The evolution of sex chromosomes in organisms with separate haploid sexes.

PubMed

Immler, Simone; Otto, Sarah Perin

2015-03-01

The evolution of dimorphic sex chromosomes is driven largely by the evolution of reduced recombination and the subsequent accumulation of deleterious mutations. Although these processes are increasingly well understood in diploid organisms, the evolution of dimorphic sex chromosomes in haploid organisms (U/V) has been virtually unstudied theoretically. We analyze a model to investigate the evolution of linkage between fitness loci and the sex-determining region in U/V species. In a second step, we test how prone nonrecombining regions are to degeneration due to accumulation of deleterious mutations. Our modeling predicts that the decay of recombination on the sex chromosomes and the addition of strata via fusions will be just as much a part of the evolution of haploid sex chromosomes as in diploid sex chromosome systems. Reduced recombination is broadly favored, as long as there is some fitness difference between haploid males and females. The degeneration of the sex-determining region due to the accumulation of deleterious mutations is expected to be slower in haploid organisms because of the absence of masking. Nevertheless, balancing selection often drives greater differentiation between the U/V sex chromosomes than in X/Y and Z/W systems. We summarize empirical evidence for haploid sex chromosome evolution and discuss our predictions in light of these findings. © 2015 The Author(s).

Doubled haploid production in Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.).

PubMed

Obert, Bohus; Zácková, Zuzana; Samaj, Jozef; Pretová, Anna

2009-01-01

There is a requirement of haploid and double haploid material and homozygous lines for cell culture studies and breeding in flax. Anther culture is currently the most successful method producing doubled haploid lines in flax. Recently, ovary culture was also described as a good source of doubled haploids. In this review we focus on tissue and plants regeneration using anther culture, and cultivation of ovaries containing unfertilized ovules. The effect of genotype, physiological status of donor plants, donor material pre-treatment and cultivation conditions for flax anthers and ovaries is discussed here. The process of plant regeneration from anther and ovary derived calli is also in the focus of this review. Attention is paid to the ploidy level of regenerated tissue and to the use of molecular markers for determining of gametic origin of flax plants derived from anther and ovary cultures. Finally, some future prospects on the use of doubled haploids in flax biotechnology are outlined here.

Induction of gynogenetic and androgenetic haploid and doubled haploid development in the brown trout (Salmo trutta Linnaeus 1758).

PubMed

Michalik, O; Dobosz, S; Zalewski, T; Sapota, M; Ocalewicz, K

2015-04-01

Gynogenetic and androgenetic brown trout (Salmo trutta Linnaeus 1758) haploids (Hs) and doubled haploids (DHs) were produced in the present research. Haploid development was induced by radiation-induced genetic inactivation of spermatozoa (gynogenesis) or eggs (androgenesis) before insemination. To provide DHs, gynogenetic and androgenetic haploid zygotes were subjected to the high pressure shock to suppress the first mitotic cleavage. Among haploids, gynogenetic embryos were showing lower mortality when compared to the androgenetic embryos; however, most of them die before the first feeding stage. Gynogenetic doubled haploids provided in the course of the brown trout eggs activation performed by homologous and heterologous sperm (rainbow trout) were developing equally showing hatching rates of 14.76 ± 2.4% and 16.14 ± 2.90% and the survival rates at the first feeding stage of 10.48 ± 3.48% and 12.78 ± 2.18%, respectively. Significantly, lower survival rate was observed among androgenetic progenies from the diploid groups with only few specimens that survived to the first feeding stage. Cytogenetic survey showed that among embryos from the diploid variants of the research, only gynogenetic individuals possessed doubled sets of chromosomes. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that radiation employed for the genetic inactivation of the brown trout eggs misaligned mechanism responsible for the cell divisions and might have delayed or even arrested the first mitotic cleavage in the androgenetic brown trout zygotes. Moreover, protocol for the radiation-induced inactivation of the paternal and maternal genome should be adjusted as some of the cytogenetically surveyed gynogenetic and androgenetic embryos exhibited fragments of the irradiated chromosomes. © 2015 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

A p53-dependent response limits the viability of mammalian haploid cells

PubMed Central

Olbrich, Teresa; Mayor-Ruiz, Cristina; Vega-Sendino, Maria; Gomez, Carmen; Ortega, Sagrario; Ruiz, Sergio; Fernandez-Capetillo, Oscar

2017-01-01

The recent development of haploid cell lines has facilitated forward genetic screenings in mammalian cells. These lines include near-haploid human cell lines isolated from a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia (KBM7 and HAP1), as well as haploid embryonic stem cells derived from several organisms. In all cases, haploidy was shown to be an unstable state, so that cultures of mammalian haploid cells rapidly become enriched in diploids. Here we show that the observed diploidization is due to a proliferative disadvantage of haploid cells compared with diploid cells. Accordingly, single-cell–sorted haploid mammalian cells maintain the haploid state for prolonged periods, owing to the absence of competing diploids. Although the duration of interphase is similar in haploid and diploid cells, haploid cells spend longer in mitosis, indicative of problems in chromosome segregation. In agreement with this, a substantial proportion of the haploids die at or shortly after the last mitosis through activation of a p53-dependent cytotoxic response. Finally, we show that p53 deletion stabilizes haploidy in human HAP1 cells and haploid mouse embryonic stem cells. We propose that, similar to aneuploidy or tetraploidy, haploidy triggers a p53-dependent response that limits the fitness of mammalian cells. PMID:28808015

Verification and characterization of chromosome duplication in haploid maize.

PubMed

de Oliveira Couto, E G; Resende Von Pinho, E V; Von Pinho, R G; Veiga, A D; de Carvalho, M R; de Oliveira Bustamante, F; Nascimento, M S

2015-06-26

Doubled haploid technology has been used by various private companies. However, information regarding chromosome duplication methodologies, particularly those concerning techniques used to identify duplication in cells, is limited. Thus, we analyzed and characterized artificially doubled haploids using microsatellites molecular markers, pollen viability, and flow cytometry techniques. Evaluated material was obtained using two different chromosome duplication protocols in maize seeds considered haploids, resulting from the cross between the haploid inducer line KEMS and 4 hybrids (GNS 3225, GNS 3032, GNS 3264, and DKB 393). Fourteen days after duplication, plant samples were collected and assessed by flow cytometry. Further, the plants were transplanted to a field, and samples were collected for DNA analyses using microsatellite markers. The tassels were collected during anthesis for pollen viability analyses. Haploid, diploid, and mixoploid individuals were detected using flow cytometry, demonstrating that this technique was efficient for identifying doubled haploids. The microsatellites markers were also efficient for confirming the ploidies preselected by flow cytometry and for identifying homozygous individuals. Pollen viability showed a significant difference between the evaluated ploidies when the Alexander and propionic-carmin stains were used. The viability rates between the plodies analyzed show potential for fertilization.

Dramatic improvement in genome assembly achieved using doubled-haploid genomes.

PubMed

Zhang, Hong; Tan, Engkong; Suzuki, Yutaka; Hirose, Yusuke; Kinoshita, Shigeharu; Okano, Hideyuki; Kudoh, Jun; Shimizu, Atsushi; Saito, Kazuyoshi; Watabe, Shugo; Asakawa, Shuichi

2014-10-27

Improvement in de novo assembly of large genomes is still to be desired. Here, we improved draft genome sequence quality by employing doubled-haploid individuals. We sequenced wildtype and doubled-haploid Takifugu rubripes genomes, under the same conditions, using the Illumina platform and assembled contigs with SOAPdenovo2. We observed 5.4-fold and 2.6-fold improvement in the sizes of the N50 contig and scaffold of doubled-haploid individuals, respectively, compared to the wildtype, indicating that the use of a doubled-haploid genome aids in accurate genome analysis.

Effective de novo assembly of fish genome using haploid larvae.

PubMed

Iwasaki, Yuki; Nishiki, Issei; Nakamura, Yoji; Yasuike, Motoshige; Kai, Wataru; Nomura, Kazuharu; Yoshida, Kazunori; Nomura, Yousuke; Fujiwara, Atushi; Kobayashi, Takanori; Ototake, Mitsuru

2016-02-01

Recent improvements in next-generation sequencing technology have made it possible to do whole genome sequencing, on even non-model eukaryote species with no available reference genomes. However, de novo assembly of diploid genomes is still a big challenge because of allelic variation. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of utilizing the genome of haploid fish larvae for de novo assembly of whole-genome sequences. We compared the efficiency of assembly using the haploid genome of yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata) with that using the diploid genome obtained from the dam. De novo assembly from the haploid and the diploid sequence reads (100 million reads per each datasets) generated by the Ion Proton sequencer (200 bp) was done under two different assembly algorithms, namely overlap-layout-consensus (OLC) and de Bruijn graph (DBG). This revealed that the assembly of the haploid genome significantly reduced (approximately 22% for OLC, 9% for DBG) the total number of contigs (with longer average and N50 contig lengths) when compared to the diploid genome assembly. The haploid assembly also improved the quality of the scaffolds by reducing the number of regions with unassigned nucleotides (Ns) (total length of Ns; 45,331,916 bp for haploids and 67,724,360 bp for diploids) in OLC-based assemblies. It appears clear that the haploid genome assembly is better because the allelic variation in the diploid genome disrupts the extension of contigs during the assembly process. Our results indicate that utilizing the genome of haploid larvae leads to a significant improvement in the de novo assembly process, thus providing a novel strategy for the construction of reference genomes from non-model diploid organisms such as fish. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dynamic properties in the four-state haploid coupled discrete-time mutation-selection model with an infinite population limit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Kyu Sang; Gill, Wonpyong

2017-11-01

The dynamic properties, such as the crossing time and time-dependence of the relative density of the four-state haploid coupled discrete-time mutation-selection model, were calculated with the assumption that μ ij = μ ji , where μ ij denotes the mutation rate between the sequence elements, i and j. The crossing time for s = 0 and r 23 = r 42 = 1 in the four-state model became saturated at a large fitness parameter when r 12 > 1, was scaled as a power law in the fitness parameter when r 12 = 1, and diverged when the fitness parameter approached the critical fitness parameter when r 12 < 1, where r ij = μ ij / μ 14.

One haploid parent contributes 100% of the gene pool for a widespread species in northwest North America.

PubMed

Karlin, E F; Andrus, R E; Boles, S B; Shaw, A J

2011-02-01

The monoicous peatmoss Sphagnum subnitens has a tripartite distribution that includes disjunct population systems in Europe (including the Azores), northwestern North America and New Zealand. Regional genetic diversity was highest in European S. subnitens but in northwestern North America, a single microsatellite-based multilocus haploid genotype was detected across 16 sites ranging from Coos County, Oregon, to Kavalga Island in the Western Aleutians (a distance of some 4115 km). Two multilocus haploid genotypes were detected across 14 sites on South Island, New Zealand. The microsatellite-based regional genetic diversity detected in New Zealand and North American S. subnitens is the lowest reported for any Sphagnum. The low genetic diversity detected in both of these regions most likely resulted from a founder event associated with vegetative propagation and complete selfing, with one founding haploid plant in northwest North America and two in New Zealand. Thus, one plant appears to have contributed 100% of the gene pool for the population systems of S. subnitens occurring in northwest North America, and this is arguably the most genetically uniform group of plants having a widespread distribution yet detected. Although having a distribution spanning 12.5° of latitude and 56° of longitude, there was no evidence of any genetic diversification in S. subnitens in northwest North America. No genetic structure was detected among the three regions, and it appears that European plants of S. subnitens provided the source for New Zealand and northwest North American populations. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Cypress surrogate mother produces haploid progeny from alien pollen.

PubMed

Pichot, Christian; Liens, Benjamin; Nava, Juana L Rivera; Bachelier, Julien B; El Maâtaoui, Mohamed

2008-01-01

Although most living organisms reproduce sexually, some have developed a uniparental reproduction where the embryo usually derives from the female parent. A unique case of paternal apomixis in plants has been recently reported in Cupressus dupreziana, an endangered Mediterranean conifer. This species produces unreduced pollen that develop into all-paternal embryos within the seed tissues. We analyzed seedlings produced by open-pollinated C. dupreziana seed trees using morphological descriptors, ploidy levels assessed through flow cytometry, and AFLP genetic diversity. In situ C. dupreziana seed trees (from Algeria) produced only diploid C. dupreziana progeny. In contrast, only one-third of the progeny produced by ex situ C. dupreziana seed trees planted in French collections were similar to C. dupreziana seedlings; the other progeny were haploid or diploid C. sempervirens seedlings. These results demonstrate that C. dupreziana ovules allow for the development of all-paternal embryos from pollen produced by another species, C. sempervirens. Thus, the in planta androgenesis is achieved through the combination of the embryogenic behavior of pollen grains and the ability of seed tree ovules to act as a surrogate mother. This phenomenon offers a unique opportunity to produce, by natural means, highly valuable material for genetic studies and selection of sterile cultivars.

Production of haploids from anther culture of banana [Musa balbisiana (BB)].

PubMed

Assani, A; Bakry, F; Kerbellec, F; Haïcour, R; Wenzel, G; Foroughi-Wehr, B

2003-02-01

We report here, for the first time, the production of haploid plants of banana Musa balbisiana (BB). Callus was induced from anthers in which the majority of the microspores were at the uninucleate stage. The frequency of callus induction was 77%. Callus proliferation usually preceded embryo formation. About 8% of the anthers developed androgenic embryos. Of the 147 plantlets obtained, 41 were haploids (n=x=11). The frequency of haploid production depended on genotypes used: 18 haploid plants were produced from genotype Pisang klutuk, 12 from Pisang batu, seven from Pisang klutuk wulung and four from Tani. The frequency of regeneration was 1.1%, which was based on the total number of anthers cultured. Diploid plants (2n=2x=22) were also observed in the regenerated plants. The haploid banana plants that were developed will be important material for the improvement of banana through breeding programmes.

The effects of quantitative fecundity in the haploid stage on reproductive success and diploid fitness in the aquatic peat moss Sphagnum macrophyllum

PubMed Central

Johnson, M G; Shaw, A J

2016-01-01

A major question in evolutionary biology is how mating patterns affect the fitness of offspring. However, in animals and seed plants it is virtually impossible to investigate the effects of specific gamete genotypes. In bryophytes, haploid gametophytes grow via clonal propagation and produce millions of genetically identical gametes throughout a population. The main goal of this research was to test whether gamete identity has an effect on the fitness of their diploid offspring in a population of the aquatic peat moss Sphagnum macrophyllum. We observed a heavily male-biased sex ratio in gametophyte plants (ramets) and in multilocus microsatellite genotypes (genets). There was a steeper relationship between mating success (number of different haploid mates) and fecundity (number of diploid offspring) for male genets compared with female genets. At the sporophyte level, we observed a weak effect of inbreeding on offspring fitness, but no effect of brood size (number of sporophytes per maternal ramet). Instead, the identities of the haploid male and haploid female parents were significant contributors to variance in fitness of sporophyte offspring in the population. Our results suggest that intrasexual gametophyte/gamete competition may play a role in determining mating success in this population. PMID:26905464

The effects of quantitative fecundity in the haploid stage on reproductive success and diploid fitness in the aquatic peat moss Sphagnum macrophyllum.

PubMed

Johnson, M G; Shaw, A J

2016-06-01

A major question in evolutionary biology is how mating patterns affect the fitness of offspring. However, in animals and seed plants it is virtually impossible to investigate the effects of specific gamete genotypes. In bryophytes, haploid gametophytes grow via clonal propagation and produce millions of genetically identical gametes throughout a population. The main goal of this research was to test whether gamete identity has an effect on the fitness of their diploid offspring in a population of the aquatic peat moss Sphagnum macrophyllum. We observed a heavily male-biased sex ratio in gametophyte plants (ramets) and in multilocus microsatellite genotypes (genets). There was a steeper relationship between mating success (number of different haploid mates) and fecundity (number of diploid offspring) for male genets compared with female genets. At the sporophyte level, we observed a weak effect of inbreeding on offspring fitness, but no effect of brood size (number of sporophytes per maternal ramet). Instead, the identities of the haploid male and haploid female parents were significant contributors to variance in fitness of sporophyte offspring in the population. Our results suggest that intrasexual gametophyte/gamete competition may play a role in determining mating success in this population.

Induced parthenogenesis by gamma-irradiated pollen in loquat for haploid production.

PubMed

Blasco, Manuel; Badenes, María Luisa; Del Mar Naval, María

2016-09-01

Successful haploid induction in loquat ( Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl.) through in situ-induced parthenogenesis with gamma-ray irradiated pollen has been achieved. Female flowers of cultivar 'Algerie' were pollinated using pollen of cultivars 'Changhong-3', 'Cox' and 'Saval Brasil' irradiated with two doses of gamma rays, 150 and 300 Gy. The fruits were harvested 90, 105 and 120 days after pollination (dap). Four haploid plants were obtained from 'Algerie' pollinated with 300-Gy-treated pollen of 'Saval Brasil' from fruits harvested 105 dap. Haploidy was confirmed by flow cytometry and chromosome count. The haploids showed a very weak development compared to the diploid plants. This result suggests that irradiated pollen can be used to obtain parthenogenetic haploids.

Breeding of a xylose-fermenting hybrid strain by mating genetically engineered haploid strains derived from industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

PubMed

Inoue, Hiroyuki; Hashimoto, Seitaro; Matsushika, Akinori; Watanabe, Seiya; Sawayama, Shigeki

2014-12-01

The industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae IR-2 is a promising host strain to genetically engineer xylose-utilizing yeasts for ethanol fermentation from lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Two IR-2-based haploid strains were selected based upon the rate of xylulose fermentation, and hybrids were obtained by mating recombinant haploid strains harboring heterogeneous xylose dehydrogenase (XDH) (wild-type NAD(+)-dependent XDH or engineered NADP(+)-dependent XDH, ARSdR), xylose reductase (XR) and xylulose kinase (XK) genes. ARSdR in the hybrids selected for growth rates on yeast extract-peptone-dextrose (YPD) agar and YP-xylose agar plates typically had a higher activity than NAD(+)-dependent XDH. Furthermore, the xylose-fermenting performance of the hybrid strain SE12 with the same level of heterogeneous XDH activity was similar to that of a recombinant strain of IR-2 harboring a single set of genes, XR/ARSdR/XK. These results suggest not only that the recombinant haploid strains retain the appropriate genetic background of IR-2 for ethanol production from xylose but also that ARSdR is preferable for xylose fermentation.

Parental selection of children's sexual orientation.

PubMed

Greenberg, A S; Bailey, J M

2001-08-01

As we learn more about the causes of sexual orientation, the likelihood increases that parents will one day be able to select the orientation of their children. This possibility (at least that of selecting for heterosexuality) has generated a great deal of concern among supporters of homosexual rights, with such selection being widely condemned as harmful and morally repugnant. Notwithstanding this widespread condemnation, and even assuming, as we do, that homosexuality is entirely acceptable morally, allowing parents, by means morally unproblematic in themselves, to select for heterosexuality would be morally acceptable. This is because allowing parents to select their children's sexual orientation would further parent's freedom to raise the sort of children they wish to raise and because selection for heterosexuality may benefit parents and children and is unlikely to cause significant harm.

Induced parthenogenesis by gamma-irradiated pollen in loquat for haploid production

PubMed Central

Blasco, Manuel; Badenes, María Luisa; del Mar Naval, María

2016-01-01

Successful haploid induction in loquat (Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl.) through in situ-induced parthenogenesis with gamma-ray irradiated pollen has been achieved. Female flowers of cultivar ‘Algerie’ were pollinated using pollen of cultivars ‘Changhong-3’, ‘Cox’ and ‘Saval Brasil’ irradiated with two doses of gamma rays, 150 and 300 Gy. The fruits were harvested 90, 105 and 120 days after pollination (dap). Four haploid plants were obtained from ‘Algerie’ pollinated with 300-Gy-treated pollen of ‘Saval Brasil’ from fruits harvested 105 dap. Haploidy was confirmed by flow cytometry and chromosome count. The haploids showed a very weak development compared to the diploid plants. This result suggests that irradiated pollen can be used to obtain parthenogenetic haploids. PMID:27795686

Production of viable homozygous, doubled haploid channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Production of doubled haploids via mitotic gynogenesis is a useful tool for the creation of completely inbred fish. In order to produce viable doubled haploid channel catfish, we utilized hydrostatic pressure or thermal treatments on eggs fertilized with sperm that had been exposed to ultraviolet l...

O father where art thou? Paternity analyses in a natural population of the haploid-diploid seaweed Chondrus crispus.

PubMed

Krueger-Hadfield, S A; Roze, D; Correa, J A; Destombe, C; Valero, M

2015-02-01

The link between life history traits and mating systems in diploid organisms has been extensively addressed in the literature, whereas the degree of selfing and/or inbreeding in natural populations of haploid-diploid organisms, in which haploid gametophytes alternate with diploid sporophytes, has been rarely measured. Dioecy has often been used as a proxy for the mating system in these organisms. Yet, dioecy does not prevent the fusion of gametes from male and female gametophytes originating from the same sporophyte. This is likely a common occurrence when spores from the same parent are dispersed in clumps and recruit together. This pattern of clumped spore dispersal has been hypothesized to explain significant heterozygote deficiency in the dioecious haploid-diploid seaweed Chondrus crispus. Fronds and cystocarps (structures in which zygotes are mitotically amplified) were sampled in two 25 m(2) plots located within a high and a low intertidal zone and genotyped at 5 polymorphic microsatellite loci in order to explore the mating system directly using paternity analyses. Multiple males sired cystocarps on each female, but only one of the 423 paternal genotypes corresponded to a field-sampled gametophyte. Nevertheless, larger kinship coefficients were detected between males siring cystocarps on the same female in comparison with males in the entire population, confirming restricted spermatial and clumped spore dispersal. Such dispersal mechanisms may be a mode of reproductive assurance due to nonmotile gametes associated with putatively reduced effects of inbreeding depression because of the free-living haploid stage in C. crispus.

Hybrid maize breeding with doubled haploids: I. One-stage versus two-stage selection for testcross performance.

PubMed

Longin, C Friedrich H; Utz, H Friedrich; Reif, Jochen C; Schipprack, Wolfgang; Melchinger, Albrecht E

2006-03-01

Optimum allocation of resources is of fundamental importance for the efficiency of breeding programs. The objectives of our study were to (1) determine the optimum allocation for the number of lines and test locations in hybrid maize breeding with doubled haploids (DHs) regarding two optimization criteria, the selection gain deltaG(k) and the probability P(k) of identifying superior genotypes, (2) compare both optimization criteria including their standard deviations (SDs), and (3) investigate the influence of production costs of DHs on the optimum allocation. For different budgets, number of finally selected lines, ratios of variance components, and production costs of DHs, the optimum allocation of test resources under one- and two-stage selection for testcross performance with a given tester was determined by using Monte Carlo simulations. In one-stage selection, lines are tested in field trials in a single year. In two-stage selection, optimum allocation of resources involves evaluation of (1) a large number of lines in a small number of test locations in the first year and (2) a small number of the selected superior lines in a large number of test locations in the second year, thereby maximizing both optimization criteria. Furthermore, to have a realistic chance of identifying a superior genotype, the probability P(k) of identifying superior genotypes should be greater than 75%. For budgets between 200 and 5,000 field plot equivalents, P(k) > 75% was reached only for genotypes belonging to the best 5% of the population. As the optimum allocation for P(k)(5%) was similar to that for deltaG(k), the choice of the optimization criterion was not crucial. The production costs of DHs had only a minor effect on the optimum number of locations and on values of the optimization criteria.

The role of epistatic interactions underpinning resistance to parasitic Varroa mites in haploid honey bee (Apis mellifera) drones.

PubMed

Conlon, Benjamin H; Frey, Eva; Rosenkranz, Peter; Locke, Barbara; Moritz, Robin F A; Routtu, Jarkko

2018-06-01

The Red Queen hypothesis predicts that host-parasite coevolutionary dynamics can select for host resistance through increased genetic diversity, recombination and evolutionary rates. However, in haplodiploid organisms such as the honeybee (Apis mellifera), models suggest the selective pressure is weaker than in diploids. Haplodiploid sex determination, found in A. mellifera, can allow deleterious recessive alleles to persist in the population through the diploid sex with negative effects predominantly expressed in the haploid sex. To overcome these negative effects in haploid genomes, epistatic interactions have been hypothesized to play an important role. Here, we use the interaction between A. mellifera and the parasitic mite Varroa destructor to test epistasis in the expression of resistance, through the inhibition of parasite reproduction, in haploid drones. We find novel loci on three chromosomes which explain over 45% of the resistance phenotype. Two of these loci interact only additively, suggesting their expression is independent of each other, but both loci interact epistatically with the third locus. With drone offspring inheriting only one copy of the queen's chromosomes, the drones will only possess one of two queen alleles throughout the years-long lifetime of the honeybee colony. Varroa, in comparison, completes its highly inbred reproductive cycle in a matter of weeks, allowing it to rapidly evolve resistance. Faced with the rapidly evolving Varroa, a diversity of pathways and epistatic interactions for the inhibition of Varroa reproduction could therefore provide a selective advantage to the high levels of recombination seen in A. mellifera. This allows for the remixing of phenotypes despite a fixed queen genotype. © 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Genomic Selection Outperforms Marker Assisted Selection for Grain Yield and Physiological Traits in a Maize Doubled Haploid Population Across Water Treatments.

PubMed

Cerrudo, Diego; Cao, Shiliang; Yuan, Yibing; Martinez, Carlos; Suarez, Edgar Antonio; Babu, Raman; Zhang, Xuecai; Trachsel, Samuel

2018-01-01

To increase genetic gain for tolerance to drought, we aimed to identify environmentally stable QTL in per se and testcross combination under well-watered (WW) and drought stressed (DS) conditions and evaluate the possible deployment of QTL using marker assisted and/or genomic selection (QTL/GS-MAS). A total of 169 doubled haploid lines derived from the cross between CML495 and LPSC7F64 and 190 testcrosses (tester CML494) were evaluated in a total of 11 treatment-by-population combinations under WW and DS conditions. In response to DS, grain yield (GY) and plant height (PHT) were reduced while time to anthesis and the anthesis silking interval (ASI) increased for both lines and hybrids. Forty-eight QTL were detected for a total of nine traits. The allele derived from CML495 generally increased trait values for anthesis, ASI, PHT, the normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) and the green leaf area duration (GLAD; a composite trait of NDVI, PHT and senescence) while it reduced trait values for leaf rolling and senescence. The LOD scores for all detected QTL ranged from 2.0 to 7.2 explaining 4.4 to 19.4% of the observed phenotypic variance with R 2 ranging from 0 (GY, DS, lines) to 37.3% (PHT, WW, lines). Prediction accuracy of the model used for genomic selection was generally higher than phenotypic variance explained by the sum of QTL for individual traits indicative of the polygenic control of traits evaluated here. We therefore propose to use QTL-MAS in forward breeding to enrich the allelic frequency for a few desired traits with strong additive QTL in early selection cycles while GS-MAS could be used in more mature breeding programs to additionally capture alleles with smaller additive effects.

Competition between the sperm of a single male can increase the evolutionary rate of haploid expressed genes.

PubMed

Ezawa, Kiyoshi; Innan, Hideki

2013-07-01

The population genetic behavior of mutations in sperm genes is theoretically investigated. We modeled the processes at two levels. One is the standard population genetic process, in which the population allele frequencies change generation by generation, depending on the difference in selective advantages. The other is the sperm competition during each genetic transmission from one generation to the next generation. For the sperm competition process, we formulate the situation where a huge number of sperm with alleles A and B, produced by a single heterozygous male, compete to fertilize a single egg. This "minimal model" demonstrates that a very slight difference in sperm performance amounts to quite a large difference between the alleles' winning probabilities. By incorporating this effect of paternity-sharing sperm competition into the standard population genetic process, we show that fierce sperm competition can enhance the fixation probability of a mutation with a very small phenotypic effect at the single-sperm level, suggesting a contribution of sperm competition to rapid amino acid substitutions in haploid-expressed sperm genes. Considering recent genome-wide demonstrations that a substantial fraction of the mammalian sperm genes are haploid expressed, our model could provide a potential explanation of rapid evolution of sperm genes with a wide variety of functions (as long as they are expressed in the haploid phase). Another advantage of our model is that it is applicable to a wide range of species, irrespective of whether the species is externally fertilizing, polygamous, or monogamous. The theoretical result was applied to mammalian data to estimate the selection intensity on nonsynonymous mutations in sperm genes.

The evolutionary dynamics of haplodiploidy: Genome architecture and haploid viability

PubMed Central

Blackmon, Heath; Hardy, Nate B.; Ross, Laura

2015-01-01

Haplodiploid reproduction, in which males are haploid and females are diploid, is widespread among animals, yet we understand little about the forces responsible for its evolution. The current theory is that haplodiploidy has evolved through genetic conflicts, as it provides a transmission advantage to mothers. Male viability is thought to be a major limiting factor; diploid individuals tend to harbor many recessive lethal mutations. This theory predicts that the evolution of haplodiploidy is more likely in male heterogametic lineages with few chromosomes, as genes on the X chromosome are often expressed in a haploid environment, and the fewer the chromosome number, the greater the proportion of the total genome that is X‐linked. We test this prediction with comparative phylogenetic analyses of mites, among which haplodiploidy has evolved repeatedly. We recover a negative correlation between chromosome number and haplodiploidy, find evidence that low chromosome number evolved prior to haplodiploidy, and that it is unlikely that diplodiploidy has reevolved from haplodiploid lineages of mites. These results are consistent with the predicted importance of haploid male viability. PMID:26462452

Maize Haploid Induction and Doubling II – Experience with Exotic and Elite Maize Populations

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

As a follow-up to our previous study, second year information will be presented addressing questions on haploid induction and doubling, utilizing exotic and elite maize. These projects result from collaborations between Iowa State Doubled Haploid Facility (http://www.plantbreeding.iastate.edu/DHF/D...

Maize Haploid Induction and Doubling – Recent Experience with Exotic and Elite Maize Populations

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Experience from three maize research projects utilizing the haploid inducer RWS x RWK-76 from the University of Hohenheim will be summarized. These projects result from collaborations between Iowa State Doubled Haploid Facility (http://www.plantbreeding.iastate.edu/DHF/DHF.htm) researchers and USDA...

Germplasm enhancement of maize: A look into haploid induction and chromosomal doubling of haploids from temperate-adapted tropical sources

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Doubled haploid technology is used to develop completely homozygous inbred lines, where each of the chromatids making up a chromosome pair are identical. Two inbred lines, PHB47 and PHZ51, were used to make backcrosses to 18 maize landraces, generating 36 populations. The landraces were chosen bas...

Exact Markov chains versus diffusion theory for haploid random mating.

PubMed

Tyvand, Peder A; Thorvaldsen, Steinar

2010-05-01

Exact discrete Markov chains are applied to the Wright-Fisher model and the Moran model of haploid random mating. Selection and mutations are neglected. At each discrete value of time t there is a given number n of diploid monoecious organisms. The evolution of the population distribution is given in diffusion variables, to compare the two models of random mating with their common diffusion limit. Only the Moran model converges uniformly to the diffusion limit near the boundary. The Wright-Fisher model allows the population size to change with the generations. Diffusion theory tends to under-predict the loss of genetic information when a population enters a bottleneck. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The evolutionary dynamics of haplodiploidy: Genome architecture and haploid viability.

PubMed

Blackmon, Heath; Hardy, Nate B; Ross, Laura

2015-11-01

Haplodiploid reproduction, in which males are haploid and females are diploid, is widespread among animals, yet we understand little about the forces responsible for its evolution. The current theory is that haplodiploidy has evolved through genetic conflicts, as it provides a transmission advantage to mothers. Male viability is thought to be a major limiting factor; diploid individuals tend to harbor many recessive lethal mutations. This theory predicts that the evolution of haplodiploidy is more likely in male heterogametic lineages with few chromosomes, as genes on the X chromosome are often expressed in a haploid environment, and the fewer the chromosome number, the greater the proportion of the total genome that is X-linked. We test this prediction with comparative phylogenetic analyses of mites, among which haplodiploidy has evolved repeatedly. We recover a negative correlation between chromosome number and haplodiploidy, find evidence that low chromosome number evolved prior to haplodiploidy, and that it is unlikely that diplodiploidy has reevolved from haplodiploid lineages of mites. These results are consistent with the predicted importance of haploid male viability. © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Competition Between the Sperm of a Single Male Can Increase the Evolutionary Rate of Haploid Expressed Genes

PubMed Central

Ezawa, Kiyoshi; Innan, Hideki

2013-01-01

The population genetic behavior of mutations in sperm genes is theoretically investigated. We modeled the processes at two levels. One is the standard population genetic process, in which the population allele frequencies change generation by generation, depending on the difference in selective advantages. The other is the sperm competition during each genetic transmission from one generation to the next generation. For the sperm competition process, we formulate the situation where a huge number of sperm with alleles A and B, produced by a single heterozygous male, compete to fertilize a single egg. This “minimal model” demonstrates that a very slight difference in sperm performance amounts to quite a large difference between the alleles’ winning probabilities. By incorporating this effect of paternity-sharing sperm competition into the standard population genetic process, we show that fierce sperm competition can enhance the fixation probability of a mutation with a very small phenotypic effect at the single-sperm level, suggesting a contribution of sperm competition to rapid amino acid substitutions in haploid-expressed sperm genes. Considering recent genome-wide demonstrations that a substantial fraction of the mammalian sperm genes are haploid expressed, our model could provide a potential explanation of rapid evolution of sperm genes with a wide variety of functions (as long as they are expressed in the haploid phase). Another advantage of our model is that it is applicable to a wide range of species, irrespective of whether the species is externally fertilizing, polygamous, or monogamous. The theoretical result was applied to mammalian data to estimate the selection intensity on nonsynonymous mutations in sperm genes. PMID:23666936

Schrödinger's Cheshire Cat: Are Haploid Emiliania huxleyi Cells Resistant to Viral Infection or Not?

PubMed

Mordecai, Gideon J; Verret, Frederic; Highfield, Andrea; Schroeder, Declan C

2017-03-18

Emiliania huxleyi is the main calcite producer on Earth and is routinely infected by a virus (EhV); a double stranded DNA (dsDNA) virus belonging to the family Phycodnaviridae . E. huxleyi exhibits a haplodiploid life cycle; the calcified diploid stage is non-motile and forms extensive blooms. The haploid phase is a non-calcified biflagellated cell bearing organic scales. Haploid cells are thought to resist infection, through a process deemed the "Cheshire Cat" escape strategy; however, a recent study detected the presence of viral lipids in the same haploid strain. Here we report on the application of an E. huxleyi CCMP1516 EhV-86 combined tiling array (TA) that further confirms an EhV infection in the RCC1217 haploid strain, which grew without any signs of cell lysis. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and PCR verified the presence of viral RNA in the haploid cells, yet indicated an absence of viral DNA, respectively. These infected cells are an alternative stage of the virus life cycle deemed the haplococcolithovirocell. In this instance, the host is both resistant to and infected by EhV, i.e., the viral transcriptome is present in haploid cells whilst there is no evidence of viral lysis. This superimposed state is reminiscent of Schrödinger's cat; of being simultaneously both dead and alive.

Cryptic Fitness Advantage: Diploids Invade Haploid Populations Despite Lacking Any Apparent Advantage as Measured by Standard Fitness Assays

PubMed Central

Gerstein, Aleeza C.; Otto, Sarah P.

2011-01-01

Ploidy varies tremendously within and between species, yet the factors that influence when or why ploidy variants are adaptive remains poorly understood. Our previous work found that diploid individuals repeatedly arose within ten replicate haploid populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and in each case we witnessed diploid takeover within 1800 asexual generations of batch culture evolution in the lab. The character that allowed diploids to rise in frequency within haploid populations remains unknown. Here we present a number of experiments conducted with the goal to determine what this trait (or traits) might have been. Experiments were conducted both by sampling a small number of colonies from the stocks frozen every two weeks (93 generations) during the original experiment, as well through sampling a larger number of colonies at the two time points where polymorphism for ploidy was most prevalent. Surprisingly, none of our fitness component measures (lag phase, growth rate, biomass production) indicated an advantage to diploidy. Similarly, competition assays against a common competitor and direct competition between haploid and diploid colonies isolated from the same time point failed to indicate a diploid advantage. Furthermore, we uncovered a tremendous amount of trait variation among colonies of the same ploidy level. Only late-appearing diploids showed a competitive advantage over haploids, indicating that the fitness advantage that allowed eventual takeover was not diploidy per se but an attribute of a subset of diploid lineages. Nevertheless, the initial rise in diploids to intermediate frequency cannot be explained by any of the fitness measures used; we suggest that the resolution to this mystery is negative frequency-dependent selection, which is ignored in the standard fitness measures used. PMID:22174734

Use of doubled haploid technology for development of stable drought tolerant bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) transgenics.

PubMed

Chauhan, Harsh; Khurana, Paramjit

2011-04-01

Anther culture-derived haploid embryos were used as explants for Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv CPAN1676) using barley HVA1 gene for drought tolerance. Regenerated plantlets were checked for transgene integration in T₀ generation, and positive transgenic haploid plants were doubled by colchicine treatment. Stable transgenic doubled haploid plants were obtained, and transgene expression was monitored till T₄ generation, and no transgene silencing was observed over the generations. Doubled haploid transgenic plants have faster seed germination and seedling establishment and show better drought tolerance in comparison with nontransgenic, doubled haploid plants, as measured by per cent germination, seedling growth and biomass accumulation. Physiological evaluation for abiotic stress by assessing nitrate reductase enzyme activity and plant yield under post-anthesis water limitation revealed a better tolerance of the transgenics over the wild type. This is the first report on the production of double haploid transgenic wheat through anther culture technique in a commercial cultivar for a desirable trait. This method would also be useful in functional genomics of wheat and other allopolyploids of agronomic importance. © 2010 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal © 2010 Society for Experimental Biology, Association of Applied Biologists and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Transcriptome analysis of functional differentiation between haploid and diploid cells of Emiliania huxleyi, a globally significant photosynthetic calcifying cell.

PubMed

von Dassow, Peter; Ogata, Hiroyuki; Probert, Ian; Wincker, Patrick; Da Silva, Corinne; Audic, Stéphane; Claverie, Jean-Michel; de Vargas, Colomban

2009-01-01

Eukaryotes are classified as either haplontic, diplontic, or haplo-diplontic, depending on which ploidy levels undergo mitotic cell division in the life cycle. Emiliania huxleyi is one of the most abundant phytoplankton species in the ocean, playing an important role in global carbon fluxes, and represents haptophytes, an enigmatic group of unicellular organisms that diverged early in eukaryotic evolution. This species is haplo-diplontic. Little is known about the haploid cells, but they have been hypothesized to allow persistence of the species between the yearly blooms of diploid cells. We sequenced over 38,000 expressed sequence tags from haploid and diploid E. huxleyi normalized cDNA libraries to identify genes involved in important processes specific to each life phase (2N calcification or 1N motility), and to better understand the haploid phase of this prominent haplo-diplontic organism. The haploid and diploid transcriptomes showed a dramatic differentiation, with approximately 20% greater transcriptome richness in diploid cells than in haploid cells and only haploids included signal transduction and motility genes. Diploid-specific transcripts included Ca2+, H+, and HCO3- pumps. Potential factors differentiating the transcriptomes included haploid-specific Myb transcription factor homologs and an unusual diploid-specific histone H4 homolog. This study permitted the identification of genes likely involved in diploid-specific biomineralization, haploid-specific motility, and transcriptional control. Greater transcriptome richness in diploid cells suggests they may be more versatile for exploiting a diversity of rich environments whereas haploid cells are intrinsically more streamlined.

Transcriptome analysis of functional differentiation between haploid and diploid cells of Emiliania huxleyi, a globally significant photosynthetic calcifying cell

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Eukaryotes are classified as either haplontic, diplontic, or haplo-diplontic, depending on which ploidy levels undergo mitotic cell division in the life cycle. Emiliania huxleyi is one of the most abundant phytoplankton species in the ocean, playing an important role in global carbon fluxes, and represents haptophytes, an enigmatic group of unicellular organisms that diverged early in eukaryotic evolution. This species is haplo-diplontic. Little is known about the haploid cells, but they have been hypothesized to allow persistence of the species between the yearly blooms of diploid cells. We sequenced over 38,000 expressed sequence tags from haploid and diploid E. huxleyi normalized cDNA libraries to identify genes involved in important processes specific to each life phase (2N calcification or 1N motility), and to better understand the haploid phase of this prominent haplo-diplontic organism. Results The haploid and diploid transcriptomes showed a dramatic differentiation, with approximately 20% greater transcriptome richness in diploid cells than in haploid cells and only ≤ 50% of transcripts estimated to be common between the two phases. The major functional category of transcripts differentiating haploids included signal transduction and motility genes. Diploid-specific transcripts included Ca2+, H+, and HCO3- pumps. Potential factors differentiating the transcriptomes included haploid-specific Myb transcription factor homologs and an unusual diploid-specific histone H4 homolog. Conclusions This study permitted the identification of genes likely involved in diploid-specific biomineralization, haploid-specific motility, and transcriptional control. Greater transcriptome richness in diploid cells suggests they may be more versatile for exploiting a diversity of rich environments whereas haploid cells are intrinsically more streamlined. PMID:19832986

Ploidally antagonistic selection maintains stable genetic polymorphism.

PubMed

Immler, Simone; Arnqvist, Göran; Otto, Sarah Perin

2012-01-01

Understanding the maintenance of genetic variation in the face of selection remains a key issue in evolutionary biology. One potential mechanism for the maintenance of genetic variation is opposing selection during the diploid and haploid stages of biphasic life cycles universal among eukaryotic sexual organisms. If haploid and diploid gene expression both occur, selection can act in each phase, potentially in opposing directions. In addition, sex-specific selection during haploid phases is likely simply because male and female gametophytes/gametes tend to have contrasting life histories. We explored the potential for the maintenance of a stable polymorphism under ploidally antagonistic as well as sex-specific selection. Furthermore, we examined the role of the chromosomal location of alleles (autosomal or sex-linked). Our analyses show that the most permissible conditions for the maintenance of polymorphism occur under negative ploidy-by-sex interactions, where stronger selection for an allele in female than male diploids is coupled with weaker selection against the allele in female than male haploids. Such ploidy-by-sex interactions also promote allele frequency differences between the sexes. With constant fitness, ploidally antagonistic selection can maintain stable polymorphisms for autosomal and X-linked genes but not for Y-linked genes. We discuss the implications of our results and outline a number of biological settings where the scenarios modeled may apply. © 2011 The Author(s). Evolution © 2011 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Schrödinger’s Cheshire Cat: Are Haploid Emiliania huxleyi Cells Resistant to Viral Infection or Not?

PubMed Central

Mordecai, Gideon J.; Verret, Frederic; Highfield, Andrea; Schroeder, Declan C.

2017-01-01

Emiliania huxleyi is the main calcite producer on Earth and is routinely infected by a virus (EhV); a double stranded DNA (dsDNA) virus belonging to the family Phycodnaviridae. E. huxleyi exhibits a haplodiploid life cycle; the calcified diploid stage is non-motile and forms extensive blooms. The haploid phase is a non-calcified biflagellated cell bearing organic scales. Haploid cells are thought to resist infection, through a process deemed the “Cheshire Cat” escape strategy; however, a recent study detected the presence of viral lipids in the same haploid strain. Here we report on the application of an E. huxleyi CCMP1516 EhV-86 combined tiling array (TA) that further confirms an EhV infection in the RCC1217 haploid strain, which grew without any signs of cell lysis. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and PCR verified the presence of viral RNA in the haploid cells, yet indicated an absence of viral DNA, respectively. These infected cells are an alternative stage of the virus life cycle deemed the haplococcolithovirocell. In this instance, the host is both resistant to and infected by EhV, i.e., the viral transcriptome is present in haploid cells whilst there is no evidence of viral lysis. This superimposed state is reminiscent of Schrödinger’s cat; of being simultaneously both dead and alive. PMID:28335465

Rapid and accurate identification of in vivo-induced haploid seeds based on oil content in maize

PubMed Central

Melchinger, Albrecht E.; Schipprack, Wolfgang; Würschum, Tobias; Chen, Shaojiang; Technow, Frank

2013-01-01

The needs of a growing human population require rapid and efficient development of improved cultivars by plant breeders. The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables generating completely homozygous lines in a single step and, thus, is central to modern genetics and breeding approaches. Rapid and reliable identification of seeds with a haploid embryo after in vivo haploid induction is elementary in the method utilized in maize but current systems have severe shortcomings preventing their use in many germplasm types. Here, we describe an alternative method for discrimination of haploid from diploid seeds based on differences in their oil content stemming from pollination with high oil inducers. After presenting some fundamental theory, we provide a proof-of-concept with experimental results, demonstrating acceptable error rates across different germplasm. Our approach represents a breakthrough in DH technology in maize, because it is amenable to automated high-throughput screening and applicable to any maize germplasm worldwide. PMID:23820577

Diploid, but not haploid, human embryonic stem cells can be derived from microsurgically repaired tripronuclear human zygotes

PubMed Central

Fan, Yong; Li, Rong; Huang, Jin; Yu, Yang; Qiao, Jie

2013-01-01

Human embryonic stem cells have shown tremendous potential in regenerative medicine, and the recent progress in haploid embryonic stem cells provides new insights for future applications of embryonic stem cells. Disruption of normal fertilized embryos remains controversial; thus, the development of a new source for human embryonic stem cells is important for their usefulness. Here, we investigated the feasibility of haploid and diploid embryo reconstruction and embryonic stem cell derivation using microsurgically repaired tripronuclear human zygotes. Diploid and haploid zygotes were successfully reconstructed, but a large proportion of them still had a tripolar spindle assembly. The reconstructed embryos developed to the blastocyst stage, although the loss of chromosomes was observed in these zygotes. Finally, triploid and diploid human embryonic stem cells were derived from tripronuclear and reconstructed zygotes (from which only one pronucleus was removed), but haploid human embryonic stem cells were not successfully derived from the reconstructed zygotes when two pronuclei were removed. Both triploid and diploid human embryonic stem cells showed the general characteristics of human embryonic stem cells. These results indicate that the lower embryo quality resulting from abnormal spindle assembly contributed to the failure of the haploid embryonic stem cell derivation. However, the successful derivation of diploid embryonic stem cells demonstrated that microsurgical tripronuclear zygotes are an alternative source of human embryonic stem cells. In the future, improving spindle assembly will facilitate the application of triploid zygotes to the field of haploid embryonic stem cells. PMID:23255130

Identification of Spen as a Crucial Factor for Xist Function through Forward Genetic Screening in Haploid Embryonic Stem Cells

PubMed Central

Monfort, Asun; Di Minin, Giulio; Postlmayr, Andreas; Freimann, Remo; Arieti, Fabiana; Thore, Stéphane; Wutz, Anton

2015-01-01

Summary In mammals, the noncoding Xist RNA triggers transcriptional silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in female cells. Here, we report a genetic screen for silencing factors in X chromosome inactivation using haploid mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) that carry an engineered selectable reporter system. This system was able to identify several candidate factors that are genetically required for chromosomal repression by Xist. Among the list of candidates, we identify the RNA-binding protein Spen, the homolog of split ends. Independent validation through gene deletion in ESCs confirms that Spen is required for gene repression by Xist. However, Spen is not required for Xist RNA localization and the recruitment of chromatin modifications, including Polycomb protein Ezh2. The identification of Spen opens avenues for further investigation into the gene-silencing pathway of Xist and shows the usefulness of haploid ESCs for genetic screening of epigenetic pathways. PMID:26190100

Factors parents use in selecting play spaces for young children.

PubMed

Sallis, J F; McKenzie, T L; Elder, J P; Broyles, S L; Nader, P R

1997-04-01

The amount of time children spend in play spaces (ie, physical locations that are appropriate for children's physical activity) near their homes is correlated with their level of physical activity. To examine factors used in parents' decisions about the selection of play spaces for their children. Parents (primarily mothers) of 178 Mexican American and 122 white children who were a mean age of 4.9 years old at the first measurement. In individual interviews, parents rated 24 factors on their importance in selecting for their children a play space that is away from their home or yard. Decision factors were rated from 1 (ie, not important at all) to 5 (ie, very important). The most important factors, with ratings ranging from 4.8 to 4.2, were safety and availability of toilets, drinking water, lighting, and shade. Mexican American parents rated 8 of 24 items significantly higher than did white parents, including lighted at night, organized activities, play supplies, and drinking water. White parents rated 5 of 24 items significantly higher than did Mexican American parents, including distance from home, cost of admission, and child's friends go there. The rated importance of 7 of 24 items increased during 1 year, including play supplies, drinking water, distance from home, and parents' friends or relatives go there. These results indicate that parents can identify factors they use in selecting places for their young children to play, and selection factors differ somewhat by ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Further studies are needed to determine whether improvements on the most important selection factors might be effective in increasing the use of play spaces by children and their parents. Clinicians may be able to use the most highly rated decision factors to help parents assess the acceptability of play spaces in their areas.

REGULATION OF GEOGRAPHIC VARIABILITY IN HAPLOID:DIPLOD RATIOS OF BIPHASIC SEAWEED LIFE CYCLES(1).

PubMed

da Silva Vieira, Vasco Manuel Nobre de Carvalho; Santos, Rui Orlando Pimenta

2012-08-01

The relative abundance of haploid and diploid individuals (H:D) in isomorphic marine algal biphasic cycles varies spatially, but only if vital rates of haploid and diploid phases vary differently with environmental conditions (i.e. conditional differentiation between phases). Vital rates of isomorphic phases in particular environments may be determined by subtle morphological or physiological differences. Herein, we test numerically how geographic variability in H:D is regulated by conditional differentiation between isomorphic life phases and the type of life strategy of populations (i.e. life cycles dominated by reproduction, survival or growth). Simulation conditions were selected using available data on H:D spatial variability in seaweeds. Conditional differentiation between ploidy phases had a small effect on the H:D variability for species with life strategies that invest either in fertility or in growth. Conversely, species with life strategies that invest mainly in survival, exhibited high variability in H:D through a conditional differentiation in stasis (the probability of staying in the same size class), breakage (the probability of changing to a smaller size class) or growth (the probability of changing to a bigger size class). These results were consistent with observed geographic variability in H:D of natural marine algae populations. © 2012 Phycological Society of America.

Strain improvement of chymosin-producing strains of Aspergillus niger var. awamori using parasexual recombination.

PubMed

Bodie, E A; Armstrong, G L; Dunn-Coleman, N S

1994-05-01

Parasexual recombination was used to obtain improved chymosin-producing strains and to perform genetic analysis on existing strains. Chlorate resistance was used to select for a variety of spontaneous nitrate assimilation pathway mutations in strains previously improved for chymosin production using classical strain improvement methods including mutation and screening, and selection for 2-deoxyglucose resistance (dgr). Diploids of these improved strains were generated via parasexual recombination and were isolated on selective media by complementation of nitrate assimilation mutations. A preliminary genetic analysis of diploid and haploid segregants indicated that the dgr trait, resulting in overexpression of chymosin, was recessive. Also, mutations in two different dgr genes resulted in an increased level of chymosin production. When these mutations were combined via parasexual recombination, the resulting haploid segregants produced about 15% more chymosin than either parental strain. CHEF gel electrophoresis was used to determine the chromosomal location of the integrated chymosin DNA sequences, and to verify diploidy in one case where the chromosome composition of two haploid parents differed.

