Genetic and Environmental Influences on Adolescents’ Perceptions of Current Family Environment

Previous studies of the genetic and environmental components of the Family Environment Scale (FES) have typically reported that scales relating to familial acceptance are moderately to strongly genetically influenced while measures of control are more environmentally influenced. These reports relied on retrospective recall, which is not as reliable as recall of current environment. To investigate the genetic contribution to contemporaneous perceptions of one’s rearing environment, the responses on the FES of 471 17-year-old male twins (141 complete MZ twin pairs, 73 complete DZ twin pairs, 43 incomplete twin pairs) participating in the Minnesota Twin-Family Study (MTFS) were analyzed. Individual FES scales were generally modestly to moderately heritable. Unlike previous research, we did not find evidence that measures of control/structure were less heritable than measures of acceptance/support. These findings support a genetic basis of perceptions of one’s family environment and indicate that reports of control/structure may be more genetically influenced than previously believed based on retrospective reports.     

Adolescent cancer patients’ perceived quality of cancer care: The roles of patient engagement and supporting independence

Objectives

A lack of focus on variation in engagement among cancer populations of differing developmental stages led us to examine the associations between patient engagement, the patient-provider relationship, cognitive development, readiness to transition to adulthood (transitional readiness) and perceived quality of care.

Wegener’s Granulomatosis: The Current View

In the last few years, substantial progress has been achieved in elucidating the pathogenesis of Wegener's granulomatosis. Several genetic risk factors have been described. The structure of the granuloma and its possible function as ectopic lymphoid tissue have been defined. Furthermore, the consecutive immunopathological reactions leading to induction of PR3-antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) and the role of ANCA itself is getting clearer. However, the initial events leading to granuloma formation are still widely unknown. Concerning therapy, the significance of the so-called biological agents (TNF-alpha-blockers, Rituximab) still has to be defined.     

Adolescents’ Attitudes on Smoking Are Related to Experimentation with Smoking,Daily Smoking and Best Friends’ Smoking in Two Karelias in Finland and in Russia

Purpose

Becoming a smoker usually starts during adolescence and is a dynamic process involving experimentation before the establishment of daily smoking. It has been suggested that adolescents who smoke differ from those who do not in their attitudes to smoking. The purpose of this study was to find out whether attitudes related to smoking legislation and restrictions, social pressures in smoking and image of smokers are associated with smoking experimentation, daily smoking and best friends’ smoking.

Method

The data were gathered with a self-administered questionnaire in North Karelia, Eastern Finland and in the Pitkyaranta district, Republic of Karelia, Russia. The respondents were 15-year-old 9th grade pupils in local schools. In Pitkyaranta, the data analyses covered pupils in all eight schools in the area (n?=?179). In North Karelia, the data analyses comprised of selected eight schools (n?=?601). Data were analysed with exploratory factor analysis.

Results

The models revealed that attitudes related to restrictions and social pressure were significantly associated with experimenting with smoking [OR (95 % CI) 7.923 (5.787–10.847)], daily smoking [OR (95 % CI) 9.575 (6.727–13.628)] and the likelihood of best friends’ smoking [OR (95 % CI) 3.154 (2.579–3.858)]. The stronger the young peoples’ attitudes and opinions, for example, towards restrictions and with more difficulties in refusing smoking, the higher the likelihood for smoking experimentations, daily smoking as well as the likelihood for their best friends’ smoking. The country and factor interactions were not associated with smoking experimentations, daily smoking or best friends’ smoking.

Conclusion

Regardless of cultural background, adolescents who smoke have more positive attitudes to smoking, and perceive more social support for smoking, than do adolescents who do not smoke. The study stresses the similarity of the results in both Karelia’s despite the enormous differences in culture, economy and public policy.

