Effects of maternal depression on family food insecurity

We use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort to estimate the effects of maternal depression, a condition that is fairly common and can be severe, on food insecurity, a hardship that has increased substantially in the U.S. Using various model specifications, we find convincing evidence that severe maternal depression increases the likelihood that young children experience food insecurity by 23–79%, with estimates depending on model specification and measures of depression and food insecurity. For household food insecurity, the corresponding estimates are 11–69%. We also find that maternal depression increases reliance on several types of public programs, suggesting that the programs play a buffering role.     

物种与科属的数量关系——以中国鸟类为例

许多研究表明,物种与高级分类阶元在数量上密切相关,这种关系在地区物种数量预测中具有很高的应用价值。应用中国不同地理类型(保护区、行政区和动物地理亚区)的鸟类物种名录,研究物种与科属的数量相关关系和频次分布规律,结果表明(1)物种与高级分类阶元在数量上有着极显著相关关系(P<0.01),其中物种—属的相关关系要显著于物种—科,且在对数、乘幂、指数和线数4种模型中,用乘幂模型拟合最好;(2)物种在科属间的频次分布具有规律性(P<0.05),随着物种数/科属的增加,频次迅速减少,在4种模型中,乘幂模型拟合最好,属的规律性较科显著。根据以上结果,物种与科属间的数量强相关关系与物种数量在科属间有规律的频次分布有关。     

Reduction of dimensionality in Bayesian nonlinear regression with a pharmacokinetic application

Application of Bayes's theorem to the analysis of nonlinear regression models is limited by numerical problems associated with calculation of integrals of functions of several variables. For k-parameter models that are linear in l of the parameters, a dimension-reduction procedure is described for factoring the posterior distribution into the product of a multivariate normal density and a function of k-l nonlinear parameters. Integrals can then be calculated with (k-l)-dimensional numerical integration. A four-parameter, two-compartment pharmacokinetic model of lidocaine disposition is analyzed using a change of variables in order to obtain a model that is linear in two parameters. It is shown that a Bayesian analysis, with reduction of dimensionality, applied to this model produces appropriate results with reasonable CPU-time requirements.     

Family ideation,immigration, and the racial state: explaining divergent family reunification policies in Britain and the US

Why do family reunification policies differ across liberal democracies? Established literature explains differentiation through reference to the logics of distinct “national models” of immigration policy-making. Drawing on critical race and feminist scholarship, this paper finds consistent racial logics in the political histories of family reunification policies in Britain and the US during the mid-twentieth century. In a context where the geopolitical power of each country was conditioned by an assertive antiracist internationalism, “family” provided a colourblind, ideational platform to rearticulate the state-based racial project of white supremacy. Despite an original convergence, family reunification diverged because of the context-specific racialization of the immigrant family in each case. In rooting divergent reunification policies in the logics of the racial state, this paper contributes to efforts to incorporate race into the sociology of immigration. The paper also develops recent feminist scholarship on the role of “family ideation” in building liberal-democratic immigration systems.     

Familial segregation in the iron age community of Alfedena, Abruzzo, Italy, based on osteodental trait analysis

Numerous authors have studied human cemetery remains with an eye toward identifying different socially stratified ethnic or kinship groups within the same population. The interments of the protohistoric graveyard of Alfedena, Abruzzo, Italy, show recurrent organization in separate structures, suggesting to several involved archaeologists that these structures express family groups and/or differences in social function of the occupants. This has induced us to analyze the possible biological implications of specific models for kinship groups, lineages, or mating forms in graveyards. One hundred ninety-six metric and nonmetric skeletal and dental variables were collected. The analysis of metric features was performed by analysis of variance and by calculating divergences between each pair of individuals. The position parameters of the inter-and intragroup distance distributions were then compared by means of nonparametric tests. The nonmetric features were analyzed by contingency tables. The partition of intercircle variance is twice as frequently significant for males (20 variables) as for females (10). For metric variables in males, 20.9% displayed a probability level less than 5% for the null hypothesis of random distribution of individuals in the circles. Fewer (10.3%, but still more than expected at random) reached this level of significance for the females. In the male groups, 19% of nonmetric features showed significant frequency differences, but this was true in only 4.3% of the females.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

鲢EST-SSR标记的开发及其与生长性状关联性分析

研究采用Illumina高通量测序技术对鲢(Hypophthalmichthys molitrix)卵组织进行转录组测序分析,筛选多态EST-SSR标记并与生长性状进行关联性分析。研究结果显示:(1)测序组装总Unigene 77129个, SSR共24458个,占所测EST数据的31.7%。鲢包含SSR的EST序列主要有二碱基、三碱基、四碱基和五碱基组成。二碱基中, AC含量最丰富;(2)随机挑选175条EST序列设计SSR引物,筛选出多态EST-SSR标记36个, Blast结果显示有10条已知基因功能;(3)全同胞家系检测结果显示有两个标记与鲢的生长性状相关。SCE26与体长和体重显著相关(P<0.05), SCE65与肥满度显著相关(P<0.05)。研究结果将为鲢的分子标记辅助育种的应用提供基础理论指导。     

抑癌候选基因NDRG2 对结肠癌细胞SW620 的迁移和侵袭力的影响

目的:观察NDRG2对结肠癌SW620细胞侵袭、转移等生物学行为的影响,探讨其可能的调节机制。方法:用阳离子脂质体转染方法分别转染pcDNA3.1-Ndrg2和SiRNA-Ndrg2于SW620细胞内48h,上调/下调NDRG2的表达;检测NDRG2基因mRNA及蛋白表达水平的变化;通过划痕试验及transwell细胞侵袭试验进一步对上调/下调NDRG2表达水平后的结肠癌细胞迁移和侵袭能力进行分析。结果:pcDNA3.1-Ndrg2转染SW620后,NDRG2的mRNA和蛋白表达水平明显升高,细胞的迁移和侵袭能力下降;SiRNA-Ndrg2转染SW620后,NDRG2的mRNA和蛋白表达水平明显降低,细胞的迁移和侵袭能力上升,差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论:NDRG2作为抑癌候选基因能够降低结肠癌细胞转移和侵袭能力。     

The Functional Differences between Pro-survival and Pro-apoptotic B Cell Lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) Proteins Depend on Structural Differences in Their Bcl-2 Homology 3 (BH3) Domains

Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3) domains are short sequence motifs that mediate nearly all protein-protein interactions between B cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family proteins in the intrinsic apoptotic cell death pathway. These sequences are found on both pro-survival and pro-apoptotic members, although their primary function is believed to be associated with induction of cell death. Here, we identify critical features of the BH3 domains of pro-survival proteins that distinguish them functionally from their pro-apoptotic counterparts. Biochemical and x-ray crystallographic studies demonstrate that these differences reduce the capacity of most pro-survival proteins to form high affinity “BH3-in-groove” complexes that are critical for cell death induction. Switching these residues for the corresponding residues in Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer (Bak) increases the binding affinity of isolated BH3 domains for pro-survival proteins; however, their exchange in the context of the parental protein causes rapid proteasomal degradation due to protein destabilization. This is supported by further x-ray crystallographic studies that capture elements of this destabilization in one pro-survival protein, Bcl-w. In pro-apoptotic Bak, we demonstrate that the corresponding distinguishing residues are important for its cell-killing capacity and antagonism by pro-survival proteins.