Group therapy for selective mutism - a parents' and children's treatment group.

PubMed

Sharkey, Louise; Mc Nicholas, Fiona; Barry, Edwina; Begley, Maire; Ahern, Sinead

2008-12-01

To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of group therapy for children with selective mutism and their parents. Five children (mean age 6.1 years) with a diagnosis of selective mutism were administered group therapy over an 8-week period. Parents simultaneously attended a second group, aimed at providing education and advice on managing selective mutism in everyday situations, and in the school environment. At post-treatment, all children increased their level of confident speaking in school, clinic and community settings. Parents indicated a reduction in their own anxiety levels, from pre- to post-treatment on self-rating scales. Findings support the feasibility and effectiveness of group therapy for children with selective mutism and their parents.

Convergent evolution of a fused sexual cycle promotes the haploid lifestyle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sherwood, Racquel Kim; Scaduto, Christine M.; Torres, Sandra E.; Bennett, Richard J.

2014-02-01

Sexual reproduction is restricted to eukaryotic species and involves the fusion of haploid gametes to form a diploid cell that subsequently undergoes meiosis to generate recombinant haploid forms. This process has been extensively studied in the unicellular yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which exhibits separate regulatory control over mating and meiosis. Here we address the mechanism of sexual reproduction in the related hemiascomycete species Candida lusitaniae. We demonstrate that, in contrast to S. cerevisiae, C. lusitaniae exhibits a highly integrated sexual program in which the programs regulating mating and meiosis have fused. Profiling of the C. lusitaniae sexual cycle revealed that gene expression patterns during mating and meiosis were overlapping, indicative of co-regulation. This was particularly evident for genes involved in pheromone MAPK signalling, which were highly induced throughout the sexual cycle of C. lusitaniae. Furthermore, genetic analysis showed that the orthologue of IME2, a `diploid-specific' factor in S. cerevisiae, and STE12, the master regulator of S. cerevisiae mating, were each required for progression through both mating and meiosis in C. lusitaniae. Together, our results establish that sexual reproduction has undergone significant rewiring between S. cerevisiae and C. lusitaniae, and that a concerted sexual cycle operates in C. lusitaniae that is more reminiscent of the distantly related ascomycete, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We discuss these results in light of the evolution of sexual reproduction in yeast, and propose that regulatory coupling of mating and meiosis has evolved multiple times as an adaptation to promote the haploid lifestyle.

Selection on parental performance opposes selection for larger body mass in a wild population of blue tits.

PubMed

Thomson, Caroline E; Bayer, Florian; Crouch, Nicholas; Farrell, Samantha; Heap, Elizabeth; Mittell, Elizabeth; Zurita-Cassinello, Mar; Hadfield, Jarrod D

2017-03-01

There is abundant evidence in many taxa for positive directional selection on body size, and yet little evidence for microevolutionary change. In many species, variation in body size is partly determined by the actions of parents, so a proposed explanation for stasis is the presence of a negative genetic correlation between direct and parental effects. Consequently, selecting genes for increased body size would result in a correlated decline in parental effects, reducing body size in the following generation. We show that these arguments implicitly assume that parental care is cost free, and that including a cost alters the predicted genetic architectures needed to explain stasis. Using a large cross-fostered population of blue tits, we estimate direct selection on parental effects for body mass, and show it is negative. Negative selection is consistent with a cost to parental care, mainly acting through a reduction in current fecundity rather than survival. Under these conditions, evolutionary stasis is possible for moderately negative genetic correlations between direct and parental effects. This is in contrast to the implausibly extreme correlations needed when care is assumed to be cost-free. Thus, we highlight the importance of accounting correctly for complete selection acting on traits across generations. © 2017 The Author(s). Evolution © 2017 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Meiosis and Haploid Gametes in the Pathogen Trypanosoma brucei

PubMed Central

Peacock, Lori; Bailey, Mick; Carrington, Mark; Gibson, Wendy

2014-01-01

Summary In eukaryote pathogens, sex is an important driving force in spreading genes for drug resistance, pathogenicity, and virulence [1]. For the parasitic trypanosomes that cause African sleeping sickness, mating occurs during transmission by the tsetse vector [2, 3] and involves meiosis [4], but haploid gametes have not yet been identified. Here, we show that meiosis is a normal part of development in the insect salivary glands for all subspecies of Trypanosoma brucei, including the human pathogens. By observing insect-derived trypanosomes during the window of peak expression of meiosis-specific genes, we identified promastigote-like (PL) cells that interacted with each other via their flagella and underwent fusion, as visualized by the mixing of cytoplasmic red and green fluorescent proteins. PL cells had a short, wide body, a very long anterior flagellum, and either one or two kinetoplasts, but only the anterior kinetoplast was associated with the flagellum. Measurement of nuclear DNA contents showed that PL cells were haploid relative to diploid metacyclics. Trypanosomes are among the earliest diverging eukaryotes, and our results support the hypothesis that meiosis and sexual reproduction are ubiquitous in eukaryotes and likely to have been early innovations [5]. PMID:24388851

Investigating Kindergarten Parents' Selection of After-School Art Education Settings in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsiao, Ching-Yuan; Kuo, Ting-Yin

2013-01-01

The research purpose was to investigate kindergarten parents' selection of after-school art education settings in Taiwan. A review of the literature and interviews with parents were conducted to identify several possible factors that would impact on parents' selection of after-school art education settings for their children. Then, the researcher…

A haploid system of sex determination in the brown alga Ectocarpus sp.

PubMed

Ahmed, Sophia; Cock, J Mark; Pessia, Eugenie; Luthringer, Remy; Cormier, Alexandre; Robuchon, Marine; Sterck, Lieven; Peters, Akira F; Dittami, Simon M; Corre, Erwan; Valero, Myriam; Aury, Jean-Marc; Roze, Denis; Van de Peer, Yves; Bothwell, John; Marais, Gabriel A B; Coelho, Susana M

2014-09-08

A common feature of most genetic sex-determination systems studied so far is that sex is determined by nonrecombining genomic regions, which can be of various sizes depending on the species. These regions have evolved independently and repeatedly across diverse groups. A number of such sex-determining regions (SDRs) have been studied in animals, plants, and fungi, but very little is known about the evolution of sexes in other eukaryotic lineages. We report here the sequencing and genomic analysis of the SDR of Ectocarpus, a brown alga that has been evolving independently from plants, animals, and fungi for over one giga-annum. In Ectocarpus, sex is expressed during the haploid phase of the life cycle, and both the female (U) and the male (V) sex chromosomes contain nonrecombining regions. The U and V of this species have been diverging for more than 70 mega-annum, yet gene degeneration has been modest, and the SDR is relatively small, with no evidence for evolutionary strata. These features may be explained by the occurrence of strong purifying selection during the haploid phase of the life cycle and the low level of sexual dimorphism. V is dominant over U, suggesting that femaleness may be the default state, adopted when the male haplotype is absent. The Ectocarpus UV system has clearly had a distinct evolutionary trajectory not only to the well-studied XY and ZW systems but also to the UV systems described so far. Nonetheless, some striking similarities exist, indicating remarkable universality of the underlying processes shaping sex chromosome evolution across distant lineages. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parent oriented teacher selection causes language diversity.

PubMed

Cimentepe, Ibrahim; Bingol, Haluk O

2017-09-21

An evolutionary model for emergence of diversity in language is developed. We investigated the effects of two real life observations, namely, people prefer people that they communicate with well, and people interact with people that are physically close to each other. Clearly these groups are relatively small compared to the entire population. We restrict selection of the teachers from such small groups, called imitation sets, around parents. Then the child learns language from a teacher selected within the imitation set of her parent. As a result, there are subcommunities with their own languages developed. Within subcommunity comprehension is found to be high. The number of languages is related to the relative size of imitation set by a power law. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characters that differ between diploid and haploid honey bee (Apis mellifera) drones.

PubMed

Herrmann, Matthias; Trenzcek, Tina; Fahrenhorst, Hartmut; Engels, Wolf

2005-12-30

Diploid males have long been considered a curiosity contradictory to the haplo-diploid mode of sex determination in the Hymenoptera. In Apis mellifera, 'false' diploid male larvae are eliminated by worker cannibalism immediately after hatching. A 'cannibalism substance' produced by diploid drone larvae to induce worker-assisted suicide has been hypothesized, but it has never been detected. Diploid drones are only removed some hours after hatching. Older larvae are evidently not regarded as 'false males' and instead are regularly nursed by the brood-attending worker bees. As the pheromonal cues presumably are located on the surface of newly hatched bee larvae, we extracted the cuticular secretions and analyzed their chemical composition by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses. Larvae were sexed and then reared in vitro for up to three days. The GC-MS pattern that was obtained, with alkanes as the major compounds, was compared between diploid and haploid drone larvae. We also examined some physical parameters of adult drones. There was no difference between diploid and haploid males in their weight at the day of emergence. The diploid adult drones had fewer wing hooks and smaller testes. The sperm DNA content was 0.30 and 0.15 pg per nucleus, giving an exact 2:1 ratio for the gametocytes of diploid and haploid drones, respectively. Vitellogenin was found in the hemolymph of both types of imaginal drones at 5 to 6 days, with a significantly lower titer in the diploids.

Parental Involvement in Selection: Mandated or Our Choice?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harer, John B.

2009-01-01

In the author's early days of school librarianship, it did not take long for him to realize that this was not the time to first think of how to involve parents in support of his selections for the library. A lot of good advice exists that suggests ways for parents to be involved that will help support intellectual freedom, as well as lessons…

Diallel crossing among doubled haploids of cucumber reveals significant reciprocal-cross differences

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Cucumber is an excellent plant for studying organellar effects on phenotypes because chloroplasts show maternal and mitochondria paternal transmission. We produced doubled haploids (DH) from divergent cucumber populations, generated reciprocal crosses in a diallel mating scheme, measured fresh and d...

Meiosis and haploid gametes in the pathogen Trypanosoma brucei.

PubMed

Peacock, Lori; Bailey, Mick; Carrington, Mark; Gibson, Wendy

2014-01-20

In eukaryote pathogens, sex is an important driving force in spreading genes for drug resistance, pathogenicity, and virulence. For the parasitic trypanosomes that cause African sleeping sickness, mating occurs during transmission by the tsetse vector and involves meiosis, but haploid gametes have not yet been identified. Here, we show that meiosis is a normal part of development in the insect salivary glands for all subspecies of Trypanosoma brucei, including the human pathogens. By observing insect-derived trypanosomes during the window of peak expression of meiosis-specific genes, we identified promastigote-like (PL) cells that interacted with each other via their flagella and underwent fusion, as visualized by the mixing of cytoplasmic red and green fluorescent proteins. PL cells had a short, wide body, a very long anterior flagellum, and either one or two kinetoplasts, but only the anterior kinetoplast was associated with the flagellum. Measurement of nuclear DNA contents showed that PL cells were haploid relative to diploid metacyclics. Trypanosomes are among the earliest diverging eukaryotes, and our results support the hypothesis that meiosis and sexual reproduction are ubiquitous in eukaryotes and likely to have been early innovations. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A stable hybrid containing haploid genomes of two obligate diploid Candida species.

PubMed

Chakraborty, Uttara; Mohamed, Aiyaz; Kakade, Pallavi; Mugasimangalam, Raja C; Sadhale, Parag P; Sanyal, Kaustuv

2013-08-01

Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis are diploid, predominantly asexual human-pathogenic yeasts. In this study, we constructed tetraploid (4n) strains of C. albicans of the same or different lineages by spheroplast fusion. Induction of chromosome loss in the tetraploid C. albicans generated diploid or near-diploid progeny strains but did not produce any haploid progeny. We also constructed stable heterotetraploid somatic hybrid strains (2n + 2n) of C. albicans and C. dubliniensis by spheroplast fusion. Heterodiploid (n + n) progeny hybrids were obtained after inducing chromosome loss in a stable heterotetraploid hybrid. To identify a subset of hybrid heterodiploid progeny strains carrying at least one copy of all chromosomes of both species, unique centromere sequences of various chromosomes of each species were used as markers in PCR analysis. The reduction of chromosome content was confirmed by a comparative genome hybridization (CGH) assay. The hybrid strains were found to be stably propagated. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays with antibodies against centromere-specific histones (C. albicans Cse4/C. dubliniensis Cse4) revealed that the centromere identity of chromosomes of each species is maintained in the hybrid genomes of the heterotetraploid and heterodiploid strains. Thus, our results suggest that the diploid genome content is not obligatory for the survival of either C. albicans or C. dubliniensis. In keeping with the recent discovery of the existence of haploid C. albicans strains, the heterodiploid strains of our study can be excellent tools for further species-specific genome elimination, yielding true haploid progeny of C. albicans or C. dubliniensis in future.

Analysis of genetic composition and transmitted parental heterozygosity of natural 2n gametes in Populus tomentosa based on SSR markers.

PubMed

Han, Zhiqiang; Geng, Xining; Du, Kang; Xu, Congping; Yao, Pengqiang; Bai, Fengying; Kang, Xiangyang

2018-06-01

Natural 2n female gametes and transmission of parental heterozygosity by natural 2n gametes in Populus tomentosa are reported for the first time, which provides a new approach to polyploid breeding. Naturally occurring 2n pollen is widespread in Populus tomentosa and plays an important role in polyploid breeding. However, the competitiveness of 2n pollen is lower than that of haploid pollen during pollination and fertilization, so 2n pollen is less efficient at fertilizing haploid female gametes to produce polyploids. In theory, polyploids can also be obtained when 2n female gametes are fertilized by haploid pollen. Thus, the question becomes whether natural 2n female gametes exist in P. tomentosa, which can be answered by examining the genetic composition of natural 2n gametes. In this study, the origin of 87 triploids from the hybrid combination "X-2 × Z-5" was identified by SSR markers and 21% of natural 2n gametes were found to originate from female parents. Four SSR loci with low recombination rates were used to identify the genetic composition of natural 2n gametes. The results showed that the genetic composition of 2n female gametes was mainly characterized by SDR, while 2n male gametes were mainly produced by FDR. Moreover, the transmission of parental heterozygosity by natural 2n gametes, which is significantly different between female and male parents in FDR and SDR types, was analysed using 42 SSR primers. Here, we report naturally occurring 2n female gametes for the first time in P. tomentosa and reveal the genetic constitution and transmitted parental heterozygosity of these gametes. Our results provide a foundation for theoretical research into 2n gametes and their application in new polyploid breeding strategies.

Point mutation impairs centromeric CENH3 loading and induces haploid plants.

PubMed

Karimi-Ashtiyani, Raheleh; Ishii, Takayoshi; Niessen, Markus; Stein, Nils; Heckmann, Stefan; Gurushidze, Maia; Banaei-Moghaddam, Ali Mohammad; Fuchs, Jörg; Schubert, Veit; Koch, Kerstin; Weiss, Oda; Demidov, Dmitri; Schmidt, Klaus; Kumlehn, Jochen; Houben, Andreas

2015-09-08

The chromosomal position of the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENH3 (also called "CENP-A") is the assembly site for the kinetochore complex of active centromeres. Any error in transcription, translation, modification, or incorporation can affect the ability to assemble intact CENH3 chromatin and can cause centromere inactivation [Allshire RC, Karpen GH (2008) Nat Rev Genet 9 (12):923-937]. Here we show that a single-point amino acid exchange in the centromere-targeting domain of CENH3 leads to reduced centromere loading of CENH3 in barley, sugar beet, and Arabidopsis thaliana. Haploids were obtained after cenh3 L130F-complemented cenh3-null mutant plants were crossed with wild-type A. thaliana. In contrast, in a noncompeting situation (i.e., centromeres possessing only mutated or only wild-type CENH3), no uniparental chromosome elimination occurs during early embryogenesis. The high degree of evolutionary conservation of the identified mutation site offers promising opportunities for application in a wide range of crop species in which haploid technology is of interest.

Point mutation impairs centromeric CENH3 loading and induces haploid plants

PubMed Central

Karimi-Ashtiyani, Raheleh; Ishii, Takayoshi; Niessen, Markus; Stein, Nils; Heckmann, Stefan; Gurushidze, Maia; Banaei-Moghaddam, Ali Mohammad; Fuchs, Jörg; Schubert, Veit; Koch, Kerstin; Weiss, Oda; Demidov, Dmitri; Schmidt, Klaus; Kumlehn, Jochen; Houben, Andreas

2015-01-01

The chromosomal position of the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENH3 (also called “CENP-A”) is the assembly site for the kinetochore complex of active centromeres. Any error in transcription, translation, modification, or incorporation can affect the ability to assemble intact CENH3 chromatin and can cause centromere inactivation [Allshire RC, Karpen GH (2008) Nat Rev Genet 9 (12):923–937]. Here we show that a single-point amino acid exchange in the centromere-targeting domain of CENH3 leads to reduced centromere loading of CENH3 in barley, sugar beet, and Arabidopsis thaliana. Haploids were obtained after cenh3 L130F-complemented cenh3-null mutant plants were crossed with wild-type A. thaliana. In contrast, in a noncompeting situation (i.e., centromeres possessing only mutated or only wild-type CENH3), no uniparental chromosome elimination occurs during early embryogenesis. The high degree of evolutionary conservation of the identified mutation site offers promising opportunities for application in a wide range of crop species in which haploid technology is of interest. PMID:26294252

The Role of Parents in the College Selection Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buford, Delores

This study of parents' role in the college selection process is part of an ongoing market research agenda at a small, private, liberal arts college. Data were gathered from parents of currently enrolled freshmen about the information they needed to make informed decisions about which school their child would attend and the information they…

Sex differences in parental care: Gametic investment, sexual selection, and social environment.

PubMed

Liker, András; Freckleton, Robert P; Remeš, Vladimir; Székely, Tamás

2015-11-01

Male and female parents often provide different type and amount of care to their offspring. Three major drivers have been proposed to explain parental sex roles: (1) differential gametic investment by males and females that precipitates into sex difference in care, (2) different intensity of sexual selection acting on males and females, and (3) biased social environment that facilitates the more common sex to provide more care. Here, we provide the most comprehensive assessment of these hypotheses using detailed parental care data from 792 bird species covering 126 families. We found no evidence for the gametic investment hypothesis: neither gamete sizes nor gamete production by males relative to females was related to sex difference in parental care. However, sexual selection correlated with parental sex roles, because the male share in care relative to female decreased with both extra-pair paternity and frequency of male polygamy. Parental sex roles were also related to social environment, because male parental care increased with male-biased adult sex ratios (ASRs). Taken together, our results are consistent with recent theories suggesting that gametic investment is not tied to parental sex roles, and highlight the importance of both sexual selection and ASR in influencing parental sex roles. © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution © 2015 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Mating system and gene flow in the red seaweed Gracilaria gracilis: effect of haploid-diploid life history and intertidal rocky shore landscape on fine-scale genetic structure.

PubMed

Engel, C R; Destombe, C; Valero, M

2004-04-01

The impact of haploid-diploidy and the intertidal landscape on a fine-scale genetic structure was explored in a red seaweed Gracilaria gracilis. The pattern of genetic structure was compared in haploid and diploid stages at a microgeographic scale (< 5 km): a total of 280 haploid and 296 diploid individuals located in six discrete, scattered rock pools were genotyped using seven microsatellite loci. Contrary to the theoretical expectation of predominantly endogamous mating systems in haploid-diploid organisms, G. gracilis showed a clearly allogamous mating system. Although within-population allele frequencies were similar between haploids and diploids, genetic differentiation among haploids was more than twice that of diploids, suggesting that there may be a lag between migration and (local) breeding due to the long generation times in G. gracilis. Weak, but significant, population differentiation was detected in both haploids and diploids and varied with landscape features, and not with geographic distance. Using an assignment test, we establish that effective migration rates varied according to height on the shore. In this intertidal species, biased spore dispersal may occur during the transport of spores and gametes at low tide when small streams flow from high- to lower-shore pools. The longevity of both haploid and diploid free-living stages and the long generation times typical of G. gracilis populations may promote the observed pattern of high genetic diversity within populations relative to that among populations.

Doubled haploid production from Spanish onion (Allium cepa L.) germplasm: embryogenesis induction, plant regeneration and chromosome doubling.

PubMed

Fayos, Oreto; Vallés, María P; Garcés-Claver, Ana; Mallor, Cristina; Castillo, Ana M

2015-01-01

The use of doubled haploids in onion breeding is limited due to the low gynogenesis efficiency of this species. Gynogenesis capacity from Spanish germplasm, including the sweet cultivar Fuentes de Ebro, the highly pungent landrace BGHZ1354 and the two Valenciana type commercial varieties Recas and Rita, was evaluated and optimized in this study. The OH-1 population, characterized by a high gynogenesis induction, was used as control. Growing conditions of the donor plants were tested with a one-step protocol and field plants produced a slightly higher percentage of embryogenesis induction than growth chamber plants. A one-step protocol was compared with a two-step protocol for embryogenesis induction. Spanish germplasm produced a 2-3 times higher percentage of embryogenesis with the two-step protocol, Recas showing the highest percentage (2.09%) and Fuentes de Ebro the lowest (0.53%). These percentages were significantly lower than those from the OH-1 population, with an average of 15% independently of the protocol used. The effect of different containers on plant regeneration was tested using both protocols. The highest percentage of acclimated plants was obtained with the two-step protocol in combination with Eco2box (70%), whereas the lowest percentage was observed with glass tubes in the two protocols (20-23%). Different amiprofos-methyl (APM) treatments were applied to embryos for chromosome doubling. A similar number of doubled haploid plants were recovered with 25 or 50 μM APM in liquid medium. However, the application of 25 μM in solid medium for 24 h produced the highest number of doubled haploid plants. Somatic regeneration from flower buds of haploid and mixoploid plants proved to be a successful approach for chromosome doubling, since diploid plants were obtained from the four regenerated lines. In this study, doubled haploid plants were produced from the four Spanish cultivars, however further improvements are needed to increase their gynogenesis

Sexual selection favours male parental care, when females can choose

PubMed Central

Alonzo, Suzanne H.

2012-01-01

Explaining the evolution of male care has proved difficult. Recent theory predicts that female promiscuity and sexual selection on males inherently disfavour male care. In sharp contrast to these expectations, male-only care is often found in species with high extra-pair paternity and striking variation in mating success, where current theory predicts female-only care. Using a model that examines the coevolution of male care, female care and female choice; I show that inter-sexual selection can drive the evolution of male care when females are able to bias mating or paternity towards parental males. Surprisingly, female choice for parental males allows male care to evolve despite low relatedness between the male and the offspring in his care. These results imply that predicting how sexual selection affects parental care evolution will require further understanding of why females, in many species, either do not prefer or cannot favour males that provide care. PMID:22171082

An Assessment Protocol for Selective Mutism: Analogue Assessment Using Parents as Facilitators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schill, Melissa T.; And Others

1996-01-01

Assesses protocol for conducting a functional analysis of maintaining variables for children with selective mutism. A parent was trained in and later applied various behavior strategies designed to increase speech in an eight-year-old girl with selective mutism. Parent and child ratings of treatment were positive. Presents implications for future…

Teacher-Parent Communication and Parents' Ability to Select Reading Material: A Study of a Baggy Book Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lorenz, Kelley M.

2013-01-01

This study examined the effects of a home-reading program on parent-teacher communication and on the ability of parents to select reading material for their children. In this qualitative case study, parents of 4th grade students participated in a reading homework program with their children. Using constructivist theories, the study's…

Sexual selection under parental choice: evidence from sixteen historical societies.

PubMed

Apostolou, Menelaos

2012-08-11

Asymmetrical fitness benefits between parents and offspring result in the ideal spouse not being the ideal in-law. This enables parents to attempt to control the mating behavior of their children, and when they succeed, parental choice becomes a primary sexual selection force. A number of studies indicate that parental choice is dominant in contemporary pre-industrial societies. This paper presents evidence from the historical record which indicates that parental choice was also dominant during the later stages of human evolution. More specifically, 40 variables have been coded for a sample of 16 historical societies. Consistent with the model of parental choice, it is found that mating is controlled by parents, male parents exercise more control over marriage arrangements than females, and more control is exercised over female than male offspring. Finally, the specific qualities that parents desire in an in-law and offspring desire in a spouse have also been identified. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Brewing characteristics of haploid strains isolated from sake yeast Kyokai No. 7.

PubMed

Katou, Taku; Kitagaki, Hiroshi; Akao, Takeshi; Shimoi, Hitoshi

2008-11-01

Sake yeast exhibit various characteristics that make them more suitable for sake brewing compared to other yeast strains. Since sake yeast strains are Saccharomyces cerevisiae heterothallic diploid strains, it is likely that they have heterozygous alleles on homologous chromosomes (heterozygosity) due to spontaneous mutations. If this is the case, segregation of phenotypic traits in haploid strains after sporulation and concomitant meiosis of sake yeast strains would be expected to occur. To examine this hypothesis, we isolated 100 haploid strains from Kyokai No. 7 (K7), a typical sake yeast strain in Japan, and compared their brewing characteristics in small-scale sake-brewing tests. Analyses of the resultant sake samples showed a smooth and continuous distribution of analytical values for brewing characteristics, suggesting that K7 has multiple heterozygosities that affect brewing characteristics and that these heterozygous alleles do segregate after sporulation. Correlation and principal component analyses suggested that the analytical parameters could be classified into two groups, indicating fermentation ability and sake flavour. (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evolution and maintenance of haploid-diploid life cycles in natural populations: The case of the marine brown alga Ectocarpus.

PubMed

Couceiro, Lucía; Le Gac, Mickael; Hunsperger, Heather M; Mauger, Stéphane; Destombe, Christophe; Cock, J Mark; Ahmed, Sophia; Coelho, Susana M; Valero, Myriam; Peters, Akira F

2015-07-01

The evolutionary stability of haploid-diploid life cycles is still controversial. Mathematical models indicate that niche differences between ploidy phases may be a necessary condition for the evolution and maintenance of these life cycles. Nevertheless, experimental support for this prediction remains elusive. In the present work, we explored this hypothesis in natural populations of the brown alga Ectocarpus. Consistent with the life cycle described in culture, Ectocarpus crouaniorum in NW France and E. siliculosus in SW Italy exhibited an alternation between haploid gametophytes and diploid sporophytes. Our field data invalidated, however, the long-standing view of an isomorphic alternation of generations. Gametophytes and sporophytes displayed marked differences in size and, conforming to theoretical predictions, occupied different spatiotemporal niches. Gametophytes were found almost exclusively on the alga Scytosiphon lomentaria during spring whereas sporophytes were present year-round on abiotic substrata. Paradoxically, E. siliculosus in NW France exhibited similar habitat usage despite the absence of alternation of ploidy phases. Diploid sporophytes grew both epilithically and epiphytically, and this mainly asexual population gained the same ecological advantage postulated for haploid-diploid populations. Consequently, an ecological interpretation of the niche differences between haploid and diploid individuals does not seem to satisfactorily explain the evolution of the Ectocarpus life cycle. © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution © 2015 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

The arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices is haploid and has a small genome size in the lower limit of eukaryotes.

PubMed

Hijri, Mohamed; Sanders, Ian R

2004-02-01

The genome size, complexity, and ploidy of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) Glomus intraradices was determined using flow cytometry, reassociation kinetics, and genomic reconstruction. Nuclei of G. intraradices from in vitro culture, were analyzed by flow cytometry. The estimated average length of DNA per nucleus was 14.07+/-3.52 Mb. Reassociation kinetics on G. intraradices DNA indicated a haploid genome size of approximately 16.54 Mb, comprising 88.36% single copy DNA, 1.59% repetitive DNA, and 10.05% fold-back DNA. To determine ploidy, the DNA content per nucleus measured by flow cytometry was compared with the genome estimate of reassociation kinetics. G. intraradices was found to have a DNA index (DNA per nucleus per haploid genome size) of approximately 0.9, indicating that it is haploid. Genomic DNA of G. intraradices was also analyzed by genomic reconstruction using four genes (Malate synthase, RecA, Rad32, and Hsp88). Because we used flow cytometry and reassociation kinetics to reveal the genome size of G. intraradices and show that it is haploid, then a similar value for genome size should be found when using genomic reconstruction as long as the genes studied are single copy. The average genome size estimate was 15.74+/-1.69 Mb indicating that these four genes are single copy per haploid genome and per nucleus of G. intraradices. Our results show that the genome size of G. intraradices is much smaller than estimates of other AMF and that the unusually high within-spore genetic variation that is seen in this fungus cannot be due to high ploidy.

Parent Decision-Making When Selecting Schools: The Case of Nepal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joshi, Priyadarshani

2014-01-01

This paper analyzes the parent decision-making processes underlying school selection in Nepal. The analysis is based on primary survey and focus group data collected from parent meetings in diverse local education markets in two districts of Nepal in 2011. It highlights three main arguments that are less frequently discussed in the context of…

Selected Readings for Parents of Preschool Handicapped Children. Bibliography No. 86-1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Library of Congress, Washington, DC. National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

This bibliography presents a representative selection of books and periodical articles (most published since 1979) for parents concerned with guiding the development of their preschool handicapped children. The first section lists 29 books and articles addressing major parental issues and concerns such as parenting skills, coping, advocacy, family…

Grateful parents raising grateful children: Niche selection and the socialization of child gratitude.

PubMed

Rothenberg, William A; Hussong, Andrea M; Langley, Hillary A; Egerton, Gregory A; Halberstadt, Amy G; Coffman, Jennifer L; Mokrova, Irina; Costanzo, Philip R

2017-01-01

Given that children's exposure to gratitude-related activities may be one way that parents can socialize gratitude in their children, we examined whether parents' niche selection (i.e., tendency to choose perceived gratitude-inducing activities for their children) mediates the association between parents' reports of their own and their children's gratitude. Parent-child dyads ( N =101; children aged 6-9; 52% girls; 80% Caucasian; 85% mothers) participated in a laboratory visit and parents also completed a seven-day online diary regarding children's gratitude. Decomposing specific indirect effects within a structural equation model, we found that parents high in gratitude were more likely to set goals to use niche selection as a gratitude socialization strategy, and thereby more likely to place their children in gratitude-related activities. Placement in these activities, in turn, was associated with more frequent expression of gratitude in children. We describe future directions for research on parents' role in socializing gratitude in their children.

Production of haploid plantlets in anther cultures of Albizzia lebbeck L.

PubMed

Gharyal, P K; Rashid, A; Maheshwari, S C

1983-12-01

Anthers of Albizzia lebbeck on B5 medium (BM) supplemented with kinetin (2 mg/l) and 2, 4-D (0.5 mg/l) showed callus initiation from microspores. Differentiation of embryoids and shoots was obtained on BM + BAP (1 mg/l) + IAA (0.5 mg/l) and of roots on BM. Root tip squashes of the regenerated plantlets showed the haploid chromosome number (n=13), confirming the microspore origin of the regenerants.

Haploid deletion strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that determine survival during space flight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johanson, Kelly; Allen, Patricia L.; Gonzalez-Villalobos, Romer A.; Nesbit, Jacqueline; Nickerson, Cheryl A.; Höner zu Bentrup, Kerstin; Wilson, James W.; Ramamurthy, Rajee; D'Elia, Riccardo; Muse, Kenneth E.; Hammond, Jeffrey; Freeman, Jake; Stodieck, Louis S.; Hammond, Timothy G.

2007-02-01

This study identifies genes that determine survival during a space flight, using the model eukaryotic organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Select strains of a haploid yeast deletion series grew during storage in distilled water in space, but not in ground based static or clinorotation controls. The survival advantages in space in distilled water include a 133-fold advantage for the deletion of PEX19, a chaperone and import receptor for newly- synthesized class I peroxisomal membrane proteins, to 77-40 fold for deletion strains lacking elements of aerobic respiration, isocitrate metabolism, and mitochondrial electron transport. Following automated addition of rich growth media, the space flight was associated with a marked survival advantage of strains with deletions in catalytically active genes including hydrolases, oxidoreductases and transferases. When compared to static controls, space flight was associated with a marked survival disadvantage of deletion strains lacking transporter, antioxidant and catalytic activity. This study identifies yeast deletion strains with a survival advantage during storage in distilled water and space flight, and amplifies our understanding of the genes critical for survival in space.

A Major Locus for Manganese Tolerance Maps on Chromosome A09 in a Doubled Haploid Population of Brassica napus L.

PubMed

Raman, Harsh; Raman, Rosy; McVittie, Brett; Orchard, Beverley; Qiu, Yu; Delourme, Regine

2017-01-01

Soil acidity poses a major threat to productivity of several crops; mainly due to the prevalence of toxic levels of Al 3+ and Mn 2+ . Crop productivity could be harnessed on acid soils via the development of plant varieties tolerant to phytotoxic levels of these cations. In this study, we investigated the extent of natural variation for Mn 2+ tolerance among ten parental lines of the Australian and International canola mapping populations. Response to Mn 2+ toxicity was measured on the bases of cotyledon chlorosis, shoot biomass, and leaf area in nutrient solution under control (9 μM of MnCl 2 ⋅4H 2 O) and Mn treatment (125 μM of MnCl 2 ⋅4H 2 O). Among parental lines, we selected Darmor- bzh and Yudal that showed significant and contrasting variation in Mn 2+ tolerance to understand genetic control and identify the quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying Mn 2+ tolerance. We evaluated parental lines and their doubled haploid (DH) progenies (196 lines) derived from an F 1 cross, Darmor- bzh /Yudal for Mn 2+ tolerance. Mn 2+ -tolerant genotypes had significantly higher shoot biomass and leaf area compared to Mn 2+ -sensitive genotypes. A genetic linkage map based on 7,805 DArTseq markers corresponding to 2,094 unique loci was constructed and further utilized for QTL identification. A major locus, BnMn 2+ . A09 was further mapped with a SNP marker, Bn-A09-p29012402 (LOD score of 34.6) accounting for most of the variation in Mn 2+ tolerance on chromosome A09. This is the first report on the genomic localization of a Mn 2+ tolerance locus in B. napus . Additionally, an ortholog of A. thaliana encoding for cation efflux facilitator transporter was located within 3,991 bp from significant SNP marker associated with BnMn 2+ . A09 . A suite of genome sequence based markers (DArTseq and Illumina Infinium SNPs) flanking the BnMn 2+ . A09 locus would provide an invaluable tool for various molecular breeding applications to improve canola production and profitability on

A Major Locus for Manganese Tolerance Maps on Chromosome A09 in a Doubled Haploid Population of Brassica napus L.

PubMed Central

Raman, Harsh; Raman, Rosy; McVittie, Brett; Orchard, Beverley; Qiu, Yu; Delourme, Regine

2017-01-01

Soil acidity poses a major threat to productivity of several crops; mainly due to the prevalence of toxic levels of Al3+ and Mn2+. Crop productivity could be harnessed on acid soils via the development of plant varieties tolerant to phytotoxic levels of these cations. In this study, we investigated the extent of natural variation for Mn2+ tolerance among ten parental lines of the Australian and International canola mapping populations. Response to Mn2+ toxicity was measured on the bases of cotyledon chlorosis, shoot biomass, and leaf area in nutrient solution under control (9 μM of MnCl2⋅4H2O) and Mn treatment (125 μM of MnCl2⋅4H2O). Among parental lines, we selected Darmor-bzh and Yudal that showed significant and contrasting variation in Mn2+ tolerance to understand genetic control and identify the quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying Mn2+ tolerance. We evaluated parental lines and their doubled haploid (DH) progenies (196 lines) derived from an F1 cross, Darmor-bzh/Yudal for Mn2+ tolerance. Mn2+-tolerant genotypes had significantly higher shoot biomass and leaf area compared to Mn2+-sensitive genotypes. A genetic linkage map based on 7,805 DArTseq markers corresponding to 2,094 unique loci was constructed and further utilized for QTL identification. A major locus, BnMn2+.A09 was further mapped with a SNP marker, Bn-A09-p29012402 (LOD score of 34.6) accounting for most of the variation in Mn2+ tolerance on chromosome A09. This is the first report on the genomic localization of a Mn2+ tolerance locus in B. napus. Additionally, an ortholog of A. thaliana encoding for cation efflux facilitator transporter was located within 3,991 bp from significant SNP marker associated with BnMn2+.A09. A suite of genome sequence based markers (DArTseq and Illumina Infinium SNPs) flanking the BnMn2+.A09 locus would provide an invaluable tool for various molecular breeding applications to improve canola production and profitability on Mn2+ toxic soils. PMID:29312361

Enterovirus D68 receptor requirements unveiled by haploid genetics

PubMed Central

Baggen, Jim; Thibaut, Hendrik Jan; Staring, Jacqueline; Jae, Lucas T.; Liu, Yue; Guo, Hongbo; Slager, Jasper J.; de Bruin, Jost W.; van Vliet, Arno L. W.; Blomen, Vincent A.; Overduin, Pieter; Sheng, Ju; de Haan, Cornelis A. M.; de Vries, Erik; Meijer, Adam; Rossmann, Michael G.; Brummelkamp, Thijn R.; van Kuppeveld, Frank J. M.

2016-01-01

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is an emerging pathogen that can cause severe respiratory disease and is associated with cases of paralysis, especially among children. Heretofore, information on host factor requirements for EV-D68 infection is scarce. Haploid genetic screening is a powerful tool to reveal factors involved in the entry of pathogens. We performed a genome-wide haploid screen with the EV-D68 prototype Fermon strain to obtain a comprehensive overview of cellular factors supporting EV-D68 infection. We identified and confirmed several genes involved in sialic acid (Sia) biosynthesis, transport, and conjugation to be essential for infection. Moreover, by using knockout cell lines and gene reconstitution, we showed that both α2,6- and α2,3-linked Sia can be used as functional cellular EV-D68 receptors. Importantly, the screen did not reveal a specific protein receptor, suggesting that EV-D68 can use multiple redundant sialylated receptors. Upon testing recent clinical strains, we identified strains that showed a similar Sia dependency, whereas others could infect cells lacking surface Sia, indicating they can use an alternative, nonsialylated receptor. Nevertheless, these Sia-independent strains were still able to bind Sia on human erythrocytes, raising the possibility that these viruses can use multiple receptors. Sequence comparison of Sia-dependent and Sia-independent EV-D68 strains showed that many changes occurred near the canyon that might allow alternative receptor binding. Collectively, our findings provide insights into the identity of the EV-D68 receptor and suggest the possible existence of Sia-independent viruses, which are essential for understanding tropism and disease. PMID:26787879

Coevolution of parental investment and sexually selected traits drives sex-role divergence.

PubMed

Fromhage, Lutz; Jennions, Michael D

2016-08-18

Sex-role evolution theory attempts to explain the origin and direction of male-female differences. A fundamental question is why anisogamy, the difference in gamete size that defines the sexes, has repeatedly led to large differences in subsequent parental care. Here we construct models to confirm predictions that individuals benefit less from caring when they face stronger sexual selection and/or lower certainty of parentage. However, we overturn the widely cited claim that a negative feedback between the operational sex ratio and the opportunity cost of care selects for egalitarian sex roles. We further argue that our model does not predict any effect of the adult sex ratio (ASR) that is independent of the source of ASR variation. Finally, to increase realism and unify earlier models, we allow for coevolution between parental investment and investment in sexually selected traits. Our model confirms that small initial differences in parental investment tend to increase due to positive evolutionary feedback, formally supporting long-standing, but unsubstantiated, verbal arguments.

Coevolution of parental investment and sexually selected traits drives sex-role divergence

PubMed Central

Fromhage, Lutz; Jennions, Michael D.

2016-01-01

Sex-role evolution theory attempts to explain the origin and direction of male–female differences. A fundamental question is why anisogamy, the difference in gamete size that defines the sexes, has repeatedly led to large differences in subsequent parental care. Here we construct models to confirm predictions that individuals benefit less from caring when they face stronger sexual selection and/or lower certainty of parentage. However, we overturn the widely cited claim that a negative feedback between the operational sex ratio and the opportunity cost of care selects for egalitarian sex roles. We further argue that our model does not predict any effect of the adult sex ratio (ASR) that is independent of the source of ASR variation. Finally, to increase realism and unify earlier models, we allow for coevolution between parental investment and investment in sexually selected traits. Our model confirms that small initial differences in parental investment tend to increase due to positive evolutionary feedback, formally supporting long-standing, but unsubstantiated, verbal arguments. PMID:27535478

When Does Frequency-Independent Selection Maintain Genetic Variation?

PubMed

Novak, Sebastian; Barton, Nicholas H

2017-10-01

Frequency-independent selection is generally considered as a force that acts to reduce the genetic variation in evolving populations, yet rigorous arguments for this idea are scarce. When selection fluctuates in time, it is unclear whether frequency-independent selection may maintain genetic polymorphism without invoking additional mechanisms. We show that constant frequency-independent selection with arbitrary epistasis on a well-mixed haploid population eliminates genetic variation if we assume linkage equilibrium between alleles. To this end, we introduce the notion of frequency-independent selection at the level of alleles, which is sufficient to prove our claim and contains the notion of frequency-independent selection on haploids. When selection and recombination are weak but of the same order, there may be strong linkage disequilibrium; numerical calculations show that stable equilibria are highly unlikely. Using the example of a diallelic two-locus model, we then demonstrate that frequency-independent selection that fluctuates in time can maintain stable polymorphism if linkage disequilibrium changes its sign periodically. We put our findings in the context of results from the existing literature and point out those scenarios in which the possible role of frequency-independent selection in maintaining genetic variation remains unclear. Copyright © 2017 by the Genetics Society of America.

Leaf Photosynthesis and Respiration of High CO2-Grown Tobacco Plants Selected for Survival under CO2 Compensation Point Conditions 1

PubMed Central

Delgado, Esteban; Azcón-Bieto, Joaquim; Aranda, Xavier; Palazón, Javier; Medrano, Hipólito

1992-01-01

Four self-pollinated, doubled-haploid tobacco, (Nicotiana tabacum L.) lines (SP422, SP432, SP435, and SP451), selected as haploids by survival in a low CO2 atmosphere, and the parental cv Wisconsin-38 were grown from seed in a growth room kept at high CO2 levels (600-700 parts per million). The selected plants were much larger (especially SP422, SP432, and SP451) than Wisconsin-38 nine weeks after planting. The specific leaf dry weight and the carbon (but not nitrogen and sulfur) content per unit area were also higher in the selected plants. However, the chlorophyll, carotenoid, and alkaloid contents and the chlorophyll a/b ratio varied little. The net CO2 assimilation rate per unit area measured in the growth room at high CO2 was not higher in the selected plants. The CO2 assimilation rate versus intercellular CO2 curve and the CO2 compensation point showed no substantial differences among the different lines, even though these plants were selected for survival under CO2 compensation point conditions. Adult leaf respiration rates were similar when expressed per unit area but were lower in the selected lines when expressed per unit dry weight. Leaf respiration rates were negatively correlated with specific leaf dry weight and with the carbon content per unit area and were positively correlated with nitrogen and sulfur content of the dry matter. The alternative pathway was not involved in respiration in the dark in these leaves. The better carbon economy of tobacco lines selected for low CO2 survival was not apparently related to an improvement of photosynthesis rate but could be related, at least partially, to a significantly reduced respiration (mainly cytochrome pathway) rate per unit carbon. ImagesFigure 1 PMID:16668769

Parental adjustment, parenting attitudes and emotional and behavioral problems in children with selective mutism.

PubMed

Alyanak, Behiye; Kılınçaslan, Ayşe; Harmancı, Halime Sözen; Demirkaya, Sevcan Karakoç; Yurtbay, Tülin; Vehid, Hayriye Ertem

2013-01-01

The present study investigated emotional and behavioral problems in children with selective mutism (SM) along with the psychological adjustment and parenting attitudes of their mothers and fathers. Participants included 26 children with SM (mean age = 8.11 ± 2.11 years), 32 healthy controls (mean age = 8.18 ± 2.55 years) and the parents of all children. Children with SM displayed higher problem scores than controls in a variety of emotional and behavioral parameters. They predominantly displayed internalizing problems, whereas aggressive and delinquent behavior was described among a subsample of the children. Significant differences existed between the SM and control groups only in paternal psychopathology, which included anxiety and depression. They did not differ with respect to maternal psychological distress or mother or father reported parental attitudes. Another important result of the present study was that the severity of emotional and behavioral problems of children with SM was correlated with maternal psychopathology but not paternal psychopathology. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structure of corrective feedback for selection of ineffective vegetable parenting practices for use in a simulation videogame

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A serious videogame is being developed to train parents of preschool children in selecting and using parenting practices that are likely to encourage their child to eat more vegetables. The structure of feedback to the parents on their selection may influence what they learn from the game. Feedback ...

Film Selection in a Cinematherapy Intervention with Preadolescents Experiencing Parental Divorce

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsick, Emily

2010-01-01

Film selection and children's reactions to films are discussed in this article based on a qualitative multiple-case study with three preadolescent-aged children experiencing parental divorce. Six films were selected based on recommended films in cinematherapy. Although many films have been recommended for cinematherapy, multiple participants'…

Effects of Behavioral Skills Training on Parental Treatment of Children's Food Selectivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seiverling, Laura; Williams, Keith; Sturmey, Peter; Hart, Sadie

2012-01-01

We used behavioral skills training to teach parents of 3 children with autism spectrum disorder and food selectivity to conduct a home-based treatment package that consisted of taste exposure, escape extinction, and fading. Parent performance following training improved during both taste sessions and probe meals and was reflected in increases in…

Recombination and genetic variance among maize doubled haploids induced from F1 and F2 plants.

PubMed

Sleper, Joshua A; Bernardo, Rex

2016-12-01

Inducing maize doubled haploids from F 2 plants (DHF2) instead of F 1 plants (DHF1) led to more recombination events. However, the best DHF2 lines did not outperform the best DHF1 lines. Maize (Zea mays L.) breeders rely on doubled haploid (DH) technology for fast and efficient production of inbreds. Breeders can induce DH lines most quickly from F 1 plants (DHF1), or induce DH lines from F 2 plants (DHF2) to allow selection prior to DH induction and have more recombinations. Our objective was to determine if the additional recombinations in maize DHF2 lines lead to a larger genetic variance and a superior mean of the best lines. A total of 311 DHF1 and 241 DHF2 lines, derived from the same biparental cross, were crossed to two testers and evaluated in multilocation trials in Europe and the US. The mean number of recombinations per genome was 14.48 among the DHF1 lines and 21.38 among the DHF1 lines. The means of the DHF1 and DHF2 lines did not differ for yield, moisture, and plant height. The genetic variance was higher among DHF2 lines than among DHF1 lines for moisture, but not for yield and plant height. The ratio of repulsion to coupling linkages, which was estimated from genomewide marker effects, was higher among DHF1 lines than among DHF2 lines for moisture, but not for yield and plant height. The higher genetic variance for moisture among DHF2 lines did not lead to lower moisture of the best 10 % of the lines. Our results indicated that the decision of inducing DH lines from F 1 or F 2 plants needs to be made from considerations other than the performance of the resulting DHF1 or DHF2 lines.

Transcript levels of ten caste-related genes in adult diploid males of Melipona quadrifasciata (Hymenoptera, Apidae) - A comparison with haploid males, queens and workers

PubMed Central

Borges, Andreia A.; Humann, Fernanda C.; Oliveira Campos, Lucio A.; Tavares, Mara G.; Hartfelder, Klaus

2011-01-01

In Hymenoptera, homozygosity at the sex locus results in the production of diploid males. In social species, these pose a double burden by having low fitness and drawing resources normally spent for increasing the work force of a colony. Yet, diploid males are of academic interest as they can elucidate effects of ploidy (normal males are haploid, whereas the female castes, the queens and workers, are diploid) on morphology and life history. Herein we investigated expression levels of ten caste-related genes in the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata, comparing newly emerged and 5-day-old diploid males with haploid males, queens and workers. In diploid males, transcript levels for dunce and paramyosin were increased during the first five days of adult life, while those for diacylglycerol kinase and the transcriptional co-repressor groucho diminished. Two general trends were apparent, (i) gene expression patterns in diploid males were overall more similar to haploid ones and workers than to queens, and (ii) in queens and workers, more genes were up-regulated after emergence until day five, whereas in diploid and especially so in haploid males more genes were down-regulated. This difference between the sexes may be related to longevity, which is much longer in females than in males. PMID:22215977

Transcript levels of ten caste-related genes in adult diploid males of Melipona quadrifasciata (Hymenoptera, Apidae) - A comparison with haploid males, queens and workers.

PubMed

Borges, Andreia A; Humann, Fernanda C; Oliveira Campos, Lucio A; Tavares, Mara G; Hartfelder, Klaus

2011-10-01

In Hymenoptera, homozygosity at the sex locus results in the production of diploid males. In social species, these pose a double burden by having low fitness and drawing resources normally spent for increasing the work force of a colony. Yet, diploid males are of academic interest as they can elucidate effects of ploidy (normal males are haploid, whereas the female castes, the queens and workers, are diploid) on morphology and life history. Herein we investigated expression levels of ten caste-related genes in the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata, comparing newly emerged and 5-day-old diploid males with haploid males, queens and workers. In diploid males, transcript levels for dunce and paramyosin were increased during the first five days of adult life, while those for diacylglycerol kinase and the transcriptional co-repressor groucho diminished. Two general trends were apparent, (i) gene expression patterns in diploid males were overall more similar to haploid ones and workers than to queens, and (ii) in queens and workers, more genes were up-regulated after emergence until day five, whereas in diploid and especially so in haploid males more genes were down-regulated. This difference between the sexes may be related to longevity, which is much longer in females than in males.

Pollen-specific, but not sperm-specific, genes show stronger purifying selection and higher rates of positive selection than sporophytic genes in Capsella grandiflora.

PubMed

Arunkumar, Ramesh; Josephs, Emily B; Williamson, Robert J; Wright, Stephen I

2013-11-01

Selection on the gametophyte can be a major force shaping plant genomes as 7-11% of genes are expressed only in that phase and 60% of genes are expressed in both the gametophytic and sporophytic phases. The efficacy of selection on gametophytic tissues is likely to be influenced by sexual selection acting on male and female functions of hermaphroditic plants. Moreover, the haploid nature of the gametophytic phase allows selection to be efficient in removing recessive deleterious mutations and fixing recessive beneficial mutations. To assess the importance of gametophytic selection, we compared the strength of purifying selection and extent of positive selection on gametophyte- and sporophyte-specific genes in the highly outcrossing plant Capsella grandiflora. We found that pollen-exclusive genes had a larger fraction of sites under strong purifying selection, a greater proportion of adaptive substitutions, and faster protein evolution compared with seedling-exclusive genes. In contrast, sperm cell-exclusive genes had a smaller fraction of sites under strong purifying selection, a lower proportion of adaptive substitutions, and slower protein evolution compared with seedling-exclusive genes. Observations of strong selection acting on pollen-expressed genes are likely explained by sexual selection resulting from pollen competition aided by the haploid nature of that tissue. The relaxation of selection in sperm might be due to the reduced influence of intrasexual competition, but reduced gene expression may also be playing an important role.

Grateful parents raising grateful children: Niche selection and the socialization of child gratitude

PubMed Central

Rothenberg, William A.; Hussong, Andrea M.; Langley, Hillary A.; Egerton, Gregory A.; Halberstadt, Amy G.; Coffman, Jennifer L.; Mokrova, Irina; Costanzo, Philip R.

2016-01-01

Given that children’s exposure to gratitude-related activities may be one way that parents can socialize gratitude in their children, we examined whether parents’ niche selection (i.e., tendency to choose perceived gratitude-inducing activities for their children) mediates the association between parents’ reports of their own and their children's gratitude. Parent-child dyads (N =101; children aged 6-9; 52% girls; 80% Caucasian; 85% mothers) participated in a laboratory visit and parents also completed a seven-day online diary regarding children’s gratitude. Decomposing specific indirect effects within a structural equation model, we found that parents high in gratitude were more likely to set goals to use niche selection as a gratitude socialization strategy, and thereby more likely to place their children in gratitude-related activities. Placement in these activities, in turn, was associated with more frequent expression of gratitude in children. We describe future directions for research on parents’ role in socializing gratitude in their children. PMID:28943753

Patterns of Parental Involvement in Selected OECD Countries: Cross-National Analyses of PISA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartas, Dimitra

2015-01-01

Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), patterns of parental involvement were examined in selected OECD countries. The findings showed that, irrespective of educational qualifications, parents were frequently involved in their children's learning at the start of primary school and at age 15. Cross-national…

Modeling evolution of spatially distributed bacterial communities: a simulation with the haploid evolutionary constructor

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background Multiscale approaches for integrating submodels of various levels of biological organization into a single model became the major tool of systems biology. In this paper, we have constructed and simulated a set of multiscale models of spatially distributed microbial communities and study an influence of unevenly distributed environmental factors on the genetic diversity and evolution of the community members. Results Haploid Evolutionary Constructor software http://evol-constructor.bionet.nsc.ru/ was expanded by adding the tool for the spatial modeling of a microbial community (1D, 2D and 3D versions). A set of the models of spatially distributed communities was built to demonstrate that the spatial distribution of cells affects both intensity of selection and evolution rate. Conclusion In spatially heterogeneous communities, the change in the direction of the environmental flow might be reflected in local irregular population dynamics, while the genetic structure of populations (frequencies of the alleles) remains stable. Furthermore, in spatially heterogeneous communities, the chemotaxis might dramatically affect the evolution of community members. PMID:25708911

Selecting white oaks as parent stock for growing high-quality logs

Treesearch

Stephen G. Boyce

1963-01-01

One of the major objectives of the tree-improvement program of the Central States Forest Experiment Station of the U.S. Forest Service is to select and breed hardwood trees that are inherently capable of producing wood of high quality. To begin this program we must select from natural stands and plantations the best possible parent trees. In recent years we have...

Autism as the Low-Fitness Extreme of a Parentally Selected Fitness Indicator.

PubMed

Shaner, Andrew; Miller, Geoffrey; Mintz, Jim

2008-12-01

Siblings compete for parental care and feeding, while parents must allocate scarce resources to those offspring most likely to survive and reproduce. This could cause offspring to evolve traits that advertise health, and thereby attract parental resources. For example, experimental evidence suggests that bright orange filaments covering the heads of North American coot chicks may have evolved for this fitness-advertising purpose. Could any human mental disorders be the equivalent of dull filaments in coot chicks-low-fitness extremes of mental abilities that evolved as fitness indicators? One possibility is autism. Suppose that the ability of very young children to charm their parents evolved as a parentally selected fitness indicator. Young children would vary greatly in their ability to charm parents, that variation would correlate with underlying fitness, and autism could be the low-fitness extreme of this variation. This view explains many seemingly disparate facts about autism and leads to some surprising and testable predictions.

More Careful or Less Marriageable? Parental Divorce, Spouse Selection and Entry into Marriage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erola, Jani; Harkonen, Juho; Dronkers, Jaap

2012-01-01

Despite the large literature on the long-term effects of parental divorce, few studies have analyzed the effects of parental divorce on spouse selection behavior. However, the characteristics of one's spouse can have important effects on economic well-being and on marital success. We use discrete-time, event-history data from Finnish population…

Dose dependence of the excision of ultraviolet-induced pyrimidine dimers from nuclear deoxyribonucleic acids of haploid and diploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

PubMed Central

Waters, R; Moustacchi, E

1975-01-01

The yield of ultraviolet-induced dimers is similar for a fixed dose in both haploid and diploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The excision of these photo-products from the nuclear deoxyribonucleic acids of cells of both ploidies after ultraviolet incident doses of 2 times 10-3 to 4 times 10-3 ergs/mm2 decreased with the corresponding increasing dose. Postirradiation incubation in saline followed by a further incubation in nutrient medium increases the excision as compared to that seen in either nutrient medium or saline alone. Previous data regarding both pyrimidine dimer removal and the survival of haploid and diploid cells after ultraviolet irradiation and either immediate or delayed plating are discussed. PMID:1090608

Combination of reversible male sterility and doubled haploid production by targeted inactivation of cytoplasmic glutamine synthetase in developing anthers and pollen.

PubMed

Ribarits, Alexandra; Mamun, A N K; Li, Shipeng; Resch, Tatiana; Fiers, Martijn; Heberle-Bors, Erwin; Liu, Chun-Ming; Touraev, Alisher

2007-07-01

Reversible male sterility and doubled haploid plant production are two valuable technologies in F(1)-hybrid breeding. F(1)-hybrids combine uniformity with high yield and improved agronomic traits, and provide self-acting intellectual property protection. We have developed an F(1)-hybrid seed technology based on the metabolic engineering of glutamine in developing tobacco anthers and pollen. Cytosolic glutamine synthetase (GS1) was inactivated in tobacco by introducing mutated tobacco GS genes fused to the tapetum-specific TA29 and microspore-specific NTM19 promoters. Pollen in primary transformants aborted close to the first pollen mitosis, resulting in male sterility. A non-segregating population of homozygous doubled haploid male-sterile plants was generated through microspore embryogenesis. Fertility restoration was achieved by spraying plants with glutamine, or by pollination with pollen matured in vitro in glutamine-containing medium. The combination of reversible male sterility with doubled haploid production results in an innovative environmentally friendly breeding technology. Tapetum-mediated sporophytic male sterility is of use in foliage crops, whereas microspore-specific gametophytic male sterility can be applied to any field crop. Both types of sterility preclude the release of transgenic pollen into the environment.

Selection of children to provide care: the effect of earlier parental transfers.

PubMed

Henretta, J C; Hill, M S; Li, W; Soldo, B J; Wolf, D A

1997-05-01

We use the first wave of data from the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) study to examine the effects of past parent-to-child financial transfers on selection of a child to provide assistance with basic personal care for unmarried parents. We estimate a fixed-effects conditional logit model and find a positive and significant association between past financial transfers and a child's current helping behavior. The coefficient of past financial transfers is in the direction hypothesized, and its magnitude is 80% as large as that of gender, a well-documented powerful predictor of parental caregiving. There appears to be substantial evidence that earlier parent-to-child financial gifts play a role in determining which child in the family will provide assistance.

Comparison of Different Methods for Separation of Haploid Embryo Induced through Irradiated Pollen and Their Economic Analysis in Melon (Cucumis melo var. inodorus)

PubMed Central

Baktemur, Gökhan; Taşkın, Hatıra; Büyükalaca, Saadet

2013-01-01

Irradiated pollen technique is the most successful haploidization technique within Cucurbitaceae. After harvesting of fruits pollinated with irradiated pollen, classical method called as “inspecting the seeds one by one” is used to find haploid embryos in the seeds. In this study, different methods were used to extract the embryos more easily, quickly, economically, and effectively. “Inspecting the seeds one by one” was used as control treatment. Other four methods tested were “sowing seeds direct nutrient media,” “inspecting seeds in the light source,” “floating seeds on liquid media,” and “floating seeds on liquid media after surface sterilization.” Y2 and Y3 melon genotypes selected from the third backcross population of Yuva were used as plant material. Results of this study show that there is no statistically significant difference among methods “inspecting the seeds one by one,” “sowing seeds direct CP nutrient media,” and “inspecting seeds in the light source,” although the average number of embryos per fruit is slightly different. No embryo production was obtained from liquid culture because of infection. When considered together with labor costs and time required for embryo rescue, the best methods were “sowing seeds directly in the CP nutrient media“ and ”inspecting seeds in the light source.” PMID:23818825

Correlated evolution in parental care in females but not males in response to selection on paternity assurance behaviour.

PubMed

Head, Megan L; Hinde, Camilla A; Moore, Allen J; Royle, Nick J

2014-07-01

According to classical parental care theory males are expected to provide less parental care when offspring in a brood are less likely to be their own, but empirical evidence in support of this relationship is equivocal. Recent work predicts that social interactions between the sexes can modify co-evolution between traits involved in mating and parental care as a result of costs associated with these social interactions (i.e. sexual conflict). In burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides), we use artificial selection on a paternity assurance trait, and crosses within and between selection lines, to show that selection acting on females, not males, can drive the co-evolution of paternity assurance traits and parental care. Males do not care more in response to selection on mating rate. Instead, patterns of parental care change as an indirect response to costs of mating for females. © 2014 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS.

Mutation induction in haploid yeast after split-dose radiation-exposure. I. Fractionated UV-irradiation.

PubMed

Schenk, K; Zölzer, F; Kiefer, J

1989-01-01

Mutation induction was investigated in wild-type haploid yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae after split-dose UV-irradiation. Cells were exposed to fractionated 254 nm-UV-doses separated by intervals from 0 to 6 h with incubation either on non-nutrient or nutrient agar between. The test parameter was resistance to canavanine. If modifications of sensitivity due to incubation are appropriately taken into account there is no change of mutation frequency.

Use of flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy, and PCR-based techniques to assess intraspecific and interspecific matings of Armillaria species

Treesearch

Mee-Sook Kim; Ned B. Klopfenstein; Geral I. McDonald; Kathiravetpillai Arumuganathan

2001-01-01

For assessments of intraspecific mating using flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy, two compatible basidiospore-derived isolates were selected from each of four parental basidiomata of North American Biological Species (NABS) X. The nuclear status in NABS X varied with basidiospore-derived isolates. Nuclei within basidiospore-derived isolates existed as haploids...

Perceived Risk in College Selection: Differences in Evaluative Criteria Used by Students and Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warwick, Jacquelyn; Mansfield, Phylis M.

2003-01-01

Students and parents base college selection on how well the college will overcome the perceived financial, social, psychological, physical, and functional risks associated with the college experience. Nineteen criteria associated with these risks were evaluated for significant differences between students and parents as well as for their level of…

The effects of a parenting prime on sex differences in mate selection criteria.

PubMed

Millar, Murray G; Ostlund, Nelse M

2006-11-01

This study tested an evolutionary hypothesis that the mere prospect of caring for a child will increase sex differences in human mate selection criteria. That is, women would adopt a stronger preference for socially dominant men when parenting had been primed and men would adopt a stronger preference for physically attractive women when parenting had been primed. Male and female university students were randomly assigned to be exposed to a parenting prime or a nonparenting prime. Following the priming procedure, participants rated the romantic appeal of a target person of the opposite sex. Exposure to the parenting prime, the target's social dominance, and the target's physical attractiveness were orthogonally manipulated. As predicted, women adopted a stronger mate preference for social dominance when parenting was at the forefront of the mind. Contrary to predictions, the parenting prime had no effect on men's mate preference for physical attractiveness.

Differences between selection on sex versus recombination in red queen models with diploid hosts.

PubMed

Agrawal, Aneil F

2009-08-01

The Red Queen hypothesis argues that parasites generate selection for genetic mixing (sex and recombination) in their hosts. A number of recent papers have examined this hypothesis using models with haploid hosts. In these haploid models, sex and recombination are selectively equivalent. However, sex and recombination are not equivalent in diploids because selection on sex depends on the consequences of segregation as well as recombination. Here I compare how parasites select on modifiers of sexual reproduction and modifiers of recombination rate. Across a wide set of parameters, parasites tend to select against both sex and recombination, though recombination is favored more often than is sex. There is little correspondence between the conditions favoring sex and those favoring recombination, indicating that the direction of selection on sex is often determined by the effects of segregation, not recombination. Moreover, when sex was favored it is usually due to a long-term advantage whereas short-term effects are often responsible for selection favoring recombination. These results strongly indicate that Red Queen models focusing exclusively on the effects of recombination cannot be used to infer the type of selection on sex that is generated by parasites on diploid hosts.

Quantitative trait loci mapping of heat tolerance in a doubled haploid population of broccoli using genotyping-by-sequencing

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Broccoli is a cool weather vegetable crop with a vernalization requirement to initiate and maintain floral development. Breeding for heat tolerance in broccoli has the potential to both expand viable production areas and extend the growing season. A doubled haploid (DH) population of broccoli (Bras...

Enhanced parent selection algorithms in mintroute protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Ki-Il

2012-11-01

A low-rate, short-range wireless radio communication on a small device often hampers high reliability in wireless sensor networks. However, more applications are increasingly demanding high reliability. To meet this requirement, various approaches have been proposed in each viewpoint of layers. Among those, MintRoute is a well-known network layer approach to develop a new metric based on link quality for path selection towards the sink. By choosing the link with the highest measured value, it has a higher possibility to transmit a packet over the link without error. However, there are still several issues to be mentioned during operations. In this paper, we propose how to improve the MintRoute protocol through revised algorithms. They include a parent selection considering distance and level from the sink node, and a fast recovery method against failures. Simulations and analysis are performed by in order to validate the suitability of reduced end-to-end delay and fast recovery for failures, thus to enhance the reliability of communication.

Mapping PrBn and Other Quantitative Trait Loci Responsible for the Control of Homeologous Chromosome Pairing in Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) Haploids

PubMed Central

Liu, Zhiqian; Adamczyk, Katarzyna; Manzanares-Dauleux, Maria; Eber, Frédérique; Lucas, Marie-Odile; Delourme, Régine; Chèvre, Anne Marie; Jenczewski, Eric

2006-01-01

In allopolyploid species, fair meiosis could be challenged by homeologous chromosome pairing and is usually achieved by the action of homeologous pairing suppressor genes. Oilseed rape (Brassica napus) haploids (AC, n = 19) represent an attractive model for studying the mechanisms used by allopolyploids to ensure the diploid-like meiotic pairing pattern. In oilseed rape haploids, homeologous chromosome pairing at metaphase I was found to be genetically based and controlled by a major gene, PrBn, segregating in a background of polygenic variation. In this study, we have mapped PrBn within a 10-cM interval on the C genome linkage group DY15 and shown that PrBn displays incomplete penetrance or variable expressivity. We have identified three to six minor QTL/BTL that have slight additive effects on the amount of pairing at metaphase I but do not interact with PrBn. We have also detected a number of other loci that interact epistatically, notably with PrBn. Our results support the idea that, as in other polyploid species, metaphase I homeologous pairing in oilseed rape haploids is controlled by an integrated system of several genes, which function in a complex manner. PMID:16951054

The intake of selected foods by six-year-old Swedish children differs according to parental education and migration status.

PubMed

Säfsten, Eleonor; Nyberg, Gisela; Elinder, Liselotte Schäfer; Norman, Åsa; Patterson, Emma

2016-04-01

Little is known about how parental migration status may be associated with children's diets. We examined whether the intake of selected foods by six-year-old children differed according to their parents' migration status, taking education level into account. This study used pooled baseline data from two clustered randomised controlled trials of A Healthy School Start, conducted in municipalities of low-to-medium socio-economic status in Stockholm County, Sweden. The children's intake of selected healthy and unhealthy foods was reported by parents using the Eating and Physical Activity Questionnaire, and the children's height and weight were measured. Parental education and country of birth were self-reported. Data were available for 520 children. Low parental education was associated with significantly higher intakes of fruit, higher intakes of several unhealthy foods and lower intakes of vegetables. Children of parents born outside the Nordic region had higher intakes of all unhealthy foods as well as fruit and vegetables, even when adjusted for education. A negative association between high education and overweight was only seen in children of Nordic-born parents. Parental migration status was a strong predictor of the intake of selected foods and was a stronger predictor than parental education. ©2015 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Children's selective attention to pain and avoidance behaviour: the role of child and parental catastrophizing about pain.

PubMed

Vervoort, Tine; Trost, Zina; Van Ryckeghem, Dimitri M L

2013-10-01

The present study investigated selective attention to pain in children, its implications for child avoidance behaviour, and the moderating role of dimensions comprising child and parental catastrophizing about pain (ie, rumination, magnification, and helplessness). Participants were 59 children (31 boys) aged 10-16 years and one of their parents (41 mothers). Children performed a dot-probe task in which child facial pain displays of varying pain expressiveness were presented. Child avoidance behaviour was indexed by child pain tolerance during a cold-pressor task. Children and parents completed measures of child and parent pain catastrophizing, respectively. Findings indicated that both the nature of child selective attention to pain and the impact of selective attention upon child avoidance behaviour were differentially sensitive to specific dimensions of child and parental catastrophizing. Specifically, findings showed greater tendency to shift attention away from pain faces (i.e.,, attentional avoidance) among children reporting greater pain magnification. A similar pattern was observed in terms of parental characteristics, such that children increasingly shifted attention away from pain with increasing levels of parental rumination and helplessness. Furthermore, child attentional avoidance was associated with greater avoidance behaviour (i.e., lower pain tolerance) among children reporting high levels of pain magnification and those whose parents reported greater rumination about pain. The current findings corroborate catastrophizing as a multidimensional construct that may differentially impact outcomes and attest to the importance of assessing both child and parental characteristics in relation to child pain-related attention and avoidance behaviour. Further research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2013 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Polyploid titan cells produce haploid and aneuploid progeny to promote stress adaptation.

PubMed

Gerstein, Aleeza C; Fu, Man Shun; Mukaremera, Liliane; Li, Zhongming; Ormerod, Kate L; Fraser, James A; Berman, Judith; Nielsen, Kirsten

2015-10-13

Cryptococcus neoformans is a major life-threatening fungal pathogen. In response to the stress of the host environment, C. neoformans produces large polyploid titan cells. Titan cell production enhances the virulence of C. neoformans, yet whether the polyploid aspect of titan cells is specifically influential remains unknown. We show that titan cells were more likely to survive and produce offspring under multiple stress conditions than typical cells and that even their normally sized daughters maintained an advantage over typical cells in continued exposure to stress. Although polyploid titan cells generated haploid daughter cell progeny upon in vitro replication under nutrient-replete conditions, titan cells treated with the antifungal drug fluconazole produced fluconazole-resistant diploid and aneuploid daughter cells. Interestingly, a single titan mother cell was capable of generating multiple types of aneuploid daughter cells. The increased survival and genomic diversity of titan cell progeny promote rapid adaptation to new or high-stress conditions. The ability to adapt to stress is a key element for survival of pathogenic microbes in the host and thus plays an important role in pathogenesis. Here we investigated the predominantly haploid human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, which is capable of ploidy and cell size increases during infection through production of titan cells. The enlarged polyploid titan cells are then able to rapidly undergo ploidy reduction to generate progeny with reduced ploidy and/or aneuploidy. Under stressful conditions, titan cell progeny have a growth and survival advantage over typical cell progeny. Understanding how titan cells enhance the rate of cryptococcal adaptation under stress conditions may assist in the development of novel drugs aimed at blocking ploidy transitions. Copyright © 2015 Gerstein et al.

School Choice: Factors That Influenced Parents to Select an Urban City Charter School Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayhan, Nihat

2014-01-01

This study was designed to explore the factors that influenced parents to select a charter school. The study was conducted at an urban city charter school system which has eight K-5 campuses operating in two districts within a city in the southern United States. Using online survey methods, data were collected from 2,875 parents who had more than…

Direct transformation and plant regeneration of the haploid liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L.

PubMed

Takenaka, M; Yamaoka, S; Hanajiri, T; Shimizu-Ueda, Y; Yamato, K T; Fukuzawa, H; Ohyama, K

2000-06-01

Thalli of the haploid liverwort Marchantial polymorpha were successfully used for direct particle bombardment with plasmid pMT, which carries a hygromycin phosphotransferase gene (hpt) controlled by the CaMV 35S promoter and the NOS polyadenylation region. Hygromycin-resistant cell masses arose from the thallus surface and developed directly into hygromycin-resistant thalli. Southern blot analyses indicated that these thalli carried at least 1-4 copies of the hpt gene, which were stably transmitted to their asexual thallus progenies via gemma propagation for three generations. This transformation and direct plant regeneration protocol is expected to be a valuable tool for the molecular analysis of this lower land plant.

Oilseed rape seeds with ablated defence cells of the glucosinolate–myrosinase system. Production and characteristics of double haploid MINELESS plants of Brassica napus L.

PubMed Central

Ahuja, Ishita; Borgen, Birgit Hafeld; Hansen, Magnor; Honne, Bjørn Ivar; Müller, Caroline; Rohloff, Jens; Rossiter, John Trevor; Bones, Atle Magnar

2011-01-01

Oilseed rape and other crop plants of the family Brassicaceae contain a unique defence system known as the glucosinolate–myrosinase system or the ‘mustard oil bomb’. The ‘mustard oil bomb’ which includes myrosinase and glucosinolates is triggered by abiotic and biotic stress, resulting in the formation of toxic products such as nitriles and isothiocyanates. Myrosinase is present in specialist cells known as ‘myrosin cells’ and can also be known as toxic mines. The myrosin cell idioblasts of Brassica napus were genetically reprogrammed to undergo controlled cell death (ablation) during seed development. These myrosin cell-free plants have been named MINELESS as they lack toxic mines. This has led to the production of oilseed rape with a significant reduction both in myrosinase levels and in the hydrolysis of glucosinolates. Even though the myrosinase activity in MINELESS was very low compared with the wild type, variation was observed. This variability was overcome by producing homozygous seeds. A microspore culture technique involving non-fertile haploid MINELESS plants was developed and these plants were treated with colchicine to produce double haploid MINELESS plants with full fertility. Double haploid MINELESS plants had significantly reduced myrosinase levels and glucosinolate hydrolysis products. Wild-type and MINELESS plants exhibited significant differences in growth parameters such as plant height, leaf traits, matter accumulation, and yield parameters. The growth and developmental pattern of MINELESS plants was relatively slow compared with the wild type. The characteristics of the pure double haploid MINELESS plant are described and its importance for future biochemical, agricultural, dietary, functional genomics, and plant defence studies is discussed. PMID:21778185

[Parents' unemployment, selected life conditions, adolescents' wellbeing and perceived health].

PubMed

Supranowicz, Piotr

2005-01-01

Unemployment in Poland is one of the most negative outcomes of the economical transformations taking place in the last decade of the XX and first years of the XXI century. Therefore, the study on an influence of parents' unemployment upon adolescents' life conditions and health was undertaken in Health Promotion and Postgraduate Training Department of the National Institute of Hygiene. The data were collected from randomly selected sample of 783 students aged 14-15 years attending to ten private and public secondary schools (gymnasiums) in Warsaw. A part of the questionnaire elaborated in Health Promotion and Postgraduate Department covered information about negative life events, which had occurred in the previous year, also about a loss of the job by father or mother. The self-assessment of health, and physical and psychical wellbeing measured the perceived health. The study showed that significantly higher percentage of the students, whose father or mother had lost a job in the previous year, noticed also occurrence of father and mother health disorders, lack of support from father and mother, frequent quarrels between parents, too much of home duties, worsening a housing conditions, lack of possibilities to travel away on vacation and lack of own money. The differences were higher, if both the parents were unemployed. Moreover, the children of unemployed parents significantly lower assessed their health, and physical and psychical wellbeing. It is necessary to help immediately the students, whose parents are unemployed, with financial and psychological support in frame of the programmes of unemployment overcoming.

The role of Parenting and Goal Selection in Positive Youth Development: A Person-Centered Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Napolitano, Christopher M.; Bowers, Edmond P.; Gestsdottir, Steinunn; Depping, Miriam; von Eye, Alexander; Chase, Paul; Lerner, Jacqueline V.

2011-01-01

Using a person-centered approach, we examined the relations between goal selection, various indicators of parenting, and positive development among 510 Grades 9 to 11 participants (68% female) in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents. Goal selection was operationalized by the "Selection"…

The m6A methyltransferase Ime4 epitranscriptionally regulates triacylglycerol metabolism and vacuolar morphology in haploid yeast cells.

PubMed

Yadav, Pradeep Kumar; Rajasekharan, Ram

2017-08-18

N 6 -Methyladenosine (m 6 A) is among the most common modifications in eukaryotic mRNA. The role of yeast m 6 A methyltransferase, Ime4, in meiosis and sporulation in diploid strains is very well studied, but its role in haploid strains has remained unknown. Here, with the help of an immunoblotting strategy and Ime4-GFP protein localization studies, we establish the physiological role of Ime4 in haploid cells. Our data showed that Ime4 epitranscriptionally regulates triacylglycerol metabolism and vacuolar morphology through the long-chain fatty acyl-CoA synthetase Faa1, independently of the RNA methylation complex (MIS complex). The MIS complex consists of the Ime4, Mum2, and Slz1 proteins. Our affinity enrichment strategy (methylated RNA immunoprecipitation assays) using m 6 A polyclonal antibodies coupled with mRNA isolation, quantitative real-time PCR, and standard PCR analyses confirmed the presence of m 6 A-modified FAA1 transcripts in haploid yeast cells. The term "epitranscriptional regulation" encompasses the RNA modification-mediated regulation of genes. Moreover, we demonstrate that the Aft2 transcription factor up-regulates FAA1 expression. Because the m 6 A methylation machinery is fundamentally conserved throughout eukaryotes, our findings will help advance the rapidly emerging field of RNA epitranscriptomics. The metabolic link identified here between m 6 A methylation and triacylglycerol metabolism via the Ime4 protein provides new insights into lipid metabolism and the pathophysiology of lipid-related metabolic disorders, such as obesity. Because the yeast vacuole is an analogue of the mammalian lysosome, our findings pave the way to better understand the role of m 6 A methylation in lysosome-related functions and diseases. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Preschool selection considerations and experiences of school mistreatment among lesbian, gay, and heterosexual adoptive parents

PubMed Central

Goldberg, Abbie E.; Smith, JuliAnna Z.

2016-01-01

The current study is the first to investigate the school selection considerations and school-related experiences of sexual-minority parents with young children. The sample consisted of 210 parents in 105 couples, including 35 lesbian couples, 30 gay male couples, and 40 heterosexual couples, all of whom had adopted a child three years earlier. We found that parents with less income were more likely to consider cost in choosing a preschool, and parents with less education were more likely to consider location. More educated parents tended to emphasize racial diversity and the presence of adoptive families, and, among sexual-minority parents, the presence of other lesbian/gay parents. Sexual-minority parents were more likely to consider racial diversity than heterosexual parents. In reporting on their experiences with schools, heterosexual parents were more likely to perceive mistreatment due to their adoptive status than sexual-minority parents, and sexual-minority parents living in less gay-friendly communities were more likely to perceive mistreatment due to their sexual orientation than sexual-minority parents living in more gay-friendly communities. Our findings have implications for early childhood educators and administrators seeking to create an inclusive learning community for all types of families. PMID:27110062

Simulation and estimation of gene number in a biological pathway using almost complete saturation mutagenesis screening of haploid mouse cells.

PubMed

Tokunaga, Masahiro; Kokubu, Chikara; Maeda, Yusuke; Sese, Jun; Horie, Kyoji; Sugimoto, Nakaba; Kinoshita, Taroh; Yusa, Kosuke; Takeda, Junji

2014-11-24

Genome-wide saturation mutagenesis and subsequent phenotype-driven screening has been central to a comprehensive understanding of complex biological processes in classical model organisms such as flies, nematodes, and plants. The degree of "saturation" (i.e., the fraction of possible target genes identified) has been shown to be a critical parameter in determining all relevant genes involved in a biological function, without prior knowledge of their products. In mammalian model systems, however, the relatively large scale and labor intensity of experiments have hampered the achievement of actual saturation mutagenesis, especially for recessive traits that require biallelic mutations to manifest detectable phenotypes. By exploiting the recently established haploid mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), we present an implementation of almost complete saturation mutagenesis in a mammalian system. The haploid ESCs were mutagenized with the chemical mutagen N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) and processed for the screening of mutants defective in various steps of the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor biosynthetic pathway. The resulting 114 independent mutant clones were characterized by a functional complementation assay, and were shown to be defective in any of 20 genes among all 22 known genes essential for this well-characterized pathway. Ten mutants were further validated by whole-exome sequencing. The predominant generation of single-nucleotide substitutions by ENU resulted in a gene mutation rate proportional to the length of the coding sequence, which facilitated the experimental design of saturation mutagenesis screening with the aid of computational simulation. Our study enables mammalian saturation mutagenesis to become a realistic proposition. Computational simulation, combined with a pilot mutagenesis experiment, could serve as a tool for the estimation of the number of genes essential for biological processes such as drug target pathways when a positive selection of

A Trichosporonales genome tree based on 27 haploid and three evolutionarily conserved 'natural' hybrid genomes.

PubMed

Takashima, Masako; Sriswasdi, Sira; Manabe, Ri-Ichiroh; Ohkuma, Moriya; Sugita, Takashi; Iwasaki, Wataru

2018-01-01

To construct a backbone tree consisting of basidiomycetous yeasts, draft genome sequences from 25 species of Trichosporonales (Tremellomycetes, Basidiomycota) were generated. In addition to the hybrid genomes of Trichosporon coremiiforme and Trichosporon ovoides that we described previously, we identified an interspecies hybrid genome in Cutaneotrichosporon mucoides (formerly Trichosporon mucoides). This hybrid genome had a gene retention rate of ~55%, and its closest haploid relative was Cutaneotrichosporon dermatis. After constructing the C. mucoides subgenomes, we generated a phylogenetic tree using genome data from the 27 haploid species and the subgenome data from the three hybrid genome species. It was a high-quality tree with 100% bootstrap support for all of the branches. The genome-based tree provided superior resolution compared with previous multi-gene analyses. Although our backbone tree does not include all Trichosporonales genera (e.g. Cryptotrichosporon), it will be valuable for future analyses of genome data. Interest in interspecies hybrid fungal genomes has recently increased because they may provide a basis for new technologies. The three Trichosporonales hybrid genomes described in this study are different from well-characterized hybrid genomes (e.g. those of Saccharomyces pastorianus and Saccharomyces bayanus) because these hybridization events probably occurred in the distant evolutionary past. Hence, they will be useful for studying genome stability following hybridization and speciation events. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A method for determining haploid and triploid genotypes and their association with vascular phenotypes in Williams syndrome and 7q11.23 duplication syndrome.

PubMed

Gregory, Michael D; Kolachana, Bhaskar; Yao, Yin; Nash, Tiffany; Dickinson, Dwight; Eisenberg, Daniel P; Mervis, Carolyn B; Berman, Karen F

2018-04-04

Williams syndrome ([WS], 7q11.23 hemideletion) and 7q11.23 duplication syndrome (Dup7) show contrasting syndromic symptoms. However, within each group there is considerable interindividual variability in the degree to which these phenotypes are expressed. Though software exists to identify areas of copy number variation (CNV) from commonly-available SNP-chip data, this software does not provide non-diploid genotypes in CNV regions. Here, we describe a method for identifying haploid and triploid genotypes in CNV regions, and then, as a proof-of-concept for applying this information to explain clinical variability, we test for genotype-phenotype associations. Blood samples for 25 individuals with WS and 13 individuals with Dup7 were genotyped with Illumina-HumanOmni5M SNP-chips. PennCNV and in-house code were used to make genotype calls for each SNP in the 7q11.23 locus. We tested for association between the presence of aortic arteriopathy and genotypes of the remaining (haploid in WS) or duplicated (triploid in Dup7) alleles. Haploid calls in the 7q11.23 region were made for 99.0% of SNPs in the WS group, and triploid calls for 98.8% of SNPs in those with Dup7. The G allele of SNP rs2528795 in the ELN gene was associated with aortic stenosis in WS participants (p < 0.0049) while the A allele of the same SNP was associated with aortic dilation in Dup7. Commonly available SNP-chip information can be used to make haploid and triploid calls in individuals with CNVs and then to relate variability in specific genes to variability in syndromic phenotypes, as demonstrated here using aortic arteriopathy. This work sets the stage for similar genotype-phenotype analyses in CNVs where phenotypes may be more complex and/or where there is less information about genetic mechanisms.

Gender-Related Processes and Drug Use: Self-Expression with Parents, Peer Group Selection, and Achievement Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razzino, Brian E.; Ribordy, Sheila C.; Grant, Kathryn; Ferrari, Joseph R.; Bowden, Blake S.; Zeisz, Jennifer

2004-01-01

This investigation examined gender differences in communication with parents, peer group selection, and academic motivation as related to drug use among adolescents (290 girls, 237 boys; age range = 12-19 years). For girls, increased self-expression with parents was associated with greater academic motivation, more academically motivated friends,…

Reverse breeding: a novel breeding approach based on engineered meiosis.

PubMed

Dirks, Rob; van Dun, Kees; de Snoo, C Bastiaan; van den Berg, Mark; Lelivelt, Cilia L C; Voermans, William; Woudenberg, Leo; de Wit, Jack P C; Reinink, Kees; Schut, Johan W; van der Zeeuw, Eveline; Vogelaar, Aat; Freymark, Gerald; Gutteling, Evert W; Keppel, Marina N; van Drongelen, Paul; Kieny, Matthieu; Ellul, Philippe; Touraev, Alisher; Ma, Hong; de Jong, Hans; Wijnker, Erik

2009-12-01

Reverse breeding (RB) is a novel plant breeding technique designed to directly produce parental lines for any heterozygous plant, one of the most sought after goals in plant breeding. RB generates perfectly complementing homozygous parental lines through engineered meiosis. The method is based on reducing genetic recombination in the selected heterozygote by eliminating meiotic crossing over. Male or female spores obtained from such plants contain combinations of non-recombinant parental chromosomes which can be cultured in vitro to generate homozygous doubled haploid plants (DHs). From these DHs, complementary parents can be selected and used to reconstitute the heterozygote in perpetuity. Since the fixation of unknown heterozygous genotypes is impossible in traditional plant breeding, RB could fundamentally change future plant breeding. In this review, we discuss various other applications of RB, including breeding per chromosome.

Simulation of selected genealogies.

PubMed

Slade, P F

2000-02-01

Algorithms for generating genealogies with selection conditional on the sample configuration of n genes in one-locus, two-allele haploid and diploid models are presented. Enhanced integro-recursions using the ancestral selection graph, introduced by S. M. Krone and C. Neuhauser (1997, Theor. Popul. Biol. 51, 210-237), which is the non-neutral analogue of the coalescent, enables accessible simulation of the embedded genealogy. A Monte Carlo simulation scheme based on that of R. C. Griffiths and S. Tavaré (1996, Math. Comput. Modelling 23, 141-158), is adopted to consider the estimation of ancestral times under selection. Simulations show that selection alters the expected depth of the conditional ancestral trees, depending on a mutation-selection balance. As a consequence, branch lengths are shown to be an ineffective criterion for detecting the presence of selection. Several examples are given which quantify the effects of selection on the conditional expected time to the most recent common ancestor. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Parental selection of hybrid breeding based on maternal and paternal inheritance of traits in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.).

PubMed

Xing, Nailin; Fan, Chuchuan; Zhou, Yongming

2014-01-01

Parental selection is crucial for hybrid breeding, but the methods available for such a selection are not very effective. In this study, a 6×6 incomplete diallel cross was designed using 12 rapeseed germplasms, and a total of 36 hybrids together with their parental lines were planted in 4 environments. Four yield-related traits and seed oil content (OC) were evaluated. Genetic distance (GD) was estimated with 359 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers. Heterosis levels, general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were evaluated. GD was found to have a significant correlation with better-parent heterosis (BPH) of thousand seed weight (TSW), SCA of seeds per silique (SS), TSW, and seed yield per plant (SY), while SCA showed a statistically significant correlation with heterosis levels of all traits at 1% significance level. Statistically significant correlations were also observed between GCA of maternal or paternal parents and heterosis levels of different traits except for SS. Interestingly, maternal (TSW, SS, and OC) and paternal (siliques per plant (SP) and SY) inheritance of traits was detected using contribution ratio of maternal and paternal GCA variance as well as correlations between GCA and heterosis levels. Phenotype and heterosis levels of all the traits except TSW of hybrids were significantly correlated with the average performance of parents. The correlations between SS and SP, SP and OC, and SY and OC were statistically significant in hybrids but not in parents. Potential applications of parental selection in hybrid breeding were discussed.

QTLs for important breeding characteristics in the doubled haploid oat progeny.

PubMed

Tanhuanpää, Pirjo; Manninen, Outi; Kiviharju, Elina

2010-06-01

A homozygous mapping population, consisting of doubled haploid (DH) oat (Avena sativa L.) plants generated through anther culture of F1 plants from the cross between the Finnish cultivar 'Aslak' and the Swedish cultivar 'Matilda', was used to construct an oat linkage map. Ten agronomic and quality traits were analyzed in the DH plants from field trials in 2005 and 2006. Leaf blotch (caused by Pyrenophora avenae) resistance was also evaluated in a greenhouse test with 2 different isolates. One to 8 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were found to be associated with each trait studied. Some chromosomal regions affected more than 1 trait; for example, 4 regions affected both protein and oil content. This study gives valuable information to oat breeders concerning the inheritance of important traits, and it provides potential tools to assist breeding.

Assessing Spoken Language Competence in Children with Selective Mutism: Using Parents as Test Presenters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Evelyn R.; Armstrong, Sharon Lee; Shipon-Blum, Elisa

2013-01-01

Children with selective mutism (SM) display a failure to speak in select situations despite speaking when comfortable. The purpose of this study was to obtain valid assessments of receptive and expressive language in 33 children (ages 5 to 12) with SM. Because some children with SM will speak to parents but not a professional, another purpose was…

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of the haploid liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L., an emerging model for plant biology.

PubMed

Ishizaki, Kimitsune; Chiyoda, Shota; Yamato, Katsuyuki T; Kohchi, Takayuki

2008-07-01

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has not been practical in pteridophytes, bryophytes and algae to date, although it is commonly used in model plants including Arabidopsis and rice. Here we present a rapid Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system for the haploid liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L. using immature thalli developed from spores. Hundreds of hygromycin-resistant plants per sporangium were obtained by co-cultivation of immature thalli with Agrobacterium carrying the binary vector that contains a reporter, the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene with an intron, and a selection marker, the hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt) gene. In this system, individual gemmae, which arise asexually from single initial cells, were analyzed as isogenic transformants. GUS activity staining showed that all hygromycin-resistant plants examined expressed the GUS transgene in planta. DNA analyses verified random integration of 1-5 copies of the intact T-DNA between the right and the left borders into the M. polymorpha genome. The efficient and rapid Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of M. polymorpha should provide molecular techniques to facilitate comparative genomics, taking advantage of this unique model plant that retains many features of the common ancestor of land plants.

Being in tune with oneself, children, and parents: meanings of being a supporter to families with children who disabilities as narrated by parent-selected professionals.

PubMed

Lindblad, Britt-Marie; Rasmussen, Birgit H; Sandman, Per-Olov

2005-06-01

The importance of giving professional support to parents who have a child with a disability is well documented in the research literature. Research from parents' perspective shows however that how support is delivered for an entire family's well-being is crucial. The aim of this study was to illuminate the meanings of being a supporter as narrated by nine parent-selected professionals. The findings show that having a personal and professional philosophy on being and doing is crucial when helping parents care for their child. Being confident that it is always possible to help means to seek unique solutions for each child and family. Being a trustworthy partner of parents means to trust in parents as invaluable partners as well as to exert efforts to gain the parents' trust, seeing parents as both persons and the child's carer, and being sensitive to parents' vulnerability. Enabling parents to gain competence and confidence in parenthood embraces the knowledge and skills necessary for the competence as their child's carer and respecting parental authority. The findings are interpreted as being in tune with oneself, children, and parents--which in this study implies freedom from being confined by bureaucracy, prestige, and institutional norms but freedom to be authentic and act according to personal philosophies.

In vivo evolutionary engineering for ethanol-tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae haploid cells triggers diploidization.

PubMed

Turanlı-Yıldız, Burcu; Benbadis, Laurent; Alkım, Ceren; Sezgin, Tuğba; Akşit, Arman; Gökçe, Abdülmecit; Öztürk, Yavuz; Baykal, Ahmet Tarık; Çakar, Zeynep Petek; François, Jean M

2017-09-01

Microbial ethanol production is an important alternative energy resource to replace fossil fuels, but at high level, this product is highly toxic, which hampers its efficient production. Towards increasing ethanol-tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the so far best industrial ethanol-producer, we evaluated an in vivo evolutionary engineering strategy based on batch selection under both constant (5%, v v -1 ) and gradually increasing (5-11.4%, v v -1 ) ethanol concentrations. Selection under increasing ethanol levels yielded evolved clones that could tolerate up to 12% (v v -1 ) ethanol and had cross-resistance to other stresses. Quite surprisingly, diploidization of the yeast population took place already at 7% (v v -1 ) ethanol level during evolutionary engineering, and this event was abolished by the loss of MKT1, a gene previously identified as being implicated in ethanol tolerance (Swinnen et al., Genome Res., 22, 975-984, 2012). Transcriptomic analysis confirmed diploidization of the evolved clones with strong down-regulation in mating process, and in several haploid-specific genes. We selected two clones exhibiting the highest viability on 12% ethanol, and found productivity and titer of ethanol significantly higher than those of the reference strain under aerated fed-batch cultivation conditions. This higher fermentation performance could be related with a higher abundance of glycolytic and ribosomal proteins and with a relatively lower respiratory capacity of the evolved strain, as revealed by a comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analysis between the evolved and the reference strains. Altogether, these results emphasize the efficiency of the in vivo evolutionary engineering strategy for improving ethanol tolerance, and the link between ethanol tolerance and diploidization. Copyright © 2017 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Middle-Class Parents' Educational Work in an Academically Selective Public High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stacey, Meghan

2016-01-01

This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent-school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of "choice" and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews…

An in vitro, short-term culture method for mammalian haploid round spermatids amenable for molecular manipulation.

PubMed

Dehnugara, Tushna; Dhar, Surbhi; Rao, M R Satyanarayana

2012-01-01

Extensive chromatin remodeling is a characteristic feature of mammalian spermiogenesis. To date, methods for the molecular manipulation of haploid spermatids are not available as there is a lack of a well-established culture system. Biochemical experiments and knockout studies reveal only the final outcome; studying the incremental details of the intricate mechanisms involved is still a challenge. We have established an in vitro culture system for pure haploid round spermatids isolated from rat testes that can be maintained with good viability for up to 72 hr. Changes in cell morphology and flagellar growth were also studied in the cultured spermatids. Further, we have demonstrated that upon treatment of cells with specific histone deacetylase inhibitors, sodium butyrate and trichostatin A, there is an increase in the hyperacetylation status of histone H4, mimicking an important event characteristic of histone replacement process that occurs during later stages of spermiogenesis. We have also tried various methods for introducing DNA and protein into these round spermatids in culture, and report that while DNA transfection is still a challenging task, protein transfection could be achieved using Chariot™ peptide as a transfection reagent. Thus, the method described here sets a stage to study the molecular roles of spermatid-specific proteins and chromatin remodelers in the cellular context. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Structure of Corrective Feedback for Selection of Ineffective Vegetable Parenting Practices for Use in a Simulation Videogame.

PubMed

Baranowski, Tom; Beltran, Alicia; Chen, Tzu-An; O'Connor, Teresia; Hughes, Sheryl; Buday, Richard; Baranowski, Janice

2013-02-01

A serious videogame is being developed to train parents of preschool children in selecting and using parenting practices that are likely to encourage their child to eat more vegetables. The structure of feedback to the parents on their selection may influence what they learn from the game. Feedback Intervention Theory provides some guidance on the design of such messages. The structure of preferred performance feedback statements has not been investigated within serious videogames. Two feedback formats were tested for a player's preferences within the context of this videogame. Based on Feedback Intervention Theory, which proposes that threat to self-concept impairs feedback response, three-statement (a nonaffirming comment sandwiched between two affirming comments, called "Oreo" feedback, which should minimize threat to self-concept) and two-statement (a nonaffirming comment followed by an affirming comment) performance feedbacks were tailored to respondents. Tailoring was based on participants' report of frequency of use of effective and ineffective vegetable parenting practices and the reasons for use of the ineffective practices. Participants selected their preference between the two forms of feedback for each of eight ineffective vegetable parenting practices. In general, mothers ( n =81) (no male respondents) slightly preferred the "Oreo" feedback, but the pattern of preferences varied by demographic characteristics. Stronger relationships by income suggest the feedback structure should be tailored to family income. Future research with larger and more diverse samples needs to test whether perceived threat to self-concept mediates the response to feedback and otherwise verify these findings.

Reverse breeding: a novel breeding approach based on engineered meiosis

PubMed Central

Dirks, Rob; van Dun, Kees; de Snoo, C Bastiaan; van den Berg, Mark; Lelivelt, Cilia L C; Voermans, William; Woudenberg, Leo; de Wit, Jack P C; Reinink, Kees; Schut, Johan W; van der Zeeuw, Eveline; Vogelaar, Aat; Freymark, Gerald; Gutteling, Evert W; Keppel, Marina N; van Drongelen, Paul; Kieny, Matthieu; Ellul, Philippe; Touraev, Alisher; Ma, Hong; de Jong, Hans; Wijnker, Erik

2009-01-01

Reverse breeding (RB) is a novel plant breeding technique designed to directly produce parental lines for any heterozygous plant, one of the most sought after goals in plant breeding. RB generates perfectly complementing homozygous parental lines through engineered meiosis. The method is based on reducing genetic recombination in the selected heterozygote by eliminating meiotic crossing over. Male or female spores obtained from such plants contain combinations of non-recombinant parental chromosomes which can be cultured in vitro to generate homozygous doubled haploid plants (DHs). From these DHs, complementary parents can be selected and used to reconstitute the heterozygote in perpetuity. Since the fixation of unknown heterozygous genotypes is impossible in traditional plant breeding, RB could fundamentally change future plant breeding. In this review, we discuss various other applications of RB, including breeding per chromosome. PMID:19811618

Sexual selection of male parental care in giant water bugs

PubMed Central

Ohba, Shin-ya; Okuda, Noboru; Kudo, Shin-ichi

2016-01-01

Paternal care can be maintained under sexual selection, if it helps in attracting more mates. We tested the hypothesis in two giant water bug species, Appasus major and Appasus japonicus, that male parental care is sexually selected through female preference for caring males. Females were given an opportunity to choose between two males. In the first test of female mate choice, one male carried eggs on its back, while the other did not. The egg status was switched between these two males in the second test. The experiment revealed that females of both species preferred caring males (i.e. egg-bearing) to non-caring males. Nonetheless, the female mate preference for egg-bearing males was stronger in A. major than in A. japonicus. Our results suggest that sexual selection plays an important role in maintaining elaborate paternal care in giant water bugs, but the importance of egg-bearing by males in female mate choice varies among species. PMID:27293778

The Effect of Hidden Curriculum on the Criteria Parents Use to Select Schools and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahan, Hasan Hüseyin

2014-01-01

A framework of school and teacher qualities has been established by research. The need to identify families' school and teacher selection criteria, in particular, is the main motive behind the present study. It mainly aims to identify the criteria parents use when selecting schools and teachers, or the influence of hidden curriculum on school and…

Evolution of learning and levels of selection: A lesson from avian parent-offspring communication.

PubMed

Lotem, Arnon; Biran-Yoeli, Inbar

2013-09-20

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the evolution of behavior may be better understood as the evolution of the learning mechanisms that produce it, and that such mechanisms should be modeled and tested explicitly. However, this approach, which has recently been applied to animal foraging and decision-making, has rarely been applied to the social and communicative behaviors that are likely to operate in complex social environments and be subject to multi-level selection. Here we use genetic, agent-based evolutionary simulations to explore how learning mechanisms may evolve to adjust the level of nestling begging (offspring signaling of need), and to examine the possible consequences of this process for parent-offspring conflict and communication. In doing so, we also provide the first step-by-step dynamic model of parent-offspring communication. The results confirm several previous theoretical predictions and demonstrate three novel phenomena. First, negatively frequency-dependent group-level selection can generate a stable polymorphism of learning strategies and parental responses. Second, while conventional reinforcement learning models fail to cope successfully with family dynamics at the nest, a newly developed learning model (incorporating behaviors that are consistent with recent experimental results on learning in nestling begging) produced effective learning, which evolved successfully. Third, while kin-selection affects the frequency of the different learning genes, its impact on begging slope and intensity was unexpectedly negligible, demonstrating that evolution is a complex process, and showing that the effect of kin-selection on behaviors that are shaped by learning may not be predicted by simple application of Hamilton's rule. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evolution of learning and levels of selection: a lesson from avian parent-offspring communication.

PubMed

Lotem, Arnon; Biran-Yoeli, Inbar

2014-02-01

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the evolution of behavior may be better understood as the evolution of the learning mechanisms that produce it, and that such mechanisms should be modeled and tested explicitly. However, this approach, which has recently been applied to animal foraging and decision-making, has rarely been applied to the social and communicative behaviors that are likely to operate in complex social environments and be subject to multi-level selection. Here we use genetic, agent-based evolutionary simulations to explore how learning mechanisms may evolve to adjust the level of nestling begging (offspring signaling of need), and to examine the possible consequences of this process for parent-offspring conflict and communication. In doing so, we also provide the first step-by-step dynamic model of parent-offspring communication. The results confirm several previous theoretical predictions and demonstrate three novel phenomena. First, negatively frequency-dependent group-level selection can generate a stable polymorphism of learning strategies and parental responses. Second, while conventional reinforcement learning models fail to cope successfully with family dynamics at the nest, a newly developed learning model (incorporating behaviors that are consistent with recent experimental results on learning in nestling begging) produced effective learning, which evolved successfully. Third, while kin-selection affects the frequency of the different learning genes, its impact on begging slope and intensity was unexpectedly negligible, demonstrating that evolution is a complex process, and showing that the effect of kin-selection on behaviors that are shaped by learning may not be predicted by simple application of Hamilton's rule. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Genetic mapping of centromeres in the nine Citrus clementina chromosomes using half-tetrad analysis and recombination patterns in unreduced and haploid gametes.

PubMed

Aleza, Pablo; Cuenca, José; Hernández, María; Juárez, José; Navarro, Luis; Ollitrault, Patrick

2015-03-08

Mapping centromere locations in plant species provides essential information for the analysis of genetic structures and population dynamics. The centromere's position affects the distribution of crossovers along a chromosome and the parental heterozygosity restitution by 2n gametes is a direct function of the genetic distance to the centromere. Sexual polyploidisation is relatively frequent in Citrus species and is widely used to develop new seedless triploid cultivars. The study's objectives were to (i) map the positions of the centromeres of the nine Citrus clementina chromosomes; (ii) analyse the crossover interference in unreduced gametes; and (iii) establish the pattern of genetic recombination in haploid clementine gametes along each chromosome and its relationship with the centromere location and distribution of genic sequences. Triploid progenies were derived from unreduced megagametophytes produced by second-division restitution. Centromere positions were mapped genetically for all linkage groups using half-tetrad analysis. Inference of the physical locations of centromeres revealed one acrocentric, four metacentric and four submetacentric chromosomes. Crossover interference was observed in unreduced gametes, with variation seen between chromosome arms. For haploid gametes, a strong decrease in the recombination rate occurred in centromeric and pericentromeric regions, which contained a low density of genic sequences. In chromosomes VIII and IX, these low recombination rates extended beyond the pericentromeric regions. The genomic region corresponding to a genetic distance < 5cM from a centromere represented 47% of the genome and 23% of the genic sequences. The centromere positions of the nine citrus chromosomes were genetically mapped. Their physical locations, inferred from the genetic ones, were consistent with the sequence constitution and recombination pattern along each chromosome. However, regions with low recombination rates extended beyond the

A human haploid gene trap collection to study lncRNAs with unusual RNA biology.

PubMed

Kornienko, Aleksandra E; Vlatkovic, Irena; Neesen, Jürgen; Barlow, Denise P; Pauler, Florian M

2016-01-01

Many thousand long non-coding (lnc) RNAs are mapped in the human genome. Time consuming studies using reverse genetic approaches by post-transcriptional knock-down or genetic modification of the locus demonstrated diverse biological functions for a few of these transcripts. The Human Gene Trap Mutant Collection in haploid KBM7 cells is a ready-to-use tool for studying protein-coding gene function. As lncRNAs show remarkable differences in RNA biology compared to protein-coding genes, it is unclear if this gene trap collection is useful for functional analysis of lncRNAs. Here we use the uncharacterized LOC100288798 lncRNA as a model to answer this question. Using public RNA-seq data we show that LOC100288798 is ubiquitously expressed, but inefficiently spliced. The minor spliced LOC100288798 isoforms are exported to the cytoplasm, whereas the major unspliced isoform is nuclear localized. This shows that LOC100288798 RNA biology differs markedly from typical mRNAs. De novo assembly from RNA-seq data suggests that LOC100288798 extends 289kb beyond its annotated 3' end and overlaps the downstream SLC38A4 gene. Three cell lines with independent gene trap insertions in LOC100288798 were available from the KBM7 gene trap collection. RT-qPCR and RNA-seq confirmed successful lncRNA truncation and its extended length. Expression analysis from RNA-seq data shows significant deregulation of 41 protein-coding genes upon LOC100288798 truncation. Our data shows that gene trap collections in human haploid cell lines are useful tools to study lncRNAs, and identifies the previously uncharacterized LOC100288798 as a potential gene regulator.

Structure of Corrective Feedback for Selection of Ineffective Vegetable Parenting Practices for Use in a Simulation Videogame

PubMed Central

Beltran, Alicia; Chen, Tzu-An; O'Connor, Teresia; Hughes, Sheryl; Buday, Richard; Baranowski, Janice

2013-01-01

Abstract A serious videogame is being developed to train parents of preschool children in selecting and using parenting practices that are likely to encourage their child to eat more vegetables. The structure of feedback to the parents on their selection may influence what they learn from the game. Feedback Intervention Theory provides some guidance on the design of such messages. The structure of preferred performance feedback statements has not been investigated within serious videogames. Two feedback formats were tested for a player's preferences within the context of this videogame. Based on Feedback Intervention Theory, which proposes that threat to self-concept impairs feedback response, three-statement (a nonaffirming comment sandwiched between two affirming comments, called “Oreo” feedback, which should minimize threat to self-concept) and two-statement (a nonaffirming comment followed by an affirming comment) performance feedbacks were tailored to respondents. Tailoring was based on participants' report of frequency of use of effective and ineffective vegetable parenting practices and the reasons for use of the ineffective practices. Participants selected their preference between the two forms of feedback for each of eight ineffective vegetable parenting practices. In general, mothers (n=81) (no male respondents) slightly preferred the “Oreo” feedback, but the pattern of preferences varied by demographic characteristics. Stronger relationships by income suggest the feedback structure should be tailored to family income. Future research with larger and more diverse samples needs to test whether perceived threat to self-concept mediates the response to feedback and otherwise verify these findings. PMID:24761320

Food parenting: a selective review of current measurement and an empirical examination to inform future measurement.

PubMed

Musher-Eizenman, Dara R; Kiefner, Allison

2013-08-01

Interactions between parents and children in regard to food are an important part of the development of food preferences and intake patterns for children. The measurement of this complex and multidimensional construct is very challenging. This article examines the current status of measurement in this domain in a selective review, considers qualitative input from parents and adolescents in an empirical examination of the topic, and makes concrete recommendations for the future. Qualitatively, there were important differences between what the adolescents reported that their parents did to impact their eating habits, what parents of younger children report they currently do, and what researchers typically measure in research on parental feeding practices. On the basis of these empirical findings and our review of the literature, we recommend that food parenting be measured on three levels: Feeding styles (e.g., authoritative), food parenting practices (e.g., restriction), and specific feeding behaviors (e.g., putting food out of the child's reach). Specific recommendations for future study are given for each level of measurement.

Food Parenting: A Selective Review of Current Measurement and an Empirical Examination To Inform Future Measurement

PubMed Central

Kiefner, Allison

2013-01-01

Abstract Background Interactions between parents and children in regard to food are an important part of the development of food preferences and intake patterns for children. The measurement of this complex and multidimensional construct is very challenging. Methods This article examines the current status of measurement in this domain in a selective review, considers qualitative input from parents and adolescents in an empirical examination of the topic, and makes concrete recommendations for the future. Results Qualitatively, there were important differences between what the adolescents reported that their parents did to impact their eating habits, what parents of younger children report they currently do, and what researchers typically measure in research on parental feeding practices. Conclusions On the basis of these empirical findings and our review of the literature, we recommend that food parenting be measured on three levels: Feeding styles (e.g., authoritative), food parenting practices (e.g., restriction), and specific feeding behaviors (e.g., putting food out of the child's reach). Specific recommendations for future study are given for each level of measurement. PMID:23944922

Standing at the Gateway to Europe - The Genetic Structure of Western Balkan Populations Based on Autosomal and Haploid Markers

PubMed Central

Kovacevic, Lejla; Tambets, Kristiina; Ilumäe, Anne-Mai; Kushniarevich, Alena; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Solnik, Anu; Bego, Tamer; Primorac, Dragan; Skaro, Vedrana; Leskovac, Andreja; Jakovski, Zlatko; Drobnic, Katja; Tolk, Helle-Viivi; Kovacevic, Sandra; Rudan, Pavao; Metspalu, Ene; Marjanovic, Damir

2014-01-01

Contemporary inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula belong to several ethnic groups of diverse cultural background. In this study, three ethnic groups from Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosniacs, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs - as well as the populations of Serbians, Croatians, Macedonians from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegrins and Kosovars have been characterized for the genetic variation of 660 000 genome-wide autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms and for haploid markers. New autosomal data of the 70 individuals together with previously published data of 20 individuals from the populations of the Western Balkan region in a context of 695 samples of global range have been analysed. Comparison of the variation data of autosomal and haploid lineages of the studied Western Balkan populations reveals a concordance of the data in both sets and the genetic uniformity of the studied populations, especially of Western South-Slavic speakers. The genetic variation of Western Balkan populations reveals the continuity between the Middle East and Europe via the Balkan region and supports the scenario that one of the major routes of ancient gene flows and admixture went through the Balkan Peninsula. PMID:25148043

Standing at the gateway to Europe--the genetic structure of Western balkan populations based on autosomal and haploid markers.

PubMed

Kovacevic, Lejla; Tambets, Kristiina; Ilumäe, Anne-Mai; Kushniarevich, Alena; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Solnik, Anu; Bego, Tamer; Primorac, Dragan; Skaro, Vedrana; Leskovac, Andreja; Jakovski, Zlatko; Drobnic, Katja; Tolk, Helle-Viivi; Kovacevic, Sandra; Rudan, Pavao; Metspalu, Ene; Marjanovic, Damir

2014-01-01

Contemporary inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula belong to several ethnic groups of diverse cultural background. In this study, three ethnic groups from Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosniacs, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs - as well as the populations of Serbians, Croatians, Macedonians from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegrins and Kosovars have been characterized for the genetic variation of 660 000 genome-wide autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms and for haploid markers. New autosomal data of the 70 individuals together with previously published data of 20 individuals from the populations of the Western Balkan region in a context of 695 samples of global range have been analysed. Comparison of the variation data of autosomal and haploid lineages of the studied Western Balkan populations reveals a concordance of the data in both sets and the genetic uniformity of the studied populations, especially of Western South-Slavic speakers. The genetic variation of Western Balkan populations reveals the continuity between the Middle East and Europe via the Balkan region and supports the scenario that one of the major routes of ancient gene flows and admixture went through the Balkan Peninsula.

Parental catastrophizing about children's pain and selective attention to varying levels of facial expression of pain in children: a dot-probe study.

PubMed

Vervoort, Tine; Caes, Line; Crombez, Geert; Koster, Ernst; Van Damme, Stefaan; Dewitte, Marieke; Goubert, Liesbet

2011-08-01

The attentional demand of pain has primarily been investigated within an intrapersonal context. Little is known about observers' attentional processing of another's pain. The present study investigated, within a sample of parents (n=65; 51 mothers, 14 fathers) of school children, parental selective attention to children's facial display of pain and the moderating role of child's facial expressiveness of pain and parental catastrophizing about their child's pain. Parents performed a dot-probe task in which child facial display of pain (of varying pain expressiveness) were presented. Findings provided evidence of parental selective attention to child pain displays. Low facial displays of pain appeared sufficiently and also, as compared with higher facial displays of pain, equally capable of engaging parents' attention to the location of threat. Severity of facial displays of pain had a nonspatial effect on attention; that is, there was increased interference (ie, delayed responding) with increasing facial expressiveness. This interference effect was particularly pronounced for high-catastrophizing parents, suggesting that being confronted with increasing child pain displays becomes particularly demanding for high-catastrophizing parents. Finally, parents with higher levels of catastrophizing increasingly attended away from low pain expressions, whereas selective attention to high-pain expressions did not differ between high-catastrophizing and low-catastrophizing parents. Theoretical implications and further research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2011 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Generation of genetically modified mice using CRISPR/Cas9 and haploid embryonic stem cell systems

PubMed Central

JIN, Li-Fang; LI, Jin-Song

2016-01-01

With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology in the post-genomic era, researchers have concentrated their efforts on elucidating the relationships between genes and their corresponding functions. Recently, important progress has been achieved in the generation of genetically modified mice based on CRISPR/Cas9 and haploid embryonic stem cell (haESC) approaches, which provide new platforms for gene function analysis, human disease modeling, and gene therapy. Here, we review the CRISPR/Cas9 and haESC technology for the generation of genetically modified mice and discuss the key challenges in the application of these approaches. PMID:27469251

Choosing adolescent smokers as friends: the role of parenting and parental smoking.

PubMed

Mercken, L; Sleddens, E F C; de Vries, H; Steglich, C E G

2013-04-01

The present study examined whether parenting and parental smoking can prevent children from selecting smoking friends during adolescence. 254 Adolescents of one Belgian secondary school participated. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed among 2nd-4th graders (mean ages = 14.2-16.2 years) during spring 2006. Follow-up was conducted 12 months later. Data was analyzed conducting longitudinal social network analyses. Results showed adolescents perceiving high parental psychological control had a significant higher tendency to select smoking friends. Perceived behavioral control and perceived parental support did not affect the selection of smoking friends. Furthermore, maternal smoking behavior affected the selection of smoking friends, although no effect of paternal smoking behavior on the selection of smoking friends was found. Adolescent smoking prevention efforts should focus on the influence of parents through their smoking behavior and their psychological control to decrease adolescents' tendency to select smoking friends resulting in fewer opportunities for negative peer influences to occur. Copyright © 2013 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parent-child associations in selected food group and nutrient intakes among overweight and obese adolescents.

PubMed

Watts, Allison W; Mâsse, Louise C; Barr, Susan I; Lovato, Chris Y; Hanning, Rhona M

2014-10-01

Few studies have compared parent-child dietary intake among adolescents who are overweight or obese. The purpose of our study was to determine the relationship between parent-teen intake of selected dietary components among this sample. Baseline data from 165 parent and adolescent (aged 11 to 16 years) pairs who presented for a lifestyle behavior modification intervention were collected between 2010 and 2012. Parent and adolescent dietary intake (servings of fruits and vegetables [F/V]; grams of sugar; and percent energy from total fat, saturated fat, dessert/treats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and snacks) was assessed using web-based 24-hour dietary recalls. Multivariable linear and negative binomial regression models identified associations between parent and child dietary intake adjusting for relevant covariates. A large proportion of adolescents and parents did not meet dietary recommendations for F/V, total fat, and saturated fat. Parent-adolescent intake of F/V, total fat, saturated fat, sugar, sugar-sweetened beverages, and snacks were positively associated (r=0.19 to 0.37). No relationship was observed for dessert/treats. In multivariate models, significant interaction effects suggest that the parent-child association in diet was weaker for fat intake among parents with higher educational attainment (b=-.31; P<0.05) and for snacking among adolescent boys (b=-.30; P<.05). Parent intake of several dietary components important for good health, and related to obesity, was associated with adolescent intake. Helping parents improve their diet may promote improvements in their adolescent's diet and is a potential target for interventions designed to increase healthy eating among adolescents. Copyright © 2014 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parental prey selection affects risk-taking behaviour and spatial learning in avian offspring

PubMed Central

Arnold, Kathryn E; Ramsay, Scot L; Donaldson, Christine; Adam, Aileen

2007-01-01

Early nutrition shapes life history. Parents should, therefore, provide a diet that will optimize the nutrient intake of their offspring. In a number of passerines, there is an often observed, but unexplained, peak in spider provisioning during chick development. We show that the proportion of spiders in the diet of nestling blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus, varies significantly with the age of chicks but is unrelated to the timing of breeding or spider availability. Moreover, this parental prey selection supplies nestlings with high levels of taurine particularly at younger ages. This amino acid is known to be both vital and limiting for mammalian development and consequently found in high concentrations in placenta and milk. Based on the known roles of taurine in mammalian brain development and function, we then asked whether by supplying taurine-rich spiders, avian parents influence the stress responsiveness and cognitive function of their offspring. To test this, we provided wild blue tit nestlings with either a taurine supplement or control treatment once daily from the ages of 2–14 days. Then pairs of size- and sex-matched siblings were brought into captivity for behavioural testing. We found that juveniles that had received additional taurine as neonates took significantly greater risks when investigating novel objects than controls. Taurine birds were also more successful at a spatial learning task than controls. Additionally, those individuals that succeeded at a spatial learning task had shown intermediate levels of risk taking. Non-learners were generally very risk-averse controls. Early diet therefore has downstream impacts on behavioural characteristics that could affect fitness via foraging and competitive performance. Fine-scale prey selection is a mechanism by which parents can manipulate the behavioural phenotype of offspring. PMID:17698490

Parental prey selection affects risk-taking behaviour and spatial learning in avian offspring.

PubMed

Arnold, Kathryn E; Ramsay, Scot L; Donaldson, Christine; Adam, Aileen

2007-10-22

Early nutrition shapes life history. Parents should, therefore, provide a diet that will optimize the nutrient intake of their offspring. In a number of passerines, there is an often observed, but unexplained, peak in spider provisioning during chick development. We show that the proportion of spiders in the diet of nestling blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus, varies significantly with the age of chicks but is unrelated to the timing of breeding or spider availability. Moreover, this parental prey selection supplies nestlings with high levels of taurine particularly at younger ages. This amino acid is known to be both vital and limiting for mammalian development and consequently found in high concentrations in placenta and milk. Based on the known roles of taurine in mammalian brain development and function, we then asked whether by supplying taurine-rich spiders, avian parents influence the stress responsiveness and cognitive function of their offspring. To test this, we provided wild blue tit nestlings with either a taurine supplement or control treatment once daily from the ages of 2-14 days. Then pairs of size- and sex-matched siblings were brought into captivity for behavioural testing. We found that juveniles that had received additional taurine as neonates took significantly greater risks when investigating novel objects than controls. Taurine birds were also more successful at a spatial learning task than controls. Additionally, those individuals that succeeded at a spatial learning task had shown intermediate levels of risk taking. Non-learners were generally very risk-averse controls. Early diet therefore has downstream impacts on behavioural characteristics that could affect fitness via foraging and competitive performance. Fine-scale prey selection is a mechanism by which parents can manipulate the behavioural phenotype of offspring.

Children's and parent's psychological profiles in selective mutism and generalized anxiety disorder: a clinical study.

PubMed

Capozzi, Flavia; Manti, Filippo; Di Trani, Michela; Romani, Maria; Vigliante, Miriam; Sogos, Carla

2018-06-01

Selective mutism (SM) is classified in DSM-5 as an anxiety disorder. The aim of the study was to investigate the psychological features of children with SM and their parental psychological profiles, compared to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) children and their parents. The parents of 26 preschool children with SM and 32 with children with GAD filled out the child behavior check list for 1½-5 years (CBCL1½-5) and the symptom checklist-90-revised (SCL-90-R). Information about the children and their parents' histories was collected through clinical interviews. Children with SM scored higher than children with GAD on the CBCL1½-5 withdrawn scale and lower on the attention problems, aggressive behavior, and externalizing problems scales. Mothers of children with SM scored higher on the SCL-90-R obsessive-compulsive subscale and Global Severity Index than mothers of children with GAD, while fathers of children with SM scored higher on the SCL-90-R Phobic Anxiety subscale and on the Global Severity Index than fathers of children with GAD. Parents of children with SM displayed a greater presence of stressful life events than parents of children with GAD. Data appeared to confirm that SM and GAD share a common anxious core, though some differences in the children's psychological profiles and the parents' history and personality emerged. Future research should focus on the role of external factors, such as parent-child relationship, in the development of SM.

A Comparison of Selective Pressures in Plant X-Linked and Autosomal Genes

PubMed Central

Krasovec, Marc; Filatov, Dmitry A.

2018-01-01

Selection is expected to work differently in autosomal and X-linked genes because of their ploidy difference and the exposure of recessive X-linked mutations to haploid selection in males. However, it is not clear whether these expectations apply to recently evolved sex chromosomes, where many genes retain functional X- and Y-linked gametologs. We took advantage of the recently evolved sex chromosomes in the plant Silene latifolia and its closely related species to compare the selective pressures between hemizygous and non-hemizygous X-linked genes as well as between X-linked genes and autosomal genes. Our analysis, based on over 1000 genes, demonstrated that, similar to animals, X-linked genes in Silene evolve significantly faster than autosomal genes—the so-called faster-X effect. Contrary to expectations, faster-X divergence was detectable only for non-hemizygous X-linked genes. Our phylogeny-based analyses of selection revealed no evidence for faster adaptation in X-linked genes compared to autosomal genes. On the other hand, partial relaxation of purifying selection was apparent on the X-chromosome compared to the autosomes, consistent with a smaller genetic diversity in S. latifolia X-linked genes (πx = 0.016; πaut = 0.023). Thus, the faster-X divergence in S. latifolia appears to be a consequence of the smaller effective population size rather than of a faster adaptive evolution on the X-chromosome. We argue that this may be a general feature of “young” sex chromosomes, where the majority of X-linked genes are not hemizygous, preventing haploid selection in heterogametic sex. PMID:29751495

A Comparison of Selective Pressures in Plant X-Linked and Autosomal Genes.

PubMed

Krasovec, Marc; Nevado, Bruno; Filatov, Dmitry A

2018-05-03

Selection is expected to work differently in autosomal and X-linked genes because of their ploidy difference and the exposure of recessive X-linked mutations to haploid selection in males. However, it is not clear whether these expectations apply to recently evolved sex chromosomes, where many genes retain functional X- and Y-linked gametologs. We took advantage of the recently evolved sex chromosomes in the plant Silene latifolia and its closely related species to compare the selective pressures between hemizygous and non-hemizygous X-linked genes as well as between X-linked genes and autosomal genes. Our analysis, based on over 1000 genes, demonstrated that, similar to animals, X-linked genes in Silene evolve significantly faster than autosomal genes—the so-called faster-X effect. Contrary to expectations, faster-X divergence was detectable only for non-hemizygous X-linked genes. Our phylogeny-based analyses of selection revealed no evidence for faster adaptation in X-linked genes compared to autosomal genes. On the other hand, partial relaxation of purifying selection was apparent on the X-chromosome compared to the autosomes, consistent with a smaller genetic diversity in S. latifolia X-linked genes (π x = 0.016; π aut = 0.023). Thus, the faster-X divergence in S. latifolia appears to be a consequence of the smaller effective population size rather than of a faster adaptive evolution on the X-chromosome. We argue that this may be a general feature of “young” sex chromosomes, where the majority of X-linked genes are not hemizygous, preventing haploid selection in heterogametic sex.

Parental Monitoring, Parent-Adolescent Communication, and Adolescents’ Trust in Their Parents in China

PubMed Central

Ying, Liuhua; Ma, Fengling; Huang, Huahua; Guo, Xiaolin; Chen, Chuansheng; Xu, Fen

2015-01-01

Purpose Trust is an important aspect of interpersonal relationships, but little is known about adolescents’ interpersonal trust. The aim of the present study was to examine the associations among parental monitoring, parent-adolescent communication, and adolescents’ trust in their parents in China. Methods Data in this study were collected as part of the cross-sectional study of children in China. 3349 adolescents (female 48.6%, age range of 12–15 years) were randomly selected from 35 secondary schools in April, 2009 and administered to the Adolescent Interpersonal Trust Scale, the Parental Monitoring Scale, and the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale. Results Adolescents’ trust in their parents was positively related to parental monitoring and parent-adolescent communication. Furthermore, parent-adolescent communication mediated the association between parental monitoring and adolescents’ trust in their parents. The mediation model fit data of both genders and three age groups equally well. Conclusions Parental monitoring and parent-adolescent communication play an importance role in fostering adolescents’ trust in their parents. PMID:26271080

Transcriptome Analysis of Honeybee (Apis Mellifera) Haploid and Diploid Embryos Reveals Early Zygotic Transcription during Cleavage

PubMed Central

Pires, Camilla Valente; Freitas, Flávia Cristina de Paula; Cristino, Alexandre S.; Dearden, Peter K.; Simões, Zilá Luz Paulino

2016-01-01

In honeybees, the haplodiploid sex determination system promotes a unique embryogenesis process wherein females develop from fertilized eggs and males develop from unfertilized eggs. However, the developmental strategies of honeybees during early embryogenesis are virtually unknown. Similar to most animals, the honeybee oocytes are supplied with proteins and regulatory elements that support early embryogenesis. As the embryo develops, the zygotic genome is activated and zygotic products gradually replace the preloaded maternal material. The analysis of small RNA and mRNA libraries of mature oocytes and embryos originated from fertilized and unfertilized eggs has allowed us to explore the gene expression dynamics in the first steps of development and during the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT). We localized a short sequence motif identified as TAGteam motif and hypothesized to play a similar role in honeybees as in fruit flies, which includes the timing of early zygotic expression (MZT), a function sustained by the presence of the zelda ortholog, which is the main regulator of genome activation. Predicted microRNA (miRNA)-target interactions indicated that there were specific regulators of haploid and diploid embryonic development and an overlap of maternal and zygotic gene expression during the early steps of embryogenesis. Although a number of functions are highly conserved during the early steps of honeybee embryogenesis, the results showed that zygotic genome activation occurs earlier in honeybees than in Drosophila based on the presence of three primary miRNAs (pri-miRNAs) (ame-mir-375, ame-mir-34 and ame-mir-263b) during the cleavage stage in haploid and diploid embryonic development. PMID:26751956

Stability of transgene integration and expression in subsequent generations of doubled haploid oilseed rape transformed with chitinase and beta-1,3-glucanase genes in a double-gene construct.

PubMed

Melander, Margareta; Kamnert, Iréne; Happstadius, Ingrid; Liljeroth, Erland; Bryngelsson, Tomas

2006-09-01

A double-gene construct with one chitinase and one beta-1,3-glucanase gene from barley, both driven by enhanced 35S promoters, was transformed into oilseed rape. From six primary transformants expressing both transgenes 10 doubled haploid lines were produced and studied for five generations. The number of inserted copies for both the genes was determined by Southern blotting and real-time PCR with full agreement between the two methods. When copy numbers were analysed in different generations, discrepancies were found, indicating that at least part of the inserted sequences were lost in one of the alleles of some doubled haploids. Chitinase and beta-1,3-glucanase expression was analysed by Western blotting in all five doubled haploid generations. Despite that both the genes were present on the same T-DNA and directed by the same promoter their expression pattern between generations was different. The beta-1,3-glucanase was expressed at high and stable levels in all generations, while the chitinase displayed lower expression that varied between generations. The transgenic plants did not show any major impact on fungal resistance when assayed in greenhouse, although purified beta-1,3-glucanase and chitinase caused retardment of fungal growth in vitro.

Development of flocculent Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain GYK-10 for the selective fermentation of glucose/fructose in sugar mills.

PubMed

Kato, Taku; Ohara, Satoshi; Fukushima, Yasuhiro; Sugimoto, Akira; Masuda, Takayuki; Yasuhara, Takaomi; Yamagishi, Hiromi

2016-07-01

Advances in glucose/fructose-selective ethanol production have successfully enhanced raw sugar extraction from sugarcane juice by converting inhibitory substances (i.e., glucose/fructose) into ethanol, which is removed by subsequent operations in cane sugar mills. However, the commercial implementation of this breakthrough process in existing cane sugar mills requires a yeast strain that (i) can be used in food production processes, (ii) exhibits stable saccharometabolic selectivity, and (iii) can be easily separated from the saccharide solution. In this study, we developed a suitable saccharometabolism-selective and flocculent strain, Saccharomyces cerevisiae GYK-10. We obtained a suitable yeast strain for selective fermentation in cane sugar mills using a yeast mating system. First, we crossed a haploid strain defective in sucrose utilization with a flocculent haploid strain. Next, we performed tetrad dissection of the resultant hybrid diploid strain and selected GYK-10 from various segregants by investigating the sucrose assimilation and flocculation capacity phenotypes. Ten consecutive fermentation tests of the GYK-10 strain using a bench-scale fermentor confirmed its suitability for the implementation of practical selective fermentation in a commercial sugar mill. The strain exhibited complete saccharometabolic selectivity and sustained flocculation, where it maintained a high ethanol yield and conversion rate throughout the test. Copyright © 2016 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does Marital Status Influence the Parenting Styles Employed by Parents?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashiono, Benard Litali; Mwoma, Teresa B.

2015-01-01

The current study sought to establish whether parents' marital status, influence their use of specific parenting styles in Kisauni District, Kenya. A correlational research design was employed to carry out this study. Stratified sampling technique was used to select preschools while purposive sampling technique was used to select preschool…

Can parental monitoring and peer management reduce the selection or influence of delinquent peers? Testing the question using a dynamic social network approach.

PubMed

Tilton-Weaver, Lauree C; Burk, William J; Kerr, Margaret; Stattin, Håkan

2013-11-01

We tested whether parents can reduce affiliation with delinquent peers through 3 forms of peer management: soliciting information, monitoring rules, and communicating disapproval of peers. We examined whether peer management interrupted 2 peer processes: selection and influence of delinquent peers. Adolescents' feelings of being overcontrolled by parents were examined as an additional moderator of delinquent selection and influence. Using network data from a community sample (N = 1,730), we tested whether selection and influence processes varied across early, middle, and late adolescent cohorts. Selection and influence of delinquent peers were evident in all 3 cohorts and did not differ in strength. Parental monitoring rules reduced the selection of delinquent peers in the oldest cohort. A similar effect was found in the early adolescent cohort, but only for adolescents who did not feel overcontrolled by parents. Monitoring rules increased the likelihood of selecting a delinquent friend among those who felt overcontrolled. The effectiveness of communicating disapproval was also mixed: in the middle adolescent network, communicating disapproval increased the likelihood of an adolescent selecting a delinquent friend. Among late adolescents, high levels of communicating disapproval were effective, reducing the influence of delinquent peers for adolescents reporting higher rates of delinquency. For those who reported lower levels of delinquency, high levels of communicating disapproval increased the influence of delinquent peers. The results of this study suggest that the effectiveness of monitoring and peer management depend on the type of behavior, the timing of its use, and whether adolescents feel overcontrolled by parents.

Parent-Implemented Procedural Modification of Escape Extinction in the Treatment of Food Selectivity in a Young Child with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarbox, Jonathan; Schiff, Averil; Najdowski, Adel C.

2010-01-01

Fool selectivity is characterized by the consumption of an inadequate variety of foods. The effectiveness of behavioral treatment procedures, particularly nonremoval of the spoon, is well validated by research. The role of parents in the treatment of feeding disorders and the feasibility of behavioral procedures for parent implementation in the…

Role of Parents in the Education of Mentally Retarded Learners in Selected Schools in Madaraka Zone, Kiambu County, Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Gathua; Muthee, Jessica

2016-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of parent's involvement in education on the academic performance of the mentally retarded learners in primary schools of selected schools in Thika Municipality, Kiambu County. The objectives of the study was to determine whether cultural beliefs among the parents affects the enrolments of…

Interactions between Genetic and Ecological Effects on the Evolution of Life Cycles.

PubMed

Rescan, Marie; Lenormand, Thomas; Roze, Denis

2016-01-01

Sexual reproduction leads to an alternation between haploid and diploid phases, whose relative length varies widely across taxa. Previous genetical models showed that diploid or haploid life cycles may be favored, depending on dominance interactions and on effective recombination rates. By contrast, niche differentiation between haploids and diploids may favor biphasic life cycles, in which development occurs in both phases. In this article, we explore the interplay between genetical and ecological factors, assuming that deleterious mutations affect the competitivity of individuals within their ecological niche and allowing different effects of mutations in haploids and diploids (including antagonistic selection). We show that selection on a modifier gene affecting the relative length of both phases can be decomposed into a direct selection term favoring the phase with the highest mean fitness (due to either ecological differences or differential effects of mutations) and an indirect selection term favoring the phase in which selection is more efficient. When deleterious alleles occur at many loci and in the presence of ecological differentiation between haploids and diploids, evolutionary branching often occurs and leads to the stable coexistence of alleles coding for haploid and diploid cycles, while temporal variations in niche sizes may stabilize biphasic cycles.

The Evolution of Haploid Chromosome Numbers in the Sunflower Family

PubMed Central

Mota, Lucie; Torices, Rubén; Loureiro, João

2016-01-01

Chromosome number changes during the evolution of angiosperms are likely to have played a major role in speciation. Their study is of utmost importance, especially now, as a probabilistic model is available to study chromosome evolution within a phylogenetic framework. In the present study, likelihood models of chromosome number evolution were fitted to the largest family of flowering plants, the Asteraceae. Specifically, a phylogenetic supertree of this family was used to reconstruct the ancestral chromosome number and infer genomic events. Our approach inferred that the ancestral chromosome number of the family is n = 9. Also, according to the model that best explained our data, the evolution of haploid chromosome numbers in Asteraceae was a very dynamic process, with genome duplications and descending dysploidy being the most frequent genomic events in the evolution of this family. This model inferred more than one hundred whole genome duplication events; however, it did not find evidence for a paleopolyploidization at the base of this family, which has previously been hypothesized on the basis of sequence data from a limited number of species. The obtained results and potential causes of these discrepancies are discussed. PMID:27797951

Ninety-six haploid yeast strains with individual disruptions of open reading frames between YOR097C and YOR192C, constructed for the Saccharomyces genome deletion project, have an additional mutation in the mismatch repair gene MSH3.

PubMed

Lehner, Kevin R; Stone, Megan M; Farber, Rosann A; Petes, Thomas D

2007-11-01

As part of the Saccharomyces Genome Deletion Project, sets of presumably isogenic haploid and diploid strains that differed only by single gene deletions were constructed. We found that one set of 96 strains (containing deletions of ORFs located between YOR097C and YOR192C) in the collection, which was derived from the haploid BY4741, has an additional mutation in the MSH3 mismatch repair gene.

Haploid Genetic Screen Reveals a Profound and Direct Dependence on Cholesterol for Hantavirus Membrane Fusion

PubMed Central

Kleinfelter, Lara M.; Jangra, Rohit K.; Jae, Lucas T.; Herbert, Andrew S.; Mittler, Eva; Stiles, Katie M.; Wirchnianski, Ariel S.; Kielian, Margaret; Brummelkamp, Thijn R.

2015-01-01

ABSTRACT Hantaviruses cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in the Old World and a highly fatal hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) in the New World. No vaccines or antiviral therapies are currently available to prevent or treat hantavirus disease, and gaps in our understanding of how hantaviruses enter cells challenge the search for therapeutics. We performed a haploid genetic screen in human cells to identify host factors required for entry by Andes virus, a highly virulent New World hantavirus. We found that multiple genes involved in cholesterol sensing, regulation, and biosynthesis, including key components of the sterol response element-binding protein (SREBP) pathway, are critical for Andes virus entry. Genetic or pharmacological disruption of the membrane-bound transcription factor peptidase/site-1 protease (MBTPS1/S1P), an SREBP control element, dramatically reduced infection by virulent hantaviruses of both the Old World and New World clades but not by rhabdoviruses or alphaviruses, indicating that this pathway is broadly, but selectively, required by hantaviruses. These results could be fully explained as arising from the modest depletion of cellular membrane cholesterol that accompanied S1P disruption. Mechanistic studies of cells and with protein-free liposomes suggested that high levels of cholesterol are specifically needed for hantavirus membrane fusion. Taken together, our results indicate that the profound dependence on target membrane cholesterol is a fundamental, and unusual, biophysical property of hantavirus glycoprotein-membrane interactions during entry. PMID:26126854

Prevention of behavior problems in a selected population: Stepping stones triple P for parents of young children with disabilities.

PubMed

Shapiro, Cheri J; Kilburn, Janice; Hardin, James W

2014-11-01

Because young children with disabilities are at elevated risk for development of challenging behaviors, and caregivers of these children typically lack access to evidence-based parenting interventions, two randomized trials were conducted to examine the impact of an evidence-based parenting intervention, Stepping Stones Triple P (SSTP), as a selective preventive intervention. Both studies targeted parents of children under two with a variety of disabilities who were enrolled in the IDEA Part C Early Intervention (EI) system in one state. SSTP was delivered in family homes. In Study One, 49 families were randomly assigned to EI services as usual, with or without SSTP; a 52% attrition rate from treatment was seen. No significant between-group differences were seen aside from a trend toward reduced symptoms of parental depression at follow-up. Intervention group children demonstrated significant decline in behavior problems from post treatment to follow-up, and there was a trend toward improved parenting style in the intervention group during this same time frame. Study Two incorporated a separate workforce intervention for EI service coordinators; 40 families on their caseloads were then randomly assigned to receive EI services as usual with or without SSTP. Attrition from treatment was limited to 20%. No differential impact was seen on child behavior; a trend was noted post-treatment on parent symptoms of depression and on the observed parent-child relationship. At 12-month follow-up, there was a trend favoring improvement in the intervention group in parenting style; statistically significant impact was also seen on the observed quality of the parent-child relationship. SSTP shows promise as a selective preventive intervention for an early intervention population. Reasons for the differential findings between the two studies are explored and suggestions for future research are provided. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nonmaternal Care’s Association With Mother’s Parenting Sensitivity: A Case of Self-Selection Bias?

PubMed Central

Nomaguchi, Kei M.; DeMaris, Alfred

2013-01-01

Although attachment theory posits that the use of nonmaternal care undermines quality of mothers’ parenting, empirical evidence for this link is inconclusive. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,233), the authors examined the associations between nonmaternal care characteristics and maternal sensitivity during the first 3 years of children’s lives, with special attention to selection effects and moderation by resource levels. Findings from fixed-effects regression models suggested that, on average, there is little relationship between nonmaternal care characteristics and maternal sensitivity, once selection factors are held constant. Some evidence of moderation effects was found, however. Excellent-quality care is related to more sensitivity for mothers with lower family income. Poor-quality care is related to lower sensitivity for single mothers, but not partnered mothers. In sum, nonmaternal care characteristics do not seem to have as much influence on mothers’ parenting as attachment theory claims. PMID:23772093

Polyploid Titan Cells Produce Haploid and Aneuploid Progeny To Promote Stress Adaptation

PubMed Central

Gerstein, Aleeza C.; Fu, Man Shun; Mukaremera, Liliane; Li, Zhongming; Ormerod, Kate L.; Fraser, James A.; Berman, Judith

2015-01-01

ABSTRACT Cryptococcus neoformans is a major life-threatening fungal pathogen. In response to the stress of the host environment, C. neoformans produces large polyploid titan cells. Titan cell production enhances the virulence of C. neoformans, yet whether the polyploid aspect of titan cells is specifically influential remains unknown. We show that titan cells were more likely to survive and produce offspring under multiple stress conditions than typical cells and that even their normally sized daughters maintained an advantage over typical cells in continued exposure to stress. Although polyploid titan cells generated haploid daughter cell progeny upon in vitro replication under nutrient-replete conditions, titan cells treated with the antifungal drug fluconazole produced fluconazole-resistant diploid and aneuploid daughter cells. Interestingly, a single titan mother cell was capable of generating multiple types of aneuploid daughter cells. The increased survival and genomic diversity of titan cell progeny promote rapid adaptation to new or high-stress conditions. PMID:26463162

A Perfect Match Genomic Landscape Provides a Unified Framework for the Precise Detection of Variation in Natural and Synthetic Haploid Genomes

PubMed Central

Palacios-Flores, Kim; García-Sotelo, Jair; Castillo, Alejandra; Uribe, Carina; Aguilar, Luis; Morales, Lucía; Gómez-Romero, Laura; Reyes, José; Garciarubio, Alejandro; Boege, Margareta; Dávila, Guillermo

2018-01-01

We present a conceptually simple, sensitive, precise, and essentially nonstatistical solution for the analysis of genome variation in haploid organisms. The generation of a Perfect Match Genomic Landscape (PMGL), which computes intergenome identity with single nucleotide resolution, reveals signatures of variation wherever a query genome differs from a reference genome. Such signatures encode the precise location of different types of variants, including single nucleotide variants, deletions, insertions, and amplifications, effectively introducing the concept of a general signature of variation. The precise nature of variants is then resolved through the generation of targeted alignments between specific sets of sequence reads and known regions of the reference genome. Thus, the perfect match logic decouples the identification of the location of variants from the characterization of their nature, providing a unified framework for the detection of genome variation. We assessed the performance of the PMGL strategy via simulation experiments. We determined the variation profiles of natural genomes and of a synthetic chromosome, both in the context of haploid yeast strains. Our approach uncovered variants that have previously escaped detection. Moreover, our strategy is ideally suited for further refining high-quality reference genomes. The source codes for the automated PMGL pipeline have been deposited in a public repository. PMID:29367403

A Perfect Match Genomic Landscape Provides a Unified Framework for the Precise Detection of Variation in Natural and Synthetic Haploid Genomes.

PubMed

Palacios-Flores, Kim; García-Sotelo, Jair; Castillo, Alejandra; Uribe, Carina; Aguilar, Luis; Morales, Lucía; Gómez-Romero, Laura; Reyes, José; Garciarubio, Alejandro; Boege, Margareta; Dávila, Guillermo

2018-04-01

We present a conceptually simple, sensitive, precise, and essentially nonstatistical solution for the analysis of genome variation in haploid organisms. The generation of a Perfect Match Genomic Landscape (PMGL), which computes intergenome identity with single nucleotide resolution, reveals signatures of variation wherever a query genome differs from a reference genome. Such signatures encode the precise location of different types of variants, including single nucleotide variants, deletions, insertions, and amplifications, effectively introducing the concept of a general signature of variation. The precise nature of variants is then resolved through the generation of targeted alignments between specific sets of sequence reads and known regions of the reference genome. Thus, the perfect match logic decouples the identification of the location of variants from the characterization of their nature, providing a unified framework for the detection of genome variation. We assessed the performance of the PMGL strategy via simulation experiments. We determined the variation profiles of natural genomes and of a synthetic chromosome, both in the context of haploid yeast strains. Our approach uncovered variants that have previously escaped detection. Moreover, our strategy is ideally suited for further refining high-quality reference genomes. The source codes for the automated PMGL pipeline have been deposited in a public repository. Copyright © 2018 by the Genetics Society of America.

Effect of parental selection of healthy behavior topic during well child visit on plan to change childs eating or physical activity behavior

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Current recommendations direct pediatricians to address obesity and obesity prevention routinely during well child visits and to tailor their counseling, but clinicians may feel ineffective because of time constraints and lack of parent interest. To prompt parents to select a healthy lifestyle topic...

Are These Parents for Real? Students' Views of Parents in Realistic and Historical Fiction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harmon, Janis M.; Gonzales, Monica C.

2003-01-01

Describes what students had to say about parental roles. Includes students' views about parental roles in real life, their expectations of parental roles in realistic and historical novels, their impressions of the parents they encountered in the selected books, and a comparison across genres about these parental characters. Presents guidelines…

Genotype × environment interaction on tocochromanol and plastochromanol-8 content in seeds of doubled haploids obtained from F1 hybrid black × yellow seeds of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.).

PubMed

Siger, Aleksander; Michalak, Michał; Lembicz, Justyna; Nogala-Kałucka, Małgorzata; Cegielska-Taras, Teresa; Szała, Laurencja

2018-07-01

The aim of the study was to determine the effect of genotype × environment interaction on the levels of α-, β-, γ- and δ-tocopherol (α-T, β-T, γ-T and δ-T, respectively) and plastochromanol-8 (PC-8) in seeds of 17 doubled haploids (DHs) obtained from the F1 hybrid derived from crossing black (DH H 2 -26) × yellow (DH Z-114) seeds of winter oilseed rape. The content of tocopherols in the tested DH lines ranged from 415.6 to 540.1 mg kg -1 seeds, while PC-8 content ranged from 56.3 to 89.0 mg kg -1 seeds. The α-T/γ-T ratio reached a level of 0.78-1.29. Studies have shown that heritability for α-T, β-T, γ-T, total-T and PC-8 is mainly due to genotypic variation. For the δ-T homologue the level was dependent on environmental effect. The obtained DH lines population of oilseed rape is characterized by high heritability coefficients for α-T, β-T, γ-T, total-T and PC-8 levels, which indicates a greater influence of genotype than the environment on the content of these compounds. Among all studied doubled haploids, seven DHs were selected which were characterized by stable contents of α-T, β-T, γ-T, δ-T and total-T with the simultaneous stable content of PC-8. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Analysis of quantitative trait loci affecting chlorophyll content of rice leaves in a double haploid population and two backcross populations.

PubMed

Jiang, Gonghao; Zeng, Jing; He, Yuqing

2014-02-25

Chlorophyll content, one of the most important physiological parameters related to plant photosynthesis, is usually used to predict yield potential. To map the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) underlying the chlorophyll content of rice leaves, a double haploid (DH) population was developed from an indica/japonica (Zhenshan 97/Wuyujing 2) crossing and two backcross populations were established subsequently by backcrossing DH lines with each of their parents. The contents of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b were determined by using a spectrophotometer to directly measure the leaf chlorophyll extracts. To determine the leaf chlorophyll retention along with maturation, all measurements were performed on the day of heading and were repeated 30 days later. A total of 60 QTLs were resolved for all the traits using these three populations. These QTLs were distributed on 10 rice chromosomes, except chromosomes 5 and 10; the closer the traits, the more clustering of the QTLs residing on common rice chromosomal regions. In general, the majority of QTLs that specify chlorophyll a content also play a role in determining chlorophyll b content. Strangely, chlorophyll content in this study was found mostly to be lacking or to have a negative correlation with yield. In both backcross F1 populations, overdominant (or underdominant) loci were more important than complete or partially dominant loci for main-effect QTLs and epistatic QTLs, thereby supporting previous findings that overdominant effects are the primary genetic basis for depression in inbreeding and heterosis in rice. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The genealogy of samples in models with selection.

PubMed

Neuhauser, C; Krone, S M

1997-02-01

We introduce the genealogy of a random sample of genes taken from a large haploid population that evolves according to random reproduction with selection and mutation. Without selection, the genealogy is described by Kingman's well-known coalescent process. In the selective case, the genealogy of the sample is embedded in a graph with a coalescing and branching structure. We describe this graph, called the ancestral selection graph, and point out differences and similarities with Kingman's coalescent. We present simulations for a two-allele model with symmetric mutation in which one of the alleles has a selective advantage over the other. We find that when the allele frequencies in the population are already in equilibrium, then the genealogy does not differ much from the neutral case. This is supported by rigorous results. Furthermore, we describe the ancestral selection graph for other selective models with finitely many selection classes, such as the K-allele models, infinitely-many-alleles models. DNA sequence models, and infinitely-many-sites models, and briefly discuss the diploid case.

The Genealogy of Samples in Models with Selection

PubMed Central

Neuhauser, C.; Krone, S. M.

1997-01-01

We introduce the genealogy of a random sample of genes taken from a large haploid population that evolves according to random reproduction with selection and mutation. Without selection, the genealogy is described by Kingman's well-known coalescent process. In the selective case, the genealogy of the sample is embedded in a graph with a coalescing and branching structure. We describe this graph, called the ancestral selection graph, and point out differences and similarities with Kingman's coalescent. We present simulations for a two-allele model with symmetric mutation in which one of the alleles has a selective advantage over the other. We find that when the allele frequencies in the population are already in equilibrium, then the genealogy does not differ much from the neutral case. This is supported by rigorous results. Furthermore, we describe the ancestral selection graph for other selective models with finitely many selection classes, such as the K-allele models, infinitely-many-alleles models, DNA sequence models, and infinitely-many-sites models, and briefly discuss the diploid case. PMID:9071604

Parental GCA testing: how many crosses per parent?

Treesearch

G.R. Johnson

1998-01-01

The impact of increasing the number of crosses per parent (k) on the efficiency of roguing seed orchards (backwards selection, i.e., reselection of parents) was examined by using Monte Carlo simulation. Efficiencies were examined in light of advanced-generation Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) tree improvement programs where...

RADIATION INDUCED VIABILITY MUTATIONS IN THE HONEY BEE. Progress Report for 1961 and Renewal Proposal of Contract for 1962

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, W.R.

The spectrum of viability mutations ranging from dominant lethals to detrimentals in haploids that resulted from irradiating semen from a single haploid male was studied in the honey bee. From the decrease in viability of diploid progeny following irradiation of the spermatheca of the parental queen, it was calculated that one or more dominant lethals were induced in 60.8% of the sperm cells. In a separate test using the same dosage on an unrelated queen 60.9% dominant lethals were found. Recessive mutations and mutants with incomplete dominance were detected in haploid progeny of F-1 queens. (M.C.G.)

General and food-selection specific parenting style in relation to the healthfulness of parent-child choices while grocery shopping.

PubMed

Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G; Graham, Dan J; Ullrich, Emily; MacPhee, David

2017-01-01

Past research has demonstrated that parenting style is related to children's health and eating patterns, and that parenting can vary across time and context. However, there is little evidence about similarities and differences between general, self-reported parenting style and observed parenting during grocery shopping. The goals of this study were to investigate links between general parenting style, parental warmth and limit setting (important dimensions of parenting style) during grocery shopping, and the healthfulness of foods chosen. Participants were 153 parent (88 mothers) - child (6-9 years old) dyads. Dyads were brought to a laboratory set up like a grocery store aisle and asked to choose two items from each of three categories (cookies/crackers, cereals, chips/snacks). Parents were observed in terms of warmth, responsiveness, autonomy granting, and limit setting; children were observed in terms of resistance and negotiation. Parents reported behaviors related to general parenting. Regression analyses were used to test study hypotheses. Observed parental limit setting was related to general parenting style; observed warmth was not. Observed limit setting (but not observed warmth or self-reported parenting style) was related to the healthfulness of food choices. Limit setting appears to be the dimension of parenting style that is expressed during grocery shopping, and that promotes healthier food choices. Implications are discussed regarding consistencies in parenting style across situations as well as contributions of parenting style to the development of children's healthy eating. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Parent-offspring conflict and the genetic trade-offs shaping parental investment.

PubMed

Kölliker, Mathias; Boos, Stefan; Wong, Janine W Y; Röllin, Lilian; Stucki, Dimitri; Raveh, Shirley; Wu, Min; Meunier, Joël

2015-04-16

The genetic conflict between parents and their offspring is a cornerstone of kin selection theory and the gene-centred view of evolution, but whether it actually occurs in natural systems remains an open question. Conflict operates only if parenting is driven by genetic trade-offs between offspring performance and the parent's ability to raise additional offspring, and its expression critically depends on the shape of these trade-offs. Here we investigate the occurrence and nature of genetic conflict in an insect with maternal care, the earwig Forficula auricularia. Specifically, we test for a direct response to experimental selection on female future reproduction and correlated responses in current offspring survival, developmental rate and growth. The results demonstrate genetic trade-offs that differ in shape before and after hatching. Our study not only provides direct evidence for parent-offspring conflict but also highlights that conflict is not inevitable and critically depends on the genetic trade-offs shaping parental investment.

Sperm selection for ICSI: shape properties do not predict the absence or presence of numerical chromosomal aberrations.

PubMed

Celik-Ozenci, Ciler; Jakab, Attila; Kovacs, Tamas; Catalanotti, Jillian; Demir, Ramazan; Bray-Ward, Patricia; Ward, David; Huszar, Gabor

2004-09-01

We hypothesize that the potential relationship between abnormal sperm morphology and increased frequency of numerical chromosomal aberrations is based on two attributes of diminished sperm maturity: (i) cytoplasmic retention and consequential sperm shape abnormalities; and (ii) meiotic errors caused by low levels of the HspA2 chaperone, a component of the synaptonemal complex. Because sperm morphology and aneuploidies were assessed in semen, but not in the same spermatozoa, previous studies addressing this relationship were inconclusive. We recently demonstrated that sperm shape is preserved following fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Thus, we examined the shape and chromosomal aberrations in the same sperm. We performed phase contrast microscopy and FISH, using centromeric probes for chromosomes X, Y, 10, 11 and 17 in 15 men. The fluorescence and respective phase contrast images were digitized using the Metamorph program. We studied 1286 sperm (256 disomic, 130 diploid and 900 haploid sperm) by three criteria: head and tail dimensions, head shape and Kruger strict morphology. Furthermore, in each analysis, we considered whether disomic or diploid sperm may be distinguished from haploid sperm. There was an overall, but not discriminative, relationship between abnormal sperm dimensions or shape and increased frequencies of numerical chromosomal aberrations. However, approximately 68 of the 256 disomic, and four of 130 diploid sperm showed head and tail dimensions comparable with the most normal, lowest tertile of the 900 haploid spermatozoa. Considering all 1286 sperm, among those with the most regular, symmetrical shape (n = 367), there were 63 and five with disomic and diploid nuclei, respectively. In line with these findings, among the 256 disomic sperm, 10% were Kruger normal. Sperm dimensions or shape are not reliable attributes in selection of haploid sperm for ICSI.

Chromosomes in a genome-wise order: evidence for metaphase architecture.

PubMed

Weise, Anja; Bhatt, Samarth; Piaszinski, Katja; Kosyakova, Nadezda; Fan, Xiaobo; Altendorf-Hofmann, Annelore; Tanomtong, Alongklod; Chaveerach, Arunrat; de Cioffi, Marcelo Bello; de Oliveira, Edivaldo; Walther, Joachim-U; Liehr, Thomas; Chaudhuri, Jyoti P

2016-01-01

One fundamental finding of the last decade is that, besides the primary DNA sequence information there are several epigenetic "information-layers" like DNA-and histone modifications, chromatin packaging and, last but not least, the position of genes in the nucleus. We postulate that the functional genomic architecture is not restricted to the interphase of the cell cycle but can also be observed in the metaphase stage, when chromosomes are most condensed and microscopically visible. If so, it offers the unique opportunity to directly analyze the functional aspects of genomic architecture in different cells, species and diseases. Another aspect not directly accessible by molecular techniques is the genome merged from two different haploid parental genomes represented by the homologous chromosome sets. Our results show that there is not only a well-known and defined nuclear architecture in interphase but also in metaphase leading to a bilateral organization of the two haploid sets of chromosomes. Moreover, evidence is provided for the parental origin of the haploid grouping. From our findings we postulate an additional epigenetic information layer within the genome including the organization of homologous chromosomes and their parental origin which may now substantially change the landscape of genetics.

Juvenile honest food solicitation and parental investment as a life history strategy: A kin demographic selection model.

PubMed

Garay, József; Csiszár, Villő; Móri, Tamás F; Szilágyi, András; Varga, Zoltán; Számadó, Szabolcs

2018-01-01

Parent-offspring communication remains an unresolved challenge for biologist. The difficulty of the challenge comes from the fact that it is a multifaceted problem with connections to life-history evolution, parent-offspring conflict, kin selection and signalling. Previous efforts mainly focused on modelling resource allocation at the expense of the dynamic interaction during a reproductive season. Here we present a two-stage model of begging where the first stage models the interaction between nestlings and parents within a nest and the second stage models the life-history trade-offs. We show in an asexual population that honest begging results in decreased variance of collected food between siblings, which leads to mean number of surviving offspring. Thus, honest begging can be seen as a special bet-hedging against informational uncertainty, which not just decreases the variance of fitness but also increases the arithmetic mean.

Parental Involvement and Home Environment in Music: Current and Former Students from Selected Community Music Programs in Brazil and the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Gail V.; DeFreitas, Aureo; Grego, John

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether individuals' perceptions of parental involvement and home environment in music vary with nationality (Brazil/United States) and time frame (past/current). Past and current students from selected community music programs in the United States and Brazil completed the PI-HEM (Parental Involvement and…

Homozygote Depression in Gamete-Derived Dragon-Fruit (Hylocereus) Lines

PubMed Central

Li, Daqing; Arroyave Martinez, Maria F.; Shaked, Ruth; Tel-Zur, Noemi

2018-01-01

Putative gamete-derived progenies from two Hylocereus species, the diploid H. monacanthus and the tetraploid H. megalanthus, were studied with the dual aims to confirm their gamete origin and to evaluate their potential use as genetic resources. An additional goal was to determine the origin (allotetraploid vs. autotetraploid) of H. megalanthus by exploring morphological variations in the di-haploid (2x) H. megalanthus progeny. Gamete origin was proved in all five H. monacanthus lines obtained and in 49 of the 70 H. megalanthus lines by using flow cytometry and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The five double-haploid (2x) H. monacanthus lines showed low vigor and abnormal flower development, with malformed ovules and aborted pollen grains. Only one flower set fruit, giving several viable seeds. For H. megalanthus, both abnormal ovules and defective anthers were observed in the di-haploid (2x) and double di-haploid (4x) lines. Among the 46 di-haploid lines, only 14 set fruit. Another 13 di-haploid lines formed flower buds that abscised before anthesis or soon after pollination. The severe sterility of the double-haploid H. monacanthus and the reduced fertility of all the di-haploid and double di-haploid H. megalanthus lines can be linked to their reduced heterozygosity, which drastically affected the development of normal female and male organs. We thus concluded that chromosome doubling, as occurred spontaneously in the double-haploid H. monacanthus and the double di-haploid H. megalanthus, is not sufficient to restore fertility in Hylocereus. We also observed very low gametoclonal variation among the di-haploid (2x) H. megalanthus lines, a finding that supported an autotetraploid, rather than an allotetraploid, origin of this species. Nonetheless, despite the above-described challenging limitations, these gamete-derived lines are currently being bred as the seed parent, offering unique possibilities for genetic research and additional breeding. PMID:29354138

Fluctuating Selection in the Moran

PubMed Central

Dean, Antony M.; Lehman, Clarence; Yi, Xiao

2017-01-01

Contrary to classical population genetics theory, experiments demonstrate that fluctuating selection can protect a haploid polymorphism in the absence of frequency dependent effects on fitness. Using forward simulations with the Moran model, we confirm our analytical results showing that a fluctuating selection regime, with a mean selection coefficient of zero, promotes polymorphism. We find that increases in heterozygosity over neutral expectations are especially pronounced when fluctuations are rapid, mutation is weak, the population size is large, and the variance in selection is big. Lowering the frequency of fluctuations makes selection more directional, and so heterozygosity declines. We also show that fluctuating selection raises dn/ds ratios for polymorphism, not only by sweeping selected alleles into the population, but also by purging the neutral variants of selected alleles as they undergo repeated bottlenecks. Our analysis shows that randomly fluctuating selection increases the rate of evolution by increasing the probability of fixation. The impact is especially noticeable when the selection is strong and mutation is weak. Simulations show the increase in the rate of evolution declines as the rate of new mutations entering the population increases, an effect attributable to clonal interference. Intriguingly, fluctuating selection increases the dn/ds ratios for divergence more than for polymorphism, a pattern commonly seen in comparative genomics. Our model, which extends the classical neutral model of molecular evolution by incorporating random fluctuations in selection, accommodates a wide variety of observations, both neutral and selected, with economy. PMID:28108586

Explaining and Selecting Treatments for Autism: Parental Explanatory Models in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shyu, Yea-Ing Lotus; Tsai, Jia-Ling; Tsai, Wen-Che

2010-01-01

Parental explanatory models about autism influence the type of therapy a child receives, the child's well-being, and the parents' own psychological adaptation. This qualitative study explored explanatory models used by parents of children with autism. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 parents of children with autism from a medical center…

Fathers’ Participation in Parenting and Maternal Parenting Stress: Variation by Relationship Status

PubMed Central

Nomaguchi, Kei; Brown, Susan L.; Leyman, Tanya M.

2015-01-01

The growing diversity in mother-father relationship status has led to a debate over the role of fathers in parenting. Little is known, however, about how fathers’ participation in parenting is linked to maternal well-being across different mother-father relationship statuses. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,062), fixed-effects as well as random-effects regression models show that overall fathers’ engagement with children and sharing in child-related chores are negatively related to maternal parenting stress. Fathers’ cooperative coparenting is negatively related to maternal parenting stress only in the random-effects model, suggesting that the association is driven by selection factors. There is little variation in these associations by mother-father relationship status, once selection factors are controlled for. These findings extend support for the current cultural emphasis on benefits of fathers’ active participation in parenting for mothers and children even after the mother-father relationship dissolved. PMID:28479649

Juvenile honest food solicitation and parental investment as a life history strategy: A kin demographic selection model

PubMed Central

Szilágyi, András; Varga, Zoltán

2018-01-01

Parent-offspring communication remains an unresolved challenge for biologist. The difficulty of the challenge comes from the fact that it is a multifaceted problem with connections to life-history evolution, parent-offspring conflict, kin selection and signalling. Previous efforts mainly focused on modelling resource allocation at the expense of the dynamic interaction during a reproductive season. Here we present a two-stage model of begging where the first stage models the interaction between nestlings and parents within a nest and the second stage models the life-history trade-offs. We show in an asexual population that honest begging results in decreased variance of collected food between siblings, which leads to mean number of surviving offspring. Thus, honest begging can be seen as a special bet-hedging against informational uncertainty, which not just decreases the variance of fitness but also increases the arithmetic mean. PMID:29494630

The evolution of parental cooperation in birds.

PubMed

Remeš, Vladimír; Freckleton, Robert P; Tökölyi, Jácint; Liker, András; Székely, Tamás

2015-11-03

Parental care is one of the most variable social behaviors and it is an excellent model system to understand cooperation between unrelated individuals. Three major hypotheses have been proposed to explain the extent of parental cooperation: sexual selection, social environment, and environmental harshness. Using the most comprehensive dataset on parental care that includes 659 bird species from 113 families covering both uniparental and biparental taxa, we show that the degree of parental cooperation is associated with both sexual selection and social environment. Consistent with recent theoretical models parental cooperation decreases with the intensity of sexual selection and with skewed adult sex ratios. These effects are additive and robust to the influence of life-history variables. However, parental cooperation is unrelated to environmental factors (measured at the scale of whole species ranges) as indicated by a lack of consistent relationship with ambient temperature, rainfall or their fluctuations within and between years. These results highlight the significance of social effects for parental cooperation and suggest that several parental strategies may coexist in a given set of ambient environment.

Plant regeneration from haploid cell suspension-derived protoplasts of Mediterranean rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Miara).

PubMed

Guiderdoni, E; Chaïr, H

1992-11-01

More than 750 plants were regenerated from protoplasts isolated from microspore callus-derived cell suspensions of the Mediterranean japonica rice Miara, using a nurse-feeder technique and N6-based culture medium. The mean plating efficiency and the mean regeneration ability of the protocalluses were 0.5% and 49% respectively. Flow cytometric evaluation of the DNA contents of 7 month old-cell and protoplast suspensions showed that they were still haploid. Contrastingly, the DNA contents of leaf cell nuclei of the regenerated protoclones ranged from 1C to 5C including 60% 2C plants. This was consistent with the morphological type and the fertility of the mature plants. These results and the absence of chimeric plants suggest that polyploidization occurred during the early phase of protoplast culture.

Parental effects and the evolution of phenotypic memory.

PubMed

Kuijper, B; Johnstone, R A

2016-02-01

Despite growing evidence for nongenetic inheritance, the ecological conditions that favour the evolution of heritable parental or grandparental effects remain poorly understood. Here, we systematically explore the evolution of parental effects in a patch-structured population with locally changing environments. When selection favours the production of a mix of offspring types, this mix differs according to the parental phenotype, implying that parental effects are favoured over selection for bet-hedging in which the mixture of offspring phenotypes produced does not depend on the parental phenotype. Positive parental effects (generating a positive correlation between parental and offspring phenotype) are favoured in relatively stable habitats and when different types of local environment are roughly equally abundant, and can give rise to long-term parental inheritance of phenotypes. By contrast, unstable habitats can favour negative parental effects (generating a negative correlation between parental and offspring phenotype), and under these circumstances, even slight asymmetries in the abundance of local environmental states select for marked asymmetries in transmission fidelity. © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Parent-child aggression: association with child abuse potential and parenting styles.

PubMed

Rodriguez, Christina M

2010-01-01

The present investigation predicted that greater use of corporal punishment as well as physical maltreatment would be associated with child abuse potential and selected parenting styles. Three independent studies were examined, two with community samples and a third with a clinical at-risk sample of parents. Parents across all studies anonymously completed the Child Abuse Potential Inventory, the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale to assess physical discipline and maltreatment, as well as the Parenting Scale to measure dysfunctional parenting styles. Findings support that overall parent-child aggression, as well as physical maltreatment behaviors specifically, were associated with child abuse potential. Parent-child aggression was also related to dysfunctional parenting styles, particularly an overreactive, authoritarian parenting style. Permissive parenting was also identified as potentially associated with physical maltreatment, although the findings regarding such lax parenting styles are less clear. Intriguing findings emerged regarding the connection of psychological aggression to both child abuse potential and dysfunctional parenting style. Child abuse potential was also associated with dysfunctional parenting style, particularly harsh, overreactive approaches. Recommendations for future study with at-risk samples and additional research on permissive parenting and psychological aggression are discussed.

Observations of parent-child co-shoppers in supermarkets: children's involvement in food selections, parental yielding, and refusal strategies.

PubMed

O'Dougherty, Maureen; Story, Mary; Stang, Jamie

2006-01-01

The study aimed to collect descriptive information on the decision-making processes of adult shoppers around food purchases when young children are present. Anthropological field observations were conducted on adult-child grocery shoppers. Eleven supermarkets in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region. A convenience sample (n = 142) of adult-child shoppers at 8 budget and 3 deluxe supermarkets located in diverse urban and suburban areas. Observations registered adult-child interactions over food selections, including parental yielding or refusal strategies and child engagement in shopping. Means and frequencies were calculated for food items considered. In 67 (50.4%) of the total 133 observations, a child initiated a request. Half (55.2%) of the requests were for sweets or snacks. Nearly half (47.8%) of adults yielded to the child's request. Brands and marketing techniques appeared to be a factor in 28.6% of selections. The most frequent adult refusals either provided an explanation or ignored the request. Adults yield to children's requests for sweets and snacks nearly as often as they refuse them. However, effective refusal strategies are used by many adults. Opportunities exist in the grocery store for adults to reinforce young children's interest in food and nutrition.

Deoxyribonucleic acid-deficient strains of Candida albicans.

PubMed

Olaiya, A F; Steed, J R; Sogin, S J

1980-03-01

We analyzed a series of germ tube-negative variants isolated from Candida albicans 3153A for deoxyribonucleic acid content. As analyzed by flow microfluorometry, the deoxyribonucleic acid level in these variant strains was 50% of that of the parental strain and equivalent to that of haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This finding was confirmed by comparison of survival rates when exposed to the mutagens ultraviolet light, ethyl methane sulfonate, and methyl methane sulfonate. The diameter of the variant cells as compared to the diameter of the parental 3153A strain showed a relationship similar to that of the diameters of haploid versus diploid S. cerevisiae. These results indicate that those strains may be representative of the imperfect stage of C. albicans.

Procreative beneficence and the prospective parent

PubMed Central

Herissone‐Kelly, P

2006-01-01

Julian Savulescu has given clear expression to a principle—that of “procreative beneficence”—which underlies the thought of many contemporary writers on bioethics. The principle of procreative beneficence (PPB) holds that parents or single reproducers are at least prima facie obliged to select the child, out of a range of possible children they might have, who will be likely to lead the best life. My aim in this paper is to argue that prospective parents, just by dint of their being prospective parents, are in fact not obliged to act on PPB. That is, there is something about their filling the role of prospective parents that exempts them from selecting the child with the best life. I urge that it is more realistic to view prospective parents as bound by a principle of acceptable outlook, which holds that they ought not to select children whose lives will contain an unacceptable amount of suffering. PMID:16507665

Procreative beneficence and the prospective parent.

PubMed

Herissone-Kelly, P

2006-03-01

Julian Savulescu has given clear expression to a principle-that of "procreative beneficence"-which underlies the thought of many contemporary writers on bioethics. The principle of procreative beneficence (PPB) holds that parents or single reproducers are at least prima facie obliged to select the child, out of a range of possible children they might have, who will be likely to lead the best life. My aim in this paper is to argue that prospective parents, just by dint of their being prospective parents, are in fact not obliged to act on PPB. That is, there is something about their filling the role of prospective parents that exempts them from selecting the child with the best life. I urge that it is more realistic to view prospective parents as bound by a principle of acceptable outlook, which holds that they ought not to select children whose lives will contain an unacceptable amount of suffering.

Cell wall formation in zoospores of Allomyces arbuscula. II. Development of surface structure of encysted haploid zoospores, rhizoids, and hyphae.

PubMed

Kroh, M; Hendriks, H; Kirby, E G; Sassen, M M

1976-08-01

Development of haploid meiospores of Allomyces arbuscula into germling cells with rhizoids and hyphae was followed during incubation in complete growth medium. The surface structure of encysted meiospores, rhizoids and hyphae before and after extraction of amorphous materials with ethanolic KOH was studied by means of carbon-platinum replicas. After 2--3 min incubation in complete medium 10% of the meiospores were surrounded by a cell wall containing microfibrils embedded in a matrix. Structure of cell walls of encysted meiospores, rhizoids, and hyphae differ from one another by the location of amorphous materials and by the arrangement of chitin microfibrils.

Energy and traffic light labelling have no impact on parent and child fast food selection.

PubMed

Dodds, Pennie; Wolfenden, Luke; Chapman, Kathy; Wellard, Lyndal; Hughes, Clare; Wiggers, John

2013-10-25

Labelling of food from fast food restaurants at point-of-purchase has been suggested as one strategy to reduce population energy consumption and contribute to reductions in obesity prevalence. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of energy and single traffic light labelling systems on the energy content of child and adult intended food purchases. The study employed a randomised controlled trial design. English speaking parents of children aged between three and 12 years were recruited from an existing research cohort. Participants were mailed one of three hypothetical fast food menus. Menus differed in their labelling technique- either energy labels, single traffic light labels, or a no-label control. Participants then completed a telephone survey which assessed intended food purchases for both adult and child. The primary trial outcome was total energy of intended food purchase. A total of 329 participants completed the follow-up telephone interview. Eighty-two percent of the energy labelling group and 96% of the single traffic light labelling group reported noticing labelling information on their menu. There were no significant differences in total energy of intended purchases of parents, or intended purchases made by parents for children, between the menu labelling groups, or between menu labelling groups by socio-demographic subgroups. This study provided no evidence to suggest that energy labelling or single traffic light labelling alone were effective in reducing the energy of fast food items selected from hypothetical fast food menus for purchase. Additional complementary public health initiatives promoting the consumption of healthier foods identified by labelling, and which target other key drivers of menu item selection in this setting may be required. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Parent-to-parent support for parents with children who are deaf or hard of hearing: a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Henderson, Rebecca J; Johnson, Andrew; Moodie, Sheila

2014-12-01

Parent-to-parent support for parents with children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) is identified as an important component of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) programs for children with hearing loss. The specific aim of this review was to identify the constructs and components of parent-to-parent support for parents of children who are D/HH. An extensive scoping literature review identified 39 peer-reviewed articles published from 2000 to 2014. Studies were selected and reviewed based on standardized procedures. Data were identified, extracted, and organized into libraries of thematic and descriptive content. A conceptual framework of parent-to-parent support for parents of children who are D/HH was developed and presented in a comprehensive, bidirectional informational graphic. The constructs and components of the conceptual framework are (a) well-being: parent, family, and child; (b) knowledge: advocacy, system navigation, and education; and (c) empowerment: confidence and competence. The findings from this scoping review led to the development of a structured conceptual framework of parent-to-parent support for parents of children who are D/HH. The conceptual framework provides an important opportunity to explore and clearly define the vital contribution of parents in EHDI programs.

Parenting stress in parents of children with epilepsy and asthma.

PubMed

Chiou, Hua-Huei; Hsieh, Liang-Po

2008-03-01

The purposes of this study were to identify differences in parenting stress between 2 samples and examine the factors associated with parenting stress. An asthma sample was selected to contrast with the epilepsy sample because both medical conditions are chronic episodic conditions that require daily medication. Data from 49 parents of epileptic children and 54 parents of asthmatic children were examined in this study. Samples were conducted in a hospital pediatric clinic. Parental stress was measured using Abidin's Parenting Stress Index-long form. There were 2 major domains in the Parenting Stress Index: parent domain and child domain. The parent domain included 7 subscales, and the child domain included 6 subscales. Overall, results showed that parental stress was higher in the epilepsy group. Significant differences were found in 7 subscales: adaptability, demanding, hyperactivity/distractibility, role restrictions, depression, relationship to spouse, and parental health. Possible explanations for a higher level of parenting stress in the epilepsy group were discrimination, poor child adaptation, the threat of unpredictability of the seizures, and neurological dysfunction. The causes of higher levels of parenting stress in the asthma group were limitation of activities and parental health condition. These differences should be considered when psychosocial care is offered. Results also showed that demographic variables (gender, age, and family social economic status), age at onset, and condition severity were not effective predictors for parenting stress.

Significant parent-of-origin effects in cucumber

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Cucumber is a useful plant to study organellar effects because chloroplasts are maternally and mitochondria paternally transmitted. We produced doubled haploids (DH) from divergent cucumber populations, generated reciprocal crosses in a diallel mating scheme, measured weights of plants approximately...

Fluctuating Selection in the Moran.

PubMed

Dean, Antony M; Lehman, Clarence; Yi, Xiao

2017-03-01

Contrary to classical population genetics theory, experiments demonstrate that fluctuating selection can protect a haploid polymorphism in the absence of frequency dependent effects on fitness. Using forward simulations with the Moran model, we confirm our analytical results showing that a fluctuating selection regime, with a mean selection coefficient of zero, promotes polymorphism. We find that increases in heterozygosity over neutral expectations are especially pronounced when fluctuations are rapid, mutation is weak, the population size is large, and the variance in selection is big. Lowering the frequency of fluctuations makes selection more directional, and so heterozygosity declines. We also show that fluctuating selection raises d n / d s ratios for polymorphism, not only by sweeping selected alleles into the population, but also by purging the neutral variants of selected alleles as they undergo repeated bottlenecks. Our analysis shows that randomly fluctuating selection increases the rate of evolution by increasing the probability of fixation. The impact is especially noticeable when the selection is strong and mutation is weak. Simulations show the increase in the rate of evolution declines as the rate of new mutations entering the population increases, an effect attributable to clonal interference. Intriguingly, fluctuating selection increases the d n / d s ratios for divergence more than for polymorphism, a pattern commonly seen in comparative genomics. Our model, which extends the classical neutral model of molecular evolution by incorporating random fluctuations in selection, accommodates a wide variety of observations, both neutral and selected, with economy. Copyright © 2017 by the Genetics Society of America.

Preschool for Parents: What Every Parent Needs To Know about Preschool.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dodge, Diane Trister; Bickart, Toni S.

Noting that a high-quality preschool program is one that promotes learning through rich play experiences, this book gives parents information needed to select the right preschool for their children. Chapter 1, "Thinking about Preschool," discusses questions parents ask, practical considerations, beginning the search, and the screening phone call.…

Exact solutions for the selection-mutation equilibrium in the Crow-Kimura evolutionary model.

PubMed

Semenov, Yuri S; Novozhilov, Artem S

2015-08-01

We reformulate the eigenvalue problem for the selection-mutation equilibrium distribution in the case of a haploid asexually reproduced population in the form of an equation for an unknown probability generating function of this distribution. The special form of this equation in the infinite sequence limit allows us to obtain analytically the steady state distributions for a number of particular cases of the fitness landscape. The general approach is illustrated by examples; theoretical findings are compared with numerical calculations. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Parent Resources Inventory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alberta Education Response Centre, Edmonton.

This resource guide provides an annotated bibliography of 101 articles and newsletters of interest to parents and teachers of children in preschool through grade 3. The bibliography contains the titles and short descriptions of materials, selected with the assistance of parents and teachers from across Alberta (Canada), on a wide range of topics…

Estimating and Modeling Gene Flow for a Spatially Distributed Species

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-01-01

inherited from each parent’s gamete (sperm or egg) cell. The qsnotype of a diploid individual is the specification of all of its chromosome pairs. It is...sometimes sufficient to model a diploid species as if it were haploid . Haploid individuals have only one of each type of chromosome. We think of a chro...stage for the mathematical models, the necessary genetical terms are collected here. Most organisms are diploid , having chromosome.- in pairs, one

The Influence of Parenting Style and Child Temperament on Child-Parent-Dentist Interactions.

PubMed

Aminabadi, Naser Asl; Deljavan, Alireza Sighari; Jamali, Zahra; Azar, Fatemeh Pournaghi; Oskouei, Sina Ghertasi

2015-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the interaction between parenting style and child's temperament as modulators of anxiety and behavior in children during the dental procedure. Healthy four- to six-year-olds (n equals 288), with carious primary molars scheduled to receive amalgam fillings were selected. The Primary Caregivers Practices Report was used to assess the parenting style, and the Children's Behavior Questionnaire-Very Short Form was used to evaluate child temperament. Children were managed using common behavior management strategies. Child behavior and anxiety during the procedure were assessed using the Frankl behavior rating scale and the verbal skill scale, respectively. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation among variables. Authoritative parenting style was positively related to positive child's behavior (P<.05) and negatively related to child's anxiety (P<.05). A positive relationship existed between permissive subscale and negative behaviors (P<.05) and child's anxiety (P<.05). There was a significant direct effect of authoritative parenting style on the effortful control trait (P<.05) and permissive parent style on the child negative affectivity (P<.05). Parenting style appeared to mediate child temperament and anxiety, and was related to the child's behavior. Parenting style should be considered in the selection of behavior guidance techniques.

Second generation noninvasive fetal genome analysis reveals de novo mutations, single-base parental inheritance, and preferred DNA ends

PubMed Central

Chan, K. C. Allen; Jiang, Peiyong; Sun, Kun; Cheng, Yvonne K. Y.; Tong, Yu K.; Cheng, Suk Hang; Wong, Ada I. C.; Hudecova, Irena; Leung, Tak Y.; Chiu, Rossa W. K.; Lo, Yuk Ming Dennis

2016-01-01

Plasma DNA obtained from a pregnant woman was sequenced to a depth of 270× haploid genome coverage. Comparing the maternal plasma DNA sequencing data with the parental genomic DNA data and using a series of bioinformatics filters, fetal de novo mutations were detected at a sensitivity of 85% and a positive predictive value of 74%. These results represent a 169-fold improvement in the positive predictive value over previous attempts. Improvements in the interpretation of the sequence information of every base position in the genome allowed us to interrogate the maternal inheritance of the fetus for 618,271 of 656,676 (94.2%) heterozygous SNPs within the maternal genome. The fetal genotype at each of these sites was deduced individually, unlike previously, where the inheritance was determined for a collection of sites within a haplotype. These results represent a 90-fold enhancement in the resolution in determining the fetus’s maternal inheritance. Selected genomic locations were more likely to be found at the ends of plasma DNA molecules. We found that a subset of such preferred ends exhibited selectivity for fetal- or maternal-derived DNA in maternal plasma. The ratio of the number of maternal plasma DNA molecules with fetal preferred ends to those with maternal preferred ends showed a correlation with the fetal DNA fraction. Finally, this second generation approach for noninvasive fetal whole-genome analysis was validated in a pregnancy diagnosed with cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome with maternal plasma DNA sequenced to 195× coverage. The causative de novo BRAF mutation was successfully detected through the maternal plasma DNA analysis. PMID:27799561

Residential Arrangements and Children's School Engagement: The Role of the Parent-Child Relationship and Selection Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Havermans, Nele; Sodermans, An Katrien; Matthijs, Koen

2017-01-01

The increase in shared residential arrangements is driven by the belief that it is in the best interest of the child. The maintenance of contact between child and parents can mitigate negative consequences of separation. However, selection mechanisms may account for a positive relationship between shared residential arrangements and child…

Most recent common ancestor probability distributions in gene genealogies under selection.

PubMed

Slade, P F

2000-12-01

A computational study is made of the conditional probability distribution for the allelic type of the most recent common ancestor in genealogies of samples of n genes drawn from a population under selection, given the initial sample configuration. Comparisons with the corresponding unconditional cases are presented. Such unconditional distributions differ from samples drawn from the unique stationary distribution of population allelic frequencies, known as Wright's formula, and are quantified. Biallelic haploid and diploid models are considered. A simplified structure for the ancestral selection graph of S. M. Krone and C. Neuhauser (1997, Theor. Popul. Biol. 51, 210-237) is enhanced further, reducing the effective branching rate in the graph. This improves efficiency of such a nonneutral analogue of the coalescent for use with computational likelihood-inference techniques.

Parenting Roles and the College Decision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strop, Jean

2011-01-01

Both parents and students bring their own styles into the college selection process. Counselors who are aware of the characteristics of these styles can best help students when selecting appropriate schools. This article discusses parental approaches to choosing a college. To assure good decisions, educators need to take a more active, systematic…

The influence of parent's body mass index on peer selection: an experimental approach using virtual reality.

PubMed

Martarelli, Corinna S; Borter, Natalie; Bryjova, Jana; Mast, Fred W; Munsch, Simone

2015-11-30

Relatively little is known about the influence of psychosocial factors, such as familial role modeling and social network on the development and maintenance of childhood obesity. We investigated peer selection using an immersive virtual reality environment. In a virtual schoolyard, children were confronted with normal weight and overweight avatars either eating or playing. Fifty-seven children aged 7-13 participated. Interpersonal distance to the avatars, child's BMI, self-perception, eating behavior and parental BMI were assessed. Parental BMI was the strongest predictor for the children's minimal distance to the avatars. Specifically, a higher mothers' BMI was associated with greater interpersonal distance and children approached closer to overweight eating avatars. A higher father's BMI was associated with a lower interpersonal distance to the avatars. These children approached normal weight playing and overweight eating avatar peers closest. The importance of parental BMI for the child's social approach/avoidance behavior can be explained through social modeling mechanisms. Differential effects of paternal and maternal BMI might be due to gender specific beauty ideals. Interventions to promote social interaction with peer groups could foster weight stabilization or weight loss in children. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Production of Androgenetic Zebrafish (Danio Rerio)

PubMed Central

Corley-Smith, G. E.; Lim, C. J.; Brandhorst, B. P.

1996-01-01

To help investigate the evolutionary origin of the imprinting (parent-of-origin mono-allelic expression) of paternal genes observed in mammals, we constructed haploid and diploid androgenetic zebrafish (Danio rerio). Haploid androgenotes were produced by fertilizing eggs that had been X-ray irradiated to eliminate the maternal genome. Subsequent inhibition of the first mitotic division of haploid androgenotes by heat shock produced diploid androgenotes. The lack of inheritance of maternal-specific DNA markers (RAPD and SSR) by putative diploid and haploid androgenotes confirmed the androgenetic origin of their genomes. Marker analysis was performed on 18 putative androgenotes (five diploids and 13 haploids) from six families. None of 157 maternal-specific RAPD markers analyzed, some of which were apparently homozygous, were passed on to any of these putative androgenotes. A mean of 7.7 maternal-specific markers were assessed per family. The survival of androgenetic zebrafish suggests that if paternal imprinting occurs in zebrafish, it does not result in essential genes being inactivated when their expression is required for development. Production of haploid androgenotes can be used to determine the meiotic recombination rate in male zebrafish. Androgenesis may also provide useful information about the mechanism of sex determination in zebrafish. PMID:8846903

Self-Report Measures of Parent-Adolescent Attachment and Separation-Individuation: A Selective Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez, Frederick G.; Gover, Mark R.

1993-01-01

Reviews and critiques three self-report measures of parent-adolescent attachment (Parental Bonding Instrument, Parental Attachment Questionnaire, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment) and three self-report measures of parent-adolescent separation-individuation (Psychological Separation Inventory, Personal Authority in the Family System…

Joint attention in parent-child dyads involving children with selective mutism: a comparison between anxious and typically developing children.

PubMed

Nowakowski, Matilda E; Tasker, Susan L; Cunningham, Charles E; McHolm, Angela E; Edison, Shannon; Pierre, Jeff St; Boyle, Michael H; Schmidt, Louis A

2011-02-01

Although joint attention processes are known to play an important role in adaptive social behavior in typical development, we know little about these processes in clinical child populations. We compared early school age children with selective mutism (SM; n = 19) versus mixed anxiety (MA; n = 18) and community controls (CC; n = 26) on joint attention measures coded from direct observations with their parent during an unstructured free play task and two structured tasks. As predicted, the SM dyads established significantly fewer episodes of joint attention through parental initiation acts than the MA and CC dyads during the structured tasks. Findings suggest that children with SM may withdraw from their parents during stressful situations, thus missing out on opportunities for learning other coping skills. We discuss the implications of the present findings for understanding the maintenance and treatment of SM.

Radio morphology and parent population of X-ray selected BL Lacertae objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laurent-Muehleisen, S. A.; Kollgaard, R. I.; Moellenbrock, G. A.; Feigelson, E. D.

1993-01-01

High-dynamic range (typically 1700:1) radio maps of 15 X-ray BL Lac (XBL) objects from the HEAO-1 Large Area Sky Survey are presented. Morphological characteristics of these sources are compared with Fanaroff-Riley (FR) class I radio galaxies in the context of unified schemes, with reference to one-sided kiloparsec-scale emission. Evidence that cluster membership of XBLs is significantly higher than previously thought is also presented. It is shown that the extended radio powers, X-ray emission, core-to-lobe ratios, and linear sizes of the radio selected BL Lac (RBL) and XBL populations are consistent with an FR I radio galaxy parent population. A source list and VLA observing log and map parameters are provided.

The Hybridization Barrier between Herbaceous Medicago sativa and Woody M. arborea Is Weakened by Selection of Seed Parents

PubMed Central

Bingham, Edwin; Armour, David; Irwin, John

2013-01-01

Medicago sativa, alfalfa or lucerne, and M. arborea were considered reproductively isolated until recently. Then, in 2003, an alfalfa genotype was identified that produced a few seeds and progeny with hybrid traits after a large number of pollinations by M. arborea. A derivative of this alfalfa genotype also produced a low frequency of progeny with hybrid traits. Thus, the hybridization barrier was weakened by selection of seed parents. Hybrids from both events expressed traits from M. arborea and M. arborea-specific DNA bands, although more of the M. sativa genome was retained, based on the DNA results. Thus, there was chromatin elimination during embryogenesis, resulting in partial hybrids (hereafter hybrids). However, more than 30 hybrids with an array of M. arborea traits have been obtained thus far, and research continues on the nature of the hybrids. Traits have been genetically transmitted in crosses, and selected traits are in use for alfalfa breeding. This paper reviews the first hybrids and then focuses on further weakening of the hybridization barrier with the discovery of a more efficient hybridizer derived from crossing Medicago sativa subspecies, sativa, coerulea and falcata. This genotype was found to have reproductive abnormalities associated with its complex subspecies origin that are best described as hybrid breakdown. In effect, this subspecies derivative is a bridge-cross parent that consistently produces hybrids. Reproductive abnormalities in the bridge-cross parent are reported and discussed. PMID:27137379

A Study of the Relationship between Parenting Stress and Spirituality among Mothers of Elementary Children in Selected Korean Churches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Seong Ji

2012-01-01

Problem: The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between parenting stress and six specified predictor variables of spirituality among mothers of elementary children attending selected Korean Baptist churches located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. The specified predictor variables of spirituality were awareness, instability,…

Child's Weight Status and Parent's Response to a School-Based Body Mass Index Screening and Parent Notification Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jiwoo; Kubik, Martha Y.

2015-01-01

This study examined the response of parents of elementary school-aged children to a school-based body mass index (BMI) screening and parent notification program conducted in one Minnesota school district in 2010-2011 and whether parent's response was moderated by child's weight status. Randomly selected parents (N = 122) of second- and…

Effect of Expanding Medicaid for Parents on Children’s Health Insurance Coverage

PubMed Central

DeVoe, Jennifer E.; Marino, Miguel; Angier, Heather; O’Malley, Jean P.; Crawford, Courtney; Nelson, Christine; Tillotson, Carrie J.; Bailey, Steffani R.; Gallia, Charles; Gold, Rachel

2016-01-01

IMPORTANCE In the United States, health insurance is not universal. Observational studies show an association between uninsured parents and children. This association persisted even after expansions in child-only public health insurance. Oregon’s randomized Medicaid expansion for adults, known as the Oregon Experiment, created a rare opportunity to assess causality between parent and child coverage. OBJECTIVE To estimate the effect on a child’s health insurance coverage status when (1) a parent randomly gains access to health insurance and (2) a parent obtains coverage. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Oregon Experiment randomized natural experiment assessing the results of Oregon’s 2008 Medicaid expansion. We used generalized estimating equation models to examine the longitudinal effect of a parent randomly selected to apply for Medicaid on their child’s Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage (intent-to-treat analyses). We used per-protocol analyses to understand the impact on children’s coverage when a parent was randomly selected to apply for and obtained Medicaid. Participants included 14 409 children aged 2 to 18 years whose parents participated in the Oregon Experiment. EXPOSURES For intent-to-treat analyses, the date a parent was selected to apply for Medicaid was considered the date the child was exposed to the intervention. In per-protocol analyses, exposure was defined as whether a selected parent obtained Medicaid. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Children’s Medicaid or CHIP coverage, assessed monthly and in 6-month intervals relative to their parent’s selection date. RESULTS In the immediate period after selection, children whose parents were selected to apply significantly increased from 3830 (61.4%) to 4152 (66.6%) compared with a nonsignificant change from 5049 (61.8%) to 5044 (61.7%) for children whose parents were not selected to apply. Children whose parents were randomly selected to apply for Medicaid had 18

Choosing Adolescent Smokers as Friends: The Role of Parenting and Parental Smoking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mercken, L.; Sleddens, E. F. C.; de Vries, H.; Steglich, C. E. G.

2013-01-01

The present study examined whether parenting and parental smoking can prevent children from selecting smoking friends during adolescence. 254 Adolescents of one Belgian secondary school participated. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed among 2nd-4th graders (mean ages = 14.2-16.2 years) during spring 2006. Follow-up was conducted 12…

Cytological evidence for chromosome elimination in wheat x Imperata cylindrica hybrids.

PubMed

Komeda, Norio; Chaudhary, Harinder K; Suzuki, Go; Mukai, Yasuhiko

2007-06-01

Haploid induction of wheat by crossing with Imperata cylindrica pollen is an efficient method for doubled haploid breeding. We investigated the process of wheat haploid formation after crossing with I. cylindrica. Our cytological observations of zygotes showed the successful fertilization of parental gametes. Wheat haploids were formed by complete elimination of I. cylindrica chromosomes. Missegregation of I. cylindrica chromosomes was observed in the first cell division of zygote. At metaphase I. cylindrica chromosomes did not congress onto the equatorial plate. The sister chromosomes did not move toward the poles during anaphase, though their cohesion was released normally. I. cylindrica chromosomes were still in the cytoplasm at telophase and eliminated from daughter nuclei. After two-celled stage, we could find no I. cylindrica chromosome in the nuclei but micronuclei containing I. cylindrica chromatin in the cytoplasm. These observations indicate that I. cylindrica chromosomes are completely eliminated from nuclei in the first cell division probably due to lack of functional kinetochores.

Parent-child relationship disorders. Part I. Parental overprotection and the development of the Parent Protection Scale.

PubMed

Thomasgard, M; Metz, W P; Edelbrock, C; Shonkoff, J P

1995-08-01

There is a spectrum of parental protective behaviors promoting child safety and security, ranging from neglect to overprotection. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of a new measure of parental protective behaviors toward children age 2 to 10 years, the Parent Protection Scale (PPS). Items were selected to represent key dimensions of protective behaviors. Factor analyses suggested four subscales: Supervision, Separation Problems, Dependence, and Control. The PPS has acceptable internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and clinical validity. Norms by child age in the form of cutoff points corresponding to +1 SD were determined. Clinical and research uses for the PPS are noted.

The evolution of parental care in the context of sexual selection: a critical reassessment of parental investment theory.

PubMed

Wade, Michael J; Shuster, Stephen M

2002-09-01

Males and females are often defined by differences in their energetic investment in gametes. In most sexual species, females produce few large ova, whereas males produce many tiny sperm. This difference in initial parental investment is presumed to exert a fundamental influence on sex differences in mating and parental behavior, resulting in a taxonomic bias toward parental care in females and away from parental care in males. In this article, we reexamine the logic of this argument as well as the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) theory often used to substantiate it. We show that the classic ESS model, which contrasts parental care with offspring desertion, violates the necessary relationship between mean male and female fitness. When the constraint of equal male and female mean fitness is correctly incorporated into the ESS model, its results are congruent with those of evolutionary genetic theory for the evolution of genes with direct and indirect effects. Male parental care evolves whenever half the magnitude of the indirect effect of paternal care on offspring viability exceeds the direct effect of additional mating success gained by desertion. When the converse is true, desertion invades and spreads. In the absence of a genetic correlation between the sexes, the evolution of paternal care is independent of maternal care. Theories based on sex differences in gametic investment make no such specific predictions. We discuss whether inferences about the evolution of sex differences in parental care can hold if the ESS theory on which they are based contains internal contradictions.

Parental School Choices in Market-Oriented School Systems: Why Middle Class Asian Immigrants Self-Select into Specialized Academic Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Padilla, Hoang-Thuy

2012-01-01

This study addresses racial segregation in schools by examining the self-selecting patterns of middle class Asian immigrant parents in a public non-charter school district who enrolled their children in specialized academic programs. This phenomenological study focused on the educational history and the decision-making process of school choice in…

Selection for sex in finite populations.

PubMed

Roze, D

2014-07-01

Finite population size generates interference between selected loci, which has been shown to favour increased rates of recombination. In this article, I present different analytical models exploring selection acting on a 'sex modifier locus' (that affects the relative investment into asexual and sexual reproduction) in a finite population. Two forms of selective forces act on the modifier: direct selection due to intrinsic costs associated with sexual reproduction and indirect selection generated by one or two other loci affecting fitness. The results show that indirect selective forces differ from those acting on a recombination modifier even in the case of a haploid population: in particular, a single selected locus generates indirect selection for sex, while two loci are required in the case of a recombination modifier. This effect stems from the fact that modifier alleles increasing sex escape more easily from low-fitness genetic backgrounds than alleles coding for lower rates of sex. Extrapolating the results from three-locus models to a large number of loci at mutation-selection balance indicates that in the parameter range where indirect selection is strong enough to outweigh a substantial cost of sex, interactions between selected loci have a stronger effect than the sum of individual effects of each selected locus. Comparisons with multilocus simulation results show that such extrapolations may provide correct predictions for the evolutionarily stable rate of sex, unless the cost of sex is high. © 2014 The Author. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2014 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Potent L-lactic acid assimilation of the fermentative and heterothallic haploid yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae NAM34-4C.

PubMed

Tomitaka, Masataka; Taguchi, Hisataka; Matsuoka, Masayoshi; Morimura, Shigeru; Kida, Kenji; Akamatsu, Takashi

2014-01-01

We screened an industrial thermotolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, KF7, as a potent lactic-acid-assimilating yeast. Heterothallic haploid strains KF7-5C and KF7-4B were obtained from the tetrads of the homothallic yeast strain KF7. The inefficient sporulation and poor spore viability of the haploid strains were improved by two strategies. The first strategy was as follows: (i) the KF7-5C was crossed with the laboratory strain SH6710; (ii) the progenies were backcrossed with KF7-5C three times; and (iii) the progenies were inbred three times to maintain a genetic background close to that of KF7. The NAM12 diploid between the cross of the resultant two strains, NAM11-9C and NAM11-13A, showed efficient sporulation and exhibited excellent growth in YPD medium (pH 3.5) at 35°C with 1.4-h generation time, indicating thermotolerance and acid tolerance. The second strategy was successive intrastrain crosses. The resultant two strains, KFG4-6B and KFG4-4B, showed excellent mating capacity. A spontaneous mutant of KFG4-6B, KFG4-6BD, showed a high growth rate with a generation time of 1.1 h in YPD medium (pH 3.0) at 35°C. The KFG4-6BD strain produced ascospores, which were crossed with NAM11-2C and its progeny to produce tetrads. These tetrads were crossed with KFG4-4B to produce NAM26-14A and NAM26-15A. The latter strain had a generation time of 1.6 h at 35°C in pH 2.5, thus exhibiting further thermotolerance and acid tolerance. A progeny from a cross of NAM26-14A and NAM26-15A yielded the strain NAM34-4C, which showed potent lactic acid assimilation and high transformation efficiency, better than those of a standard laboratory strain. Copyright © 2013 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Genetic structure and genealogy in the Sphagnum subsecundum complex (Sphagnaceae: Bryophyta).

PubMed

Shaw, A J; Pokorny, L; Shaw, B; Ricca, M; Boles, S; Szövényi, P

2008-10-01

Allopolyploidy is probably the most extensively studied mode of plant speciation and allopolyploid species appear to be common in the mosses (Bryophyta). The Sphagnum subsecundum complex includes species known to be gametophytically haploid or diploid, and it has been proposed that the diploids (i.e., with tetraploid sporophytes) are allopolyploids. Nucleotide sequence and microsatellite variation among haploids and diploids from Newfoundland and Scandinavia indicate that (1) the diploids exhibit fixed or nearly fixed heterozygosity at the majority of loci sampled, and are clearly allopolyploids, (2) diploids originated independently in North America and Europe, (3) the European diploids appear to have the haploid species, S. subsecundum, as the maternal parent based on shared chloroplast DNA haplotypes, (4) the North American diploids do not have the chloroplast DNA of any sampled haploid, (5) both North American and European diploids share nucleotide and microsatellite similarities with S. subsecundum, (6) the diploids harbor more nucleotide and microsatellite diversity than the haploids, and (7) diploids exhibit higher levels of linkage disequilibrium among microsatellite loci. An experiment demonstrates significant artifactual recombination between interspecific DNAs coamplified by PCR, which may be a complicating factor in the interpretation of sequence-based analyses of allopolyploids.

Quantitative Trait Loci Mapping of Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Host Plant Resistance in Two Populations of Doubled Haploid Lines in Maize (Zea mays L.).

PubMed

Bohn, Martin O; Marroquin, Juan J; Flint-Garcia, Sherry; Dashiell, Kenton; Willmot, David B; Hibbard, Bruce E

2018-02-09

Over the last 70 yr, more than 12,000 maize accessions have been screened for their level of resistance to western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (LeConte; Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), larval feeding. Less than 1% of this germplasm was selected for initiating recurrent selection or other breeding programs. Selected genotypes were mostly characterized by large root systems and superior root regrowth after root damage caused by western corn rootworm larvae. However, no hybrids claiming native (i.e., host plant) resistance to western corn rootworm larval feeding are currently commercially available. We investigated the genetic basis of western corn rootworm resistance in maize materials with improved levels of resistance using linkage disequilibrium mapping approaches. Two populations of topcrossed doubled haploid maize lines (DHLs) derived from crosses between resistant and susceptible maize lines were evaluated for their level of resistance in three to four different environments. For each DHL topcross an average root damage score was estimated and used for quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis. We found genomic regions contributing to western corn rootworm resistance on all maize chromosomes, except for chromosome 4. Models fitting all QTL simultaneously explained about 30 to 50% of the genotypic variance for root damage scores in both mapping populations. Our findings confirm the complex genetic structure of host plant resistance against western corn rootworm larval feeding in maize. Interestingly, three of these QTL regions also carry genes involved in ascorbate biosynthesis, a key compound we hypothesize is involved in the expression of western corn rootworm resistance. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Schools, Parents, and Textbooks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, T. H.

Publishers, authors, and the schools must be more respectful of parents' values in the preparation and selection of children's books. The use of obscene words, violence, explicit sex, and seeming approval of controversial positions in texts causes many problems. Although the approval of all parents obviously cannot be won, the children's book…

A Comparative Study of Identity Styles, Quality of Life and Behavioral Problems between Single Parent and Two Parent Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abedini, Zoleykha; Mirnasab, Mirmahmoud; Fathi Azar, Eskander

2017-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate identity styles, quality of life and behavioral difficulties between adolescents with single and two-parent status. In this causal- comparative study, a total of 214 high school students were selected, then 112 single parent students (59 females and 53 males) were selected by the voluntary response sampling…

Videotaped assessment of parenting practices: a preliminary report.

PubMed

Frankel, F

1998-04-01

Assessment of parenting skills was based upon a standardized videotape of vignettes of parents reading a magazine while their children were playing, playing with their children, or trying to get them to clean up. Parents who viewed this videotape came from 40, 2-parent families referred to an outpatient clinic for behavior problems (Behavior Problem group) or 20 nonreferred 2-parent families (Nonclinic group). They were compared on the degree to which they selected: (1) positive responses to children's prosocial behavior (praise), (2) ignoring children's inappropriate behavior (ignore), and (3) punishing children's aversive behavior (punish). The Nonclinic group was more accurate than the Behavior Problem Group and mothers were more accurate than fathers in their selection of praise to children's prosocial behavior. Nonclinic mothers were more accurate than all other combinations of Group and Parent Sex in their selection of ignore for children's inappropriate behavior. Sensitivity calculations suggested that this instrument could potentially be useful as a screening tool in clinical pediatric practice and early intervention. Implications for nursing research and practice were discussed.

The Changing Nature of Parent-Teacher Communication: Mode Selection in the Smartphone Era

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Blair Christopher; Mazer, Joseph P.; Flood Grady, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Parent-teacher communication continues to evolve due to smartphones and other new communication technologies. In all, 1,349 parents completed the Parental Academic Support Scale to assess the frequency and importance of communication across modes. Confirmatory analysis revealed a good model fit. Media richness theory was applied to parents'…

Economic Uncertainty, Parental Selection and the Criminal Activity of the "Children of the Wall." CEP Discussion Paper No. 1256

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chevalier, Arnaud; Marie, Olivier

2014-01-01

We study the link between parental selection and children criminality in a new context. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. We exploit this natural experiment to estimate that the children from these (smaller) cohorts are 40 percent more likely to…

Sexual selection and the opportunity cost of free mate choice.

PubMed

Apostolou, Menelaos

2016-06-01

The model of sexual selection under parental choice has been proposed to account for the control that parents exercise over their children's mating decisions. The present paper attempts to formalize and advance this model with the purpose of providing a better understanding of how parental choice mandates the course of sexual selection. In particular, in the proposed formulation, free mate choice involves an opportunity cost which motivates parents to place their children's mate choices under their control. When they succeed in doing so, they become a significant sexual selection force, as traits that appeal to parents in an in-law are selected and increase in frequency in the population. The degree of parental control over mating, and thus the strength of sexual selection under parental choice, is positively predicted by the size of the opportunity cost of free mate choice. The primary factors that affect the level of opportunity cost vary between society types, affecting the strength of parental choice as a sexual selection force.

Approaches to Building Teacher-Parent Cooperation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cankar, Franc; Deutsch, Tomi; Sentocnik, Sonja

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the areas of cooperation in which parent and teacher expectations were the same and where they differed. Data were obtained from a sample of 55 randomly selected primary schools. We analyzed school-to home communications, parental influence on school decisions, and parent involvement in different school…

A Children of Twins Study of parental divorce and offspring psychopathology

PubMed Central

D'Onofrio, Brian M.; Turkheimer, Eric; Emery, Robert E.; Maes, Hermine H.; Silberg, Judy; Eaves, Lindon J.

2010-01-01

Background Although parental divorce is associated with increased substance use and internalizing problems, experiencing the separation of one's parents may not cause these outcomes. The relations may be due to genetic or environmental selection factors, characteristics that lead to both marital separation and offspring functioning. Method We used the Children of Twins (CoT) Design to explore whether unmeasured genetic or environmental factors related to the twin parent, and measured characteristics of both parents, account for the association between parental divorce and offspring substance use and internalizing problems. Results The association between parental divorce and offspring substance use problems remained robust when controlling for genetic and environmental risk from the twin parent associated with parental divorce, and measured characteristics of both parents. The results do not prove, but are consistent with, a causal connection. In contrast, the analyses suggest that shared genetic liability in parents and their offspring accounts for the increased risk of internalizing problems in adult offspring from divorced families. Conclusions The study illustrates that unmeasured genetic and environmental selection factors must be considered when studying parental divorce. In explaining associations between parental divorce and young-adult adjustment, our evidence suggests that selection versus causal mechanisms may operate differently for substance abuse (a causal relation) and internalizing problems (an artifact of selection). The CoT design only controls for the genetic and environmental characteristics of one parent; thus, additional genetically informed analyses are needed. PMID:17593147

A Children of Twins Study of parental divorce and offspring psychopathology.

PubMed

D'Onofrio, Brian M; Turkheimer, Eric; Emery, Robert E; Maes, Hermine H; Silberg, Judy; Eaves, Lindon J

2007-07-01

Although parental divorce is associated with increased substance use and internalizing problems, experiencing the separation of one's parents may not cause these outcomes. The relations may be due to genetic or environmental selection factors, characteristics that lead to both marital separation and offspring functioning. We used the Children of Twins (CoT) Design to explore whether unmeasured genetic or environmental factors related to the twin parent, and measured characteristics of both parents, account for the association between parental divorce and offspring substance use and internalizing problems. The association between parental divorce and offspring substance use problems remained robust when controlling for genetic and environmental risk from the twin parent associated with parental divorce, and measured characteristics of both parents. The results do not prove, but are consistent with, a causal connection. In contrast, the analyses suggest that shared genetic liability in parents and their offspring accounts for the increased risk of internalizing problems in adult offspring from divorced families. The study illustrates that unmeasured genetic and environmental selection factors must be considered when studying parental divorce. In explaining associations between parental divorce and young-adult adjustment, our evidence suggests that selection versus causal mechanisms may operate differently for substance abuse (a causal relation) and internalizing problems (an artifact of selection). The CoT design only controls for the genetic and environmental characteristics of one parent; thus, additional genetically informed analyses are needed.

Exact Markov chain and approximate diffusion solution for haploid genetic drift with one-way mutation.

PubMed

Hössjer, Ola; Tyvand, Peder A; Miloh, Touvia

2016-02-01

The classical Kimura solution of the diffusion equation is investigated for a haploid random mating (Wright-Fisher) model, with one-way mutations and initial-value specified by the founder population. The validity of the transient diffusion solution is checked by exact Markov chain computations, using a Jordan decomposition of the transition matrix. The conclusion is that the one-way diffusion model mostly works well, although the rate of convergence depends on the initial allele frequency and the mutation rate. The diffusion approximation is poor for mutation rates so low that the non-fixation boundary is regular. When this happens we perturb the diffusion solution around the non-fixation boundary and obtain a more accurate approximation that takes quasi-fixation of the mutant allele into account. The main application is to quantify how fast a specific genetic variant of the infinite alleles model is lost. We also discuss extensions of the quasi-fixation approach to other models with small mutation rates. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Human DAZL, DAZ and BOULE genes modulate primordial germ cell and haploid gamete formation

PubMed Central

Kee, Kehkooi; Angeles, Vanessa T; Flores, Martha; Nguyen, Ha Nam; Pera, Renee A Reijo

2009-01-01

The leading cause of infertility in men and women is quantitative and qualitative defects in human germ cell (oocyte and sperm) development. Yet, it has not been possible to examine the unique developmental genetics of human germ cell formation and differentiation due to inaccessibility of germ cells during fetal development. Although several studies have shown that germ cells can be differentiated from mouse and human embryonic stem cells, human germ cells differentiated in these studies generally did not develop beyond the earliest stages1-8. Here we used a germ cell reporter to quantitate and isolate primordial germ cells derived from both male and female hESCs. Then, by silencing and overexpressing genes that encode germ cell-specific cytoplasmic RNA-binding proteins (not transcription factors), we modulated human germ cell formation and developmental progression. We observed that human DAZL (Deleted in AZoospermia-Like) functions in primordial germ cell formation, whereas closely-related genes, DAZ and BOULE, promote later stages of meiosis and development of haploid gametes. These results are significant to the generation of gametes for future basic science and potential clinical applications. PMID:19865085

Dissection of expression-quantitative trait locus and allele specificity using a haploid/diploid plant system - insights into compensatory evolution of transcriptional regulation within populations.

PubMed

Verta, Jukka-Pekka; Landry, Christian R; MacKay, John

2016-07-01

Regulation of gene expression plays a central role in translating genotypic variation into phenotypic variation. Dissection of the genetic basis of expression variation is key to understanding how expression regulation evolves. Such analyses remain challenging in contexts where organisms are outbreeding, highly heterozygous and long-lived such as in the case of conifer trees. We developed an RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based approach for both expression-quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping and the detection of cis-acting (allele-specific) vs trans-acting (non-allele-specific) eQTLs. This method can be potentially applied to many conifers. We used haploid and diploid meiotic seed tissues of a single self-fertilized white spruce (Picea glauca) individual to dissect eQTLs according to linkage and allele specificity. The genetic architecture of local eQTLs linked to the expressed genes was particularly complex, consisting of cis-acting, trans-acting and, surprisingly, compensatory cis-trans effects. These compensatory effects influence expression in opposite directions and are neutral when combined in homozygotes. Nearly half of local eQTLs were under compensation, indicating that close linkage between compensatory cis-trans factors is common in spruce. Compensated genes were overrepresented in developmental and cell organization functions. Our haploid-diploid eQTL analysis in spruce revealed that compensatory cis-trans eQTLs segregate within populations and evolve in close genetic linkage. © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust.

Co-Parenting Quality, Parenting Stress, and Feeding Challenges in Families with a Child Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thullen, Matthew; Bonsall, Aaron

2017-01-01

113 parents of children aged 5-13 with ASD completed online surveys assessing co-parenting quality, parenting stress, and child feeding challenges. Results indicated that food selectivity was both the most frequently reported type of challenging feeding behavior and the most often reported as problematic but was also the only type of challenging…

Interploidal hybridization and mating patterns in the Sphagnum subsecundum complex.

PubMed

Ricca, M; Szövényi, P; Temsch, E M; Johnson, M G; Shaw, A J

2011-08-01

Polyploidization is thought to result in instant sympatric speciation, but several cases of hybrid zones between one of the parental species and its polyploid derivative have been documented. Previous work showed that diploid Sphagnum lescurii is an allopolyploid derived from the haploids S. lescurii (maternal progenitor) and S. subsecundum (paternal progenitor). Here, we report the results from analyses of a population where allodiploid and haploid S. lescurii co-occur and produce sporophytes. We tested (i) whether haploids and diploids form hybrid triploid sporophytes; (ii) how hybrid and nonhybrid sporophytes compare in fitness; (iii) whether hybrid sporophytes form viable spores; (iv) the ploidy of any viable gametophyte offspring from hybrid sporophytes; (v) the relative viability of sporelings derived from hybrid and nonhybrid sporophytes; and (vi) if interploidal hybridization results in introgression between the allopolyploid and its haploid progenitor. We found that triploid hybrid sporophytes do occur and are larger than nonhybrid sporophytes, but exhibit very low germination percentages and produce sporelings that develop more slowly than those from nonhybrid sporophytes. All sporophytes attached to haploid gametophytes were triploid and were sired by diploid males, but all sporophytes attached to diploid gametophytes were tetraploid. This asymmetric pattern of interploidal hybridization is related to an absence of haploid male gametophytes in the population. Surprisingly, all sporelings from triploid sporophytes were triploid, yet were genetically variable, suggesting some form of aberrant meiosis that warrants further study. There was limited (but some) evidence of introgression between allodiploid and haploid S. lescurii. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Fixation probability in a two-locus intersexual selection model.

PubMed

Durand, Guillermo; Lessard, Sabin

2016-06-01

We study a two-locus model of intersexual selection in a finite haploid population reproducing according to a discrete-time Moran model with a trait locus expressed in males and a preference locus expressed in females. We show that the probability of ultimate fixation of a single mutant allele for a male ornament introduced at random at the trait locus given any initial frequency state at the preference locus is increased by weak intersexual selection and recombination, weak or strong. Moreover, this probability exceeds the initial frequency of the mutant allele even in the case of a costly male ornament if intersexual selection is not too weak. On the other hand, the probability of ultimate fixation of a single mutant allele for a female preference towards a male ornament introduced at random at the preference locus is increased by weak intersexual selection and weak recombination if the female preference is not costly, and is strong enough in the case of a costly male ornament. The analysis relies on an extension of the ancestral recombination-selection graph for samples of haplotypes to take into account events of intersexual selection, while the symbolic calculation of the fixation probabilities is made possible in a reasonable time by an optimizing algorithm. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parents' preferred child health information sources: implications for nursing practice.

PubMed

Keatinge, Diane

2006-01-01

To ascertain parents' preferences in sources of health information concerning their children's general health care needs, and caring for their children when they are sick. Exploratory/descriptive design. A telephone survey secured data for the study and qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Part 2 of a larger study in which Part I evaluated parents' satisfaction with a paediatric telephone triage service. One hundred of the 101 parents who were recruited for Part 1 of the study participated in Part 2, an examination of parents' preferences in information sources relating to their child's health. Parents' preferences in child health information sources varied according to the perceived severity of their child's illness. Parents frequently selected more than one item on a list of health information sources provided. In a non-urgent situation when children were sick a total of 170 selections were made by parents, with 'telephone advice line' the source most frequently selected (58, 34%), followed by general practitioner (27, 15.8%). In an emergency situation the most frequently selected information source was again 'telephone advice line' (74, n=129, 57.4%), followed by 'other' (31, n=129, 24.3%) often identified as relating to dialing '000' (Australia's emergency services number). Finally, when parents required information about the general health care needs of their child, 'other' (most frequently identified as books) was selected on 40 (n=185, 21.6%) occasions, followed by child health clinic (35, n= 185, 18.9%). Parents prefer to receive information about the health care needs of their child from another person rather than a printed or audio-visual source.

Does Parental Employment Affect Children's Educational Attainment?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schildberg-Hoerisch, Hannah

2011-01-01

This paper analyzes whether there exists a causal relationship between parental employment and children's educational attainment. We address potential endogeneity problems due to (i) selection of parents in the labor market by estimating a model on sibling differences and (ii) reverse causality by focusing on parents' employment when children are…

Effect of expanding medicaid for parents on children's health insurance coverage: lessons from the Oregon experiment.

PubMed

DeVoe, Jennifer E; Marino, Miguel; Angier, Heather; O'Malley, Jean P; Crawford, Courtney; Nelson, Christine; Tillotson, Carrie J; Bailey, Steffani R; Gallia, Charles; Gold, Rachel

2015-01-01

In the United States, health insurance is not universal. Observational studies show an association between uninsured parents and children. This association persisted even after expansions in child-only public health insurance. Oregon's randomized Medicaid expansion for adults, known as the Oregon Experiment, created a rare opportunity to assess causality between parent and child coverage. To estimate the effect on a child's health insurance coverage status when (1) a parent randomly gains access to health insurance and (2) a parent obtains coverage. Oregon Experiment randomized natural experiment assessing the results of Oregon's 2008 Medicaid expansion. We used generalized estimating equation models to examine the longitudinal effect of a parent randomly selected to apply for Medicaid on their child's Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage (intent-to-treat analyses). We used per-protocol analyses to understand the impact on children's coverage when a parent was randomly selected to apply for and obtained Medicaid. Participants included 14409 children aged 2 to 18 years whose parents participated in the Oregon Experiment. For intent-to-treat analyses, the date a parent was selected to apply for Medicaid was considered the date the child was exposed to the intervention. In per-protocol analyses, exposure was defined as whether a selected parent obtained Medicaid. Children's Medicaid or CHIP coverage, assessed monthly and in 6-month intervals relative to their parent's selection date. In the immediate period after selection, children whose parents were selected to apply significantly increased from 3830 (61.4%) to 4152 (66.6%) compared with a nonsignificant change from 5049 (61.8%) to 5044 (61.7%) for children whose parents were not selected to apply. Children whose parents were randomly selected to apply for Medicaid had 18% higher odds of being covered in the first 6 months after parent's selection compared with children whose parents were

Parent to Parent: Insider's Guide for High School Parents = De Padre a Padre: Guia para Padres con Alumnos en la Escuela Superior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Parents Association of New York City, Inc., NY.

This Spanish/English guide was written by parents for high school parents. The guide's first section deals with how to select the right high school. This is followed by a lengthy section on the high school years, which covers the following topics: how to keep up with what the student is doing; how to connect with the school; requirements for…

Artificial induction of mito-gynogenetic diploids in large yellow croaker ( Pseudosciaena crocea) by hydrostatic pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Mingyi; Wu, Qingming; Liu, Xiande; Yao, Cuiluan; Chen, Qingkai; Wang, Zhiyong

2010-07-01

The present study investigated conditions for inducing mito-gynogenetic (endomitosis) diploids by hydrostatic pressure in the large yellow croaker Pseudosciaena crocea. In haploid control groups, the development of eggs was activated with ultraviolet radiated semen. All fry presented typical haploid syndrome in the haploid control groups, and were verified as haploids using cytometry. After hydrostatic pressure treatment, morphologically normal fry reappeared at different frequencies according to the intensity and time of pressure shock. Fry with normal appearance in the pressure treated groups were verified as gynogenetic double haploids (GDHs), containing only one allele from the female parent at all four diagnostic microsatellite loci. For a fixed duration of 3 min, the optimal intensity of blocking the first mitosis was determined to be 40 Mpa, which was similar to that of blocking the second meiosis. There was a “window” of starting time, from 36.1 min to 38.1 min post-insemination at 25.0±1.0°C, within which the production of GDHs was not significantly different. Maximum production of morphologically normal fries, 9.36%±2.97% of developed eggs, was found when the eggs were shocked with hydrostatic pressure at 40 Mpa for 3 min, starting from 38.1 min post insemination at 25.0±1.0°C.

Development of next-generation mapping populations: Multi-parent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) and Marker-Assisted Recurrent Selection (MARS) populations in peanut

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) and Marker-Assisted Recurrent Selection (MARS) have been proposed and used in many crops to dissect complex traits or QTL. MAGIC allows for dissecting genomic structure, and for improving breeding populations by integrating multiple alleles from different parents. MAR...

Towards a Concept of Parental Authority in Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuhar, Metka; Reiter, Herwig

2013-01-01

The notion of authority is common in the literature on parent-child relationships. However, the notion of "parental authority" remains largely unspecified. The present article first critically reviews conceptualisations of parental authority in selected developmental-psychological approaches. We find the absence of an explicit and…

Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations Among Temperament, Parental Feeding Styles, and Selective Eating in a Preschool Sample.

PubMed

Kidwell, Katherine M; Kozikowski, Chelsea; Roth, Taylor; Lundahl, Alyssa; Nelson, Timothy D

2018-06-01

To examine the associations among negative/reactive temperament, feeding styles, and selective eating in a sample of preschoolers because preschool eating behaviors likely have lasting implications for children's health. A community sample of preschoolers aged 3-5 years (M = 4.49 years, 49.5% female, 75.7% European American) in the Midwest of the United States was recruited to participate in the study (N = 297). Parents completed measures of temperament and feeding styles at two time points 6 months apart. A series of regressions indicated that children who had temperaments high in negative affectivity were significantly more likely to experience instrumental and emotional feeding styles. They were also significantly more likely to be selective eaters. These associations were present when examined both concurrently and after 6 months. This study provides a novel investigation of child temperament and eating behaviors, allowing for a better understanding of how negative affectivity is associated with instrumental feeding, emotional feeding, and selective eating. These results inform interventions to improve child health.

Associations between general parenting styles and specific food-related parenting practices and children's food consumption.

PubMed

Vereecken, Carine; Legiest, Erwin; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse; Maes, Lea

2009-01-01

Explore the impact of general parenting style and specific food-related parenting practices on children's dietary habits. Cross-sectional study of sixth graders and their parents. Data were gathered (in 2003) in 69 of 100 randomly selected elementary schools in Belgium. All sixth graders (N = 1957) were invited to participate; 82.4% of their parents gave consent and completed questionnaires, resulting in 1614 parent-child pairs. Children's consumption of breakfast, fruit, vegetables, soft drinks, and sweets was assessed by self-administered food frequency questionnaires. Parents completed questionnaires on sociodemographic characteristics, general parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, indulgent, or neglecting) and specific food-related parenting practices (pressure, reward, encouragement through negotiation, catering on children's demands, permissiveness, avoiding negative modeling, and praise). Logistic regression analyses were performed, with general parenting style and specific food-related parenting practices as predictors and dietary habits as dependent variables, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and children's weight status. General parenting style did not show any significant impact on dietary habits. In contrast, the food-related parenting practice "encouragement through negotiation" showed a significant positive impact, whereas "pressure," "catering on demand," and "permissiveness" were practices with an unhealthy impact. Nutrition education programs that guide parents in firm but not coercive food parenting skills are likely to have a positive impact upon children's dietary habits.

Parents in jail.

PubMed

Kemper, K J; Rivara, F P

1993-08-01

To determine the number of children in the United States with parents incarcerated in jail and to describe the characteristics of these parents and their criminal histories. Inmates of local jails accounting for 36.5% of the incarcerated population of the US in 1989. Personal interviews with 5675 inmates randomly selected from 393,553 inmates of 3312 local jails in 1989. 44,263 (36%) inmates had children younger than the age of 15. Fathers outnumbered mothers 10-fold; the majority were in their 20s or 30s, unmarried, and poorly educated. The vast majority of parents had a record of prior offenses, and substance abuse accounted for one third of the incarcerations. Substance abuse was reported by 84% of inmates and 95% had sought prior treatment for alcohol, drug, or other mental health problems. Nearly 1 of 50 children in the US has a parent in jail. Parental imprisonment is not rare, is often chronic, and is strongly associated with other psychosocial and health problems in the family. Screening for parental imprisonment potentially should be included as part of a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment.

Parent and provider perspectives on immunization: are providers overestimating parental concerns?

PubMed

Healy, C Mary; Montesinos, Diana P; Middleman, Amy B

2014-01-23

Data are limited on whether providers understand parental attitudes to recommended childhood immunizations. We determined parental attitudes and assessed how accurately providers estimated parental opinions. Survey of parents and providers (pediatricians, nurses, medical assistants) in randomly selected practices in Houston, Texas. Surveys assessed demographics, perceptions of immunization importance, safety and efficacy, and acceptability of vaccine delivery. Providers estimated parental responses. 401 parents (82% mothers, 12% fathers, 6% other) and 105 providers participated. Parents thought vaccines were important for health (median score 9.5; 0=not important, 10=extremely important) but also were concerned regarding vaccine safety and side effects (8.9 on 0-10 scale). 309 (77%) agreed that vaccines effectively prevent disease. Route of administration mattered to 147 (37%), who preferred injection (9.0) over oral (7.3) or intranasal (4.8) routes. Although parents would prefer three or fewer injections per visit, preventing more diseases (189 [47.6%]) was more important than number of injections (167 [42.3%]) when deciding the number of vaccines allowed per visit. White parents rated vaccines less important in preventing some illnesses than did non-white (P≤0.006 for meningitis, hepatitis, HPV, influenza and rotavirus) and rated number of injections per visit more important than number of diseases prevented (51.6% white versus 34.2% non-white; P 0.002). Providers underestimated parental attitudes toward vaccine importance (particularly influenza and HPV), and overestimated the proportion of parents who thought route of administration mattered (63%) and that number of injections per visit was the most important factor (76%) around parental vaccine decisions (P<0.001 for parent-provider mismatch). Most surveyed parents believe vaccines are important for child health and rate disease prevention higher than number of injections entailed. Providers underestimate

Anther Culture in Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.).

PubMed

Rotino, Giuseppe Leonardo

2016-01-01

The technique of in vitro anther culture is the most favorite to incite the production of plants from microspore through direct embryogenesis or regeneration from callus. Anther culture has been employed since 1980s in eggplant to obtain double-haploid plants from microspore derived embryos. From that time it has been refined and widely applied both at commercial level for a fast generation double-haploid parental lines of F1 hybrids, as well as for experimental studies as the complete homozygosis of the microspore-derived plants make more simply the genetic analysis. In this chapter, a step-by-step procedure is reported, taking into consideration all the aspects of the technique, including the growth condition of the anther donor plant, the in vitro regeneration of the androgenetic plantlets, their ploidy analysis, and the colchicine treatment to double the chromosome number of the haploids.

The effect of parental traumatic brain injury on parenting and child behavior.

PubMed

Uysal, S; Hibbard, M R; Robillard, D; Pappadopulos, E; Jaffe, M

1998-12-01

parents as more lax in their discipline, with the parent without TBI perceived as less actively involved in parenting roles. No differences in the frequency of behavioral problems were found between children of parents with TBI and children of parents without TBI. Parents with TBI and their children experienced more symptoms of depression relative to their respective comparison groups. Parental TBI has select consequences for all family members: individuals with TBI, their spouses, and their children. Prospective clinical evaluations of family members and proactive interventions to maximize family adjustment and minimize affective distress are indicated.

ARSH 4: Parental understanding of adolescent issues: parent-adolescent dyad agreement.

PubMed

Nair, M K C; Thankachi, Yamini; Leena, M L; George, Babu; Russell, Paul Swamidhas Sudhakar

2013-11-01

To elicit areas of discordance between the parent-adolescent dyad with regard to reproductive sexual health issues using the same questions to both and to elicit the gender sensitivity of the parents. This study was conducted using similar questions for both adolescents and young adults and their parents in three districts of Kerala. Data analysis was done comparing unmarried adolescents and young adults' response to reproductive and sexual health issues and the parental agreement status with their ward's responses. There were a total of 3,625 parent-unmarried young adults dyads. Parental attitudinal difference towards their sons and daughters on selected parenting issues was observed. With regard to the following reproductive and sexual health problems, (i) knew about menstruation before menarche (64.1%), (ii) got information on hygiene practices from home (80.8%), (iii) have menstrual problems (66.4%), agreement with adolescent response was high, whereas with regard to (i) anxious about adolescent physical and mental changes (29.2%), (ii) received information on reproductive sexual health (RSH) from mother (26.7%), (iii) do not have any abnormal vaginal discharge (46.7%), (iv) parents taken precautions to prevent sexual abuse (17.5%), (v) have been sexually abused (15.6%), agreement with unmarried young adults' response was low and all these differences were statistically significant. The results of 3,625 parent-unmarried adolescents and young adults dyad data showed poor agreement on vital issues like sexual abuse apart from gender inequality favouring sons.

Public School Center vs. Family Home Day Care: Single Parents' Reasons for Selection.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothschild, Maria Stupp

This study investigates the reasons single parents in San Diego had for choosing either a public day care center or a licensed day care home for their children. A sample of 30 single parents with children in school district administered children's centers was drawn and matched by a similarly geographically distributed sample of 23 parents with…

Positive selection on sociobiological traits in invasive fire ants.

PubMed

Privman, Eyal; Cohen, Pnina; Cohanim, Amir B; Riba-Grognuz, Oksana; Shoemaker, DeWayne; Keller, Laurent

2018-06-19

The fire ant Solenopsis invicta and its close relatives are highly invasive. Enhanced social cooperation may facilitate invasiveness in these and other invasive ant species. We investigated whether invasiveness in Solenopsis fire ants was accompanied by positive selection on sociobiological traits by applying a phylogenomics approach to infer ancient selection, and a population genomics approach to infer recent and ongoing selection in both native and introduced S. invicta populations. A combination of whole-genome sequencing of 40 haploid males and reduced-representation genomic sequencing of 112 diploid workers identified 1,758,116 and 169,682 polymorphic markers, respectively. The resulting high-resolution maps of genomic polymorphism provide high inference power to test for positive selection. Our analyses provide evidence of positive selection on putative ion channel genes, which are implicated in neurological functions, and on vitellogenin, which is a key regulator of development and caste determination. Furthermore, molecular functions implicated in pheromonal signaling have experienced recent positive selection. Genes with signatures of positive selection were significantly more often those over-expressed in workers compared with queens and males, suggesting that worker traits are under stronger selection than queen and male traits. These results provide insights into selection pressures and ongoing adaptation in an invasive social insect and support the hypothesis that sociobiological traits are under more positive selection than traits related to non-social traits in such invasive species. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Personal Transformations in the Post-Parental Period: A Cross-Cultural View.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutmann, David

Using a transcultural perspective this model of the post-parental years assumes a "parental imperative" perspective of the entire life cycle and, thus, analyzes the post-parental years in relation to the pre-parental and parental years. Through this perspective, young parents recognize needs of infants for security, and select those…

Iranian parent-staff communication and parental stress in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

PubMed

Hasanpour, Marzieh; Alavi, Mousa; Azizi, Fatemeh; Als, Heidelise; Armanian, Amir Mohmmad

2017-01-01

The birth of an infant requiring hospitalization in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) uniformly is reported to be stressful for parents and family members. This study aimed to determine parent-staff communication in the NICU and its relationship to parent stress. Two hundred and three Iranian parents with preterm infants hospitalized in the NICU participated in this descriptive-correlational study. The participants were selected by the quota sampling method. Data collected included a three-part: questionnaire, the first part covered demographic parent and infant information, the second was the Parent-Staff Communication Scale (the score of which ranged from 0 to 180), and the third was the Parental Stress Scale (the score of which ranged from 0 to 102). Descriptive and inferential statistics including the Pearson's correlation coefficient test were applied to the data, using SPSS software Version 16. This study revealed that fathers and mothers' stress and communication scores were almost comparable and both higher than expected. The total mean score of the two main variables, i.e., parent-staff communication and parental stress were, respectively, 100.72 ± 18.89 and 75.26 ± 17.6. A significant inverse correlation was found between parental stress and parent-staff communication scores ( r = -0.144, P = 0.041). Based on this study finding showed that better parent-staff communication is related to lower parent stress scores, it is recommended that nurses and physicians receive specific skill training for the establishment of effective parent-staff communication. It is anticipated that such improved staff skills will help decrease parent stress and therewith likely promote parent and infant health in the NICU.

The effect of energy and traffic light labelling on parent and child fast food selection: a randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Dodds, Pennie; Wolfenden, Luke; Chapman, Kathy; Wellard, Lyndal; Hughes, Clare; Wiggers, John

2014-02-01

Labelling of food from fast food restaurants at point-of-purchase has been suggested as one strategy to reduce population energy consumption and contribute to reductions in obesity prevalence. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of energy and single traffic light labelling systems on the energy content of child and adult intended food purchases. The study employed a randomised controlled trial design. English speaking parents of children aged between three and 12 years were recruited from an existing research cohort. Participants were mailed one of three hypothetical fast food menus. Menus differed in their labelling technique – either energy labels, single traffic light labels, or a no-label control. Participants then completed a telephone survey which assessed intended food purchases for both adult and child. The primary trial outcome was total energy of intended food purchase. A total of 329 participants completed the follow-up telephone interview. Eighty-two percent of the energy labelling group and 96% of the single traffic light labelling group reported noticing labelling information on their menu. There were no significant differences in total energy of intended purchases of parents, or intended purchases made by parents for children, between the menu labelling groups, or between menu labelling groups by socio-demographic subgroups. This study provided no evidence to suggest that energy labelling or single traffic light labelling alone were effective in reducing the energy of fast food items selected from hypothetical fast food menus for purchase. Additional complementary public health initiatives promoting the consumption of healthier foods identified by labelling, and which target other key drivers of menu item selection in this setting may be required.

Influence of parents and friends on children's and adolescents' food intake and food selection.

PubMed

Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne; Elmo, Alison; Nitecki, Lauren A; Kluczynski, Melissa A; Roemmich, James N

2011-01-01

The influence of parents versus friends on youths' eating behavior has not been directly compared, and little is known about the developmental effects of social influences on their eating behavior. The objective was to compare the effects of mothers and friends on children's and adolescents' energy intake from sandwiches and from healthy and unhealthy snacks and dessert foods. Twenty-three children (ages 5-7 y) and 27 adolescents (ages 13-15 y) ate a meal with their mother on one occasion and with a same-sex friend on another occasion. Male and female children consumed less energy from unhealthy snacks when in the presence of their mothers than when in the company of their friends. Conversely, female adolescents consumed less energy from unhealthy snacks and more energy from healthy snacks when they were with their friends than when with their mothers. Food selection is differentially influenced by the source of social influence and the age and sex of the child. Parents may act as an inhibitory influence on unhealthy eating for younger children. Adolescent girls may try to convey a good impression of healthy eating when eating with same-sex friends, but the eating habits of teenage boys are not as influenced by the social context. This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00875576.

Mating and Parental Care in Lake Tanganyika's Cichlids

PubMed Central

Sefc, Kristina M.

2011-01-01

Cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika display a variety of mating and parental care behaviors, including polygamous and monogamous mouthbrooding and substrate breeding, cooperative breeding, as well as various alternative reproductive tactics such as sneaking and piracy. Moreover, reproductive behaviors sometimes vary within species both in space and in time. Here, I survey reports on mating and parenting behaviors of Lake Tanganyika cichlid species and address the evolution of mating and parental care patterns and sexual dimorphism. Notes on measures of sexual selection intensity and the difficulties of defining mating systems and estimating selection intensities at species level conclude the essay. PMID:21822482

Standing in the Gap: Parents Reading with Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClain, Veda Pendleton; Stahl, Steven A.

A study focused on the parent-child interaction and reading issues such as the correction of children's oral miscues, comprehension, and questioning techniques as the children and parents either took turns reading or as the parent listened to the child read orally from six multicultural selections. Subjects were four African-American second…

Ethical Issues in Parent Training Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sapon-Shevin, Mara

1982-01-01

Four areas of ethical concern are voiced in the training of parents of handicapped children: (1) selection of program goals, (2) problems involved with both positive reinforcement and punishment, (3) conflicts between experimentation and therapeutic intervention, and (4) level of parent training. Consideration of ethical issues at each step of…

Parent-Child Attunement Moderates the Prospective Link between Parental Overcontrol and Adolescent Adjustment.

PubMed

Miller, Kelly F; Borelli, Jessica L; Margolin, Gayla

2017-10-22

Parental overcontrol (OC), behavior that intrusively or dominantly restricts child autonomy, has been identified as a transdiagnostic risk factor for youth. However, it is as yet unknown whether the association between parental OC and child maladjustment remains even when OC is exerted infrequently or by attuned parents. Rather, the selective use of OC might steer children away from danger. Taking a developmental psychopathology approach, this study focuses on the larger parent-child relationship context, testing whether either the dose at which parents demonstrate OC or the degree to which children perceive their parents as attuned determines whether OC is risky or protective for adolescents' adjustment. Among a community sample of 114 families of children followed from the ages of 12-18, we examine whether OC, behaviorally coded from triadic mother-father-child discussions in middle childhood, is associated with later risky behavior and anxiety symptoms in adolescence. Overcontrol exerted by either mothers or fathers had a curvilinear effect on adolescent risky behaviors, and this effect was moderated by children's perceived attunement. Although OC generally was associated with increased risky behaviors, low doses of OC or OC exerted by highly attuned parents protected against engagement in risky behaviors. No main effect of OC was observed on adolescent anxiety; however, mothers' OC interacted with perceived parental attunement, such that OC exerted by less attuned parents predicted greater anxiety. Results underscore that the effect of parenting behaviors depends on the larger parent-child relationship context. © 2017 Family Process Institute.

Can Parental Monitoring and Peer Management Reduce the Selection or Influence of Delinquent Peers? Testing the Question Using a Dynamic Social Network Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tilton-Weaver, Lauree C.; Burk, William J.; Kerr, Margaret; Stattin, Håkan

2013-01-01

We tested whether parents can reduce affiliation with delinquent peers through 3 forms of peer management: soliciting information, monitoring rules, and communicating disapproval of peers. We examined whether peer management interrupted 2 peer processes: selection and influence of delinquent peers. Adolescents' feelings of being overcontrolled by…

Enhancing first-time parents' self-efficacy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of universal parent education interventions' efficacy.

PubMed

Liyana Amin, Nur Arina; Tam, Wilson W S; Shorey, Shefaly

2018-06-01

Poor adjustment during early parenthood often leads to low feelings of parental self-efficacy, which influences parents' behaviours towards their infants. The long-term consequences on infant development warrant the need for more attention on the efficacy of universal parent education interventions to empower parents and enhance their self-efficacy. To synthesise available evidence and explore the efficacy of universal parent education interventions on the parental self-efficacy of first-time parents. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. A literature search of 10 databases was conducted to identify randomised controlled trials from each database's point of inception to November 2016. Based on the inclusion criteria, 24,062 articles were screened for their titles and abstracts. Two hundred and eighty articles were identified for full-text screening. Risks of bias posed by the selected articles were assessed using Cochrane's Risk of Bias instrument. Meta-analyses were conducted using RevMan 5.3. The overall intervention effect was evaluated using z tests at p < 0.05, while I 2 and Cochran Q tests were used to measure heterogeneity. Ten randomised controlled trials were selected; eight trials were combined in meta-analyses and two trials were synthesised narratively. A meta-analysis revealed that universal parent education interventions significantly enhanced parental self-efficacy (p < 0.001) among first-time parents and these effects were also maintained over time (p < 0.001). The extent of improvement in parental self-efficacy was affected by the duration of the interventions. This review provides sufficient evidence to support the use of universal interventions to enhance new parents' self-efficacy. While intervention effects were sustained at the two-month follow-up, further research using randomised controlled trials and longitudinal studies are needed to determine long-term effects. The findings serve as an impetus

Supernovae - A new selection effect. [statistical distribution in and radial distance from center of parent galaxy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaw, R. L.

1979-01-01

A sample of 228 supernovae that occurred in galaxies with known redshifts is used to show that the mean projected linear supernova distance from the center of the parent galaxy increases with increasing redshift. This effect is interpreted as an observational bias: the discovery rate of supernovae is reduced in the inner parts of distant, poorly resolved galaxies. Even under the optimistic assumption that no selection effects work in galaxies closer than 33 Mpc, about 50% of all supernovae are lost in the inner regions of galaxies beyond 150 Mpc. This observational bias must be taken into account in the derivation of statistical properties of supernovae.

True-breeding targeted gene knock-out in barley using designer TALE-nuclease in haploid cells.

PubMed

Gurushidze, Maia; Hensel, Goetz; Hiekel, Stefan; Schedel, Sindy; Valkov, Vladimir; Kumlehn, Jochen

2014-01-01

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are customizable fusion proteins able to cleave virtually any genomic DNA sequence of choice, and thereby to generate site-directed genetic modifications in a wide range of cells and organisms. In the present study, we expressed TALENs in pollen-derived, regenerable cells to establish the generation of instantly true-breeding mutant plants. A gfp-specific TALEN pair was expressed via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in embryogenic pollen of transgenic barley harboring a functional copy of gfp. Thanks to the haploid nature of the target cells, knock-out mutations were readily detected, and homozygous primary mutant plants obtained following genome duplication. In all, 22% of the TALEN transgenics proved knocked out with respect to gfp, and the loss of function could be ascribed to the deletions of between four and 36 nucleotides in length. The altered gfp alleles were transmitted normally through meiosis, and the knock-out phenotype was consistently shown by the offspring of two independent mutants. Thus, here we describe the efficient production of TALEN-mediated gene knock-outs in barley that are instantaneously homozygous and non-chimeric in regard to the site-directed mutations induced. This TALEN approach has broad applicability for both elucidating gene function and tailoring the phenotype of barley and other crop species.

Parental effects in ecology and evolution: mechanisms, processes and implications

PubMed Central

Badyaev, Alexander V.; Uller, Tobias

2009-01-01

As is the case with any metaphor, parental effects mean different things to different biologists—from developmental induction of novel phenotypic variation to an evolved adaptation, and from epigenetic transference of essential developmental resources to a stage of inheritance and ecological succession. Such a diversity of perspectives illustrates the composite nature of parental effects that, depending on the stage of their expression and whether they are considered a pattern or a process, combine the elements of developmental induction, homeostasis, natural selection, epigenetic inheritance and historical persistence. Here, we suggest that by emphasizing the complexity of causes and influences in developmental systems and by making explicit the links between development, natural selection and inheritance, the study of parental effects enables deeper understanding of developmental dynamics of life cycles and provides a unique opportunity to explicitly integrate development and evolution. We highlight these perspectives by placing parental effects in a wider evolutionary framework and suggest that far from being only an evolved static outcome of natural selection, a distinct channel of transmission between parents and offspring, or a statistical abstraction, parental effects on development enable evolution by natural selection by reliably transferring developmental resources needed to reconstruct, maintain and modify genetically inherited components of the phenotype. The view of parental effects as an essential and dynamic part of an evolutionary continuum unifies mechanisms behind the origination, modification and historical persistence of organismal form and function, and thus brings us closer to a more realistic understanding of life's complexity and diversity. PMID:19324619

Influence of genetic background of engineered xylose-fermenting industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for ethanol production from lignocellulosic hydrolysates

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

An industrial ethanol-producing Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain with genes needed for xylose-fermentation integrated into its genome was used to obtain haploids and diploid isogenic strains. The isogenic strains were more effective in metabolizing xylose than their parental strain (p < 0.05) and abl...

How Sex Selection Undermines Reproductive Autonomy.

PubMed

Browne, Tamara Kayali

2017-06-01

Non-medical sex selection is premised on the notion that the sexes are not interchangeable. Studies of individuals who undergo sex selection for non-medical reasons, or who have a preference for a son or daughter, show that they assume their child will conform to the stereotypical roles and norms associated with their sex. However, the evidence currently available has not succeeded in showing that the gender traits and inclinations sought are caused by a "male brain" or a "female brain". Therefore, as far as we know, there is no biological reason why parents cannot have the kind of parenting experience they seek with a child of any sex. Yet gender essentialism, a set of unfounded assumptions about the sexes which pervade society and underpin sexism, prevents parents from realising this freedom. In other words, unfounded assumptions about gender constrain not only a child's autonomy, but also the parent's. To date, reproductive autonomy in relation to sex selection has predominantly been regarded merely as the freedom to choose the sex of one's child. This paper points to at least two interpretations of reproductive autonomy and argues that sex selection, by being premised on gender essentialism and/or the social pressure on parents to ensure their children conform to gender norms, undermines reproductive autonomy on both accounts.

Evidence for recombination of mitochondrial DNA in triploid crucian carp.

PubMed

Guo, Xinhong; Liu, Shaojun; Liu, Yun

2006-03-01

In this study, we report the complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of the allotetraploid and triploid crucian carp and compare the complete mtDNA sequences between the triploid crucian carp and its female parent Japanese crucian carp and between the triploid crucian carp and its male parent allotetraploid. Our results indicate that the complete mtDNA nucleotide identity (98%) between the triploid crucian carp and its male parent allotetraploid was higher than that (93%) between the triploid crucian carp and its female parent Japanese crucian carp. Moreover, the presence of a pattern of identity and difference at synonymous sites of mitochondrial genomes between the triploid crucian carp and its parents provides direct evidence that triploid crucian carp possessed the recombination mtDNA fragment (12,759 bp) derived from the paternal fish. These results suggest that mtDNA recombination was derived from the fusion of the maternal and paternal mtDNAs. Compared with the haploid egg with one set of genome from the Japanese crucian carp, the diploid sperm with two sets of genomes from the allotetraploid could more easily make its mtDNA fuse with the mtDNA of the haploid egg. In addition, the triple hybrid nature of the triploid crucian carp probably allowed its better mtDNA recombination. In summary, our results provide the first evidence of mtDNA combination in polyploid fish.

Noncomplementing diploidy resulting from spontaneous zygogenesis in Escherichia coli.

PubMed

Gratia, Jean-Pierre

2005-09-01

With the aim of understanding sexual reproduction and phenotypic expression, a novel type of mating recently discovered in Escherichia coli was investigated. Termed spontaneous zygogenesis (or Z-mating), it differs from F-mediated conjugation. Its products proved phenotypically unstable, losing part of the phenotype for which they were selected. Inactivation of a parental chromosome in the zygote is strongly suggested by fluctuation tests, respreading experiments, analysis of reisolates, and segregation of non-viable cells detected by epifluorescence staining. Some phenotypically haploid subclones were interpreted as stable noncomplementing diploids carrying an inactivated co-replicating chromosome. Pedigree analysis indicated that the genetic composition of such cells consisted of parental genomes or one parental plus a recombinant genome. Inactivation of a chromosome carrying a prophage resulted in the disappearance of both the ability to produce phage particles and the immunity to superinfection. Phage production signalled transient reactivation of such a chromosome and constituted a sensitive test for stable noncomplementing diploidy. Chromosome inactivation thus appears to be a spontaneous event in bacteria.

The Agreement between Parent-Reported and Directly Measured Child Language and Parenting Behaviors

PubMed Central

Bennetts, Shannon K.; Mensah, Fiona K.; Westrupp, Elizabeth M.; Hackworth, Naomi J.; Reilly, Sheena

2016-01-01

videotaped observation compared to the parent questionnaire. Variation in patterns of agreement across the distribution of scores highlighted the importance of assessing agreement comprehensively, providing strong evidence that simple correlations are grossly insufficient for method comparisons. We discuss implications for researchers and clinicians, including guidance for measurement selection, and the potential to reduce financial and time-related expenses and improve data quality. Further research is required to determine whether findings described here are reflected in more representative populations. PMID:27891102

QTL mapping of sake brewing characteristics of yeast.

PubMed

Katou, Taku; Namise, Masahiro; Kitagaki, Hiroshi; Akao, Takeshi; Shimoi, Hitoshi

2009-04-01

A haploid sake yeast strain derived from the commercial diploid sake yeast strain Kyokai no. 7 showed better characteristics for sake brewing compared to the haploid laboratory yeast strain X2180-1B, including higher production of ethanol and aromatic components. A hybrid of these two strains showed intermediate characteristics in most cases. After sporulation of the hybrid strain, we obtained 100 haploid segregants of the hybrid. Small-scale sake brewing tests of these segregants showed a smooth continuous distribution of the sake brewing characteristics, suggesting that these traits are determined by multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs). To examine these sake brewing characteristics at the genomic level, we performed QTL analysis of sake brewing characteristics using 142 DNA markers that showed heterogeneity between the two parental strains. As a result, we identified 25 significant QTLs involved in the specification of sake brewing characteristics such as ethanol fermentation and the production of aromatic components.

Procreative Altruism: Beyond Individualism in Reproductive Selection

PubMed Central

Douglas, Thomas

2013-01-01

Existing debate on procreative selection focuses on the well-being of the future child. However, selection decisions can also have significant effects on the well-being of others. Moreover, these effects may run in opposing directions; some traits conducive to the well-being of the selected child may be harmful to others, whereas other traits that limit the child’s well-being may preserve or increase that of others. Prominent selection principles defended to date instruct parents to select a child, of the possible children they could have, likely to have a good (or nonbad) life, but they do not instruct parents to independently take the well-being of others into account. We refer to these principles as individualistic selection principles. We propose a new selection principle—Procreative Altruism—according to which parents have significant moral reason to select a child whose existence can be expected to contribute more to (or detract less from) the well-being of others than any alternative child they could have. We present the case for adopting Procreative Altruism alongside any of the major individualistic selection principles proposed to date and defend this two-principle model against a range of objections. PMID:23856478

Procreative altruism: beyond individualism in reproductive selection.

PubMed

Douglas, Thomas; Devolder, Katrien

2013-08-01

Existing debate on procreative selection focuses on the well-being of the future child. However, selection decisions can also have significant effects on the well-being of others. Moreover, these effects may run in opposing directions; some traits conducive to the well-being of the selected child may be harmful to others, whereas other traits that limit the child's well-being may preserve or increase that of others. Prominent selection principles defended to date instruct parents to select a child, of the possible children they could have, likely to have a good (or nonbad) life, but they do not instruct parents to independently take the well-being of others into account. We refer to these principles as individualistic selection principles. We propose a new selection principle-Procreative Altruism-according to which parents have significant moral reason to select a child whose existence can be expected to contribute more to (or detract less from) the well-being of others than any alternative child they could have. We present the case for adopting Procreative Altruism alongside any of the major individualistic selection principles proposed to date and defend this two-principle model against a range of objections.

Selective Somatic Elimination of NICOTIANA GLUTINOSA Chromosomes in the F(1) Hybrids of N. SUAVEOLENS and N. GLUTINOSA.

PubMed

Gupta, S B; Gupta, P

1973-04-01

The F(1) hybrids of Nicotiana suaveolens (subgenus Petunioides, 2n = 32) and N. glutinosa (subgenus Tabacum, 2n = 24), were examined during their development, from seedlings to mature plants. It was observed that in the hybrids, there was a progressive change of dominant N. glutinosa morphological characteristics towards those of N. suaveolens, in leaf shape, stem, flower color and branching pattern. A study of mitotic chromosomes in the root-tips and in very young anthers of the mature plants indicated a significantly high average frequency of aberrant mitotic anaphases (bridges and fragments, 12% and 11% respectively). As a consequence of this phenomenon, variability in the number and size of chromosomes was observed in the PMC's and in mitotic metaphases (29-24 chromosomes). In order to establish whether the N. glutinosa chromosomes were preferentially lost, a karyological study of the parents and their F(1) hybrids was carried out and it was established that the F(1) hybrids were losing N. glutinosa chromosomes preferentially. A mechanism was suggested for the loss of these chromosomes by means of a chromatid type of breakage-fusion-bridge cycle (b-f-b cycle) and initiation of the b-f-b cycle in the hybrid due to an interaction of the regulatory mechanism of DNA replication in the haploid genomes of the parental species. However, loss of these chromosomes owing to interaction of certain genes from the two parental species cannot be ruled out.

Association of parental obesity with concentrations of select systemic biomarkers in nonobese offspring: the Framingham Heart Study.

PubMed

Lieb, Wolfgang; Pencina, Michael J; Lanier, Katherine J; Tofler, Geoffrey H; Levy, Daniel; Fox, Caroline S; Wang, Thomas J; D'Agostino, Ralph B; Vasan, Ramachandran S

2009-01-01

Parental obesity is a risk factor for offspring obesity. It is unclear whether parental obesity also confers risk for obesity-associated conditions (e.g., a proinflammatory or prothrombotic state) in the absence of offspring obesity. We compared concentrations of multiple biomarkers representing distinct biological pathways (C-reactive protein [CRP], aldosterone, renin, B-type natriuretic peptide, NH(2)-terminal proatrial natriuretic peptide, fibrinogen, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) in nonobese Framingham Offspring Study participants with no parents (n = 665), one parent (n = 488), or two parents (n = 119) with obesity (BMI > or =30 kg/m(2)). Nonobese offspring with both parents with obesity had higher CRP levels (median 2.16 mg/l) than offspring with one parent (1.58 mg/l) or no parents (1.35 mg/l) with obesity. After multivariable adjustment, a nonlinear relationship with parental obesity became evident: compared with those without parental obesity, CRP levels were higher in offspring with two obese parents (P = 0.04) but not in offspring with only one obese parent (P = 0.76). Renin levels were more linearly related to parental obesity status, being significantly higher in offspring with one parent (P = 0.04) or two parents (P = 0.09) with obesity (P = 0.02 for trend). The other systemic biomarkers did not vary according to parental obesity status (all P > 0.05). Our findings suggest that offspring with a high risk of developing obesity have an altered biomarker profile, characterized by systemic inflammation and increased neurohormonal activity, even in the absence of obesity. This is consistent with the notion that parental obesity may confer an increased susceptibility to other adiposity-associated traits.

Iranian parent-staff communication and parental stress in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit

PubMed Central

Hasanpour, Marzieh; Alavi, Mousa; Azizi, Fatemeh; Als, Heidelise; Armanian, Amir Mohmmad

2017-01-01

INTRODUCTION: The birth of an infant requiring hospitalization in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) uniformly is reported to be stressful for parents and family members. This study aimed to determine parent–staff communication in the NICU and its relationship to parent stress. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred and three Iranian parents with preterm infants hospitalized in the NICU participated in this descriptive-correlational study. The participants were selected by the quota sampling method. Data collected included a three-part: questionnaire, the first part covered demographic parent and infant information, the second was the Parent–Staff Communication Scale (the score of which ranged from 0 to 180), and the third was the Parental Stress Scale (the score of which ranged from 0 to 102). Descriptive and inferential statistics including the Pearson's correlation coefficient test were applied to the data, using SPSS software Version 16. RESULTS: This study revealed that fathers and mothers’ stress and communication scores were almost comparable and both higher than expected. The total mean score of the two main variables, i.e., parent–staff communication and parental stress were, respectively, 100.72 ± 18.89 and 75.26 ± 17.6. A significant inverse correlation was found between parental stress and parent–staff communication scores (r = −0.144, P = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Based on this study finding showed that better parent–staff communication is related to lower parent stress scores, it is recommended that nurses and physicians receive specific skill training for the establishment of effective parent–staff communication. It is anticipated that such improved staff skills will help decrease parent stress and therewith likely promote parent and infant health in the NICU. PMID:28616416

The children of mentally ill parents.

PubMed

Mattejat, Fritz; Remschmidt, Helmut

2008-06-01

The children of mentally ill parents have a higher risk of developing mental illnesses themselves over the course of their lives. This known risk must be taken into account in the practical provision of health care. Selective literature review. The increased psychiatric risk for children of mentally ill parents is due partly to genetic influences and partly to an impairment of the parent-child interaction because of the parent's illness. Furthermore, adverse factors are more frequent in these families, as well as a higher risk for child abuse. Genetic and psychosocial factors interact with one another. For example, genetic factors moderate environmental effects; that is, the effect of adverse environmental factors depends on the genetic substrate. Preventive measures for children of mentally ill parents urgently need improvement. In this article, positively evaluated programs of preventive measures are discussed. Essential prerequisites for success include appropriate, specialized treatment of the parental illness, psychoeducative measures, and special support (e.g. self-help groups) as indicated by the family's particular needs.

The Parental Self-Concept: A Theoretical Exploration and Practical Application.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Partridge, Susan E.

This article reviews selected literature on the parental self-concept and then provides a definition of the term. In addition, it theoretically explores the concept and then applies it to psychotherapeutic work with parents. Specifically it illustrates how a clinician's understanding of the parental self-concept can facilitate therapeutic change…

Will sex selection reduce fertility?

PubMed

Leung, S F

1994-01-01

Population control is one of the primary policies applied against poverty in many low income countries. The widespread prevalence of son preference in some countries such as China and India, however, works against any reduction of fertility. This is so because parents often continue to have children until they obtain the number of sons which they desire. The bias against girls has also led to higher abortion and mortality rates of female children. It is frequently argued that if sex selection methods are made available to parents so that they can control the gender of their children, population growth would be lowered and women's welfare improved. The author investigates both theoretically and numerically the impact of sex selection on fertility. A static quantity-quality model of fertility is used to compare fertility choices when parents cannot choose the gender of children versus a situation in which parents can choose gender. Empirical data are drawn from the 1976 Malaysian Family Life Survey. Analysis found that whether sex selection reduces fertility depends upon the second and third derivatives of the utility function and the child expenditure function. A numerical dynamic analysis is also presented. The simulation shows, using empirical dynamic models of fertility and the Monte Carlo integration technique, that sex selection on the firstborn child among the Chinese in Malaysia could reduce fertility by about 3%.

Use of Chelex-100 for selectively removing Y-90 from its parent Sr-90

DOEpatents

Huntley, Mark W.

1996-01-01

A method for selectively removing yttrium-90 from its parent strontium-90 contained in an environmental sample includes loading the sample onto a column containing a chelating ion-exchange resin capable of retaining yttrium-90; washing the column with a solution capable of removing strontium, calcium, and other contaminants from the yttrium-90 fraction retained on the column; removing excess acetate salts from the column; eluting yttrium-90 solution from the column and adjusting the pH of this solution to about 2.7; filtering the yttrium-90 solution and weighing this solution for gravimetric yield; and, counting the yttrium-90 containing solution with a radiological counter for a time sufficient to achieve the statistical accuracy desired. It is preferred that the chelating ion-exchange resin is a bidente ligand having the chemical name iminodiacetic acid mounted on a divinyl benzene substrate, converted from sodium form to ammonia form.

Use of Chelex-100 for selectively removing Y-90 from its parent Sr-90

DOEpatents

Huntley, M.W.

1996-02-27

A method for selectively removing yttrium-90 from its parent strontium-90 contained in an environmental sample includes loading the sample onto a column containing a chelating ion-exchange resin capable of retaining yttrium-90; washing the column with a solution capable of removing strontium, calcium, and other contaminants from the yttrium-90 fraction retained on the column; removing excess acetate salts from the column; eluting yttrium-90 solution from the column and adjusting the pH of this solution to about 2.7; filtering the yttrium-90 solution and weighing this solution for gravimetric yield; and, counting the yttrium-90 containing solution with a radiological counter for a time sufficient to achieve the statistical accuracy desired. It is preferred that the chelating ion-exchange resin is a ligand having the chemical name iminodiacetic acid mounted on a divinyl benzene substrate, converted from sodium form to ammonia form.

Vaccination uptake by vaccine-hesitant parents attending a specialist immunization clinic in Australia.

PubMed

Forbes, Thomas A; McMinn, Alissa; Crawford, Nigel; Leask, Julie; Danchin, Margie

2015-01-01

Vaccine hesitancy (VH) is an issue of global concern. The quality of communication between healthcare providers and parents can influence parental immunization acceptance. We aimed to describe immunization uptake following specialist immunization clinic (SIC) consultation for Australian children of VH parents as a cohort, and according to pre-clinic parental position on immunization. At a single tertiary pediatric SIC (RCH, Melbourne) a retrospective descriptive study classified VH families according to 3 proposed parental positions on immunization at initial clinic attendance. Immunization status at follow up was ascertained via the Australian Children's Immunization Register and National HPV Program Register and compared between groups. Of the VH cohort, 13/38 (34%) families were classified as hesitant, 21 (55%) as late/selective vaccinators and 4 (11%) as vaccine refusers. Mean follow up post-SIC attendance was 14.5 months. For the overall VH cohort, the majority chose selective immunization (42%) following SIC consultation. When analyzed by pre-clinic parental position on immunization, there was a trend for hesitant families to proceed with full immunization, selective families to continue selective immunization and refusing families to remain unimmunised (p < 0.0001). The most commonly omitted vaccines were hepatitis B (66%) and Haemophilus influenzae type B (55%), followed by the meningococcal C conjugate vaccine (53%) and measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (53%). Immunization outcome appears to correlate with pre-clinic parental position on immunization for the majority of families attending a SIC in Australia, with selective immunization the most common outcome. Tailored communication approaches based on parental position on immunization may optimise clinic resources and engagement of families, but require prospective research evaluation.

Vaccination uptake by vaccine-hesitant parents attending a specialist immunization clinic in Australia

PubMed Central

Forbes, Thomas A; McMinn, Alissa; Crawford, Nigel; Leask, Julie; Danchin, Margie

2015-01-01

Vaccine hesitancy (VH) is an issue of global concern. The quality of communication between healthcare providers and parents can influence parental immunization acceptance. We aimed to describe immunization uptake following specialist immunization clinic (SIC) consultation for Australian children of VH parents as a cohort, and according to pre-clinic parental position on immunization. At a single tertiary pediatric SIC (RCH, Melbourne) a retrospective descriptive study classified VH families according to 3 proposed parental positions on immunization at initial clinic attendance. Immunization status at follow up was ascertained via the Australian Children's Immunization Register and National HPV Program Register and compared between groups. Of the VH cohort, 13/38 (34%) families were classified as hesitant, 21 (55%) as late/selective vaccinators and 4 (11%) as vaccine refusers. Mean follow up post-SIC attendance was 14.5 months. For the overall VH cohort, the majority chose selective immunization (42%) following SIC consultation. When analyzed by pre-clinic parental position on immunization, there was a trend for hesitant families to proceed with full immunization, selective families to continue selective immunization and refusing families to remain unimmunised (p < 0.0001). The most commonly omitted vaccines were hepatitis B (66%) and Haemophilus influenzae type B (55%), followed by the meningococcal C conjugate vaccine (53%) and measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (53%). Immunization outcome appears to correlate with pre-clinic parental position on immunization for the majority of families attending a SIC in Australia, with selective immunization the most common outcome. Tailored communication approaches based on parental position on immunization may optimise clinic resources and engagement of families, but require prospective research evaluation. PMID:26366978

Religious Socialization: A Test of the Channeling Hypothesis of Parental Influence on Adolescent Faith Maturity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Todd F.; White, James M.; Perlman, Daniel

2003-01-01

This study used a sample of 2,379 seventh through twelfth graders in 5 Protestant denominations to test the hypothesis that parental influences on religious faith are mediated through peer selection and congregation selection. Findings revealed that peer and parental influence remained stable during the adolescent years. Parental influence did not…

Sex-biased dispersal promotes adaptive parental effects

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background In heterogeneous environments, sex-biased dispersal could lead to environmental adaptive parental effects, with offspring selected to perform in the same way as the parent dispersing least, because this parent is more likely to be locally adapted. We investigate this hypothesis by simulating varying levels of sex-biased dispersal in a patchy environment. The relative advantage of a strategy involving pure maternal (or paternal) inheritance is then compared with a strategy involving classical biparental inheritance in plants and in animals. Results We find that the advantage of the uniparental strategy over the biparental strategy is maximal when dispersal is more strongly sex-biased and when dispersal distances of the least mobile sex are much lower than the size of the environmental patches. In plants, only maternal effects can be selected for, in contrast to animals where the evolution of either paternal or maternal effects can be favoured. Moreover, the conditions for environmental adaptive maternal effects to be selected for are more easily fulfilled in plants than in animals. Conclusions The study suggests that sex-biased dispersal can help predict the direction and magnitude of environmental adaptive parental effects. However, this depends on the scale of dispersal relative to that of the environment and on the existence of appropriate mechanisms of transmission of environmentally induced traits. PMID:20637098

A probabilistic and multi-objective analysis of lexicase selection and ε-lexicase selection.

PubMed

Cava, William La; Helmuth, Thomas; Spector, Lee; Moore, Jason H

2018-05-10

Lexicase selection is a parent selection method that considers training cases individually, rather than in aggregate, when performing parent selection. Whereas previous work has demonstrated the ability of lexicase selection to solve difficult problems in program synthesis and symbolic regression, the central goal of this paper is to develop the theoretical underpinnings that explain its performance. To this end, we derive an analytical formula that gives the expected probabilities of selection under lexicase selection, given a population and its behavior. In addition, we expand upon the relation of lexicase selection to many-objective optimization methods to describe the behavior of lexicase selection, which is to select individuals on the boundaries of Pareto fronts in high-dimensional space. We show analytically why lexicase selection performs more poorly for certain sizes of population and training cases, and show why it has been shown to perform more poorly in continuous error spaces. To address this last concern, we propose new variants of ε-lexicase selection, a method that modifies the pass condition in lexicase selection to allow near-elite individuals to pass cases, thereby improving selection performance with continuous errors. We show that ε-lexicase outperforms several diversity-maintenance strategies on a number of real-world and synthetic regression problems.

Knowledge and Attitudes Are Related to Selected Salt-Specific Behaviours among Australian Parents.

PubMed

Khokhar, Durreajam; Nowson, Caryl Anne; Margerison, Claire; Bolam, Bruce; Grimes, Carley Ann

2018-06-04

Salt intake in adults and children exceeds recommended levels. Salt-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours (KABs) may influence the amount of salt consumed. The aims of this study were to assess salt-related KABs among parents, and investigate whether salt-related knowledge and attitudes are associated with salt-specific behaviours. Parents with children.

Early growth stages salinity stress tolerance in CM72 x Gairdner doubled haploid barley population

PubMed Central

Angessa, Tefera Tolera; Zhang, Xiao-Qi; Zhou, Gaofeng; Broughton, Sue; Zhang, Wenying

2017-01-01

A doubled haploid (DH) population of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) generated from salinity tolerant genotype CM72 and salinity sensitive variety Gairdner was studied for salinity stress tolerance at germination, seedling emergence and first leaf full expansion growth stages. Germination study was conducted with deionized water, 150 mM and 300 mM NaCl treatments. Seedling stage salinity tolerance was conducted with three treatments: control, 150 mM NaCl added at seedling emergence and first leaf full expansion growth stages. Results from this study revealed transgressive phenotypic segregations for germination percentage and biomass at seedling stage. Twelve QTL were identified on chromosomes 2H–6H each explaining 10–25% of the phenotypic variations. A QTL located at 176.5 cM on chromosome 3H was linked with fresh weight per plant and dry weight per plant in salinity stress induced at first leaf full expansion growth stage, and dry weight per plant in salinity stress induced at seedling emergence. A stable QTL for germination at both 150 and 300 mM salinity stress was mapped on chromosome 2H but distantly located from a QTL linked with seedling stage salinity stress tolerance. QTL, associated markers and genotypes identified in this study play important roles in developing salinity stress tolerant barley varieties. PMID:28640858

Maximum likelihood inference implies a high, not a low, ancestral haploid chromosome number in Araceae, with a critique of the bias introduced by ‘x’

PubMed Central

Cusimano, Natalie; Sousa, Aretuza; Renner, Susanne S.

2012-01-01

Background and Aims For 84 years, botanists have relied on calculating the highest common factor for series of haploid chromosome numbers to arrive at a so-called basic number, x. This was done without consistent (reproducible) reference to species relationships and frequencies of different numbers in a clade. Likelihood models that treat polyploidy, chromosome fusion and fission as events with particular probabilities now allow reconstruction of ancestral chromosome numbers in an explicit framework. We have used a modelling approach to reconstruct chromosome number change in the large monocot family Araceae and to test earlier hypotheses about basic numbers in the family. Methods Using a maximum likelihood approach and chromosome counts for 26 % of the 3300 species of Araceae and representative numbers for each of the other 13 families of Alismatales, polyploidization events and single chromosome changes were inferred on a genus-level phylogenetic tree for 113 of the 117 genera of Araceae. Key Results The previously inferred basic numbers x = 14 and x = 7 are rejected. Instead, maximum likelihood optimization revealed an ancestral haploid chromosome number of n = 16, Bayesian inference of n = 18. Chromosome fusion (loss) is the predominant inferred event, whereas polyploidization events occurred less frequently and mainly towards the tips of the tree. Conclusions The bias towards low basic numbers (x) introduced by the algebraic approach to inferring chromosome number changes, prevalent among botanists, may have contributed to an unrealistic picture of ancestral chromosome numbers in many plant clades. The availability of robust quantitative methods for reconstructing ancestral chromosome numbers on molecular phylogenetic trees (with or without branch length information), with confidence statistics, makes the calculation of x an obsolete approach, at least when applied to large clades. PMID:22210850

Parent and child asthma illness representations: a systematic review.

PubMed

Sonney, Jennifer T; Gerald, Lynn B; Insel, Kathleen C

2016-06-01

The purpose of this article is to synthesize the current literature on parent and child asthma illness representations and their consequent impact on parent-child asthma shared management. This systematic review was conducted in concordance with the PRISMA statement. An electronic search of five computerized databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane, and EMBASE) was conducted using the following key words: asthma, illness representation, and child. Due to the limited number of articles identified, the search was broadened to include illness perceptions as well. Studies were included if they were specific to asthma and included parent and/or child asthma illness representations or perception, were published after 2000, and available in English. Fifteen articles were selected for inclusion. All of the articles are descriptive studies that used cross-sectional designs. Seven of the studies used parent and child participants, eight used parents only, and none used only child participants. None of the selected studies describe child asthma illness representations, and only three describe parental asthma illness representations. Domains of illness representations, including symptoms, timeline, consequences, cause, and controllability were described in the remaining articles. Symptoms and controllability appear to have the most influence on parental asthma management practices. Parents prefer symptomatic or intermittent asthma management and frequently cite concerns regarding daily controller medication use. Parents also primarily rely on their own objective symptom observations rather than the child's report of symptoms. Asthma illness representations are an important area of future study to better understand parent-child shared asthma management.

Parents' Attitudes towards Inclusion of Students with Autism in Jordan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Hamour, Bashir; Muhaidat, Mohammad

2014-01-01

This study investigated the attitudes of parents in Jordan towards the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in public schools and what the parents believed to be the most important prerequisite of child-based skills for successful inclusion. A total of 148 parents were selected to complete the survey. The researchers explored…

THINK OF THE CHILDREN: SEX SELECTION AND CHILD WELFARE.

PubMed

Wong, Rachael; Gillett, Grant

2015-06-01

This column considers the phenomenon of social sex selection and whether its legal prohibition can be justified in Australasia. It looks at whether the liberal autonomy framework is an adequate ethical basis for assessing sex selection and whether sex selection may raise ethical concerns about the nature of parenting and the welfare .of future children in the Australasian context. It argues that with sex selection comes the implicit instrumentalisation and commodification of children, which both stem from and encourage attitudes contrary to those underpinning the virtues required of parents. It concludes that in lieu of robust arguments in favour of sex selection and in light of the probable (or at least plausible) negative impact on the nature of parenting and the welfare of future children, the legal prohibition on social sex selection should be maintained in Australasia.

Selected Bibliography and Notations: Parents, Teacher Aides, and In-Service Education. Vol. 1, No. 7.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaufman, Martin

The emphasis of the bibliography on parents, teacher aides, and inservice education is on the utilization of parents as teacher aides in school and at home to foster the fullest development of children. Its stated purpose is to provide a resource for persons desiring information on the maximal enhancement of the interactions between parent and…

Linearity versus Nonlinearity of Offspring-Parent Regression: An Experimental Study of Drosophila Melanogaster

PubMed Central

Gimelfarb, A.; Willis, J. H.

1994-01-01

An experiment was conducted to investigate the offspring-parent regression for three quantitative traits (weight, abdominal bristles and wing length) in Drosophila melanogaster. Linear and polynomial models were fitted for the regressions of a character in offspring on both parents. It is demonstrated that responses by the characters to selection predicted by the nonlinear regressions may differ substantially from those predicted by the linear regressions. This is true even, and especially, if selection is weak. The realized heritability for a character under selection is shown to be determined not only by the offspring-parent regression but also by the distribution of the character and by the form and strength of selection. PMID:7828818

Canadian Parents' Knowledge and Satisfaction Regarding Their Child's Day-Care Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Nina; Jacobs, Ellen; Vukelich, Goranka; Recchia, Holly

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine parental selection criteria and satisfaction with day care, knowledge about centre philosophy, teacher education and quality of the day-care environment. Parents ("n" = 261) and educators ("n" = 94) in 44 non-profit centres in three Canadian cities participated. Parent knowledge was…

Obesogenic Neighborhood Environments, Child and Parent Obesity

PubMed Central

Saelens, Brian E.; Sallis, James F.; Frank, Lawrence D.; Couch, Sarah C.; Zhou, Chuan; Colburn, Trina; Cain, Kelli L.; Chapman, James; Glanz, Karen

2012-01-01

Background Identifying neighborhood environment attributes related to childhood obesity can inform environmental changes for obesity prevention. Purpose To evaluate child and parent weight status across neighborhoods in King County/Seattle and San Diego County differing in GIS-defined physical activity environment (PAE) and nutrition environment (NE) characteristics. Methods Neighborhoods were selected to represent high (favorable) versus low (unfavorable) on the two measures, forming four neighborhood types (low on both measures, low PAE/high NE, high PAE/low NE, and high on both measures). Weight and height of children aged 6–11 years and one parent (n=730) from selected neighborhoods were assessed in 2007–2009. Differences in child and parent overweight and obesity by neighborhood type were examined, adjusting for neighborhood-, family-, and individual-level demographics. Results Children from neighborhoods high on both environment measures were less likely to be obese (7.7% vs 15.9% OR=0.44, p=0.02) and marginally less likely to be overweight (23.7% vs 31.7%; OR=0.67, p=0.08) than children from neighborhoods low on both measures. In models adjusted for parent weight status and demographic factors, neighborhood environment type remained related to child obesity (high vs low on both measures; OR=0.41, p<0.03). Parents in neighborhoods high on both measures (versus low on both) were marginally less likely to be obese (20.1% vs 27.7%; OR=0.66; p=0.08), although parent overweight did not differ on this variable. The lower odds of parent obesity in neighborhoods with environments supportive of physical activity and healthy eating remained in models adjusted for demographics (high vs low on the environment measures; OR=0.57, p=0.053). Conclusions Findings support the proposed GIS-based definitions of obesogenic neighborhoods for children and parents that consider both physical activity and nutrition environment features. PMID:22516504

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation for investigation of somatic recombination in the fungal pathogen Armillaria mellea.

PubMed

Baumgartner, Kendra; Fujiyoshi, Phillip; Foster, Gary D; Bailey, Andy M

2010-12-01

Armillaria root disease is one of the most damaging timber and fruit tree diseases in the world. Despite its economic importance, many basic questions about the biology of the causal fungi, Armillaria spp., are unanswered. For example, Armillaria undergoes matings between diploid and haploid mycelia, which can result in a recombinant diploid without meiosis. Evidence of such somatic recombination in natural populations suggests that this reproductive mode may affect the pathogen's ecology. Investigations of the mechanisms and adaptive consequences of somatic recombination are, however, hampered by the lack of a method to reliably synthesize somatic recombinants. Here we report the first genetic transformation system for the genus Armillaria. We transformed A. mellea with selective markers for use in diploid-haploid matings to reliably synthesize somatic recombinants. This was accomplished with Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying pBGgHg, which carries the hygromycin phosphotransferase gene (hph). hph was integrated into transformants, as evidenced by serial transfer to selective media, PCR, reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), and Southern hybridization. Nuclear and mitochondrial markers were developed to genotype synthesized mycelia. In matings between a wild-type diploid and hygromycin-resistant haploids (transgenic), we identified recombinant, hygromycin-resistant diploids and, additionally, hygromycin-resistant triploids, all with the mitochondrial haplotype of the haploid partner. Our approach created no mycelium in which the haploid nucleus was replaced by the diploid nucleus, the typical outcome of diploid-haploid matings in Armillaria. This genetic transformation system, in combination with new markers to track chromosomal and cytoplasmic inheritance in A. mellea, will advance research aimed at characterizing the significance of somatic recombination in the ecology of this important fungus.

The impact of a parent-directed intervention on parent-child communication about tobacco and alcohol.

PubMed

Beatty, Shelley E; Cross, Donna S; Shaw, Thérèse M

2008-11-01

Given the likelihood of engaging in the hazardous use of tobacco and alcohol increases during teenage years, pre-adolescence is a critical time to implement prevention programmes. While social factors other than those associated with parenting play a role in determining a child's risk for initiation of tobacco and alcohol use, parents can have a significant influence on their children's decisions about these issues. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of an in-home parent-directed drug education intervention on parent-child communication about tobacco and alcohol. A group randomised intervention trial was conducted in Perth, Western Australia. Schools were selected using stratified random sampling and randomised to three study conditions. A total of 1201 parents of 10- 11-year-old children were recruited from 20 schools. The impact of a self-help intervention, comprised of five communication sheets containing information and activities designed to encourage parents to talk with their 10- 11-year-old child about issues related to smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, was assessed. Intervention-group parents were more likely to have spoken with their children, to have spoken more recently, to have engaged the child during the discussion and to have addressed the topics identified as being protective of children's involvement in tobacco and alcohol. In addition, the duration of talks about alcohol was longer than for parents in the comparison group. Parents of 10- 11-year-old children appear to be receptive to participating in a home-based drug-related educational intervention and the parent-directed intervention seems to have enhanced parent-child tobacco- and alcohol-related communication.

Parental self-efficacy and its measurement - an evaluation of a parental self-efficacy measurement scale.

PubMed

Purssell, Edward; While, Alison

2013-05-01

To field test a parental self-efficacy scale regarding its acceptability and feasibility and to describe parental self-efficacy in a convenience sample of parents with children aged 6 years old or less. Self-care within families is increasingly emphasised in health policy as a means of maximising healthcare resources. This study reports the field testing of a scale designed to measure parental self-efficacy. Cross-sectional survey of parents of children aged 6 years old or less. Subjects were recruited through a parenting internet website (n = 84) and local parenting and community organisations (n = 68) and asked to complete a questionnaire containing the scale. Data collection took place between January and August 2011. The scale, previously validated with an expert panel of professionals, gathered information about parental self-efficacy when administered either directly or through an on-line data collection portal, although there were more missing data when administered via the Internet. Although convenience and self-selecting samples precluded parameter estimation, areas of concern highlighted were difficulties differentiating children with serious illnesses and the use of the Personal Child Health Record. Use of the Internet was widespread, as was use of community pharmacists and nursery staff. Although the primary purpose was not to collect specific data, the data indicated the continuing concern of parents regarding serious illness and where additional investment may be required to meet parental needs and expectations. The previously validated scale can be used to collect information about parental self-efficacy either through a paper questionnaire or the Internet. Although there was slightly more missing data from the Internet version, the ease of its administration makes this an attractive option. Parents generally reported high levels of self-efficacy and satisfaction with services; however, the scale was able to identify areas where further investment

The mixed mating system of the sea palm kelp Postelsia palmaeformis: few costs to selfing

PubMed Central

Barner, Allison K.; Pfister, Catherine A.; Wootton, J. Timothy

2011-01-01

Naturally isolated populations have conflicting selection pressures for successful reproduction and inbreeding avoidance. These species with limited seasonal reproductive opportunities may use selfing as a means of reproductive assurance. We quantified the frequency of selfing and the fitness consequences for inbred versus outcrossed progeny of an annual kelp, the sea palm (Postelsia palmaeformis). Using experimentally established populations and microsatellite markers to assess the extent of selfing in progeny from six founding parents, we found the frequency of selfing was higher than expected in every population, and few fitness costs were detected in selfed offspring. Despite a decline in heterozygosity of 30 per cent in the first generation of selfing, self-fertilization did not affect individual size or reproduction, and correlated only with a marginally significant decline in survival. Our results suggest both that purging of deleterious recessive alleles may have already occurred and that selfing may be key to reproductive assurance in this species with limited dispersal. Postelsia has an alteration of a free-living diploid and haploid stage, where the haploid stage may provide increased efficiency for purging the genetic load. This life history is shared by many seaweeds and may thus be an important component of mating system evolution in the sea. PMID:20961896

The Guide for Choosing Native American Parenting Curricula.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wingo, Robin R.; Mertensmeyer, Carol

This guide is designed to help professionals working with Native American parents to be better prepared to select culturally sensitive materials, to program more effectively, and to draw from the richness within the Native American culture. The guide is one in a series of culturally specific guides produced as part of ParentLink's Review of…

Adolescent parenting: outcomes and maternal perceptions.

PubMed

Thompson, P J; Powell, M J; Patterson, R J; Ellerbee, S M

1995-10-01

To describe selected outcomes and maternal perceptions of adolescent parenting. Qualitative and quantitative methods, interview, and two standardized instruments were combined in this follow-up study of adolescents who received perinatal services between 1985 and 1988. Data were collected in the mothers' homes. Mothers who were randomly selected for an earlier chart outcome audit (N = 98) and could be located (n = 19). Subsequent pregnancies; school completion; children's development, indicated by the Developmental Profile II (DPII); parental attitudes, indicated by the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI); and maternal perceptions. Responses revealed irregular use of contraceptives as one reason for the initial pregnancy and for subsequent unplanned pregnancies. Sixteen mothers completed high school, and 18 intend to complete postsecondary programs. The DPII indicated age-appropriate development of the children. AAPI scores for 84% of the mothers indicated nonnurturing attitudes. Mothers described family support, motherhood, and their children. Research is needed with larger samples and to test interventions to promote regular use of contraception. Findings support the need for research-based programs to educate and promote the development of adolescent mothers and their children.

Decoding the massive genome of loblolly pine using haploid DNA and novel assembly strategies

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The size and complexity of conifer genomes has, until now, prevented full genome sequencing and assembly. The large research community and economic importance of loblolly pine, Pinus taeda L., made it an early candidate for reference sequence determination. Results We develop a novel strategy to sequence the genome of loblolly pine that combines unique aspects of pine reproductive biology and genome assembly methodology. We use a whole genome shotgun approach relying primarily on next generation sequence generated from a single haploid seed megagametophyte from a loblolly pine tree, 20-1010, that has been used in industrial forest tree breeding. The resulting sequence and assembly was used to generate a draft genome spanning 23.2 Gbp and containing 20.1 Gbp with an N50 scaffold size of 66.9 kbp, making it a significant improvement over available conifer genomes. The long scaffold lengths allow the annotation of 50,172 gene models with intron lengths averaging over 2.7 kbp and sometimes exceeding 100 kbp in length. Analysis of orthologous gene sets identifies gene families that may be unique to conifers. We further characterize and expand the existing repeat library based on the de novo analysis of the repetitive content, estimated to encompass 82% of the genome. Conclusions In addition to its value as a resource for researchers and breeders, the loblolly pine genome sequence and assembly reported here demonstrates a novel approach to sequencing the large and complex genomes of this important group of plants that can now be widely applied. PMID:24647006

Parent Reactions to a School-Based Body Mass Index Screening Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Suzanne Bennett; Pilkington, Lorri L.; Lamp, Camilla; He, Jianghua; Deeb, Larry C.

2009-01-01

Background: This study assessed parent reactions to school-based body mass index (BMI) screening. Methods: After a K-8 BMI screening program, parents were sent a letter detailing their child's BMI results. Approximately 50 parents were randomly selected for interview from each of 4 child weight-classification groups (overweight, at risk of…

[Parenting styles and their relationship with hyperactivity].

PubMed

Raya Trenas, Antonio Félix; Herreruzo Cabrera, Javier; Pino Osuna, María José

2008-11-01

The present study aims to determine the relationship among factors that make up the parenting styles according to the PCRI (Parent-Child Relationship Inventory) and hyperactivity reported by parents through the BASC (Behaviour Assessment System for Children). We selected a sample of 32 children between 3 and 14 years old (23 male and 9 female) with risk scores in hyperactivity and another similar group with low scores in hyperactivity. After administering both instruments to the parents, we carried out a binomial logistic regression analysis which resulted in a prediction model for 84.4% of the sample, made up of the PCRI factors: fathers' involvement, communication and role orientation, mothers' parental support, and both parents' limit-setting and autonomy. Moreover, our analysis of the variance produced significant differences in the support perceived by the fathers and mothers of both groups. Lastly, the utility of results to propose intervention strategies within the family based on an authoritative style is discussed.

Are parenting style and controlling feeding practices related?

PubMed

Blissett, J; Haycraft, E

2008-01-01

This study examined the relationships between parenting styles, feeding practices and BMI in a non-clinical sample of mothers and fathers of UK preschool children. Ninety-six cohabiting parents of 48 children (19 male, 29 female, mean age 42 months) completed a series of self-report questionnaires assessing parenting style, feeding practices, eating psychopathology and a range of demographic information. There were no relationships between authoritarian parenting and controlling feeding practices. In both mothers and fathers, permissive parenting style was related to lower monitoring of children's unhealthy food intake. Permissive parenting was also associated with increased use of restriction by mothers and pressure to eat by fathers. Authoritative parenting style was also related to lower use of pressure to eat by fathers only. Parenting styles were not related to child BMI in this sample. Higher child BMI was best predicted by lower paternal application of pressure to eat and greater paternal reports of drive for thinness. Parenting style may not have a direct impact on child BMI until child food selection and consumption becomes more autonomous.

Communicating with parents about vaccination: a framework for health professionals.

PubMed

Leask, Julie; Kinnersley, Paul; Jackson, Cath; Cheater, Francine; Bedford, Helen; Rowles, Greg

2012-09-21

A critical factor shaping parental attitudes to vaccination is the parent's interactions with health professionals. An effective interaction can address the concerns of vaccine supportive parents and motivate a hesitant parent towards vaccine acceptance. Poor communication can contribute to rejection of vaccinations or dissatisfaction with care. We sought to provide a framework for health professionals when communicating with parents about vaccination. Literature review to identify a spectrum of parent attitudes or 'positions' on childhood vaccination with estimates of the proportion of each group based on population studies. Development of a framework related to each parental position with determination of key indicators, goals and strategies based on communication science, motivational interviewing and valid consent principles. Five distinct parental groups were identified: the 'unquestioning acceptor' (30-40%), the 'cautious acceptor' (25-35%); the 'hesitant' (20-30%); the 'late or selective vaccinator' (2-27%); and the 'refuser' of all vaccines (<2%). The goals of the encounter with each group will vary, depending on the parents' readiness to vaccinate. In all encounters, health professionals should build rapport, accept questions and concerns, and facilitate valid consent. For the hesitant, late or selective vaccinators, or refusers, strategies should include use of a guiding style and eliciting the parent's own motivations to vaccinate while, avoiding excessive persuasion and adversarial debates. It may be necessary to book another appointment or offer attendance at a specialised adverse events clinic. Good information resources should also be used. Health professionals have a central role in maintaining public trust in vaccination, including addressing parents' concerns. These recommendations are tailored to specific parental positions on vaccination and provide a structured approach to assist professionals. They advocate respectful interactions that aim to

Parenting behaviour is highly heritable in male stickleback

PubMed Central

Trapp, Rebecca

2018-01-01

Parental care is critical for fitness, yet little is known about its genetic basis. Here, we estimate the heritability of parenting behaviour in a species famous for its diversity and its behavioural repertoire: three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Male three-spined stickleback are the sole providers of parental care that is necessary for offspring survival; therefore, this system offers the opportunity to study the inheritance of parental behaviour when selection is primarily acting on males. Fanning behaviour is a conspicuous parental behaviour that is readily quantified in this species. We show that the heritability of fanning behaviour is ≥0.9 and significantly different from zero within a freshwater population. Moreover, there was abundant genetic variation for fanning behaviour, indicating that it could readily evolve. These results suggest that parenting behaviour is tractable for further genetic dissection in this system. PMID:29410816

Parental Perceptions of the Outcome and Meaning of Normalization

PubMed Central

Knafl, Kathleen A.; Darney, Blair G.; Gallo, Agatha M.; Angst, Denise B.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this secondary analysis was to identify the meaning of normalization for parents of a child with a chronic genetic condition. The sample was comprised of 28 families (48 parents), selected to reflect two groups: Normalization Present (NP) and Normalization Absent (NA). Constant comparison analysis was used to identify themes characterizing parents' perceptions of the meaning of normalization. The meanings parents attributed to normalization reflected their evaluation of condition management, parenting role, and condition impact, with parents in the NP and NA groups demonstrating distinct patterns of meaning. These meaning patterns are discussed as an outcome of normalization. Providers can play a pivotal role in helping families achieve normalization by providing guidance on how to balance condition management with normal family life. PMID:20108258

Parental Marital Quality, Parental Divorce, and Relations with Parents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booth, Alan; Amato, Paul R.

1994-01-01

Examined data from 419 parents and their adult children to assess impact of parental marital quality and divorce while child is residing with parents on parent-child relations 12 years later. Low marital quality and divorce appeared to have independent effects on adult child-parent relations. Fathers' relationships suffered more than mothers';…

A genotyping system capable of simultaneously analyzing >1000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in a haploid genome.

PubMed

Wang, Hui-Yun; Luo, Minjie; Tereshchenko, Irina V; Frikker, Danielle M; Cui, Xiangfeng; Li, James Y; Hu, Guohong; Chu, Yi; Azaro, Marco A; Lin, Yong; Shen, Li; Yang, Qifeng; Kambouris, Manousos E; Gao, Richeng; Shih, Weichung; Li, Honghua

2005-02-01

A high-throughput genotyping system for scoring single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has been developed. With this system, >1000 SNPs can be analyzed in a single assay, with a sensitivity that allows the use of single haploid cells as starting material. In the multiplex polymorphic sequence amplification step, instead of attaching universal sequences to the amplicons, primers that are unlikely to have nonspecific and productive interactions are used. Genotypes of SNPs are then determined by using the widely accessible microarray technology and the simple single-base extension assay. Three SNP panels, each consisting of >1000 SNPs, were incorporated into this system. The system was used to analyze 24 human genomic DNA samples. With 5 ng of human genomic DNA, the average detection rate was 98.22% when single probes were used, and 96.71% could be detected by dual probes in different directions. When single sperm cells were used, 91.88% of the SNPs were detectable, which is comparable to the level that was reached when very few genetic markers were used. By using a dual-probe assay, the average genotyping accuracy was 99.96% for 5 ng of human genomic DNA and 99.95% for single sperm. This system may be used to significantly facilitate large-scale genetic analysis even if the amount of DNA template is very limited or even highly degraded as that obtained from paraffin-embedded cancer specimens, and to make many unpractical research projects highly realistic and affordable.

Parent Education: Abstract Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kremer, Barbara, Comp.

This bibliography has been compiled to alert educators to parent education documents found in the ERIC microfiche collection and in journal literature. Abstracts of selected documents have been taken from "Research in Education (RIE)", and journal article citations from the "Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE)". Included are published…

Parents' views on toilet training (TT): A quantitative study to identify the beliefs and attitudes of parents concerning TT.

PubMed

van Nunen, Karolien; Kaerts, Nore; Wyndaele, Jean-Jacques; Vermandel, Alexandra; Hal, Guido Van

2015-06-01

In recent years, the age at which parents start and finish toilet training (TT) their children has increased. To cope with the problems caused by this later completion, it is essential to identify the beliefs and attitudes of the parents. Two thousand questionnaires were distributed to parents of children aged 30 to 36 months, attending 50 randomly selected schools in Antwerp, Belgium. Too many children are toilet trained after the minimum school age of 30 months. Most parents are not aware of the possible negative consequences this can entail. Mothers with a paid occupation think more often that children should be toilet trained before the age of 30 months, and the higher the mother's educational level, the more likely she will send her child to school toilet trained. More of single parents think that children who are not yet toilet trained should be allowed to go to school and more often send their not fully toilet-trained children to school. Parents should be better informed about the possible negative consequences of a later completion of TT. Single parents, more than other parents, should be assisted in the TT process and offered more support. © The Author(s) 2013.

Not All Parents Make the Grade in Today's Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horvat, Erin McNamara; Baugh, David E.

2015-01-01

Expectations for parent involvement in their children's education have risen dramatically over the last 20 years. The demands now placed on parents to evaluate and select educational options for their children, to act as advocates for their children, and to support increasingly demanding academic standards have never been greater. Strong…

Parental acculturation level moderates outcome in peer-involved and parent-involved CBT for anxiety disorders in Latino youth.

PubMed

Vaclavik, Daniella; Buitron, Victor; Rey, Yasmin; Marin, Carla E; Silverman, Wendy K; Pettit, Jeremy W

2017-09-01

Cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs) are efficacious treatments for anxiety disorders in Latino youth. However, there is a gap in knowledge about moderators of CBT outcomes in Latino youth. This study addresses this gap by examining parental acculturation as a moderator of youth anxiety outcomes in a randomized controlled trial of parent-involved CBT (CBT/P) and peer-involved group CBT (GCBT) in 139 Latino youth (ages 6 to 16 years; mean age = 9.68 years). Comparable youth anxiety reduction effects were found for CBT/P and GCBT. Parental acculturation to majority US culture, but not identification with country of origin, significantly moderated youth anxiety outcomes: at low levels of parental acculturation to majority US culture, youth posttreatment anxiety scores were lower in GCBT than CBT/P; at high levels of parental acculturation to majority US culture, youth posttreatment anxiety scores were lower in CBT/P than GCBT. These findings provide further evidence for the efficacy of CBTs for anxiety disorders in Latino youth and also provide guidance for moving toward personalization of CBTs' selection depending on parental acculturation levels.

Parenting children with down syndrome: An analysis of parenting styles, parenting dimensions, and parental stress.

PubMed

Phillips, B Allyson; Conners, Frances; Curtner-Smith, Mary Elizabeth

2017-09-01

Effective parenting is vital for a child's development. Although much work has been conducted on parenting typically developing children, little work has examined parenting children with Down syndrome. The purpose of the current study was to compare the parenting styles and dimensions in mothers of children with DS and mothers of TD children. Thirty-five mothers of children with DS and 47 mothers of TD children completed questionnaires about parenting, parental stress, child behavior problems, and child executive function. We found that mothers of children with DS use an authoritative parenting style less and a permissive parenting style more than mothers of TD children. Additionally, we found that mothers of children with DS use reasoning/induction and verbal hostility less and ignoring misbehavior more than mothers of TD children. All of these differences, except for those of reasoning/induction, were at least partially accounted for by the higher levels of parental stress in the DS group. Parenting interventions should be focused on reducing parental stress and training mothers to parent under stress in an effort to improve parenting techniques, which would, in theory, improve long-term child outcomes for children with DS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hope in Parents of Very-Low Birth Weight Infants and its Association with Parenting Stress and Quality of Life.

PubMed

Nordheim, Trond; Rustøen, Tone; Solevåg, Anne Lee; Småstuen, Milada Cvancarova; Nakstad, Britt

Being a parent of a very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infant can be stressful. We aimed to describe parental hope 42months after the birth of a VLBW infant and determine whether there is an association between hope and parenting stress with quality of life (QoL), respectively. Fifty-nine parents of VLBW infants completed questionnaires about hope, parenting stress and QoL. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) and linear regression models were used to examine the relationship between the selected variables. To compare groups, t-test was used and Cohen's d for effect size was calculated. Parents of VLBW infants were more hopeful than the general population (p<0.001). Parenting stress and hope were both independently associated with QoL (p<0.001). The subgroup of parents of infants with birth weight <1000g had less hope (p=0.041) and higher parenting stress (p=0.041) than parents of infants with birth weight 1000-1500g. Hope and parenting stress were both independent determinants of QoL. Parents of the presumably sickest infants had less hope and higher parenting stress than parents of VLBW infants with a birth weight over 1000g. Hope should be further explored as a coping mechanism in parents of VLBW infants. The clinical implications of the strong association between hope, parenting stress and QoL remain to be determined, but reducing stress and strengthening hope seem to be important. This should be taken into account both at hospital discharge and at follow-up, especially for lower-birth-weight infants. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review of parental activation interventions for parents of children with special health care needs.

PubMed

Mirza, M; Krischer, A; Stolley, M; Magaña, S; Martin, M

2018-05-01

A large number of U.S. children are identified as having special health care needs (CSHCN). Despite parents' central role in managing their child's needs, many parents report difficulties in navigating service systems, finding information about their child's condition, and accessing health care and community resources. Therefore, there is a need for interventions that "activate" parents of children with special health care needs to increase their knowledge, skills, and confidence in managing, coordinating, and advocating for their child's needs. This study sought to review the existing literature and examine the effects of parent support interventions that focus on parental activation either in part or whole, on child, parent, or family outcomes. Specific aims included (a) summarizing the nature and content of interventions; (b) describing changes in relevant outcomes; (c) identifying limitations and making recommendations for future research. Following electronic databases were searched: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO via ProQuest, PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health via EBSCO, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) via ProQuest, The Cochrane Library (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Methodology Register), and Google Scholar. Twenty-two studies were selected, data were extracted, and quality was assessed using standardized procedures. Five intervention categories were identified: parent-to-parent supports, psycho-educational groups, content-specific groups, community health worker model, and self-management-based interventions. Although most studies showed positive effects of the intervention, evidence was inconsistent for parental outcomes such as self-efficacy, confidence, strain, depression, and perceived social support. Evidence was more consistent in showing improvement in parent coping and in use of community-based services and resources. There is a need to boost active

Attitudes Toward Bilingual Education: A Study of Parents with Children in Selected Bilingual Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutierrez, Lorraine P.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes toward bilingual education of parents whose children were in bilingual programs and to find if attitude differences related to sex, age, mobility, and education existed between income groups. The sample consisted of 110 pairs of parents whose children were in bilingual programs in 10…

Early stress, parental motivation, and reproductive decision-making: applications of life history theory to parental behavior.

PubMed

Cabeza de Baca, Tomás; Ellis, Bruce J

2017-06-01

This review focuses on the impact of parental behavior on child development, as interpreted from an evolutionary-developmental perspective. We employ psychosocial acceleration theory to reinterpret the effects of variation in parental investment and involvement on child development, arguing that these effects have been structured by natural selection to match the developing child to current and expected future environments. Over time, an individual's development, physiology, and behavior are organized in a coordinated manner (as instantiated in 'life history strategies') that facilitates survival and reproductive success under different conditions. We review evidence to suggest that parental behavior (1) is strategic and contingent on environmental opportunities and constraints and (2) influences child life history strategies across behavioral, cognitive, and physiological domains. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reducing Schoolchildren With Reactive Aggression Through Child, Parent, and Conjoint Parent-Child Group Interventions: A Longitudinal Outcome Effectiveness Study.

PubMed

Fung, Annis Lai Chu

2017-10-10

This study was the first to evaluate the effectiveness of three different group interventions to reduce children's reactive aggression based on the social information processing (SIP) model. In the first stage of screening, 3,734 children of Grades 4-6 completed the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ) to assess their reactive and proactive aggression. Respondents with a total score of z ≥ 1 on the RPQ were shortlisted for the second stage of screening by qualitative interview. Interviews with 475 children were conducted to select those who showed reactive aggression featuring a hostile attributional bias. Finally, 126 children (97 males and 29 females) aged 8 to 14 (M = 9.71, SD = 1.23) were selected and randomly assigned to one of the three groups: a child group, a parent group, and a parent-child group. A significant Time × Intervention effect was found for general and reactive aggression. The parent-child group and child group showed a significant drop in general aggression and reactive aggression from posttest to 6-month follow-up, after controlling for baseline scores, sex, and age. However, the parent group showed no treatment effect: reactive aggression scores were significantly higher than those in the child group at 6-month follow-up. This study has provided strong evidence that children with reactive aggression need direct and specific treatment to reconstruct the steps of the SIP involving the selection and interpretation of cues. The intervention could help to prevent severe violent crimes at the later stage of a reactive aggressor. © 2017 Family Process Institute.

Decreased ethyl carbamate generation during Chinese rice wine fermentation by disruption of CAR1 in an industrial yeast strain.

PubMed

Wu, Dianhui; Li, Xiaomin; Shen, Chao; Lu, Jian; Chen, Jian; Xie, Guangfa

2014-06-16

Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolizes arginine to ornithine and urea during wine fermentations. In the fermentation of Chinese rice wine, yeast strains of S. cerevisiae do not fully metabolize urea, which will be secreted into the spirits and spontaneously reacts with ethanol to form ethyl carbamate, a potential carcinogenic agent for humans. To block the pathway of urea production, we genetically engineered two haploid strains to reduce the arginase (encoded by CAR1) activity, which were isolated from a diploid industrial Chinese rice wine strain. Finally the engineered haploids with opposite mating type were mated back to diploid strains, obtaining a heterozygous deletion strain (CAR1/car1) and a homozygous defect strain (car1/car1). These strains were compared to the parental industrial yeast strain in Chinese rice wine fermentations and spirit production. The strain with the homozygous CAR1 deletion showed significant reductions of urea and EC in the final spirits in comparison to the parental strain, with the concentration reductions by 86.9% and 50.5% respectively. In addition, EC accumulation was in a much lower tempo during rice wine storage. Moreover, the growth behavior and fermentation characteristics of the engineered diploid strain were similar to the parental strain. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The best motivator priorities parents choose via analytical hierarchy process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farah, R. N.; Latha, P.

2015-05-01

Motivation is probably the most important factor that educators can target in order to improve learning. Numerous cross-disciplinary theories have been postulated to explain motivation. While each of these theories has some truth, no single theory seems to adequately explain all human motivation. The fact is that human beings in general and pupils in particular are complex creatures with complex needs and desires. In this paper, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been proposed as an emerging solution to move towards too large, dynamic and complex real world multi-criteria decision making problems in selecting the most suitable motivator when choosing school for their children. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 ("Statistical Package for Social Science") software. Statistic testing used are descriptive and inferential statistic. Descriptive statistic used to identify respondent pupils and parents demographic factors. The statistical testing used to determine the pupils and parents highest motivator priorities and parents' best priorities using AHP to determine the criteria chosen by parents such as school principals, teachers, pupils and parents. The moderating factors are selected schools based on "Standard Kualiti Pendidikan Malaysia" (SKPM) in Ampang. Inferential statistics such as One-way ANOVA used to get the significant and data used to calculate the weightage of AHP. School principals is found to be the best motivator for parents in choosing school for their pupils followed by teachers, parents and pupils.

Parents' food choice motives and their associations with children's food preferences.

PubMed

Russell, Catherine G; Worsley, Anthony; Liem, Djin G

2015-04-01

The objective was to investigate parents' motives for selecting foods for their children and the associations between these motives and children's food preferences. Cross-sectional survey. A modified version of the Food Choice Questionnaire was used to assess parents' food choice motives. Parents also reported children's liking/disliking of 176 food and beverage items on 5-point Likert scales. Patterns of food choice motives were examined with exploratory principal component analysis. Associations between motives and children's food preferences were assessed with linear regression while one-way and two-way ANOVA were used to test for sociodemographic differences. Two Australian cities. Parents (n 371) of 2-5-year-old children. Health, nutrition and taste were key motivators for parents, whereas price, political concerns and advertising were among the motives considered least important. The more parents' food choice for their children was driven by what their children wanted, the less children liked vegetables (β =-0·27, P<0·01), fruit (β=-0·19, P<0·01) and cereals (β=-0·28, P<0·01) and the higher the number of untried foods (r=0·17, P<0·01). The reverse was found for parents' focus on natural/ethical motives (vegetables β=0·17, P<0·01; fruit β=0·17, P<0·01; cereals β=0·14, P=0·01). Health and nutrition motives bordered on statistical significance as predictors of children's fruit and vegetable preferences. Although parents appear well intentioned in their motives for selecting children's foods, there are gaps to be addressed in the nature of such motives (e.g. selecting foods in line with the child's desires) or the translation of health motives into healthy food choices.

Parent-child interaction: Does parental language matter?

PubMed

Menashe, Atara; Atzaba-Poria, Naama

2016-11-01

Although parental language and behaviour have been widely investigated, few studies have examined their unique and interactive contribution to the parent-child relationship. The current study explores how parental behaviour (sensitivity and non-intrusiveness) and the use of parental language (exploring and control languages) correlate with parent-child dyadic mutuality. Specifically, we investigated the following questions: (1) 'Is parental language associated with parent-child dyadic mutuality above and beyond parental behaviour?' (2) 'Does parental language moderate the links between parental behaviour and the parent-child dyadic mutuality?' (3) 'Do these differences vary between mothers and fathers?' The sample included 65 children (M age  = 1.97 years, SD = 0.86) and their parents. We observed parental behaviour, parent-child dyadic mutuality, and the type of parental language used during videotaped in-home observations. The results indicated that parental language and behaviours are distinct components of the parent-child interaction. Parents who used higher levels of exploring language showed higher levels of parent-child dyadic mutuality, even when accounting for parental behaviour. Use of controlling language, however, was not found to be related to the parent-child dyadic mutuality. Different moderation models were found for mothers and fathers. These results highlight the need to distinguish parental language and behaviour when assessing their contribution to the parent-child relationship. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

The Predictive Role of Maternal Parenting and Stress on Pupils' Bullying involvement.

PubMed

Alizadeh Maralani, Fatemeh; Mirnasab, Mirmahmoud; Hashemi, Touraj

2016-10-01

The link between inappropriate parenting style and both bullying and victimization is well documented. However, it is not clear as to which kind of parenting style is associated with victimization. Furthermore, no studies have yet been conducted regarding the role of parental stress in bullying and victimization. This study aimed to examine the role of parenting styles and maternal stress in pupils' bullying and victimization. A total of 300 primary school pupils, enrolled in fourth and fifth grades, participated in the study. Initially, 100 noninvolved pupils were randomly selected using a multistage cluster sampling method. Then using a screening method, 100 bully pupils and 100 victimized peers were selected. Olweus Bullying Scale and teacher nomination were administered for screening these pupils. Baumrind Parenting Style Questionnaire and revised version of Abidin Parental Stress Index (short form) were also applied to all pupils in the study. Data were analyzed using discriminant function analysis. The findings showed that (a) with regard to parenting styles, significant differences were found among groups. Authoritarian parenting style could significantly predict pupils' bullying behavior, whereas victimization was predictable in families with permissive parenting style. In addition, noninvolved pupils were predicted to have authoritative parenting style. (b) Considering maternal stress, significant differences were observed across groups. Parents of bullies and victims were predicted to have higher maternal stress than noninvolved pupils. The implications of the study in relation to the role of mothers in bullying and victimization are discussed.

Parental Qualities as Predictors of Adolescent Conformity: Perceptions from Adolescents, Mothers, and Fathers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Carolyn S.; Peterson, Gary W.

The purpose of this study was to examine how adolescent and parental perceptions of selected parental qualities predicted adolescent conformity to parental expectations, using symbolic interaction as a conceptual foundation. Self-report questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 326 families with adolescents. Four separate multiple…

Predation drives interpopulation differences in parental care expression.

PubMed

Huang, Wen-San; Lin, Si-Min; Dubey, Sylvain; Pike, David A

2013-03-01

Expressing parental care after oviposition or parturition is usually an obligate (evolved) trait within a species, despite evolutionary theory predicting that widespread species should vary in whether or not they express parental care according to local selection pressures. The lizard Eutropis longicaudata expresses maternal care only in a single population throughout its large geographical range, but why this pattern occurs is unknown. We used reciprocal translocation and predator exclusion experiments to test whether this intraspecific variation is a fixed trait within populations and whether predator abundance explains this perplexing pattern. Wild-caught female lizards that were reciprocally translocated consistently guarded or abandoned eggs in line with their population of origin. By contrast, most lizards raised in a common garden environment and subsequently released as adults adopted the maternal care strategy of the recipient population, even when the parents originated from a population lacking maternal care. Egg predation represents a significant fitness cost in the populations where females display egg-guarding behaviour, but guarding eggs outweighs this potential cost by increasing hatching success. These results imply that predators can be a driving force in the expression of parental care in instances where it is normally absent and that local selection pressure is sufficient to cause behavioural divergence in whether or not parental care is expressed. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2012 British Ecological Society.

The effect of gene interactions on the long-term response to selection.

PubMed

Paixão, Tiago; Barton, Nicholas H

2016-04-19

The role of gene interactions in the evolutionary process has long been controversial. Although some argue that they are not of importance, because most variation is additive, others claim that their effect in the long term can be substantial. Here, we focus on the long-term effects of genetic interactions under directional selection assuming no mutation or dominance, and that epistasis is symmetrical overall. We ask by how much the mean of a complex trait can be increased by selection and analyze two extreme regimes, in which either drift or selection dominate the dynamics of allele frequencies. In both scenarios, epistatic interactions affect the long-term response to selection by modulating the additive genetic variance. When drift dominates, we extend Robertson's [Robertson A (1960)Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci153(951):234-249] argument to show that, for any form of epistasis, the total response of a haploid population is proportional to the initial total genotypic variance. In contrast, the total response of a diploid population is increased by epistasis, for a given initial genotypic variance. When selection dominates, we show that the total selection response can only be increased by epistasis when some initially deleterious alleles become favored as the genetic background changes. We find a simple approximation for this effect and show that, in this regime, it is the structure of the genotype-phenotype map that matters and not the variance components of the population.

Stress among Parents of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comparison Involving Physiological Indicators and Parent Self-Reports.

