The Intensity of Victimization: Associations with Children's Psychosocial Well-Being and Social Standing in the Classroom

The association between experienced victimization and students'' psychological and social adjustment depends on the intensity of victimization. We examined how frequency and multiplicity of victimization, and the number of bullies involved, account for differences in students’ psychosocial well-being and social standing in the classroom. Multilevel analyses were conducted on the control group of an intervention study among students in grades 3–6 of Dutch elementary schools (N = 2859 students from 124 classes and 33 schools; ages 8–12; 49.6% boys). It was found that victims of frequent and multiple victimization, and victims who were victimized by several bullies, had higher levels of psychosocial adjustment problems than victims of less frequent and non-multiple victimization, and victims with only one bully. Moreover, these more severe victims turned out to be least accepted and most rejected among their classmates. The findings illustrate that it can be fruitful to use several measures of victimization so that (differences in) adjustment problems can be better understood. Moreover, the results suggest that it is important to find out who is victimized, in what ways, and by whom. Anti-bullying interventions should provide resources to do this.     

AUDIT,AUDIT-C,and AUDIT-3: Drinking Patterns and Screening for Harmful,Hazardous and Dependent Drinking in Katutura,Namibia

Objectives

To describe alcohol drinking patterns among participants in Katutura, Namibia, and to evaluate brief versions of the AUDIT against the full AUDIT to determine their effectiveness in detecting harmful drinking.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in four constituencies and 639 participants, 18 years or older, completed a sociodemographic survey and the AUDIT. The effectiveness of the AUDIT-C (first three questions) and the AUDIT-3 (third question) was compared to the full AUDIT.

Results

Approximately 40% were identified as harmful, hazardous or likely dependent drinkers, with men having a higher likelihood than women (57.2% vs. 31.0%, p<.0001). Approximately 32% reported making and/or selling alcohol from home. The AUDIT-C performed best at a cutoff ≥ 3, better in men (sensitivity: 99.3%, specificity: 77.8%) than women (sensitivity: 91.7%, specificity: 77.4%). The AUDIT-3 performed poorly (maximum sensitivity: < 90%, maximum specificity: <51%). According to AUROC, the AUDIT-C performed better than the AUDIT-3.

Conclusions

A large proportion of participants met criteria for alcohol misuse, indicating a need for screening and referral for further evaluation and intervention. The AUDIT-C was almost as effective as the full AUDIT and may be easier to implement in clinical settings as a routine screening tool in resource-limited settings because of its brevity.     

Design,synthesis and algicides activities of thiourea derivatives as the novel scaffold aldolase inhibitors

By using a new Fragment-Based Virtual Screen strategy, two series of novel FBA-II inhibitors (thiourea derivatives) were de novo discovered based on the active site of fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate aldolase from Cyanobacterial (CyFBA). In comparison, most of the N-(2-benzoylhydrazine-1-carbonothioyl) benzamide derivatives (L14～L22) exhibit higher CyFBA-II inhibitory activities compared to N-(phenylcarbamothioyl) benzamide derivatives (L1～L13). Especially, compound L14 not only shows higher CyFBA-II activity (K_i?=?0.65?μM), but also exhibits most potent in vivo activity against Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (EC₅₀?=?0.09?ppm), higher (7-fold) than that of our previous inhibitor (EC₅₀?=?0.6?ppm). The binding modes of compound L14 and CyFBA-II were further elucidated by jointly using DOX computational protocol, MM-PBSA and site-directed mutagenesis assays. The positive results suggest that strategy adopted in this study was promising to rapidly discovery the potent inhibitors with novel scaffolds. The satisfactory algicide activities suggest that the thiourea derivatives is very likely to be a promising lead for the development of novel specific algicides to solve Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs).     

Amelioration of β^654-thalassemia in mouse model with the knockdown of aberrantly spliced β-globin mRNA

Large amounts of aberrantly spliced mRNA from the β654 allele was present in erythroid cells, which might impair the erythropoiesis.A therapeutic strategy for β-thalassemia was explored by knocking down the aberrantly spliced mRNA of β-globin. Lentiviral vector with siRNA fragment targets on the specific portion of β654-globin aberrantly spliced pre-mRNA was constructed. In HeLa β654 cells, the siRNA vector could reduce approximately 60% of aberrantly spliced mRNA, which was assessed by RT-PCR and qRT-PCR. Furthermore, a disease model of β654 thalassemia mice with lentiviral-mediated siRNA was produced by subzonal injection (named Hβi-Hbbth-4/Hbb+transgenic mice). Our results showed that the hemotological parameters were improved in Hβi-Hbbth-4/Hbb+ transgenic mice. This study provides a potential way for β654-thalassemia therapy by knocking down the aberrantly spliced β-globin mRNA, whilst supporting that the aberrantly spliced β-globin mRNA may aggravate the disease.     

乙肝病毒表面抗原preS1与人肿瘤坏死因子α融合基因的表达

用ＰＣＲ法获得了ＨＢｓＡｇｐｒｅＳ１（１－６５）肽段基因,将该基因融合在肿瘤坏死因子（ｈＴＮＦα）之后,插入表达载体ＰＳＢ－９２中,使融合基因的５′端直接置于大肠肝菌ＰＬ启动子下游,采用３０℃培养,４２℃诱导,获得了ＴＮＦ与ｐｒｅＳ１（１－６５）融合蛋白的表达产物。ＳＤＳ－ＰＡＧＥ电泳显示表达产物为２５ｋＤ,约占细菌总蛋白的３５％。表达产物经Ｗｅｓｔｅｒｎｂｌｏｔ验证,能分别特异地与ｈＴＮＦα抗体与ｐｒｅＳ１抗体结合,稀释复性后,该融合蛋白还具有ＴＮＦ的生理功能（对Ｌ９２９细胞的细胞毒活性）。经ＤＮＡ序列测定,ｐｒｅＳ１（１－６５）肽基因正确地融合在ｈＴＮＦα基因之后。该结果提供了一种制备ｐｒｅＳ１的新方法,为进一步开展治疗肝癌和乙肝的导向药物打下基础。     

人重组白蛋白基因在巴斯德毕赤酵母中的高效表达

The yeast Pichia pastoris was transformed by the multi\|copy Pichia expression vector that can express secreted human albumin.The high level expression of cell line was selected after screening.The expression of human recombinant albumin in Pichia pastoris induced by different methods were compared.The retio of secreted human albumin is 80% in total secreted proteins and the expression level reaches as high as is 10g/L.     

When invasion increases population genetic structure: a study with <Emphasis Type="Italic">Centaurea diffusa</Emphasis>

Biological invasions offer excellent systems to study the evolutionary processes involved in introductions of species to new ranges. Molecular markers can reveal invasion histories and the effects of introductions on amounts and structuring of genetic variation. We used five polymorphic microsatellite loci to elucidate genetic diversity and population structure between native range and introduced range populations of a prominent North American rangeland weed, Centaurea diffusa (Asteraceae). We found that the total number of alleles and the number of private alleles was slightly higher in the native Eurasian range, and that allelic richness did not differ between the ranges, indicating overall levels of diversity were similar in Eurasia and North America. It therefore seems unlikely that this invasion has been affected by genetic bottlenecks or founder effects. Indeed, results of assignment tests suggest that multiple introductions have contributed to North America’s C. diffusa invasion. Additionally, assignment tests show that both Eurasian and North American sites had a strong pattern of mixed genetic ancestry. This mixed assignment corresponded to a lack of geographic population structure among Eurasian samples. The lack of population structure in the native range conflicts with general expectations and findings to date for invasion genetics, and cautions that even species’ native ranges may show signs of recent ecological upheaval. Despite the mixed assignments, North American samples showed strong population structure, suggesting that the invasion has been characterized by long-range dispersal of genetically distinct propagules across the introduced range.     

Molecular characterization of DSR-E,an alpha-1,2 linkage-synthesizing dextransucrase with two catalytic domains

A novel Leuconostoc mesenteroides NRRL B-1299 dextransucrase gene, dsrE, was isolated, sequenced, and cloned in Escherichia coli, and the recombinant enzyme was shown to be an original glucansucrase which catalyses the synthesis of alpha-1,6 and alpha-1,2 linkages. The nucleotide sequence of the dsrE gene consists of an open reading frame of 8,508 bp coding for a 2,835-amino-acid protein with a molecular mass of 313,267 Da. This is twice the average mass of the glucosyltransferases (GTFs) known so far, which is consistent with the presence of an additional catalytic domain located at the carboxy terminus of the protein and of a central glucan-binding domain, which is also significantly longer than in other glucansucrases. From sequence comparison with family 70 and alpha-amylase enzymes, crucial amino acids involved in the catalytic mechanism were identified, and several original sequences located at some highly conserved regions in GTFs were observed in the second catalytic domain.