Low Level Of Association Research Articles

Women and Development in Climate Change Context: Female Salt-Collectors of the Pink Lake (Senegal).

Some decades ago, Sahel societies have been the scene of major upheavals related to climate change. These hazards especially read in terms of rainfall variability, droughts, water and wind erosion, floods affected the life of the populations and their activities, mainly agriculture. Besides, these societies are committed to struggle for the development process initiated since their independences (1960). Thus, Senegal did not depart from the rule. In such a context, women’s initiatives appear as a response to meet the dual challenge of facing the climate change effects and participating in the development dynamics. This study aims at examining the scope of the women’s activities exploiting the salt at the Pink Lake as a response to climate change risks and as participation in development. Therefore, it’s about seeing how women’s adaptation and resilience to climate change, through the salt collecting activity, constitute a contribution to development. With a triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative method, we use the questionnaire, interviews, documentary analysis, and sociological observation for the data collection. This study reveals that women of the Pink Lake with the income generated by the salt exploitation, help their households in meeting basic needs in a context which climate change, with its polymorphic effects, makes it difficult to practice activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry etc. This reflects the role that women play in climate change adaptation and development. But the constraints of the limited resources they make, the lack of information on climate change and the low level of association among other factors reduce their resilience and their level of participation in development dynamics.

Synthetic Phonics in Spanish Bilingual Education: Spelling Mistakes Analysis

Reading and writing in English from early ages is both a need and a must. The search of an effective learning methodology to teach early literacy has made the application of the Synthetic Phonics method to expand, regardless of the lack of agreement concerning its results. This study is aimed at showing whether this method is effective or not in bilingual educational centres of Madrid (Spain), focussing on the written skills of 640 students, aged 8-9. The errors committed in a 15-frequenly-used-word dictation have been classified according to Corder’s taxonomy. The non-parametric statistic results show that there are differences in the errors made by the students without specific method instruction (less errors) compared to those students with Synthetic Phonics instruction. However, these differences have lower level of association and do not indicate a relevant direction. Therefore, it could be concluded that Synthetic Phonics does not seem to guarantee an efficient learning of spelling for the Spanish students. There is a need to adapt the Synthetic Phonics method for learners from bilingual schools, as well as to investigate the efficiency of other methodologies to teach writing in English at early stages of literacy.

The robot doesn't lie: real-life validation of robotic performance metrics.

Degree of resident participation in a case is often used as a surrogate marker for operative autonomy, an essential element of surgical resident training. Previous studies have demonstrated a considerable disagreement between the perceptions of attending surgeons and trainees when it comes to estimating operative participation. The Da Vinci Surgical System dual console interface allows machine generated measurements of trainee's active participation, which has the potential to obviate the need for labor intensive direct observation of surgical procedures. However, the robotic metrics require validation. We present a comparison of operative participation as perceived by the resident, faculty, trained research staff observer (gold standard), and robotic machine generated data. A total of 28 consecutive robotic inguinal hernia repair procedures were observed by research staff. Operative time, percent active time for the resident, and number of handoffs between the resident and attending were recorded by trained research staff in the operating room and the Da Vinci Surgical System. Attending and resident evaluations of operative performance and perceptions of percent active time for the resident were collected using standardized forms and compared with the research staff observed values and the robot-generated console data. Wilcoxon two-sample tests and Pearson Correlation coefficients statistical analysis were performed. Robotic inguinal hernia repair cases had a mean operative time of 91.3 (30) minutes and an attending-rated mean difficulty of 3.1 (1.26) out of 5. Residents were recorded to be the active surgeon 71.8% (17.7) of the total case time by research staff. There was a strong correlation (r = 0.77) in number of handoffs between faculty and trainee as recorded by the research staff and robot (4.28 (2.01) vs. 5.8 (3.04) respectively). The robotic machine generated data demonstrated the highest degree of association when compared to the gold standard (research staff observed data), with r = 0.98, p < 0.0001. Lower levels of association were seen with resident reported (r = 0.66) perceptions and faculty-reported (r = 0.55) perceptions of resident active operative time. Our findings suggest that robot-generated performance metrics are an extremely accurate and reliable measure of intraoperative resident participation indicated by a very strong correlation with the data recorded by research staff's direct observation of the case. Residents demonstrated a more accurate awareness of their degree of participation compared with faculty surgeons. With high accuracy and ease of use, robotic surgical system performance metrics have the potential to be a valuable tool in surgical training and skill assessment.