PubMed

Padden, Ciara; James, Jack E

2017-01-01

Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been reported as experiencing higher levels of stress and poorer physical health than parents of typically developing children. However, most of the relevant literature has been based on parental self-reports of stress and health. While research on physiological outcomes has grown in recent years, gaps still exist in our understanding of the physiological effects, if any, of stress related to parenting a child with ASD. The present study compared parent-reported stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as selected physiological measures of stress (i.e., cortisol, alpha-amylase, and ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate) between matched groups of parents of children with ( N =  38) and without ( N  = 38) ASD. Participants completed questionnaires, collected saliva samples for the purpose of measuring cortisol and alpha-amylase, and wore an ambulatory blood pressure monitor for 24 h. Parents of children with ASD reported significantly higher levels of parental distress, anxiety, and depression than parents of typically developing children. Parent-reported distress, anxiety, depression, and health were not correlated with physiological measures. With the exception that parents of children with ASD had significantly lower cortisol levels 30 min after waking, no other significant group differences were found for physiological measures. Parents of children with ASD reported significantly higher use of a number of adaptive coping strategies (e.g., emotional support) in comparison to parents of typically developing children. Results are discussed in the context of implications for future research directions, stress research, and practical implications for parental support.

Shared scientific thinking in everyday parent-child activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crowley, Kevin; Callanan, Maureen A.; Jipson, Jennifer L.; Galco, Jodi; Topping, Karen; Shrager, Jeff

2001-11-01

Current accounts of the development of scientific reasoning focus on individual children's ability to coordinate the collection and evaluation of evidence with the creation of theories to explain the evidence. This observational study of parent-child interactions in a children's museum demonstrated that parents shape and support children's scientific thinking in everyday, nonobligatory activity. When children engaged an exhibit with parents, their exploration of evidence was observed to be longer, broader, and more focused on relevant comparisons than children who engaged the exhibit without their parents. Parents were observed to talk to children about how to select and encode appropriate evidence and how to make direct comparisons between the most informative kinds of evidence. Parents also sometimes assumed the role of explainer by casting children's experience in causal terms, connecting the experience to prior knowledge, or introducing abstract principles. We discuss these findings with respect to two dimensions of children's scientific thinking: developments in evidence collection and developments in theory construction.

Blue and green egg-color intensity is associated with parental effort and mating system in passerines: support for the sexual selection hypothesis.

PubMed

Soler, Juan J; Moreno, Juan; Avilés, Jesús M; Møller, Anders P

2005-03-01

Among several adaptive explanations proposed to account for variation in avian egg color, that related to sexual selection is of particular interest because of its possible generality. Briefly, it proposes that because biliverdin (the pigment responsible for blue-green eggshell coloration) is an antioxidant, deposition in the eggshell by laying females may signal the capacity of females to control free radicals, despite the handicap of removing this antioxidant from their body. If males adjust parental effort in response to the intensity of the blue coloration of eggs, thereby investing more in the offspring of high-quality mates, blue eggs may represent a postmating sexually selected signal in females. Here, by image and spectrophotometric analyses of the eggs of European passerines, we tested two different predictions of the hypothesis. First, variables related to intraspecific variation in parental effort (i.e., the duration of the nestling period controlled for body mass) should be positively related to the intensity of blue-green color of the eggshell across species. Second, there should be a positive relationship between intensity of blue-green color of eggs and degree of polygyny. These predictions were supported: intensity of blue-green coloration (i.e., chroma) was significantly related to the duration of the nestling period and to degree of polygyny after controlling for possible confounding variables (i.e., body mass, incubation period, and nest type) and similarity due to common descent. Nest type (hole or nonhole) also explained a significant proportion of variation in egg chroma, perhaps reflecting different selection pressures (i.e., light conditions, risk of parasitism) affecting species with the two types of nests.

Parents Using Explicit Reading Instruction with Their Children At-Risk for Reading Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McConnell, Bethany M.; Kubina, Rick

2016-01-01

Kindergarten students at-risk for reading difficulties were selected for participation in a parent implemented reading program. Each parent provided instruction to his or her child using the reading program "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" ("TYCTR"; Engelmann, Haddox, & Bruner, 1983). Parents were expected to…

Accuracy of self- and parental perception of overweight among Latino preadolescents.

PubMed

Intagliata, Valentina; Ip, Edward H; Gesell, Sabina B; Barkin, Shari L

2008-01-01

This investigation examines self-perception and parental perception of child body size and factors associated with accurate parental perception of child body size. Latino at-risk for overweight (AROW) and/or overweight preadolescent children (ages 8-11 years) along with their parents were recruited (N=123 dyads). Children's body mass index (BMI) was measured but not discussed before participants were shown pictures of body sizes and asked to select the image that represented the child's body. The correlation between the child's body size selection and the child's actual BMI was 0.117 (p=0.20) whereas the correlation between the parent's assessment of the child's body size and the child's actual BMI was 0.470 (p<0.001). Logistic regression revealed that only parental education level (> or =college) was associated with a more accurate parental perception of their child's body size (OR: 0.11/95% CI: 0.01, 0.89) while child's sex, parental BMI, and parental health status were not associated with a perception that corresponded to the child's BMI. The sample was drawn from a single community clinic in Forsyth County which serves a large population of newer Latino immigrants in the county. The results indicate that (1) Latino AROW/overweight preadolescent children do not have an accurate perception of their own body size; (2) Latino parents have a more accurate perception of their child's body size with a moderately sized correlation suggesting that their perception of their child's body size is frequently inaccurate; and (3) Latino parents with higher education perceive their child's body size more accurately than less educated parents.

Lineage dynamics and mutation-selection balance in non-adapting asexual populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pénisson, Sophie; Sniegowski, Paul D.; Colato, Alexandre; Gerrish, Philip J.

2013-02-01

In classical population genetics, mutation-selection balance refers to the equilibrium frequency of a deleterious allele established and maintained under two opposing forces: recurrent mutation, which tends to increase the frequency of the allele; and selection, which tends to decrease its frequency. In a haploid population, if μ denotes the per capita rate of production of the deleterious allele by mutation and s denotes the selective disadvantage of carrying the allele, then the classical mutation-selection balance frequency of the allele is approximated by μ/s. This calculation assumes that lineages carrying the mutant allele in question—the ‘focal allele’—do not accumulate deleterious mutations linked to the focal allele. In principle, indirect selection against the focal allele caused by such additional mutations can decrease the frequency of the focal allele below the classical mutation-selection balance. This effect of indirect selection will be strongest in an asexual population, in which the entire genome is in linkage. Here, we use an approach based on a multitype branching process to investigate this effect, analyzing lineage dynamics under mutation, direct selection, and indirect selection in a non-adapting asexual population. We find that the equilibrium balance between recurrent mutation to the focal allele and the forces of direct and indirect selection against the focal allele is closely approximated by γμ/(s + U) (s = 0 if the focal allele is neutral), where γ ≈ eθθ-(ω+θ)(ω + θ)(Γ(ω + θ) - Γ(ω + θ,θ)), \\theta =U/\\tilde {s}, and \\omega =s/\\tilde {s}; U denotes the genomic deleterious mutation rate and \\tilde {s} denotes the geometric mean selective disadvantage of deleterious mutations elsewhere on the genome. This mutation-selection balance for asexual populations can remain surprisingly invariant over wide ranges of the mutation rate.

Selecting for Disabilities: Selection Versus Modification.

PubMed

Shaw, Joshua

2018-04-01

This essay considers one argument used to defend parents who use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select for deafness and other disabilities. Some bioethicists have argued that a distinction should be drawn between genetically modifying embryos to possess disabilities and using PGD to select embryos that already present markers of them, and that the former is unethical because it inflicts avoidable harms onto the resulting children, whereas the latter is permissible because it allows children with potentially impaired abilities to exist. This essay raises doubts about whether a meaningful moral distinction can be drawn between modification and selection. Arguments which distinguish modification from selection can be understood in two ways. One is to read them as presenting a No Harm, No Foul argument. Another is to read them as presenting a Harming Versus Letting Be argument. Neither succeeds, however, either in establishing a meaningful moral distinction between modification and selection, or in showing that the second is morally permissible in contradistinction to the first.

THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL ATTITUDES AND CHILD-PARENT INTERACTION UPON REMEDIAL READING PROGRESS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DELLA-PIANA, GABRIEL; AND OTHERS

TWO PILOT STUDIES OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENT CHARACTERISTICS AND THE READING ACHIEVEMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN ARE REPORTED. THE FIRST STUDY COMPARED THE BEHAVIOR OF MOTHERS OF HIGH AND LOW VERBAL GIRLS IN TWO SEMISTRUCTURED INTERACTION SITUATIONS. TEN HIGH VERBAL AND 10 LOW VERBAL GIRLS WERE SELECTED FOR STUDY ON THE BASIS OF SCORES ON THE…

Parent and Adolescent Reports of Parenting When a Parent Has a History of Depression: Associations with Observations of Parenting

PubMed Central

Parent, Justin; Forehand, Rex; Dunbar, Jennifer P.; Watson, Kelly H.; Reising, Michelle M.; Seehuus, Martin; Compas, Bruce E.

2013-01-01

The current study examined the congruence of parent and adolescent reports of positive and negative parenting with observations of parent-adolescent interactions as the criterion measure. The role of parent and adolescent depressive symptoms in moderating the associations between adolescent or parent report and observations of parenting also was examined. Participants were 180 parents (88.9% female) with a history of clinical depression and one of their 9-to-15 year old children (49.4% female). Parents and adolescents reported on parenting skills and depressive symptoms, and parenting was independently observed subsequently in the same session. Findings indicated adolescent report of positive, but not negative, parenting was more congruent with observations than parent report. For negative parenting, depressive symptoms qualified the relation between the parent or adolescent report and independent observations. For parents, higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with more congruence with observed parenting (supporting a depressive realism hypothesis) whereas an opposite trend emerged for adolescents (providing some supporting evidence for a depression-distortion hypothesis). PMID:23851629

Models of microbiome evolution incorporating host and microbial selection.

PubMed

Zeng, Qinglong; Wu, Steven; Sukumaran, Jeet; Rodrigo, Allen

2017-09-25

Numerous empirical studies suggest that hosts and microbes exert reciprocal selective effects on their ecological partners. Nonetheless, we still lack an explicit framework to model the dynamics of both hosts and microbes under selection. In a previous study, we developed an agent-based forward-time computational framework to simulate the neutral evolution of host-associated microbial communities in a constant-sized, unstructured population of hosts. These neutral models allowed offspring to sample microbes randomly from parents and/or from the environment. Additionally, the environmental pool of available microbes was constituted by fixed and persistent microbial OTUs and by contributions from host individuals in the preceding generation. In this paper, we extend our neutral models to allow selection to operate on both hosts and microbes. We do this by constructing a phenome for each microbial OTU consisting of a sample of traits that influence host and microbial fitnesses independently. Microbial traits can influence the fitness of hosts ("host selection") and the fitness of microbes ("trait-mediated microbial selection"). Additionally, the fitness effects of traits on microbes can be modified by their hosts ("host-mediated microbial selection"). We simulate the effects of these three types of selection, individually or in combination, on microbiome diversities and the fitnesses of hosts and microbes over several thousand generations of hosts. We show that microbiome diversity is strongly influenced by selection acting on microbes. Selection acting on hosts only influences microbiome diversity when there is near-complete direct or indirect parental contribution to the microbiomes of offspring. Unsurprisingly, microbial fitness increases under microbial selection. Interestingly, when host selection operates, host fitness only increases under two conditions: (1) when there is a strong parental contribution to microbial communities or (2) in the absence of a strong

A Parent-to-Parent Program in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Kae

2018-01-01

Parent-to-parent programs provide emotional and informational support to parents of children with special needs by matching trained and experienced parents with parents needing support. This study examined the implementation and effects of a Parent-to-Parent Program in Taiwan that supported 3 families of youngsters with special needs. Based on the…

Neighborhood Context, SES, and Parenting: Including a Focus on Acculturation among Latina Mothers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ceballo, Rosario; Hurd, Noelle

2008-01-01

This study examines the influence of contextual factors on parenting strategies among a sample of 104 Latina, European American, and African American mother-child pairs. The parenting constructs under investigation were selected as part of a collaborative research project among members of the parenting subgroup of the Study Group on Race, Culture,…

Behavioral and adrenal responses to various stressors in mule ducks from different commercial genetic selection schemes and their respective parental genotypes.

PubMed

Arnaud, I; Gardin, E; Sauvage, E; Bernadet, M-D; Couty, M; Guy, G; Guémené, D

2010-06-01

The mule duck, a hybrid produced by crossing a Muscovy drake and a Pekin female, is reported to express inappropriate behavior such as collective avoidance of people, the resulting distress and physical consequences potentially compromising their welfare. The present study was carried out to characterize the responses of mule duck strains from different commercial selection schemes to various stressful conditions and to confirm previous data on the genetic cross effects observed in a specific genotype. Three independent experiments were conducted with ducks from 3 French breeding companies (A, B, and C). Each experiment compared 2 mule genotypes sharing one common parental origin (paternal for ducks from company A or maternal for ducks from companies B and C). Mule duck males from the 2 genotypes and their respective parental genotypes (Pekin and Muscovy) were subjected to a set of social and stressful physiological and behavioral tests. Previously reported differences in genetic cross effects on fear responses between the parental genotypes and the corresponding hybrid were confirmed in these commercial crosses. Both mule duck and Pekin genotypes showed more active physiological and behavioral responses to stress than Muscovy genotypes. The new finding of this study is that mule genotypes appear to be more sensitive to the social environment than both respective parental genotypes. Few differences were observed between the 2 mule genotypes from A and C. On the other hand, several traits of the 2 mule genotypes from B differed. In addition, A and C mule genotypes were characterized by the same adrenal and behavioral traits but contrasting responses. The B mule genotypes were characterized by a different set of behavioral traits, and only 1 of the 2 B mule ducks was characterized by a group of adrenal traits.

Emerging adulthood and the perception of parental depression.

PubMed

Kaimal, Girija; Beardslee, William R

2010-09-01

Few studies have examined children's perceptions of parental depression. This study was a qualitative analysis of the changes in the perception of parental depression between the ages of 17 and 19 years. Archived interview narratives of 16 respondents from a longitudinal, preventive intervention study of depression in families were analyzed. The respondents were purposefully selected to represent both genders as well as higher and lower levels of family adversity. The perceptions of parental depression were found to fall into three categories: self-oriented perspectives (resistance and negativity), ambivalent perspectives, and, other-oriented perspectives (acceptance and compassion). Over time, respondents from the high-adversity families showed shifts from self-orientation to other-orientation, whereas the perspectives of respondents from low-adversity families remained unchanged. Some respondents with depression in both parents and/or siblings revealed changes in perception toward one parent but no change toward other family members with depression.

Predicting habits of vegetable parenting practices to facilitate the design of change programmes.

PubMed

Baranowski, Tom; Chen, Tzu-An; O'Connor, Teresia M; Hughes, Sheryl O; Diep, Cassandra S; Beltran, Alicia; Brand, Leah; Nicklas, Theresa; Baranowski, Janice

2016-08-01

Habit has been defined as the automatic performance of a usual behaviour. The present paper reports the relationships of variables from a Model of Goal Directed Behavior to four scales in regard to parents' habits when feeding their children: habit of (i) actively involving child in selection of vegetables; (ii) maintaining a positive vegetable environment; (iii) positive communications about vegetables; and (iv) controlling vegetable practices. We tested the hypothesis that the primary predictor of each habit variable would be the measure of the corresponding parenting practice. Internet survey data from a mostly female sample. Primary analyses employed regression modelling with backward deletion, controlling for demographics and parenting practices behaviour. Houston, Texas, USA. Parents of 307 pre-school (3-5-year-old) children. Three of the four models accounted for about 50 % of the variance in the parenting practices habit scales. Each habit scale was primarily predicted by the corresponding parenting practices scale (suggesting validity). The habit of active child involvement in vegetable selection was also most strongly predicted by two barriers and rudimentary self-efficacy; the habit of maintaining a positive vegetable environment by one barrier; the habit of maintaining positive communications about vegetables by an emotional scale; and the habit of controlling vegetable practices by a perceived behavioural control scale. The predictiveness of the psychosocial variables beyond parenting practices behaviour was modest. Discontinuing the habit of ineffective controlling parenting practices may require increasing the parent's perceived control of parenting practices, perhaps through simulated parent-child interactions.

Choice, Stability and Excellence: Parent and Professional Choice in Buffalo's Magnet Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clinchy, Evans

1986-01-01

Reports on teacher, principal, parent, and student reactions to a desegregation plan implemented in Buffalo, New York, which permits teachers to choose the magnet schools in which they desire to teach and parents to select their children's schools. (GC)

The Parenting Challenge: Selecting Technology and Non-Technology Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ennis-Cole, Demetria; Parkman, Cheryl

2012-01-01

Autism is a Spectrum of Disorders (ASD) that affects 1 in 88 children. The issues and decisions parents face are almost insurmountable depending on the child's diagnosis, available interventions, the knowledge of parents, proximity to professionals and interventions, financial resources, and the individual needs of the child. There is no cure for…

Sequencing of diverse mandarin, pummelo and orange genomes reveals complex history of admixture during citrus domestication

PubMed Central

Wu, G. Albert; Prochnik, Simon; Jenkins, Jerry; Salse, Jerome; Hellsten, Uffe; Murat, Florent; Perrier, Xavier; Ruiz, Manuel; Scalabrin, Simone; Terol, Javier; Takita, Marco Aurélio; Labadie, Karine; Poulain, Julie; Couloux, Arnaud; Jabbari, Kamel; Cattonaro, Federica; Del Fabbro, Cristian; Pinosio, Sara; Zuccolo, Andrea; Chapman, Jarrod; Grimwood, Jane; Tadeo, Francisco R.; Estornell, Leandro H.; Muñoz-Sanz, Juan V.; Ibanez, Victoria; Herrero-Ortega, Amparo; Aleza, Pablo; Pérez-Pérez, Julián; Ramón, Daniel; Brunel, Dominique; Luro, François; Chen, Chunxian; Farmerie, William G.; Desany, Brian; Kodira, Chinnappa; Mohiuddin, Mohammed; Harkins, Tim; Fredrikson, Karin; Burns, Paul; Lomsadze, Alexandre; Borodovsky, Mark; Reforgiato, Giuseppe; Freitas-Astúa, Juliana; Quetier, Francis; Navarro, Luis; Roose, Mikeal; Wincker, Patrick; Schmutz, Jeremy; Morgante, Michele; Machado, Marcos Antonio; Talon, Manuel; Jaillon, Olivier; Ollitrault, Patrick; Gmitter, Frederick; Rokhsar, Daniel

2014-01-01

The domestication of citrus, is poorly understood. Cultivated types are selections from, or hybrids of, wild progenitor species, whose identities and contributions remain controversial. By comparative analysis of a collection of citrus genomes, including a high quality haploid reference, we show that cultivated types were derived from two progenitor species. Though cultivated pummelos represent selections from a single progenitor species, C. maxima, cultivated mandarins are introgressions of C. maxima into the ancestral mandarin species, C. reticulata. The most widely cultivated citrus, sweet orange, is the offspring of previously admixed individuals, but sour orange is an F1 hybrid of pure C. maxima and C. reticulata parents, implying that wild mandarins were part of the early breeding germplasm. A wild “mandarin” from China exhibited substantial divergence from C. reticulata, suggesting the possibility of other unrecognized wild citrus species. Understanding citrus phylogeny through genome analysis clarifies taxonomic relationships and enables sequence-directed genetic improvement. PMID:24908277

A Children of Twins Study of Parental Divorce and Offspring Psychopathology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Onofrio, Brian M.; Turkheimer, Eric; Emery, Robert E.; Maes, Hermine H.; Silberg, Judy; Eaves, Lindon J.

2007-01-01

Background: Although parental divorce is associated with increased substance use and internalizing problems, experiencing the separation of one's parents may not cause these outcomes. The relations may be due to genetic or environmental selection factors, characteristics that lead to both marital separation and offspring functioning. Method: We…

Viewing movie smoking undermines antismoking parenting practices.

PubMed

Sargent, James D; Hanewinkel, Reiner

2008-01-01

To test the hypothesis that viewing depictions of smoking in movies makes adolescents less responsive to parenting factors that prevent smoking. Cross-sectional survey of 4807 students (grades 5-8) through which we ascertained exposure to smoking in movies, parent smoking, and adolescents' perception of parental responsiveness (support), and parental demandingness (behavioral control). Adolescents attending randomly selected middle schools in the Northeastern U.S. ever tried smoking a cigarette. Exposure to movie smoking was ascertained by counting occurrences of tobacco use in 601 recent popular motion pictures; surveying students to identify films they had seen from a random subset of 50 films; and summing tobacco use occurrences for the films each adolescent reported seeing. We also measured adolescents' perceptions of parent smoking, parental responsiveness and demandingness. The overall prevalence of adolescent smoking was 17.4 percent. The prevalence of smoking increased with exposure to movie smoking (low vs. high exposure 8.8 vs. 25.8%, p < 0.0001). Parenting factors associated with lower rates of adolescent smoking were parent non smoking status (11.0% vs. 27.7% for parents who smoke, p < 0.0001), higher levels of demandingness (13.7% vs. 20.7% for low demandingness, p < 0.0001) and higher levels of parental responsiveness (12.4% vs. 23.1% for low parental responsiveness, p < 0.0001). Parenting factors were not strongly associated with exposure to movie smoking. For adolescents with low exposure to movie smoking the adjusted odds (95% confidence interval) of smoking were 0.31 (0.23, 0.42) if parents did not smoke, 0.57 (0.42, 0.78) if parents exerted high demandingness, and 0.52 (0.38, 0.71) if parents were highly responsive. Parents had significantly less influence for adolescents with high exposure to movie smoking, for whom the adjusted odds of smoking were only 0.50 if parents did not smoke (p = 0.014 for the interaction effect), 0.97 if parents

Foster Parents' Involvement in Authoritative Parenting and Interest in Future Parenting Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Keith A.; Kraemer, Linda K.; Bernard, Amy L.; Vidourek, Rebecca A.

2007-01-01

We surveyed 191 Southwest Ohio foster parents regarding their involvement in authoritative parenting and interest for additional parenting education. Our results showed that most respondents reported using an authoritative parenting style and were interested in receiving future training. Involvement in authoritative parenting differed…

Parents' nonstandard work schedules and child well-being: a critical review of the literature.

PubMed

Li, Jianghong; Johnson, Sarah E; Han, Wen-Jui; Andrews, Sonia; Kendall, Garth; Strazdins, Lyndall; Dockery, Alfred

2014-02-01

This paper provides a comprehensive review of empirical evidence linking parental nonstandard work schedules to four main child developmental outcomes: internalizing and externalizing problems, cognitive development, and body mass index. We evaluated the studies based on theory and methodological rigor (longitudinal data, representative samples, consideration of selection and information bias, confounders, moderators, and mediators). Of 23 studies published between 1980 and 2012 that met the selection criteria, 21 reported significant associations between nonstandard work schedules and an adverse child developmental outcome. The associations were partially mediated through parental depressive symptoms, low quality parenting, reduced parent-child interaction and closeness, and a less supportive home environment. These associations were more pronounced in disadvantaged families and when parents worked such schedules full time. We discuss the nuance, strengths, and limitations of the existing studies, and propose recommendations for future research.

Parental 'affectionless control' in adolescent depressive disorder.

PubMed

Patton, G C; Coffey, C; Posterino, M; Carlin, J B; Wolfe, R

2001-10-01

Adults with depressive disorder report high rates of sub-optimal maternal care in childhood. Despite the greater salience of relationships with parents earlier in life, associations with parenting style have not yet been systematically studied in adolescent onset disorder. A six-wave, 3-year study of adolescent health in 2032 Australian secondary school students provided an opportunity to undertake a two-phase study of early onset depression. Between waves 2 to 6, a self-administered computerised form of the revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) was used to generate a first phase diagnosis of ICD-10 depressive episode. Each subject with a CIS-R-defined depressive episode was selected for second phase assessment together with two subjects from the CIS-R non-cases in each school. Second phase assessment included a second diagnostic assessment using the depression and hypomania modules of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and assessment of paternal and maternal style using the Parental Bonding Instrument. A total of 1947 out of 2032 subjects in the sampling frame (95.8%) participated in the cohort study (phase 1) at least once; 406 (94%) of the 435 selected subjects completed second phase assessment. One hundred and nineteen subjects fulfilled criteria for depressive episode on the CIS-R at one or more waves. Over the 30-month study period, 69 subjects (10 male, 59 female) fulfilled both CIS-R and CIDI definitions of depression at the same wave and were classified as 'definite depressive disorder'. Low maternal and paternal care held independent associations with both definitions of depression, with the effects clearest in those in the lowest quartile of reported care. After adjusting for low parental care, the associations between high parental control and depression were small. Sub-optimal parenting is associated with depressive disorder in adolescents. Low maternal and paternal care are each associated with a two- to three-fold higher

Communicating with parents about vaccination: a framework for health professionals

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background A critical factor shaping parental attitudes to vaccination is the parent’s interactions with health professionals. An effective interaction can address the concerns of vaccine supportive parents and motivate a hesitant parent towards vaccine acceptance. Poor communication can contribute to rejection of vaccinations or dissatisfaction with care. We sought to provide a framework for health professionals when communicating with parents about vaccination. Methods Literature review to identify a spectrum of parent attitudes or ‘positions’ on childhood vaccination with estimates of the proportion of each group based on population studies. Development of a framework related to each parental position with determination of key indicators, goals and strategies based on communication science, motivational interviewing and valid consent principles. Results Five distinct parental groups were identified: the ‘unquestioning acceptor’ (30–40%), the ‘cautious acceptor’ (25–35%); the ‘hesitant’ (20–30%); the ‘late or selective vaccinator’ (2–27%); and the ‘refuser’ of all vaccines (<2%). The goals of the encounter with each group will vary, depending on the parents’ readiness to vaccinate. In all encounters, health professionals should build rapport, accept questions and concerns, and facilitate valid consent. For the hesitant, late or selective vaccinators, or refusers, strategies should include use of a guiding style and eliciting the parent’s own motivations to vaccinate while, avoiding excessive persuasion and adversarial debates. It may be necessary to book another appointment or offer attendance at a specialised adverse events clinic. Good information resources should also be used. Conclusions Health professionals have a central role in maintaining public trust in vaccination, including addressing parents’ concerns. These recommendations are tailored to specific parental positions on vaccination and provide a structured

Regulating preimplantation genetic diagnosis in Australia: Disability and parental choice.

PubMed

de Souza, Michelle

2015-06-01

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the process by which an early in vitro embryo is screened for a genetic condition. As the name suggests, the procedure is undertaken prior to the embryo being implanted into a woman and therefore affected embryos can be discarded. This article argues that the objections previously put forward opposing the use of PGD to select against disability are flawed. It also argues that permitting parents to act in a procreatively beneficent manner and to preserve their child's right to an open future are good reasons for parents to have the freedom to select against disability. In light of this, are there any sound reasons to limit the use of PGD to selection against serious disabilities?

Parents and Federal Education Programs. Volume 4: Title VII. The Study of Parental Involvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cadena-Munoz, Raquel; Keesling, J. Ward

This fourth volume in a seven-volume study is part of a larger study of parental involvement in four federal programs in selected school districts across the country. Presented here are results of an intensive examination of school district programs funded by Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Site studies of Title VII…

5 CFR 1651.7 - Parent or parents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Parent or parents. 1651.7 Section 1651.7 Administrative Personnel FEDERAL RETIREMENT THRIFT INVESTMENT BOARD DEATH BENEFITS § 1651.7 Parent or parents. If the account is to be paid to the participant's parent or parents under § 1651.2(a)(4), the following...

Predicting Early Maladaptive Schemas Using Baumrind's Parenting Styles.

PubMed

Esmali Kooraneh, Ahmad; Amirsardari, Leili

2015-06-01

Families play an essential role in maintaining children's mental, social, and physical health. The family provides the first and the most important social context for human development. The present study aimed to predict early maladaptive schemas using Baumrind's parenting styles (root development). A total of 357 undergraduate students of Islamic Azad University, Urmia Branch, Iran, were selected through random cluster sampling during 2013 and 2014. The students were assessed using the Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (SQ-SF) and the Baumrind's parenting styles inventories. The result of regression analysis showed that Baumrind's parenting styles are significant predictors of early maladaptive schemas (P < 0.001). The authoritative parenting style has some features such as showing high levels of warmth or encouraging kids to express their own possibly divergent opinions. The authoritarian parenting style, however, possesses traits such as heartlessness, impassiveness, strictness, and lack of attention to the children's developmental needs, which is not acceptable.

Actividades Para Padres: A Parent Handbook (Activities for Parents: A Parent Handbook).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coca, Benjamin

Thirty Mora, New Mexico parents attended a 13-session parent involvement workshop (The Mora Adventure) designed to help parents foster successful school experiences through non-school activities with their children. A parent involvement model was used as the basis of the workshop in which the parents developed more effective communication skills;…

The relationship between parental fatigue, parenting self-efficacy and behaviour: implications for supporting parents in the early parenting period.

PubMed

Chau, V; Giallo, R

2015-07-01

Emerging evidence indicates that parental fatigue is associated with low warmth and increased hostility in parent-child interactions. One possible pathway by which fatigue may impact on parenting behaviour is via parental self-efficacy (PSE), whereby high fatigue may undermine PSE, which is often associated with suboptimal parenting behaviour. The current study sought to explore a model of the relationships between parental fatigue, parenting warmth and hostility, where PSE mediates these relationships and whether the nature of these relationships differ by social or family context. The current sample was drawn from a larger Australian community sample survey on parent well-being and parenting. It consisted of 1143 parents (mothers, n = 1003; fathers, n = 140) of children aged 0-4 years. Path analysis revealed that the relationship between fatigue and parenting warmth and hostility was fully mediated by PSE. These results indicate that fatigue has the potential to negatively influence parenting behaviours that are important for their children's well-being and development, and that fatigue plays a mediating role in this relationship. Implications of the study for psycho-education and interventions targeting the management of parental fatigue are discussed. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Oral Health Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors of Parents of Children with Diabetes Compared to Those of Parents of Children without Diabetes.

PubMed

Sohn, Hyun A; Rowe, Dorothy J

2015-06-01

To compare the oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of parents of children, aged 6 to 13, who have type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes to those of parents of similarly aged children without diabetes. The study population consisted of 46 parents of children with diabetes and 46 parents of children without diabetes from outpatient clinics, providing medical care to children with and without diabetes, respectively. After gaining permission of clinic directors, the investigator approached parents, who were waiting in the clinics' reception areas, to complete the 33-item survey. The survey included questions on socio-demographic characteristics, their child's oral hygiene practices, dental visits, dietary habits, their own oral health knowledge and attitudes, and their child's diabetic condition, when relevant. A Chi-square test was used to determine significant differences between responses of the two groups of parents. All parents approached completed the survey. Children with diabetes had significantly less frequent sugary drink consumption and less untreated dental caries than children without diabetes. The majority of parents of children with diabetes selected "don't know" for statements related to diabetes and oral health, whereas most parents of children without diabetes agreed with the statements, resulting in significant differences between groups. Most parents of children with diabetes considered these same statements important to them, while the importance to parents of children without diabetes was variable. To maintain their children's oral health, parents of children with diabetes must receive more education regarding the prevention and control of the oral complications of diabetes. Copyright © 2015 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Parent Involvement in the Pediatric Resident Applicant Interview.

PubMed

Dandekar, Abhay; Weintraub, Miranda L Ritterman; McFeely, Eric D; Chasnovitz, Rebecca

2018-03-19

Parents and patients are actively involved in the clinical learning environment, yet scant literature exists about their involvement in the residency interview process. We aimed to pilot a process of including parents in resident interviews and to determine its value. During the 2016-17 residency interview cycle, 22 parent volunteers, blinded to applicant credentials, conducted brief structured interviews with 118 applicants. We then surveyed all parents and applicants with the use of mixed methods: descriptive statistics to analyze 5-point Likert-type-scale responses, and content analysis to identify themes from open-ended questions. Although parent interviews were not used in ranking, we later compared final composite parent interview scores (1-10, with 10 being high) among the final rank and match list candidates. Response rates were high for both groups (parents 100%; resident applicants 98.3%). Parents felt strongly positive about meeting applicants (mean ± SD, 5.00 ± 0.00), the value of parent participation (4.90 ± 0.30), and their own experience (4.95 ± 0.22). Applicants felt positive about meeting parents (4.45 ± 0.70), the value of parent participation (3.92 ± 0.84), and their own experience (4.51 ± 0.67). Several themes emerged from both groups, with the most salient parent themes including the value of patient-centered perspectives and appreciation and joy of meeting applicants. Parent interview scores correlated with the final match list, with matched applicants scoring higher (9.08 vs 8.51; P = .05). Involvement of parents in the pediatric residency interview process is achievable, is perceived positively by parents and applicants, and may provide valuable perspectives for consideration in residency selection. Copyright © 2018 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Antibiotic use in children and the use of medicines by parents.

PubMed

de Jong, Josta; Bos, Jens H J; de Vries, Tjalling W; de Jong-van den Berg, Lolkje T W

2012-06-01

Antibiotic drugs are frequently used for viral infections in children. It is probable that health beliefs and parental concern have great influence on the use of drugs in children. This study, performed in The Netherlands, investigates whether the use of antibiotics in children is associated with the use of medicines by parents. In this observational cohort study, the authors selected 6731 children from the prescription database IADB.nl who did not receive antibiotics until their fifth birthday and 1479 children who received at least one antibiotic prescription every year. The authors then selected parents for each group of children (5790 mothers and 4250 fathers for the children who did not receive antibiotics and 1234 mothers and 1032 fathers for the children who regularly received antibiotics). The authors compared the use of antibiotics and other medicines between the two groups of parents. Parents of children who received antibiotics recurrently were found to use more antibiotics themselves compared with parents of children who did not receive antibiotics. Moreover, this group also showed a higher percentage of chronic medication use: (11.3 vs 6.2% (mothers) and 13.1% vs 9.5% (fathers)). Mothers more often use antacids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), analgesics, anxiolytics, hypnotics, antidepressants, drugs for treatment of asthma and antihistamines. Fathers use more antacids, cardiovascular drugs, NSAIDs and asthma drugs. The parents of children who receive antibiotic drugs regularly use more medicines compared with the parents of children who use no antibiotic drugs. Parents' medicine use may influence that of children and is a factor physicians and pharmacists should take into account.

Should we get married? The effect of parents' marriage on out-of-wedlock children.

PubMed

Liu, Shirley H; Heiland, Frank

2012-01-01

Using a representative sample of children all born to unwed parents drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and a potential outcome approach to account for self-selection into marriage, we investigate whether marriage after childbearing has a causal effect on early child development. Comparing children with similar background characteristics and parental mate-selection patterns who differ only in terms of whether their parents marry after childbirth, we find that marriage after childbirth significantly increases a child's early cognitive performance but there is no evidence that it affects child asthma risk or behavioral outcomes.

Parent-Infant Vocalisations at 12 Months Predict Psychopathology at 7 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allely, C. S.; Purves, D.; McConnachie, A.; Marwick, H.; Johnson, P.; Doolin, O.; Puckering, C.; Golding, J.; Gillberg, C.; Wilson, P.

2013-01-01

This study investigated the utility of adult and infant vocalisation in the prediction of child psychopathology. Families were sampled from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort. Vocalisation patterns were obtained from 180 videos (60 cases and 120 randomly selected sex-matched controls) of parent-infant…

Preschool Movement Education in Turkey: Perceptions of Preschool Administrators and Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sevimli-Celik, Serap; Kirazci, Sadettin; Ince, Mustafa Levent

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of preschool administrators and parents about preschool movement education and movement practices in preschools. Participants were 8 preschool administrators and 21 parents from 8 randomly selected private preschools in one of the municipalities in Ankara, Turkey. Semi-structured interviews,…

Symbolic interactionism: a framework for the care of parents of preterm infants.

PubMed

Edwards, L D; Saunders, R B

1990-04-01

Because of stressors surrounding preterm birth, parents can be expected to have difficulty in early interactions with their preterm infants. Care givers who work with preterm infants and their parents can positively affect the early parental experiences of these mothers and fathers. If care givers are consciously guided by a conceptual model, therapeutic care for distressed parents is more likely to be provided. A logical framework, such as symbolic interactionism, helps care givers to proceed systematically in assessing parental behaviors, in intervening appropriately, and in evaluating both the process and outcome of the care. Selected aspects of the symbolic interaction model are described in this article and applied to the care of parents of preterm infants.

Differences in Parental Involvement Typologies among Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y Parents: A Study of Select Bay Area Region of Houston Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veloz, Elizabeth Andrea

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether differences existed among generations (Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y) regarding the levels of parental involvement within each of these generations. Also examined were additional factors such as the parents. socioeconomic status, educational level, marital status, and ethnicity. The…

Guide to Parent Involvement. Parents as Adult Learners. Parent Participation Profile.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Univ., Washington, DC. Adult Learning Potential Inst.

This document is the third of a series of four reports developed to provide a comprehensive overview of parent involvement, encompassing the family, parenting needs, and existing resources, in addition to current parent education approaches and practices. This Parent Participation Profile (PPR) is intended for use in needs assessment and program…

[Parental attitudes towards childhood immunisations in Poland].

PubMed

Rogalska, Justyna; Augustynowicz, Ewa; Gzyl, Anna; Stefanoff, Paweł

2010-01-01

The aim of the study was to obtain information on parents' attitudes towards vaccinations included in the childhood immunisation schedule. Computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) method was used. The interviews were collected from parents who had children aged three years old. Two-stage sampling was used: firstly, a list of 3,000 households with children < 3 years old was quota-selected from a consumer database collecting contact information from 95% mothers during deliveries. Random digit dialling was used to attempt the interview with parents. The 40-item questionnaire was based on the questionnaire developed by UK Department of Health. Overall, the perception of routine, mandatory immunization of children was positive. Only 17 parents (1.6%) refused the vaccination which had been offered, and 398 parents (38.0%) paid for a vaccine recommended for their child. In general, parents believed that immunisations were important for protecting the society against infectious diseases, although they found some problems in the way vaccines were delivered. Approximately half of respondents thought that vaccination against many diseases was harmful. In terms of perception of the risk related to vaccines parents were less confident in the currently introduced vaccines and those which protect against diseases rarely seen in the population. Pneumococcal vaccine was considered as risky by 27 persons (2.6%), and polio vaccine by 17 (1.6%). Greater concern about the safety of vaccines was expressed by older parents, residents of towns and highly educated individuals. Systematic monitoring of parents' attitudes towards vaccination would help to address public health actions more adequately.

Plasticity of parental care under the risk of predation: how much should parents reduce care?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Martin, Thomas E.

2013-01-01

Predation can be an important agent of natural selection shaping parental care behaviours, and can also favour behavioural plasticity. Parent birds often decrease the rate that they visit the nest to provision offspring when perceived risk is high. Yet, the plasticity of such responses may differ among species as a function of either their relative risk of predation, or the mean rate of provisioning. Here, we report parental provisioning responses to experimental increases in the perceived risk of predation. We tested responses of 10 species of bird in north temperate Arizona and subtropical Argentina that differed in their ambient risk of predation. All species decreased provisioning rates in response to the nest predator but not to a control. However, provisioning rates decreased more in species that had greater ambient risk of predation on natural nests. These results support theoretical predictions that the extent of plasticity of a trait that is sensitive to nest predation risk should vary among species in accordance with predation risk.

Parent to Parent Resource Section.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Exceptional Parent, 1991

1991-01-01

The directory lists 88 parent-to-parent support programs for parents of children with disabilities mostly in the states of Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming. (DB)

The effectiveness of mindful parenting programs in promoting parents' and children's wellbeing: a systematic review.

PubMed

Townshend, Kishani; Jordan, Zoe; Stephenson, Matthew; Tsey, Komla

2016-03-01

parents. Eight databases were searched for studies evaluating mindful parenting programs from 1997 to November 2014. A three-step search strategy was utilized to retrieve both published and unpublished studies written in English from PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Scopus, Psychological and Behavioral Sciences Collection, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses databases. A logic grid was developed for each of the eight databases to identify the indexing terms and synonyms for the keywords "mindful" and "parenting". Methodological limitations included small sample sizes leading to lack of statistical power, multiple testing leading to increased alpha errors in addition to information bias caused by a lack of blinding in the implementation and assessment phase. The data extraction process entailed using the standardized data extraction form from Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument to extract data from the selected studies. The heterogeneity of the samples, the measurement tools and outcomes measured precluded data synthesis through meta-analysis. Conclusions on intervention effects were based on comparisons of the overall statistical significance of the outcomes data. The search yielded 1232 articles, from which seven randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. The findings indicate mindful parenting programs may reduce parental stress, increase parents' emotional awareness of their 10-14-year-old children and reduce preschool children's symptoms associated with externalizing disorders. A recurring finding was that the mindful parenting programs reduced parents' emotional dismissal of their adolescents and preschoolers. At present, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that mindful parenting programs can improve parents' and children's wellbeing because of the methodological quality of the few studies that met the inclusion criteria. Although there is currently insufficient evidence

Parent-teen communication about sex in urban Thai families.

PubMed

Rhucharoenpornpanich, Orratai; Chamratrithirong, Aphichat; Fongkaew, Warunee; Miller, Brenda A; Cupp, Pamela K; Rosati, Michael J; Byrnes, Hilary F; Atwood, Katharine A; Chookhare, Warunee

2012-01-01

This study describes sexual communication among Thai parents and their teens and identifies variables related to communication about sex in urban Thai families. Data were derived from 420 families whose teenage children ages 13-14 years were randomly selected using the probability proportional to size technique. Interviews were conducted with 1 parent and 1 teenage child in each family. In-depth interviews were also conducted in 30 parents and teens drawn from the same 420 families. Results showed that parents were most likely to talk with their teens about body changes and dating; however, less discussion about sex-related issues, birth control, and HIV/AIDS occurred. More daughters than sons reported frequent discussions with their parents about sex. Parents who believed their teens had been involved in sexual activity were more likely to talk about HIV/AIDS and the difficulty of teenagers having babies, instead of talking about sexual intercourse or when to start having sex. Multiple regression analysis indicated that gender of the child (female), parental religiosity, and parental perception of teen sexual activity were significant predictors of increased sexual communication in Thai families. The findings suggest a need for approaches designed to facilitate communication skills about sex-related issues among Thai parents.

Parent-Teen Communication about Sex in Urban Thai Families

PubMed Central

Rhucharoenpornpanich, Orratai; Chamratrithirong, Aphichat; Fongkaew, Warunee; Miller, Brenda A.; Cupp, Pamela K.; Roseti, Michael J.; Byrnes, Hilary F.; Atwood, Katharine; Chookhare, Warunee

2012-01-01

This study describes sexual communication among Thai parents and their teens and identifies variables related to communication about sex in urban Thai families. Data were derived from 420 families whose teenage children ages 13 – 14 were randomly selected using the probability proportional to size technique. Interviews were conducted with one parent and one teenage child in each family. In-depth interviews were also conducted in 30 parents and teens drawn from the same 420 families. Results showed that parents were most likely to talk with their teens about body changes and dating; however, less discussion about sex-related issues, birth control and HIV/AIDS occurred. More daughters than sons reported frequent discussions with their parents about sex. Parents who believed their teens had been involved in sexual activity were more likely to talk about HIV/AIDS and the difficulty of teenagers having babies, instead of talking about sexual intercourse or when to start having sex. Multiple regression analysis indicated that sex of the child (girls), parental religiosity and parental perception of teen sexual activity were significant predictors of increased sexual communication in Thai families. The findings suggest a need for approaches designed to facilitate communication skills about sex- related issues among Thai parents. PMID:22206411

Parental Advocacy Styles for Special Education Students During the Transition to Adulthood

PubMed Central

Rehm, Roberta S.; Fisher, Lucille T.; Fuentes-Afflick, Elena; Chesla, Catherine A.

2014-01-01

In an ethnographic study of planning for the transition to adulthood, we explored parental advocacy styles in special education settings for youth and young adults with chronic health conditions and developmental disabilities. Of 61 parents, 43 were satisfied with outcomes in negotiations for school services for their children. We identified three parental advocacy styles for these parents: (a) high profile parents who insisted on specific, wide-ranging services for their children that often resulted in conflict with educators; (b) strategic parents who negotiated for selected goals and were willing to compromise, and (c) grateful gratifier parents who formed close relationships with educators and trusted them to make appropriate decisions. Eighteen parents were overwhelmed, burned out, or unfocused, and generally dissatisfied with outcomes of educational planning meetings. Professional efforts to enhance parental advocacy can target development of skills and strategies that have worked for successful negotiators. PMID:24062419

Parental advocacy styles for special education students during the transition to adulthood.

PubMed

Rehm, Roberta S; Fisher, Lucille T; Fuentes-Afflick, Elena; Chesla, Catherine A

2013-10-01

In an ethnographic study of planning for the transition to adulthood, we explored parental advocacy styles in special education settings for youth and young adults with chronic health conditions and developmental disabilities. Of 61 parents, 43 were satisfied with outcomes in negotiations for school services for their children. We identified three parental advocacy styles for these parents: (a) high-profile parents, who insisted on specific, wide-ranging services for their children that often resulted in conflict with educators; (b) strategic parents, who negotiated for selected goals and were willing to compromise, and (c) grateful-gratifier parents, who formed close relationships with educators and trusted them to make appropriate decisions. Eighteen parents were overwhelmed, burned out, or unfocused, and generally dissatisfied with outcomes of educational planning meetings. Professional efforts to enhance parental advocacy can target development of skills and strategies that have worked for successful negotiators.

Latent Profile Analysis of Teacher Perceptions of Parent Contact and Comfort

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stormont, Melissa; Herman, Keith C.; Reinke, Wendy M.; David, Kimberly B.; Goel, Nidhi

2013-01-01

The purpose of the study was to explore patterns of parent involvement as perceived by teachers and identify correlates of these patterns. Parent involvement indicators and correlates were selected from a review of existing research. Participants included 34 teachers and 577 children in kindergarten through third grade. The vast majority of the…

Relaxation of Selection With Equalization of Parental Contributions in Conservation Programs: An Experimental Test With Drosophila melanogaster

PubMed Central

Rodríguez-Ramilo, S. T.; Morán, P.; Caballero, A.

2006-01-01

Equalization of parental contributions is one of the most simple and widely recognized methods to maintain genetic diversity in conservation programs, as it halves the rate of increase in inbreeding and genetic drift. It has, however, the negative side effect of implying a reduced intensity of natural selection so that deleterious genes are less efficiently removed from the population with possible negative consequences on the reproductive capacity of the individuals. Theoretical results suggest that the lower fitness resulting from equalization of family sizes relative to that for free contribution schemes is expected to be substantial only for relatively large population sizes and after many generations. We present a long-term experiment with Drosophila melanogaster, comparing the fitness performance of lines maintained with equalization of contributions (EC) and others maintained with no management (NM), allowing for free matings and contributions from parents. Two (five) replicates of size N = 100 (20) individuals of each type of line were maintained for 38 generations. As expected, EC lines retained higher gene diversity and allelic richness for four microsatellite markers and a higher heritability for sternopleural bristle number. Measures of life-history traits, such as egg-to-adult viability, mating success, and global fitness declined with generations, but no significant differences were observed between EC and NM lines. Our results, therefore, provide no evidence to suggest that equalization of family sizes entails a disadvantage on the reproductive capacity of conserved populations in comparison with no management procedures, even after long periods of captivity. PMID:16299385

Parent Training and Parent Support: The Efficacy of a Parent-Focused Parent Training Support Group for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Disruptive Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gattuso, Jonna L.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of parents' participation in a supplemental parent-focused parent education/support group following participation in a pre-existing parent training program. For the purpose of this study, the term "parent" will be used for the child's primary caregiver(s). Parents participated in a…

Parental Cognitions, Parental Behavior, and the Child's Understanding of the Parent-Child Relationship.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dekovic, Maja; And Others

1991-01-01

Studied the relationship of parental reasoning complexity to parental behavior during parent-child interactions, and the effect of this relationship on children's social cognitions. Results indicate that parental reasoning complexity is related to parental behaviors of restrictive control, authoritative control, and support, which, in turn, are…

Parent illness appraisals, parent adjustment, and parent-reported child quality of life in pediatric cancer.

PubMed

Mullins, Larry L; Cushing, Christopher C; Suorsa, Kristina I; Tackett, Alayna P; Molzon, Elizabeth S; Mayes, Sunnye; McNall-Knapp, Rene; Mullins, Alexandria J; Gamwell, Kaitlyn L; Chaney, John M

2016-08-01

Psychosocial distress is a salient construct experienced by families of children with newly diagnosed cancer, but little is known about parental appraisal of the child's illness and the subsequent impact this may have on child and parent functioning. The goal of the present study was to examine the interrelationships among multiple parent illness appraisals, parent adjustment outcomes, and parent-reported child quality of life in parents of children diagnosed with cancer. Parents completed measures of illness appraisal (illness uncertainty and attitude toward illness), parent adjustment (general distress, posttraumatic stress, parenting stress), and child quality of life (general and cancer-related). Path analysis revealed direct effects for parent illness uncertainty and illness attitudes on all 3 measures of parent adjustment. Illness uncertainty, but not illness attitudes, demonstrated a direct effect on parent-reported child general quality of life; parenting stress had direct effects on general and cancer-related quality of life. Exploratory analyses indicated that parent illness uncertainty and illness attitudes conferred indirect effects on parent-reported general and cancer-related quality of life through parenting stress. Negative parent illness appraisals appear to have adverse impacts on parents' psychosocial functioning and have implications for the well-being of their child with cancer.

Information Curation among Vaccine Cautious Parents: Web 2.0, Pinterest Thinking, and Pediatric Vaccination Choice.

PubMed

Sobo, Elisa J; Huhn, Arianna; Sannwald, Autumn; Thurman, Lori

2016-01-01

To learn about pediatric vaccine decision-making, we surveyed and interviewed US parents with at least one child kindergarten age or younger (N = 53). Through an anthropologically informed content analysis, we found that fully vaccinating parents (n = 33) mostly saw vaccination as routine. In contrast, selective and nonvaccinating parents (n = 20) exhibited the type of self-informed engagement that the health care system recommends. Selective vaccinators also expressed multiple, sometimes contradictory positions on vaccination that were keyed to individual children's biologies, child size, environmental hazards, specific diseases, and discrete vaccines. Rather than logical progressions, viewpoints were presented as assembled collections, reflecting contemporary information filtering and curation practices and the prevalence of collectively experienced and constructed digital "hive" narratives. Findings confirm the need for a noncategorical approach to intervention that accommodates the fluid, polyvalent nature of vaccine reasoning and the curatorial view selectively vaccinating parents take toward information while honoring their efforts at engaged healthcare consumption.

Glassfrog embryos hatch early after parental desertion.

PubMed

Delia, Jesse R J; Ramírez-Bautista, Aurelio; Summers, Kyle

2014-06-22

Both parental care and hatching plasticity can improve embryo survival. Research has found that parents can alter hatching time owing to a direct effect of care on embryogenesis or via forms of care that cue the hatching process. Because parental care alters conditions critical for offspring development, hatching plasticity could allow embryos to exploit variation in parental behaviour. However, this interaction of parental care and hatching plasticity remains largely unexplored. We tested the hypothesis that embryos hatch early to cope with paternal abandonment in the glassfrog Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni (Centrolenidae). We conducted male-removal experiments in a wild population, and examined embryos' response to conditions with and without fathers. Embryos hatched early when abandoned, but extended development in the egg stage when fathers continued care. