Family Membership Research Articles

MHC Class II variability in bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus)

Studies of gene diversity are used to investigate population dynamics, including immunological fitness. Aside from the selection of an appropriate gene target, an important factor that underpins these studies is the ability to recover viable DNA samples from native animals that are protected, threatened or difficult to sample or locate such as the bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus). In this study, we used genomic DNA extracted from muscle tissue samples and also identified the optimal method to extract DNA from fresh wombat scat samples to enable further analyses to be performed using non-invasive techniques. The DNA was probed via the polymerase chain reaction using previously targeted marsupial Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) gene primers. These genes are highly variable and associated with binding and presentation of pathogens in the immune system. Twenty-three unique MHC Class II DAB V. ursinus gene sequences were translated to 21 unique predicted peptide sequences from 34 individual tissue or scat samples. Vombatus ursinus MHC Class II DAB gene and peptide sequences were most similar to other marsupial DNA and peptide sequences. Further analysis also indicated the likelihood of MHC Class II DAB family membership through motif identification. Additional sampling is required to assess the full level of diversity of MHC Class II DAB genes among V. ursinus populations; however, this study is the first to identify MHC genes in a wombat and will advance immunological and disease studies of the species.

Obstacles and Opportunities Experienced by Adult Stepchildren in Later Life Stepfamilies

ABSTRACTThe present study examined adult stepchildren’s perspectives regarding their later life stepfamilies. Twenty-six adult stepchildren who experienced parental divorce and remarriage in adulthood, defined as 18 years of age or older, participated in semi-structured, qualitative interviews. Results revealed that adult stepchildren experienced both obstacles and opportunities in their later life stepfamily. Challenges encompassed “feeling caught,” terms of address, and balancing family membership. Opportunities reflected stepparent’s positive impact and positive stepsibling and extended family relationships. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical contributions.

1447-P: Epistatic Interactions of Known Gene Variants for Glycated Hemoglobin: Evidence from the Long Life Family Study

HbA1c, an index of chronic glycemic status relevant to IR and T2D, is associated with aging, cognitive performance and mortality. To identify epistatic interactions, we assessed 65 published SNPs associated with levels of HbA1c (n=4,090) and change in HbA1c levels over time (n=2,054) among nondiabetic participants of European ancestry who had complete data from 2 exams collected 7 years apart in the LLFS, a multicenter family study with a clustering of healthy aging and exceptional survival. Both traits were adjusted for age, sex, BMI, field center and principal components, with correction for familial membership. HbA1c change over time was derived using growth curve modeling, taking into account baseline HbA1c. A knowingly more powerful Bayesian approach was used to test SNP association searching for significant (Bayes Factor, BF>3) single SNPs and best (top 1) combinations of interacting SNPs followed by MIXED regression reconfirmation (p<0.05 for main and interaction terms). HK1-rs17476364 (BF=7.8), GCK-rs4607517 (BF=5.7), HK1-rs16926246 (BF=4.8), SPTA1-rs12041363 (BF=4.5), G6PC2-rs560887 (BF=3.6) and SPTA1-rs857691 (BF=3.0) were individually associated with baseline HbA1c. Their best and significant 2-SNP association was found between HK1-rs17476364 and GCK (BF=13.5; p=0.000015, 0.0038 and 0.0093 for main and interaction terms, respectively). The emerged best 3 and 4 SNP combinations were HK1-GCK-SPTA1 (BF=18.1) and HK1-GCK-SPTA1-G6PC2 (BF=22.0), respectively. For HbA1c change over time, no single SNPs were significant; their best SNP combination involved G6PC2, ADCY5, SLC30A8, HK1, PHB2 and FN3KRP. Glucokinase (GCK product) and hexokinase (HK1 product) are isozymes that interactively and uniquely phosphorylate glucose to make G6P, an important intermediate enabling the coordination of the rate of glycolysis. Together, HK1-GCK interaction for HbA1c was observed first in a large family data with familial clustering of exceptional longevity. Disclosure P. An: None. B. Thyagarajan: None. J.H. Lee: None. N. Schupf: None. J.M. Zmuda: None. M. Province: None. Funding National Institutes of Health