May Mutation of SNP rs1800947 Affects Length of Stay Outcome of COVID-19 suspects?

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new type of respiratory infection that first emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China. COVID-19 is caused by a new type of virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study aims to determine the association of SNP CRP rs1800947 gene in suspected COVID-19 patients to length of stay at Al Ihsan Hospital, and Banten Hospital in June-November 2020. This study used data from 60 patients, all patients were suspect COVID-19. The subject was 29 COVID-19 people were confirmed, whereas 31 people were not. A statistics analysis due to pearson correlation and linear multi regretion. This study found a significant assosiation between the subject. The results of this study were the relationship between SNP rs1800947 and outcome, a fairly strong association level relationship was found in the SNP rs1800947 (p-value= 0.045, association= 0.537). The association between length of stay and CRP levels has a low level of association (p-value=0.015, association=0.378). The SNP genotype rs1800947 G had a longer treatment duration of 0.14778 days compared to the SNPrs1800947 C genotype. CRP levels showed that higher CRP levels increased the length of treatment compared to normal CRP levels. Where high CRP levels are at risk of 0.6330 days longer than normal CRP while very high CRP is at risk of 2.9561 days longer than Normal CRP levels. In general, the gene SNP rs1800947 and CRP levels, together affect the outcome of patients with suspected COVID-19.

Relationship of genetic deviations with laboratory indicators of peripheral blood and bone marrow in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of the relationship between genetic abnormalities and clinical and laboratory parameters of peripheral blood and bone marrow in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Material and methods. 105 children diagnosed with ALL were examined (average age 6 years). To detect chromosomal translocations AF4/MLL t(4; 11) (q23; p23), BCR/ABL t (9; 22) (q34; q11), E2A/PBX1 t (1; 19) (q23; p13) and TEL/AML t(12; 21) (q13; q22) the method of polymerase chain reaction with reverse transcription (RT-PCR) was applicated. PCR was performed with specific primers for the appropriate chromosomal aberrations. Detection of PCR products was performed by electrophoresis in 2% agarose gel. Determination of minimal residual disease (MRD) was performed by multiparameter flow cytofluorimetry using monoclonal antibodies. Results. Among patients, the incidence of ALL is most pronounced in children aged 3 to 6 years - 37 people (35.2%) and aged 6 to 9 years - 26 people (24.8%). The highest accidence was found among patients with chromosomal translocation TEL/AML - 22 (21%) of patients with a median age of 5 years. In the second place, the frequency of mutations is the translocation of E2A / PBX1. BCR / ABL translocation was less common - 1.9% of patients, but the expression of this gene indicates a bad course of the disease, as patients after cytostatic therapy under the ALLIC BFM 2009 program had a recurrence. Recurrence has also been observed in patients with TEL/AML chromosomal translocation. Determination of MRD showed its increased level in patients with chromosomal aberrations BCR / ABL and TEL/AML throughout the treatment phase. In addition, patients in these groups were diagnosed with initial leukocytosis followed by leukopenia after a course of chemotherapy. Patients of all groups showed a decrease in hemoglobin. Conclusion. The most significant changes in clinical and laboratory parameters were found among patients with chromosomal translocations BCR/ABL and TEL/AML, as evidenced by the development of relapses in patients of these groups. The low level of association between karyotype disorders, with the formation of AF4/MLL and E2A/PBX1, and clinical and laboratory parameters in patients with GLL may indicate that the isolated clonal disorders are independent prognostic factors for the course of the disease.

MOLECULAR AND GENETIC MECHANISMS OF DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDHOOD ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA AND THEIR CORRECTION ALLIC BFM 2009 BY CYTOSTATIC THERAPY

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of the relationship between genetic abnormalities and clinical and laboratory parameters of peripheral blood and bone marrow in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).Material and methods. 105 children diagnosed with ALL were examined (average age 6 years). To detect chromosomal translocations AF4/MLL t(4; 11) (q23; p23), BCR/ABL t (9; 22) (q34; q11), E2A/PBX1 t (1; 19) (q23; p13) and TEL/AML t(12; 21) (q13; q22) the method of polymerase chain reaction with reverse transcription (RT-PCR) was applicated. PCR was performed with specific primers for the appropriate chromosomal aberrations. Detection of PCR products was performed by electrophoresis in 2% agarose gel. Determination of minimal residual disease (MRD) was performed by multiparameter flow cytofluorimetry using monoclonal antibodies.Results. Among patients, the incidence of ALL is most pronounced in children aged 3 to 6 years - 37 people (35.2%) and aged 6 to 9 years - 26 people (24.8%). The highest accidence was found among patients with chromosomal translocation TEL / AML - 22 (21%) of patients with a median age 5 years. In second place, the frequency of mutations is the translocation of E2A / PBX1. BCR / ABL translocation was less common - 1.9% of patients, but the expression of this gene indicates a bad course of the disease, as patients after cytostatic therapy under the ALLIC BFM 2009 program had a recurrence. Recurrence has also been observed in patients with TEL/AML chromosomal translocation.Determination of MRD showed its increased level in patients with chromosomal aberrations BCR / ABL and TEL/AML throughout the treatment phase. In addition, patients in these groups were diagnosed with initial leukocytosis followed by leukopenia after a course of chemotherapy. Patients of all groups showed a decrease in hemoglobin.Conclusion. The biggest changes in clinical and laboratory parameters were found between patients with chromosomal translocations BCR/ABL and TEL/AML, as evidenced by the development of relapses in patients of these groups. The low level of association between karyotype disorders, with the formation of AF4/MLL and E2A/PBX1, and clinical and laboratory parameters in patients with GLL may indicate that the isolated clonal disorders are independent prognostic factors for the course of the disease.

Імунофенотиповий профіль бластних клітин як маркер діагностики рецидивів гострої лімфобластної лейкемії у дітей

Immunophenotyping of leukemia cells was studied in this work; minimal residual disease was monitored among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia under conditions of relapse and complete remission after the application of ALLIC-BFM 2009 cytostatic therapy. The study showed that after application of ALLIC-BFM 2009 therapy, 88% of children had complete remission, and 12% had relapses. Among patients with relapses, the number of blast cells in the bone marrow was at a high level (more than 6%). Monitoring of patients during therapy established an increase in the minimal residual disease level of more than 1% after treatment in patients with recurrent disease. Immunophenotyping of blast cells among patients with relapse showed the expression of linear independent antigens HLA (93%), Auti-TdT (91%), CD10 (78%), CD38 (91%) and CD34 (57%) and B-linear antigens: CD19, CD22, CD58, CD79a, the highest expression was found for the CD19 antigen. A low level of expression of CD45 (28%) was recorded with relapses of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and high (89%) level was with complete remission of the disease. We did not detect expression of antigens characteristic of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in bone marrow of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, both with relapses and with remission. At the same time, the expression of myeloid antigens (CD33 and CD13) was noted among acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients. Among patients, the incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the most pronounced in children aged from 3 to 6 years – 37 patients (35.2%) and aged from 6 to 9 years – 26 (24.8%) patients. The highest accidence was found among patients with chromosomal translocation TEL / AML – 22 (21%) patients with a median age 5 years. In second place, the frequency of mutations is the translocation of E2A / PBX1. BCR / ABL translocation was less common. It was noted in 1.9% of patients, but the expression of this gene indicated a bad course of the disease, as patients after cytostatic therapy under the ALLIC BFM 2009 program had a recurrence. Recurrence was also observed in patients with TEL/AML chromosomal translocation. Determination of minimal residual disease showed its increased level in patients with chromosomal aberrations BCR / ABL and TEL/AML throughout the treatment phase. In addition, patients in these groups were diagnosed with initial leukocytosis followed by leukopenia after a course of chemotherapy. Patients of all groups showed a decrease in hemoglobin. The biggest changes in clinical and laboratory parameters were found between patients with chromosomal translocations BCR/ABL and TEL/AML, as evidenced by the development of relapses in patients of these groups. The low level of association between karyotype disorders, with the formation of AF4/MLL and E2A/PBX1, and clinical and laboratory parameters in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia may indicate that the isolated clonal disorders are independent prognostic factors for the course of the disease

Whole genome genetic variation and linkage disequilibrium in a diverse collection of Listeria monocytogenes isolates.

