, in rural Wyoming, history of bloody diarrhea, town, duration of residence, and use of nontreated water at home were not significantly correlated. These data suggest that rural populations are more exposed to E. coli O157:H7 than urban populations

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo