Poly-Victimisation among Vietnamese High School Students: Prevalence and Demographic Correlates

Background

Exposure to multiple forms of violence, including abuse and crime is termed poly-victimisation. There has been increasing research interest in poly-victimisation among children and adolescents in high income countries. However, experiences among adolescents living in low- and lower-middle-income countries are yet to be examined.

Aims

To establish the prevalence of lifetime exposure to poly-victimisation and demographic characteristics of victims among high school students in Vietnam.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey with a self-report, anonymous questionnaire was conducted in ten high schools in Hanoi, Vietnam between October 2013 and January 2014. Poly-victimisation was assessed using the Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire Revised 2 (JVQ R2).

Results

A total of 1,606/1,745 (92.0%) eligible students provided data and were included in the analyses. Lifetime exposure to at least one form of victimisation was reported by 94.3% (95%CI: 92.5-95.4%) of participants and lifetime exposure to more than 10 forms by 31.1% (95%CI: 27.8-33.5%). Poly-victimisation was associated with experiencing more adverse life events, having a chronic disease or disability, living with a step-parent, experiencing family life as unhappy, being disciplined at school, and living in a rural area. Poly-victimisation experiences differed among students from the three types of high schools in Vietnam.

Conclusions

These data reveal the prevalence and multi-factorial risks of exposure to poly-victimisation among adolescents in Vietnam. Prevalence rates of different forms of victimisation among Vietnamese students, including those previously un-investigated, were higher than those reported in other settings. Poly-victimisation was also common among them. There were certain subgroups who were more vulnerable to poly-victimisation. Further research to understand the broader aspects of adolescence in Vietnam, including poly-victimisation, is thus recommended. Special attention should be paid to specific subgroups in the prevention of violence against children and adolescents in this setting. Education to raise awareness about poly-victimisation among the community is needed.     

Linking behavioral states to landscape features for improved conservation management

1. A central theme for conservation is understanding how animals differentially use, and are affected by change in, the landscapes they inhabit. However, it has been challenging to develop conservation schemes for habitat‐specific behaviors.
2. Here we use behavioral change point analysis to identify behavioral states of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the southwestern United States, and we identify, for each behavioral state, conservation‐relevant habitat associations.
3. We modeled behavior using 186,859 GPS points from 48 eagles and identified 2,851 distinct segments comprising four behavioral states. Altitude above ground level (AGL) best differentiated behavioral states, with two clusters of short‐distance movement behaviors characterized by low AGL (state 1 AGL = 14 m (median); state 2 AGL = 11 m) and two associated with longer‐distance movement behaviors and characterized by higher AGL (state 3 AGL = 108 m; state 4 AGL = 450 m).
4. Behaviors such as perching and low‐altitude hunting were associated with short‐distance movements in updraft‐poor environments, at higher elevations, and over steeper and more north‐facing terrain. In contrast, medium‐distance movements such as hunting and transiting were over gentle and south‐facing slopes. Long‐distance transiting occurred over the desert habitats that generate the best updraft.
5. This information can guide management of this species, and our approach provides a template for behavior‐specific habitat associations for other species of management concern.

     

ASHG activities relative to education. Heredity and adoption: a survey of state adoption agencies.

A subcommittee of The Social Issues Committee of The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), aware of the growing interest in the implications of inheritance and adoption, in 1987 began surveying the 50 states' and Washington DC's public adoption agencies regarding this issue, and it completed the survey in 1988. In 1987, two surveys obtained data on each state's legal requirements for obtaining genetic information and on what each public adoption agency collected as genetic history. These results were presented in a poster at the 1987 ASHG annual meeting in San Diego. In 1988, a questionnaire was sent to the same agencies to elicit opinions as to whether adoption agencies should systematically collect genetic information to share with the adoptive family and adoptee, whether legislation should be mandated to collect such information, and whether genetic education programs should be developed and implemented for adoption-agency staff. On the basis of responses to the 1988 questionnaire, it was concluded that there is an interest in developing a uniform set of genetic information which should be part of a child's adoption record and that there is a need for genetic education programs for adoption workers. Responses to the desirability of mandating legislation for this purpose were less consistent.     

A semi-empirical model of methane emission from flooded rice paddy soils

Reliable regional or global estimates of methane emissions from flooded rice paddy soils depend on an examination of methodologies by which the current high variability in the estimates might be reduced. One potential way to do this is the development of predictive models. With an understanding of the processes of methane production, oxidation and emission, a semi-empirical model, focused on the contributions of rice plants to the processes and also the influence of environmental factors, was developed to predict methane emission from flooded rice fields. A simplified version of the model was also derived to predict methane emission in a more practical manner. In this study, it was hypothesized that methanogenic substrates are primarily derived from rice plants and added organic matter. Rates of methane production in flooded rice soils are determined by the availability of methanogenic substrates and the influence of environmental factors. Rice growth and development control the fraction of methane emitted. The amount of methane transported from the soil to the atmosphere is determined by the rates of production and the emitted fraction. Model validation against observations from single rice growing seasons in Texas, USA demonstrated that the seasonal variation of methane emission is regulated by rice growth and development. A further validation of the model against measurements from irrigated rice paddy soils in various regions of the world, including Italy, China, Indonesia, Philippines and the United States, suggests that methane emission can be predicted from rice net productivity, cultivar character, soil texture and temperature, and organic matter amendments.     

Vibrational communication and mating behaviour of Dichelops melacanthus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) recorded from loudspeaker membranes and plants

Vibrational communication is important for successful mating in various stink bugs species. The vibrational signals from males and females of Dichelops melacanthus Dallas (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) are recorded from a nonresonant substrate (i.e. a loudspeaker membrane) to characterize the temporal and spectral properties of these vibrational signals, as well as on a resonant substrate (i.e. bean plants) to obtain information about how these signals are altered when they are transmitted through the plants. On the loudspeaker membrane, D. melacanthus males and females emit only one male or one female song, respectively. However, when the insects are placed on bean leaves, a more complex repertoire is recorded, with three different songs for each sex. The first female and male songs appear to have calling functions and the third male and female songs are emitted during courtship. The second female and male songs are emitted after the first song, although their functions in mating behaviour are not clear. The identified repertoire is similar to those of other Neotropical stink bugs, starting with songs 1 and 2 and developing into song 3. Frequency modulation is observed in the female songs recorded from the loudspeaker membrane and the plants. The signals recorded from plants present higher harmonic peaks compared with the signals recorded from the loudspeaker membrane. The presence of species and sex‐specific songs during mating confirms the important role of vibrational communication in mate location and recognition. The temporal and spectral characteristic signals are influenced by the substrate used to record the songs emitted by D. melacanthus.     

Phenotypic profiling of mGlu7 knockout mice reveals new implications for neurodevelopmental disorders

Neurodevelopmental disorders are characterized by deficits in communication, cognition, attention, social behavior and/or motor control. Previous studies have pointed to the involvement of genes that regulate synaptic structure and function in the pathogenesis of these disorders. One such gene, GRM7, encodes the metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGlu₇), a G protein‐coupled receptor that regulates presynaptic neurotransmitter release. Mutations and polymorphisms in GRM7 have been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in clinical populations; however, limited preclinical studies have evaluated mGlu₇ in the context of this specific disease class. Here, we show that the absence of mGlu₇ in mice is sufficient to alter phenotypes within the domains of social behavior, associative learning, motor function, epilepsy and sleep. Moreover, Grm7 knockout mice exhibit an attenuated response to amphetamine. These findings provide rationale for further investigation of mGlu₇ as a potential therapeutic target for neurodevelopmental disorders such as idiopathic autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Rett syndrome.     

Habitat utilization by coral reef fish: implications for specialists vs. generalists in a changing environment

1. The impact of environmental disturbance and habitat loss on associated species is expected to be dependent on a species' level of specialization. We examined habitat use and specialization of coral reef fish from the diverse and ecologically important family Pomacentridae, and determined which species are susceptible to declines in coral cover due to disturbance induced by crown-of-thorns seastar (COTS, Acanthaster planci L.). 2. A high proportion of pomacentrid species live in association with live coral as adults (40%) or juveniles (53%). Adults of many species had strong affiliations with branching corals, while juveniles favoured plating growth forms, reflecting the sizes of refuge provided by coral types. 3. Juveniles of species that associated with coral had narrower niche breadths than adult conspecifics, due to associations with specific coral types. The especially high coral association and narrower niche breadth of juveniles suggest that the presence of live coral is crucial for many species during early life history, and that disturbance-induced coral loss may have serious flow-on effects on adult abundance. 4. Microhabitat availability was a poor predictor of fish species abundance. Significant correlations between coverage of coral types and abundance of five adults and two juvenile species were detected; however, these relationships explained <35% and <10% of the variation in abundance of adult and juvenile species, respectively. 5. Niche breadth explained 74% of the variation in species' mean response to coral decline and it is clear that disturbance has a greater impact on resource specialists, suggesting that increasing frequency and intensity of coral loss will cause reef fish communities to become dominated by habitat generalists at the expense of coral-dwelling specialists.     

A new species of Eimeria Schneider, 1875 (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from the Solomon ground skink, Sphenomorphus solomonis (Boulenger) (Sauria: Scincidae) from Papua New Guinea

Between September 1990 and November 1991, 19 Sphenomorphus spp. skinks, including nine S. jobiense, three S. simus, and seven Solomon ground skinks, S. solomonis (Boulenger), were collected from Madang and Morobe Provinces, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and examined for coccidia. A single S. solomonis was found to be infected with a new species of Eimeria Schneider, 1875. Oöcysts of Eimeria perkinsae n. sp. are ellipsoidal with a smooth, colourless, bi-layered wall, measure 18.6 × 14.7 μm, and have a length/width (L/W) ratio of 1.3; both micropyle and oöcyst residuum are absent, but a fragmented polar granule is present. Sporocysts are ovoidal, 8.9 × 6.4 μm, L/W 1.4; neither Stieda, sub-Stieda or para-Stieda bodies are present; a sporocyst residuum consisted of a loose cluster of granules dispersed between sporozoites. Sporozoites are comma-shaped with spheroidal anterior and posterior refractile bodies. This represents the first report of coccidia from this skink genus.