We performed whole-genome multi-locus sequence typing for 2554 genes in a large and heterogenous panel of 180 Listeria monocytogenes strains having diverse geographical and temporal origins. The subtyping data was used for characterizing genetic variation and evaluating patterns of linkage disequilibrium in the pan-genome of L. monocytogenes. Our analysis revealed the presence of strong linkage disequilibrium in L. monocytogenes, with ~99% of genes showing significant non-random associations with a large majority of other genes in the genome. Twenty-seven loci having lower levels of association with other genes were considered to be potential "hot spots" for horizontal gene transfer (i.e., recombination via conjugation, transduction, and/or transformation). The patterns of linkage disequilibrium in L. monocytogenes suggest limited exchange of foreign genetic material in the genome and can be used as a tool for identifying new recombinant strains. This can help understand processes contributing to the diversification and evolution of this pathogenic bacteria, thereby facilitating development of effective control measures.

Rare earth elements in gneiss regoliths in southern Minas Gerais, Brazil

ABSTRACT: Regolith characterization in its entirety is particularly difficult in gneissic regoliths due to the heterogeneity of their rock structure. Rare earth elements (REE) are a useful tool in helping understand the evolution of regoliths. This study relates the mineralogy and weathering indexes of three gneisses regoliths (P1-leucocratic, P2-mesocratic and P3-melanocratic gneisses) to the distribution of REE at depth. In soil, clay activity, iron and manganese oxides, CaO, SiO2, P2O5, TiO2, Fe2O3, and MgO showed high positive correlation with REE. The absolute content of REE was enriched in mafic minerals. At the interface between the soil and saprolite, the sum of absolute REE content was greater in soil than in saprolite in P1, while the opposite pattern was found in P2 and P3. The sums of absolute REE in the whole profiles did not overlap between P1, P2 and P3, and the absolute concentration of Gadolinium (Gd) differentiated the three gneisses in all and every horizon/layer of their regoliths without overlapping values. Normalized REE content was greater in the subsurface of P1 due to Eu content in plagioclase, and fractionation had less variation when estimated by Light REE / Heavy REE (LREE/HREE) than by La/Yb, since the variation in REE is great in gneisses (due to the segregation of minerals into bands), and had low levels of association with the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) and the Weathering Index of Parker (WIP).

Environmental offering and coffee cup quality (Coffea arabica L.) Var. Castillo in southern Colombia

The determinant factors of coffee cup quality are highly variable and depend on their interaction with coffee production and benefit. This study aimed to analyze soil and climatic factors and their association with the cup quality of Castillo coffee variety of three to five years of age from production units in ecotypes 220A and 221A of the Department of Nariño. The study farms were located in three different altitudinal ranges: ≤1500 m, between 1501 and 1700 m, and &gt;1700 m. Soil, climate, and coffee cup quality variables were analyzed through principal component analysis and cluster analysis. A low level of association was found between climatic and soil nutritional factors and coffee cup quality. Soil Mn, Fe, and Cu contents showed the highest association levels with cup quality, indicated by an average score of 80.89. The highest values of photosynthetically active radiation -PAR- and thermal amplitude were found in La Unión - Nariño, and these variables were associated with the group that obtained the highest cup quality score (82.58). Cup quality was not associated with elevation since the highest scores (85.5 and 82.33) were obtained from production units located at ≤1500 m.a.s.l. and &gt;1700 m.a.s.l, respectively.

Impact of learning styles on multiple intelligences in first semester math students

The objective of this research was to determine the incidence between learning styles and multiple intelligences in students in the first semester of their degree in Mathematics at the Francisco de Paula Santander University in the second semester of 2019. The study is an exploratory, descriptive correlational design, with a sample of 33 students; Horney Alonso’s learning styles and multiple intelligences questionnaires were used. It was determined that 45.5% of students have a high preference for reflective learning styles and 33.33% for mathematical logical intelligence. When the chi-square test was carried out, it showed a significance of 0.223, that is, the variables have a low level of association. On the other hand, this is confirmed by Spearman’s correlation test with a significance level of 0.242, which concludes that the variables of this research are not very associated.

Modulating the Selectivity and Stealth Properties of Ellipsoidal Polymersomes through a Multivalent Peptide Ligand Display.

There is a need for improved nanomaterials to simultaneously target cancer cells and avoid non-specific clearance by phagocytes. An ellipsoidal polymersome system is developed with a unique tunable size and shape property. These particles are functionalized with in-house phage-display cell-targeting peptide to target a medulloblastoma cell line in vitro. Particle association with medulloblastoma cells is modulated by tuning the peptide ligand density on the particles. These polymersomes has low levels of association with primary human blood phagocytes. The stealth properties of the polymersomes are further improved by including the peptide targeting moiety, an effect that is likely driven by the peptide protecting the particles from binding blood plasma proteins. Overall, this ellipsoidal polymersome system provides a promising platform to explore tumor cell targeting in vivo.

Proposing a new score to measure personal happiness by identifying the contributing factors

Different assessment tools and questionnaires have been developed to measure happiness. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), that has 29 items, has been used widely to estimate personal happiness. The OHQ is used to quantify personal happiness based on an equal effectiveness assumption for all 29 items. Although the OHQ has been used by several studies, very few studies assess the contribution of the individual OHQ items in explaining personal happiness. The current study attempts to fill this gap by assessing the contribution of the individual OHQ items in explaining personal happiness as a latent variable. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to assess the relationship of the individual OHQ items in explaining personal happiness in Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. The significant OHQ items that are extracted from SEM results, are used to develop a new personal happiness measurement score. The SEM factor loading values are used to weight the extracted items. All usual clustering methods are used in this study and the most suitable one based on the higher silhouette value is chosen to cluster the proposed personal happiness index. Finally, the relationships between socio demographic factors and the proposed personal happiness index clusters are tested by Gamm and Pearson Chi-Square tests. The SEM results show that 16 out of the 29 OHQ items have poor associations with personal happiness and can be excluded from the model. Most of the non-significant items (items with low level of association) are negatively worded items and the majority of the significant items are related to personal attitudes. The proposed personal happiness index can help to save time and avoid confusion.

Validity of the modified shuttle walk test to assess cardiorespiratory fitness after exercise intervention in overweight/obese adults with primary hypertension

ABSTRACTThe study aimed to assess whether the Modified Shuttle Walk Test (MSWT) can detect changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in overweight/obese people with hypertension (HTN) after an exercise intervention evaluating the equation presented in the previous research by Jurio-Iriarte et al. Participants (N= 248) performed a peak cardiorespiratory exercise test (CPET) and MSWT before and after 16-weeks of different types of aerobic exercise intervention. The formula of Jurio-Iriarte et al. was used to predict peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak). The correlation between measured and predicted V̇O2peak was strong (r= 0.76, P< 0.001) with a standard error of estimate (SEE) of 4.9 mL·kg−1·min−1; SEE%= 17%. The intraclass correlation coefficient indicates a moderate level of association and agreement (ICC= 0.69; 95% CI 0.34–0.82; P< 0.001) between the measured and predicted V̇O2peak. When analyzing obese participants alone (N= 128), MSWT equation was more accurate compared to the whole sample (ICC= 0.76; 95% CI 0.52–0.87). The relationship between the change of measured and predicted V̇O2peak at follow-up was weak (r= 0.42, P< 0.001) with a 31% SEE, and a low level of association and agreement (ICC= 0.31; 95% CI 0.06–0.49; P< 0.001). In conclusion, although MSWT does not accurately predict CRF in people with HTN after exercise intervention and questions its validity, the new equation may have practical application to estimate V̇O2peak for obese people with HTN when CPET is not available.Abbreviations: AC: Attention Control; BM: Body Mass; BP: Blood Pressure; CI: Confidence Interval; CRF: Cardiorespiratory Fitness; CPET: Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test; HTN: Primary Hypertension; HR: Heart Rate; HV-HIIT: High-Volume and High-Intensity Interval Training; ICC: Intraclass Correlation Coefficient; LV-HIIT: Low-Volume and High-Intensity Interval Training; MICT: Moderate-intensity continuous training; MSWT: Modified Shuttle Walk Test; SD: Standard Deviation; SEE: Standard Error of Estimate; V̇O2peak: Peak Oxygen Uptake.

The Midlatitude Positive Bay Index and the Statistics of Substorm Occurrence

AbstractThe auroral breakup and expansion are essential features of a magnetospheric substorm. Negative bays beneath the aurora and positive bays at midlatitudes accompany the expansion. These effects are caused by the substorm current wedge. The negative bay strength is provided by the auroral electrojet lower (AL) index. At midlatitudes the positive bay is caused by the field‐aligned currents connected to the electrojet. The midlatitude positive bay (MPB) index measures these effects. Both AL and MPB can be used to time auroral expansion onset. This work creates lists of MPB onsets and compares them with lists from other sources including onsets derived from IMAGE and Polar spacecraft and ground all‐sky camera data. The lists show that these measurements are nearly simultaneous with satellite expansion onsets. Substorms occur most frequently during the declining phase of the solar cycle, at the equinoxes, and after the passage of a stream interface in a corotating interaction region. Both MPB and SML indices reveal three substorm phases: growth, expansion, and recovery. In addition, the MPB onset list, the SML onset list, and the IMAGE auroral onset list reveal the presence of a 45‐min and a 2 3/4‐hr quasi‐periodicity in substorm occurrence. A comparison of the various lists reveals radical difference in their waiting time distributions and relatively low levels of association between events in the lists. The results suggest that none of the lists adequately capture the complexity of substorm activity and further refinements are needed in every algorithm used for onset detection.

Genomics of natural populations: Evolutionary forces that establish and maintain gene arrangements in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

The evolution of complex traits in heterogeneous environments may shape the order of genes within chromosomes. Drosophila pseudoobscura has a rich gene arrangement polymorphism that allows one to test evolutionary genetic hypotheses about how chromosomal inversions are established in populations. D.pseudoobscura has >30 gene arrangements on a single chromosome that were generated through a series of overlapping inversion mutations with >10 inversions with appreciable frequencies and wide geographic distributions. This study analyses the genomic sequences of 54 strains of Drosophila pseudoobscura that carry one of six different chromosomal arrangements to test whether (i) genetic drift, (ii) hitchhiking with an adaptive allele, (iii) direct effects of inversions to create gene disruptions caused by breakpoints, or (iv) indirect effects of inversions in limiting the formation of recombinant gametes are responsible for the establishment of new gene arrangements. We found that the inversion events do not disrupt the structure of protein coding genes at the breakpoints. Population genetic analyses of 2,669 protein coding genes identified 277 outlier loci harbouring elevated frequencies of arrangement-specific derived alleles. Significant linkage disequilibrium occurs among distant loci interspersed between regions with low levels of association indicating that distant allelic combinations are held together despite shared polymorphism among arrangements. Outlier genes showing evidence of genetic differentiation between arrangements are enriched for sensory perception and detoxification genes. The data presented here support the indirect effect of inversion hypothesis where chromosomal inversions are favoured because they maintain linked associations among multilocus allelic combinations among different arrangements.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) for growth rate and age at sexual maturation in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).

Early sexual maturation is considered a serious drawback for Atlantic salmon aquaculture as it retards growth, increases production times and affects flesh quality. Although both growth and sexual maturation are thought to be complex processes controlled by several genetic and environmental factors, selection for these traits has been continuously accomplished since the beginning of Atlantic salmon selective breeding programs. In this genome-wide association study (GWAS) we used a 6.5K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array to genotype ∼480 individuals from the Cermaq Canada broodstock program and search for SNPs associated with growth and age at sexual maturation. Using a mixed model approach we identified markers showing a significant association with growth, grilsing (early sexual maturation) and late sexual maturation. The most significant associations were found for grilsing, with markers located in Ssa10, Ssa02, Ssa13, Ssa25 and Ssa12, and for late maturation with markers located in Ssa28, Ssa01 and Ssa21. A lower level of association was detected with growth on Ssa13. Candidate genes, which were linked to these genetic markers, were identified and some of them show a direct relationship with developmental processes, especially for those in association with sexual maturation. However, the relatively low power to detect genetic markers associated with growth (days to 5 kg) in this GWAS indicates the need to use a higher density SNP array in order to overcome the low levels of linkage disequilibrium observed in Atlantic salmon before the information can be incorporated into a selective breeding program.

Examining transactional influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends

The association between poorer academic outcomes and having antisocial friends is reliably demonstrated yet not well understood. Genetically sensitive designs uniquely allow for measuring genetic vulnerabilities and/or environmental risk in the association of antisocial friend behavior and poor school achievement, allowing for a better understanding of the nature of the association. This study included 233 pairs of twins from the Florida Twin Project on Reading. First, the role of antisocial friends as an environmental moderator of reading comprehension was examined. Antisocial friends significantly moderated the nonshared environmental variance in reading comprehension, with increased variation at lower levels of association with antisocial friends, with niche-picking indicated. Second, the role of reading comprehension as an environmental moderator of antisocial friends was examined. Reading comprehension significantly moderated the nonshared environmental variance in associating with antisocial friends, with increased variance at lower levels of reading comprehension and indication that common genetic influences contributed to higher reading achievement and better-behaved friends. In total, these results suggested reciprocal influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends. The impact of antisocial friends appeared to be limited in the extent to which they can undermine reading achievement, and high reading achievement appeared to support less association with antisocial friends.

Relación entre desarrollo morfológico del lenguaje oral y rendimiento en redacción en alumnos que cursan quinto y sexto grado de primaria en colegios públicos y privados de nivel socioeconómico bajo de Lima Metropolitana

OBJETIVO: Explorar la relación entre el desarrollo morfológico del lenguaje oral y el rendimiento en redacción, en alumnos del tercer ciclo de primaria asistentes a colegios de nivel socioeconómico bajo de Lima Metropolitana. DISEÑO: Transversal Correlacional, realizado en 372 alumnos de 5to y 6to grado, pertenecientes a colegios públicos y privados de Lima Metropolitana de nivel socioeconómico bajo, cuyas edades fluctuaban entre los 9 y 14 años. MATERIAL y MÉTODOS: Estudio descriptivo, la obtención de la muestra fue mediante el Muestreo polietápico intencionado. Para la recolección de los datos se utilizó la Adaptación de la Batería del Lenguaje Objetiva y Criterial; y el Test de Producción del Texto Escrito. RESULTADOS: Se confirmaron dicha relación, aunque con un bajo nivel de asociación, lo que plantea la necesidad de incorporar nuevos componentes para el análisis. CONCLUSIONES: El desarrollo morfológico del lenguaje oral se relaciona de manera directa y significativa con el rendimiento en redacción, aunque con grado bajo de asociación.

Liposomal Templating, Association with Mammalian Cells, and Cytotoxicity of Poly(vinyl alcohol) Physical Hydrogel Nanoparticles

The assembly, cellular internalization, and cytotoxicity of nanoparticles based on physical hydrogels of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) are reported. PVA nanoparticles are assembled using a liposomal templating technique followed by removal of the lipids using isopropanol, a process that requires the presence of a custom‐made block copolymer, poly(vinyl alcohol‐b‐vinyl pyrrolidone), to avoid aggregation of the nanoparticles. Polymer hydrogelation is induced via incubation in aqueous isopropyl alcohol solution, which results in PVA hydrogel nanoparticles (PVA HNP) with excellent colloidal stability and stability towards disintegration over at least 24 h. Pristine PVA HNP are found to be remarkably stealth‐like and exhibit negligible cellular internalization. This feature is likely inherent with the low fouling nature of PVA and makes PVA HNP attractive for targeted drug delivery with a low level of association with non‐targeted cells and tissues. Blending PVA with varied amounts of collagen results in colloidal hydrogel particles with a well pronounced tendency towards association with mammalian cells, specifically hepatocytes and endothelial cells. The association of PVA HNP elicits minimal changes in cellular proliferation, making these novel hydrogel particles convenient tools for drug delivery applications and creation of implantable artificial organelles and sensors.