A Taxonomic Study of Asteroid Families from KMTNET-SAAO Multiband Photometry

Abstract We present here multiband photometry for over 2000 Main-Belt asteroids. For each target, we report the probabilistic taxonomy using the measured V – R and V – I colors in combination with a machine-learning-generated decision surface in color–color space. Through this method, we classify >85% of our targets as one the four main Bus–DeMeo complexes: S-, C-, X-, or D-type. Roughly one-third of our targets have a known associated dynamic family, with 69 families represented in our data. Within uncertainties, our results show no discernible difference in taxonomic distribution between family members and non-family members. Nine of the sixty-nine families represented in our observed sample had 20 or more members present, and therefore, we investigate the taxonomy of these families in more detail and find excellent agreement with the literature. Out of these nine well-sampled families, our data show that the Themis, Koronis, Hygiea, Massalia, and Eunomia families display a high degree of taxonomic homogeneity and that the Vesta, Flora, Nysa–Polana, and Eos families show a significant level of mixture in taxonomies. Using the taxonomic purity and the degree of dispersion in observed colors for each of the nine well-sampled collisional families, we also speculate which of these families potentially originated from a differentiated parent body and/or is a family with a possible undetermined nested family. In addition, we obtained sufficient photometric data for 433 of our targets to extract reliable rotation periods and observe no obvious correlation between rotation properties and family membership.

The Genetic Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption and Aspects of Problem Drinking in an Ascertained Sample.

Genomewide association studies (GWAS) have begun to identify loci related to alcohol consumption, but little is known about whether this genetic propensity overlaps with specific indices of problem drinking in ascertained samples. In 6,731 European Americans who had been exposed to alcohol, we examined whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) from a GWAS of weekly alcohol consumption in the UK Biobank predicted variance in 6 alcohol-related phenotypes: alcohol use, maximum drinks within 24hours (MAXD), total score on the Self-Rating of the Effects of Ethanol Questionnaire (SRE-T), DSM-IV alcohol dependence (DSM4AD), DSM-5 alcohol use disorder symptom counts (DSM5AUDSX), and reduction/cessation of problematic drinking. We also examined the extent to which an single nucleotide polymorphism (rs1229984) in ADH1B, which is strongly associated with both alcohol consumption and dependence, contributed to the polygenic association with these phenotypes and whether PRS interacted with sex, age, or family history of alcoholism to predict alcohol-related outcomes. We performed mixed-effect regression analyses, with family membership and recruitment site included as random effects, as well as survival modeling of age of onset of DSM4AD. PRS for alcohol consumption significantly predicted variance in 5 of the 6 outcomes: alcohol use (Δmarginal R2 =1.39%, Δ area under the curve [AUC]=0.011), DSM4AD (Δmarginal R2 =0.56%; ΔAUC=0.003), DSM5AUDSX (Δmarginal R2 =0.49%), MAXD (Δmarginal R2 =0.31%), and SRE-T (Δmarginal R2 =0.22%). PRS were also associated with onset of DSM4AD (hazard ratio=1.11, p=2.08e-5). The inclusion of rs1229984 attenuated the effects of the alcohol consumption PRS, particularly for DSM4AD and DSM5AUDSX, but the PRS continued to exert an independent effect for all 5 alcohol measures (Δmarginal R2 after controlling for ADH1B=0.14 to 1.22%). Interactions between PRS and sex, age, or family history were nonsignificant. Genetic propensity for typical alcohol consumption was associated with alcohol use and was also associated with 4 of the additional 5 outcomes, though the variance explained in this sample was modest. Future GWAS that focus on the multifaceted nature of AUD, which goes beyond consumption, might reveal additional information regarding the polygenic underpinnings of problem drinking.