     

Students’ patient-centered-care attitudes: The contribution of self-efficacy,communication, and empathy

ObjectivesPatient-centered-care (PCC) attitudes are important to enhance PCC behavior, but research on perceptions and attitudes that contribute to PCC attitudes is limited. We tested a new model, assessing whether the association between self-efficacy and PCC attitudes is mediated by communication and empathy attitudes. Furthermore, we assessed medical-school-stage and gender differences in these variables.MethodsMedical/dentistry students (N = 653) completed self-reported questionnaires. Analyses were performed using Pearson's-correlations, PROCESS macro, and independent samples t-tests.ResultsThe association between communication self-efficacy and PCC attitudes was completely mediated by communication and empathy attitudes. Students in clinical years had more positive attitudes toward PCC and empathy, and higher communication self-efficacy. Females had more positive attitudes toward PCC, communication, and empathy.ConclusionsThe results emphasize the importance of communication self-efficacy and the mediating role of communication and empathy attitudes in enhancing PCC attitudes. This highlights the need to focus on learners' affective matter (what they feel/think) about their competencies and attitudes.Practice implicationsEducational interventions should improve understanding of the benefits of applying good communication skills, of learning the importance of empathy and its relevance to patient care, and strengthening students' confidence in applying these skills. Attention to these is important for enhancing students' PCC attitudes.     

‘The Hospital was just like a Home’: Self,Service and the ‘McCord Hospital Family’

For more than a century, McCord Hospital, a partly private and partly state-subsidised mission hospital has provided affordable health-care services, as well as work and professional training opportunities for thousands of people in Durban, a city on the east coast of South Africa. This article focuses on one important aspect of the hospital’s longevity and particular character, or ‘organisational culture’: the ethos of a ‘McCord Family’, integral to which were faith and a commitment to service. While recognising that families – including ‘hospital families’ like that at McCord – are contentious social constructs, with deeply embedded hierarchies and inequalities based on race, class and gender, we also consider however how the notion of ‘a McCord family’ was experienced and shared in complex ways. Indeed, during the twentieth century, this ethos was avidly promoted by the hospital’s founders and managers and by a wide variety of employees and trainees. It also extended to people at a far geographical remove from Durban. Moreover, this ethos became so powerful that many patients felt that it shaped their convalescence experience positively. This article considers how this ‘family ethos’ was constructed and what made it so attractive to this hospital’s staff, trainees and patients. Furthermore, we consider what ‘work’ it did for this mission hospital, especially in promoting bonds of multi-racial unity in the contexts of segregation and apartheid society. More broadly, it suggests that critical histories of the ways in which individuals, hospitals, faith and ‘families’ intersect may be of value for the future of hospitals as well as of interest in their past.     

The Current State of Doctors’ Communication Skills in Mainland China from the Perspective of Doctors’ Self-evaluation and Patients’ Evaluation: A Cross-Sectional Study

ObjectiveTo assess doctors’ communication skills in mainland China using the SEGUE Framework.MethodsA survey on doctors’ communication skills with doctors (n = 1361) and patients (n = 1757) from 14 provinces in eastern, central and western China was conducted.ResultsThe doctors’ self-evaluation scores were higher than patients’ evaluations (p < .001). The scores of female doctors were higher than males (p = .022). Both doctors’ self-evaluations and patients’ evaluations indicated that the scores of doctors in tertiary hospitals were higher than those in primary hospitals.ConclusionDoctors’ communication skills don’t match patients’ needs. Female doctors are more empathetic and patient than male doctors and consequently have better communication skills. Doctors in tertiary hospitals have better communication skills because tertiary hospitals provide more training opportunities in communication skills and have better medical services and management.Practice implicationsThis study confirms the applicability of the SEGUE Framework to doctors and patients in mainland China. The effectiveness of cultivating doctors’ communication skills should be evaluated through feedback from the perspective of both doctors and patients. Medical institutes need to prioritize patients’ needs and provide training in doctors’ communication skills to address the discrepancy in the perceptions of doctors and patients.     

Parents’ adherence to pediatric health and safety guidelines: Importance of patient-provider relationships

Objective

To examine 1) parent-provider communication about pediatric health/safety guidelines, 2) trust in child’s provider, 3) comfort discussing guidelines, 4) agreement with guideline advice, 5) self-efficacy following guidelines, and their impact on guideline adherence.

Concurrent and Predictive Associations Between Infants’ and Toddlers’ Fearful Temperament,Coparenting, and Parental Anxiety Disorders

