A Longitudinal Test of the Demand–Control Model Using Specific Job Demands and Specific Job Control

Background  

Supportive studies of the demand–control (DC) model were more likely to measure specific demands combined with a corresponding aspect of control.     

Evaluation of Heart State Variation and Neural Control Parameters with Animal Models

INTRODUCTION　　 The cardiac electrical physiology contains abundantphysiological and pathologi-cal information and enables noninvasive detection.Butitis notenough for diagnos-ing heart diseases in clinic in the past.Common approaches for diagnosing early…     

A Comparative Study of Indirect Competitive ELISA and HPLC for Fumonisin Detection in Corn of the State of Paraná, Brazil

The performance of a monoclonal antibody (MAb)-based indirect competitive ELISA (ICELISA) for fumonisin detection in corn was evaluated using 150 post-harvest corn samples from the April 1995 and March-April 1996 crop, in the State of Paraná, Brazil. Compared to high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the correlation coefficient (r) of the results from the two methods was 0.94. The IC-ELISA detected total fumonisin levels of 1.1 to 1.5-fold higher than HPLC in 85 samples (56.6%). The concentration range of 1.0 to 5.0 μg g^?1 was observed in 26% of samples analysed by ELISA and in 29% by HPLC. In addition, four samples (2.7%) showed an ELISA/HPLC ratio of 0.7 to 0.99 and seven samples (4.7%) a 1.0 ratio. In 29 (13.3%) samples, IC-ELISA detected 1.6 to 2.0-fold higher values than HPLC. These data showed high correlation (r = 0.91) of IC-ELISA and HPLC for fumonisin concentration in corn contaminated with ≤ 10 μg g^?1, with a detection limit of 93 ng g^?1. Matrix interference was minimized by diluting the sample before the ELISA assay. MAb-based IC-ELISA may be effectively applied for fumonisin screening in corn, with advantages of simplicity, ease of sample preparation and sensitivity.     

The C-Tactile System and the Neurobiological Mechanisms of “Affective” Tactile Perception: The History of Discoveries and the Current State of Research

Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology - It is difficult to overestimate the importance of close contacts with other people for emotional wellbeing in humans, though the neurobiological mechanisms...     

Linked Activity of Neurons in the Sensorimotor Cortex of the Rabbit in the State of a Defensive Dominant and “Animal Hypnosis”

A cryptic focus of excitation (a dominant focus) was created in the brains of rabbits by threshold stimulation of the left limb with a current at a frequency of 0.5 Hz. After creation of a focus, there were equal probabilities of detecting pairs of neurons whose linked activity was dominated by a 2-sec rhythm in the sensorimotor cortex of both the right and left hemispheres (29.3% and 32.4%, respectively). When animals were placed in “animal hypnosis,” the total proportion of neuron pairs whose activity was dominated by the rhythm created by establishment of the dominant decreased significantly only in the right hemisphere (21%). After exiting the state of animal hypnosis, the proportion of neurons in the cortex of the right hemisphere whose activity was dominated by the 2-sec rhythm increased significantly if the neurons in the pair were close-lying but decreased significantly if the neurons in the pair were mutually distant. No such changes after hypnotization were seen in the cortex of the left hemisphere. In both the right and left hemispheres, dominance of the 2-sec rhythm in the activity of pairs of neurons was seen significantly more frequently when cross-correlation histograms were constructed by analyzing cells in relation to the spike activity of neurons generating spikes of the lowest (right hemisphere) or lowest and intermediate (left hemisphere) amplitude on neurograms of multineuron activity. Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 183–193, March–April, 2008.     

Gene × Environment Interactions in the Development of Preschool Effortful Control,and Its Implications for Childhood Externalizing Behavior

This study examined the role of gene × environment interaction (G × E) in the development of effortful control (EC) and externalizing symptoms (EXT). Participants included 361 adopted children, and their Adoptive Parents (APs) and Birth Mothers (BMs), drawn from the Early Growth and Development Study. The primary adoptive caregivers’ (AP1) laxness and overreactivity were assessed when children were 27-months-old, and used as indices of environmental influences on EC. Heritable influences on child EC were assessed by the BMs’ personality characteristics (emotion dysregulation, agreeableness). Secondary adoptive caregivers (AP2) reported on children’s EC at 54 months, and EXT at 7 years. Interactions between BM characteristics and AP1 laxness were related to EC and indirectly predicted EXT via EC. Parental laxness and EC were positively associated if children had high heritable risk for poor EC (BM high emotion dysregulation or low agreeableness), but negatively associated if children had low heritable risk for poor EC (BM low emotion dysregulation or high agreeableness). BM agreeableness also moderated associations between AP1 overreactivity and effortful control, and yielded a similar pattern of results. Our findings suggest that G × E is an important first step in the development of EXT via its effect on EC. Consistent with “goodness of fit” models, heritable tendencies can affect which parenting practices best support EC development.

     

The Utility of Measures of Child and Adolescent Anxiety: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale,the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children,and the Child Behavior Checklist

We evaluated the ability of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to (a) discriminate between youth with an anxiety disorder and youth without a disorder, (b) discriminate between youth with an anxiety disorder and youth with either externalizing disorders or affective disorders, and (c) measure treatment change. In addition, variables, including age and sex, were explored as possible moderators of instrument utility. A meta-analysis of 43 articles was conducted. A large effect size was found when the instruments were used to compare youth with an anxiety disorder to youth without a disorder. When comparing anxious youth to psychiatric control groups, the picture was mixed; the instruments were found to be useful when discriminating between youth with an anxiety disorder and youth with an externalizing disorder, but not between youth with an anxiety disorder and children and adolescents with an affective disorder. The RCMAS, STAIC, and CBCL were found to be moderately sensitive to treatment gains.     

Admixture estimates for Churuguara, a Venezuelan town in the State of Falcón

BACKGROUND: The present Venezuelan population is the admixture product of Amerindians, Europeans and Africans, a process which was not homogeneous over the country. Blood groups, STRs and VNTRs, specifically D1S80, have been used successfully in admixture studies, but few have been made in Venezuela. AIM: This study aims to estimate the admixture components of Churuguara, Venezuela, and to evaluate the genetic relationship of this population with other Venezuelan as well as worldwide populations through principal component analysis and the study of dendrograms based on genetic distances. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Gene frequencies of blood groups ABO and Rh (only anti D), of STRs VWA, F13A01, FES/FPS and VNTR D1S80 were studied in a sample of 60 individuals born in Churuguara, a Venezuelan town of admixed ancestry in the State of Falc6n. Admixture was estimated with Chakraborty's gene identity method, and Nei's standard genetic distance was used to build two dendrograms with the neighbour-joining approach, one based on the three STRs and the other based only on D1S80. Principal component analyses with the gene frequencies of these markers were also performed. RESULTS: The frequency of allele ABO*O was 0.788, of ABO*A was 0.187 and of RH*D was 0.74. D1S80 showed 16 different alleles with a heterozygosity of 0.880, whilst the three STRs showed only eight different alleles and heterozygosities between 0.733 and 0.797. The estimates of admixture obtained in this analysis were 52.5% for the Spanish parental group, 27.6% for the African and 19.9% for the Amerindian. Comparison of Churuguara with other Latin American populations shows that its African component is not as high as that observed in Colombian Choco, but it is higher than that observed in other samples from Colombia, Chile and Maracaibo (Venezuela). CONCLUSIONS: Results of the admixture analysis are consistent with those obtained with two dendrograms and principal component analyses, suggesting that the strong initial Amerindian component of 500 years ago has been diluted by the continuous flow of European genes, mainly Spanish, to this region.     

Admixture estimates for Churuguara,a Venezuelan town in the State of Falcón

Background:?The present Venezuelan population is the admixture product of Amerindians, Europeans and Africans, a process which was not homogeneous over the country. Blood groups, STRs and VNTRs, specifically D1S80, have been used successfully in admixture studies, but few have been made in Venezuela.

Aim:?This study aims to estimate the admixture components of Churuguara, Venezuela, and to evaluate the genetic relationship of this population with other Venezuelan as well as worldwide populations through principal component analysis and the study of dendrograms based on genetic distances.

Subjects and methods:?Gene frequencies of blood groups ABO and Rh (only anti D), of STRs VWA, F13A01, FES/FPS and VNTR D1S80 were studied in a sample of 60 individuals born in Churuguara, a Venezuelan town of admixed ancestry in the State of Falcón. Admixture was estimated with Chakraborty's gene identity method, and Nei's standard genetic distance was used to build two dendrograms with the neighbour-joining approach, one based on the three STRs and the other based only on D1S80. Principal component analyses with the gene frequencies of these markers were also performed.

Results:?The frequency of allele ABO*O was 0.788, of ABO*A was 0.187 and of RH*D was 0.74. D1S80 showed 16 different alleles with a heterozygosity of 0.880, whilst the three STRs showed only eight different alleles and heterozygosities between 0.733 and 0.797. The estimates of admixture obtained in this analysis were 52.5% for the Spanish parental group, 27.6% for the African and 19.9% for the Amerindian. Comparison of Churuguara with other Latin American populations shows that its African component is not as high as that observed in Colombian Choco, but it is higher than that observed in other samples from Colombia, Chile and Maracaibo (Venezuela).

Conclusions:?Results of the admixture analysis are consistent with those obtained with two dendrograms and principal component analyses, suggesting that the strong initial Amerindian component of 500 years ago has been diluted by the continuous flow of European genes, mainly Spanish, to this region.     

Genetic “Clocks” and “Soft” Events: A Twin Model for Pubertal Development and Other Recalled Sequences of Developmental Milestones, Transitions, or Ages at Onset

We propose and explore a twin model to examine the basis for synchrony that often characterizes different facets of normal development. In so doing we also present an approach to the analysis of soft events; events for which available reports of dates or ages of occurrence are unreliable or inconsistent. Discrepancies among reports are accounted for by a statistical measurement model. This combines current status error reflecting uncertain definition of onset and two mechanisms for the phenomenon of telescoping, namely, systematic compression of the time scale and heteroscedastic random measurement error. Statistically, the model can be viewed as a mixed generalized linear model with random effects within both mean and variance functions or, alternatively, as involving multiplicative random effects. We apply the model to multiple maternal reports on menarche and onset of breast development in twin daughters. Fitted to data from the Virginia Twin Study Of Adolescent and Behavioral Development by the use of penalized/predictive quasi-likelihood, the model provided much improved estimates of the true age-at-onset distribution as compared to those from a naive analysis. Results suggested that the observed variance was made up almost entirely of genetic variance and measurement error variance due to telescoping and current status errors and that the timing of breast development and menarche are largely under the control of a common set of genes. Results also indicated that maternal recollections of the onset of breast development were both more poorly defined and subject to greater recall errors than maternal recollections of menarche.     

Changes in the High-Frequency Activity of Rabbit Brain Biopotentials in the State of “Animal Hypnosis”

Spectral EEG analysis studies showed that in the state of “animal hypnosis,” the known increase in the power of biopotentials in the delta frequency range (0.3–3 Hz) and decrease in the theta range (4–8 Hz) were accompanied by an increase in the sigma range (12–17 Hz) by a factor of 2–4 and a decrease in the gamma range by a factor of 1.5–2, particularly in the band 40–70 Hz. These changes were more marked in the anterior areas of the cerebral cortex. The effects of the hypnotic state on pharmacologically (ketamine) induced increases in gamma activity of cortical origin were studied. Administration of subanesthetic doses of ketamine to rabbits induced motor arousal, while brain electrical activity showed longlasting (up to 2 h) increases in gamma activity. Creation of the hypnotic state on the background of ketamine produced a virtually instantaneous rearrangement of the power spectrum, which sharp increases in values in the slow-wave frequency range and a decrease in gamma activity, which returned to the baseline level. Thus, creation of the hypnotic state eliminated the specific ketamine-induced rearrangements of biopotentials, suggesting that animal hypnosis has stabilizing and to some extent protective effects in behavioral states accompanied by hyperlocomotion and stress.