Increased Gut Permeability in First-degree Relatives of Children with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Functional Abdominal Pain

Increased gut permeability might contribute to the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome or functional abdominal pain (IBS or FAP). We investigated whether siblings and parents of children with IBS or FAP have increased gut permeability. We performed permeability tests (using sucrose, lactulose, mannitol, and sucralose) on 29 siblings and 43 parents of children with IBS or FAP, and 43 children (controls) and 42 parents of controls, from primary and secondary care. Permeability studies were repeated in 7 siblings and 37 parents of children with IBS or FAP and 23 controls and 36 parents of controls following ingestion of 400 mg of ibuprofen. Percent recovery of sucrose was calculated based on analyses of urine collected overnight; the lactulose/mannitol ratio and percent recovery of sucralose were based on analyses of urine samples collected over a 24-hour period. When we controlled for age, sex, and family membership, siblings of children with IBS or FAP had increased small bowel permeability (urinary lactulose/mannitol ratio) vs controls (P=.004). There was no difference in gastroduodenal (percent sucrose recovery) or colonic (percent sucralose recovery) permeability between groups. Similarly, parents of children with IBS or FAP also had increased small bowel permeability, compared with parents of controls (P=.015), with no differences in gastric or colonic permeability. After administration of ibuprofen, gastroduodenal and small bowel permeability tended to be greater in IBS or FAP siblings (P = .08) and gastroduodenal permeability tended to be greater in IBS or FAP parents (P = .086). Siblings and parents of children with IBS or FAP have increased baseline small intestinal permeability compared with control children and their parents. These results indicate that there are familial influences on gastrointestinal permeability in patients with IBS or FAP.

Behind ambidextrous search: The microfoundations of search in family and non-family firms

We offer a microfoundational perspective to challenge the consensual view of ambidextrous search as a superior approach to addressing performance problems. We characterize the nature of search as both ostensive and agentic, and suggest that search performance is idiosyncratic across individuals and highly dependent on decision makers' cognitive frameworks and social contexts. To test our theory, we develop a mathematical simulation model that formalizes the mechanisms regulating the search behaviors of senior leaders in both family and non-family firms. Our results suggest that a search approach that is conducive to superior performance in non-family firms may yield inferior performance in family firms depending on the senior leader's family membership and her/his positional history in the firm (i.e., non-family, founder, later-generation). Moreover, we reveal that while ambidexterity constitutes a superior search approach for family firms with founder CEOs, those with non-family or later-generation CEOs would seem to benefit from specialization.

Beetle ecological indicators – A comparison of cost vs reward to understand functional changes in response to restoration actions

• Reduced grazing affects abundance-, richness- and biomass-based ecological indicators differently. • Richness and abundance indicators are less informative than biomass-based ones. • Family-based functional groups are useful ecological indicators for functional change. • Abundance- and biomass-based indicators offer different functional insights. • Abundance indicators of the most common family groups are the most cost-effective indicators. Ecosystem restoration can play a vital role in conserving biodiversity, but its effectiveness can be difficult to assess for hyperdiverse biota such as insects. Species traits of insects can be used to understand their functional responses to restoration, but their use often requires considerable effort, and few studies have examined what additional insight can be gained from this approach. We used a spatially and temporally controlled restoration experiment to examine beetle species, grouped by flight ability, family membership and feeding guild, as indicators of ecosystem functional change. We tested for the effects of reduced vertebrate grazing on beetle assemblages sampled from two different microhabitats (next to log and in open ground) one year prior and two years after a vertebrate grazing treatment was applied. We compared the responses of the different beetle functional groupings, and then related these to the effort involved in employing these indicators. We found that beetle species traits gave several functional insights into their responses to reduced grazing, including responses to changes in vegetation structure and biomass. Species richness indicators and abundance indicators of beetle functional groups showed similar responses in many cases, whereas biomass indicators gave additional insights related to the extra biomass of vegetation and detritus resulting from the reduction in grazing. We found that most results were revealed by using family groups as indicators for functional change. This is because the traits that often define beetle families, such as size, flight ability and feeding guilds each have distinctive functional roles, allowing a link from family to function, and supporting the idea that phylogeny is often a useful shortcut to species ecology. We conclude that in our study system, the least-cost approach to identifying functional responses of beetles to reduced vertebrate grazing, and possibly other restoration actions, is to use abundance indicators of the most common family groups.

Relational Potential versus the Parent-Child Relationship.

In an article in this issue of the Hastings Center Report, Aaron Wightman and his coauthors attempt to address health care providers' moral distress about acceding to parents' requests to provide life-sustaining medical treatment to children who have profound cognitive disabilities. They propose combining John Arras's relational potential standard and care ethics, and they argue that the capacity for caring relationships can provide an independent moral justification for honoring such requests. This combination is, however, unstable. Wightman et al.'s language of potential and capacity opens the possibility of substantial misinterpretation. They rely on epistemological and prognostic uncertainty to argue that reciprocity and participation may be present in the parent-child relationship even when the child's engagement cannot be observed. The terminology suggests that these are characteristics that can be gained or lost rather than characteristics of being born within certain social practices. In contrast, Eva Feder Kittay illuminates family membership as an important social relation. Her articulation of the independent moral value of parenting stands on its own without being conjoined to Arras's position.

Improving file-level fuzzy hashes for malware variant classification

Malware analysts need to be able to accurately and swiftly predict family membership as well as to determine that a suspect file contains malicious content. Previous research has shown that fuzzy hashing can be used to determine whether a file is malicious and to cluster like files together, but it does not specifically address the problem of malware variant classification. Existing tools such as VirusTotal maintain file and section level cryptographic hashes and ssdeep file digests but they do not maintain section-level similarity hashes or provide a means to submit similarity hashes and compare them to previously analyzed samples.This paper presents a study on the feasibility of using section-level similarity hashing as a means of classifying malware variants. The aim of the study was to produce a method to overcome the limitations of file-level similarity hashing, such as poor performance against obfuscated malware. Section-level similarity hashing involves splitting malware executables into their binary headers and sections and applying a similarity digest on each resulting binary chunk. Experiments with known malware families were conducted using file and section level digests where each method was used to predict malware family membership. The performance of both methods was evaluated using precision, recall and accuracy metrics.The results show that similarity digests can be used to classify malware in Windows Portable Executable (PE) files and that section-level hashing and comparison produces considerably better results than at file-level.

Kapital Simbolik Sebagai Identitas Keluarga Besar Studi Kasus Komunitas Bani Ma’shum di Kecamatan Jatibarang Brebes Jawa Tengah

This paper describes symbolic capital that owned by an extended family community, Bani Ma'shum. The theory is Bourdieu's concept of habitus, fields, and symbolic capital. This paper uses a qualitative method to explain the survival of the Bani Ma'shum community in district Jatibarang Brebes, Central of Java. This paper describe Bani Ma'shum as a large family community of Javanese ethnicity. Values and experiences based on the Javanese habitus they applied to their activity everyday. The use of the concept of bani is not just naming, but also show that Arab habitus has also been constructed into this community. Bani Ma'shum was formed in NU (ahli sunnah wal jama'ah) community. Bani Ma'shum has several capital, there are social, cultural, politic, economy, and symbolic capital. These capital play in three arenas: socio-religious, politic, and economy. From other capitals, symbolic capital is most plays as important role for members of Bani Ma'shum. Because with symbolic capital members of Bani Ma’shum can access other capital. Bani Ma'shum distinction is based on blood ties and family lineage. This family membership is only based on blood ties and not everyone can enter the Bani Ma'shum family, except by marry their child of Bani Ma'shum family.

Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intention and Work Performance in Chinese Family Enterprises

Based on the analysis of survey data of 121 family enterprises in China, we find that the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention is insignificant for family members, but significant for non-family members. Moreover, our findings also indicate that the effect of job satisfaction on work performance is less salient for family members, but more significant for non-family members. Our results further show that managerial positions moderates the main effects. This paper enriches the literature of family business by examining the importance of family membership and managerial position in the governance of family enterprises in an emerging country.

Support, socialise and advocate: An exploration of the stated purposes of Facebook autism groups

With a rapidly growing global population of just over two billion users, Facebook has changed the way many people engage with each other. Whilst the autism community—autistic people, their families and carers, and their broader support network—are represented in this population there is limited research about how or why this community intends to use Facebook to connect and communicate. This exploratory study aimed to characterise the stated purposes of Facebook groups related to autism and their target membership. The terms autism, Asperger, ASD, Aspie, and wrong planet were used to search for Facebook groups. Using a content analysis, the group name, description, privacy status and member count of 500 autism groups on Facebook were examined. The groups had a combined membership of 905,655 English-speaking users and were created for support (60.4%), social companionship (16.4%), advocacy (15.8%), treatments (5.6%), sales (1.0%) and fundraising (0.8%). Most of the groups had a target membership of parents and families (57.4%), autistic people (23.4%), and women (10.4%). Many groups specified group etiquette (36.4%), or the geographic location of members (42.8%). Of the groups targeting autistic people, 77.8% used identity-first language, while 58.2% of groups targeting parents and families used person-first language. Separate and shared neuro-spaces appear to be negotiated within these Facebook groups and this could stimulate critical discussion around the autism community’s engagement with social media. These Facebook groups are designed to provide support to autistic people and their families and to provide social networking opportunities for autistic people.

Challenges and Opportunities of Cloud Computing in Social Network; Survey

Nowadays, there has been fast growth in cloud computing and social networking technologies. Cloud computing translates the computing resources to a third party, eliminating the need to purchase, configure and maintain those resources. With the increasingly ubiquitous nature of Social networks and Cloud computing, users are starting to explore new ways to interact with, and exploit these developing paradigms. Social networks are used to reflect real world relationships that allow users to share information and form connections between one another, essentially creating dynamic Virtual Organizations. Cloud Computing and Social Network Sites (SNS) are among the most controversially discussed developments in recent years. The opportunities of using powerful computing resources on demand via the web are considered as a possible driver for the growth of the world economy. Social networks provide a virtual place where people can interact and share. With the increasing user base and the competition social networks needed a scalable, cost-effective backend architecture and efficient business. Online social media network has become part of human life by transforming the way users create new social relations or relate with family and friends. A social network, as the name suggests is a network of individuals created for social communication. It is a massive platform where people interact with others anywhere in the world online based on some relationship. The relationship can be friendship, family membership or others with some shared interests. Despite these considerable benefits, there are serious concerns and challenges about this new technology. The most important issue is related to security and privacy subjects in cloud-based environments. Accordingly, challenges and concerns related to cloud based environments have been identified and most appropriate current solutions for each challenge have been described. In overall, it is anticipated that cloud computing will be the most important and challenging issue in IT industry. As regarding the importance of this technology, we hope this paper will contribute to a better understanding of the vision of cloud computing and the challenges ahead for further researches. Likewise, social networks have seen enormous growth, with millions of Internet users actively participating across various social networking websites.

Some Aspects of the Formation of Urban Elites: The Case of Medieval Gradec (Zagreb)

This research focuses on those Gradec citizens who were elected to administrative functions since these were held by the richest and most distinguished citizens. They constituted the political elite of the city as there was only a thin line between the economic, social and political elites in Gradec. This paper deals with many aspects and elements that played a role in the formation of the urban elite, elements such as family ties, wealth, moral values, piety, education and membership of the nobility.

How children in foster care engage with loyalty conflict: presenting a model of processes informing loyalty

The increasing emphasis on outcomes for children in care has prompted much research and drawn attention to the importance of harnessing users’ views on the services they receive. However, this awareness is still limited in some areas, one of which is the loyalty conflict experienced by children in foster care who have to negotiate living with a new family while also retaining their birth family membership. This study assesses the extent to which they experience such conflict and how they cope with the challenges it presents. A qualitative methodology, involving semi-structured interviews with 15 children was employed and grounded theory used to inform the data analysis and construction of a theoretical model. The model comprises five core categories: new realities; considering position; making sense; relating emotionally; and working out loyalties. A sixth category, considering others’ perspectives, emerged from respondent validation and an overarching perspective, self-determination, was found to permeate all other processes and contributed to highlighting complexity. New knowledge is gained through seeking the voices of the children and exploring the position they hold by being within and between two families. Implications for practice and future research are also discussed.

Molecular characterization of two novel proteins All1122 and Alr0750 of Anabaena PCC 7120 conferring tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses in Escherichia coli

In- silico and functional genomics approaches have been used to determine cellular functions of two hypothetical proteins All1122 and Alr0750 of Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. Motif analysis and multiple sequence alignment predicted them as typical α/β ATP binding universal stress family protein-A (UspA) with G-(2×)-G-(9×)-G(S/T) as conserved motif. qRT-PCR data under UV-B, NaCl, heat, As, CdCl2, mannitol and methyl viologen registered approximately 1.4 to 4.3 fold induction of all1122 and alr0750 thus confirming their multiple abiotic stress tolerance potential. The recombinant E. coli (BL21) cells harboring All1122 and Alr0750 showed 12–41% and 23–41% better growth respectively over wild type control under said abiotic stresses thus revalidating their stress coping ability. Functional complementation on heterologous expression in UspA mutant E. coli strain LN29MG1655 (ΔuspA::Kan) attested their UspA family membership. This study tempted us to suggest that recombinant Anabaena PCC 7120 over expressing all1122 and alr0750 might contribute to the nitrogen economy in paddy fields experiencing array of abiotic stresses including drought and nutrient limitation.

Maps of Family Relationships Drawn by Women Engaged in Bisexual Motherhood: Defining Family Membership

Family building by bisexual mothers is a neglected area of research, yet this is an important aspect of life course development that may reciprocally influence the sexual identity development of bi...

“I Don’t Look Like Her”: Race, Resemblance, and Relationships in Multiracial Families

Race and resemblance are tied to family membership, and relationships characterize family dynamics. In this article, we argue that race, resemblance, and relationships intersect in distinct, layered ways in multiracial families. While scholarship has documented how multiracial families have historically been considered outside of the norm, little research has explored the impact of this racialized reality on family relationships. This article examines how phenotype shapes family interactions and, over time, the family relationships between a child and her or his mother, father, and sibling(s) through the voices of 60 black/white biracial adults. By reflecting on their earliest childhood memories to their most recent encounters, their narratives illuminate experiences shaped by their status in a multiracial—and historically unorthodox—family. We underscore how multiracial families are perceived by others based on racial resemblance (or lack thereof), how family members contend with these racialized perceptions, and how black/white biracial Americans perceive their own family relationships.

Recent insights into targeting the IL-6 cytokine family in inflammatory diseases and cancer.

The IL-6 family of cytokines consists of IL-6, IL-11, IL-27, IL-31, oncostatin M (OSM), leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), cardiotrophin 1 (CT-1) and cardiotrophin-like cytokine factor 1 (CLCF1). Membership of this cytokine family is defined by usage of common β-receptor signalling subunits, which activate various intracellular signalling pathways. Each IL-6 family member elicits responses essential to the physiological control ofimmune homeostasis, haematopoiesis, inflammation, development and metabolism. Accordingly,distortion of these cytokine activities often promotes chronic disease and cancer; the pathological importance of this is exemplified by the successful treatment of certain autoimmune conditions with drugs that target the IL-6 pathway. Here, we discuss the emerging roles for IL-6 family members in infection, chronic inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer and review therapeutic strategies designed to manipulate these cytokines in disease.