This study investigated the bidirectional relations between two dimensions of coparenting (the way parental figures cooperate in parenting), undermining and support, and child fearful temperament longitudinally from infancy to toddlerhood, while inspecting the moderating role of parents’ anxiety disorders. Questionnaire data on coparenting and child fearful temperament were obtained from 135 mothers, fathers, and their firstborns at 4 months, 12 months, and 30 months. Parental anxiety disorder severity was assessed with a semistructured interview before the birth of the child. Multilevel analysis revealed that, across measurement moments, undermining coparenting, but not supportive coparenting, was concurrently related to higher child fearful temperament. Parental anxiety disorder severity was related to more undermining coparenting but not to supportive coparenting. No moderation effects for parental anxiety disorder or for parent gender were found in the relations between coparenting and child fearful temperament. We conclude that more parental anxiety is related to a lower quality of the coparenting relationship, which in turn is associated to more child fearful temperament. More specifically, it appears that undermining coparenting, and not supportive coparenting, is related to child fearful temperament and parental anxiety disorder severity. Our results suggest that undermining coparenting, by both father and mother, is one of the mechanisms that may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of anxiety from parent to child. The coparenting relationship may be a useful target in the prevention and treatment of child anxiety.     

Stepping Up,Sticking Together: Military Adolescents’ Support of Their Civilian Parents and Concurrent Depression Symptoms

The purposes of this study were to assess the ways adolescents in active-duty military families provide emotional and instrumental support to civilian mothers and to investigate the implications of such support for their own symptoms of depression. Eighty adolescents from active-duty military families provided self-report ratings of emotional and instrumental support rendered to their civilian mothers. Mother–adolescent dyads engaged in a 10-min discussion of military experiences, which was coded for adolescents’ emotional validation of their mothers. Path analyses showed that adolescents who provided more instrumental support and showed more emotional validation reported fewer symptoms of depression. However, adolescents’ instrumental support to the mother was not inversely associated with their depression symptoms when the mothers reported high depression symptoms. Recent military demands did not moderate associations between adolescent support and depression symptoms. In this, the first study to our knowledge assessing youth-to-parent support provision among military adolescents, results suggest that emotional validation and instrumental support given at will by adolescents to their civilian mothers are associated with lower levels of adolescent depressive symptoms. Results also underscore the impact of maternal depression on family processes and emphasize the importance of careful assessment of support processes within military families.     

The Aα mating-type locus ofSchizophyflum commune: Structure and function of geneX

GeneX maps immediately right of geneY at the A mating-type locus inSchizophyllum commune. AllelesX1, X3 andX4 were isolated, subcloned, and sequenced. The structure of the alleles and their relationship to the A locus is described. The deducedX isoforms possess no recognized motifs common to other polypeptides and no significant similarity to any sequences in the protein databases.X alleles do not activate A-regulated development when transformed into recipient strains possessing different A mating types or when these transformants are mated with tester strains. AnX1-disrupted construction yielded a high frequency (33%) of homologous gene replacements.X-disrupted mutants have wild-type phenotypes and mate normally. Both the functional analyses and sequence data forX1,X3, andX4 suggest that the right boundary of the A mating-type locus falls betweenAY andX. We propose that theZ andY genes constitute the Aoc locus in its entirety.     

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...     

The Sesquiterpene Lactone,Budlein A,Inhibits Antigen-Induced Arthritis in Mice: Role of NF-κB and Cytokines

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by debilitating pain, cartilage destruction, and loss of joint function. Management of RA includes drugs that target NF-κB and downstream cytokine production. Therefore, molecules that act by inhibiting this signaling pathway without the severe side effects of, for instance, corticoids would be suitable therapeutic strategies. Budlein A is a sesquiterpene lactone with antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory properties related to the inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokines and neutrophil recruitment. In this study, the effect of budlein A was evaluated in antigen-induced arthritis (AIA) in mice. At the 26th day, leukocyte recruitment to the knee joint, knee contents of proteoglycans, blood levels of ALT and AST, stomach tissue myeloperoxidase activity, and RT-qPCR for pro-inflammatory gene mRNA expression in knee joint samples was performed. NF-κB luciferase activity was evaluated in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Budlein A treatment dose-dependently inhibited AIA-induced mechanical hyperalgesia, edema, total leukocytes and neutrophil recruitment, and proteoglycan degradation. Budlein A did not induce gastric or liver damage. Budlein also inhibited AIA-induced Il-33, Tnf, Il-1β, preproET-1, and Cox-2 mRNA expression. In vitro, budlein reduced TNF- and IL-1β-induced NF-κB activity in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Altogether, we demonstrate that budlein A ameliorates AIA-induced inflammation and pain by targeting NF-κB. Importantly, budlein A does not induce in vivo side effects, suggesting that it possesses a favorable pre-clinical profile as analgesic and it is a prosperous molecule to be further investigated for the treatment of RA.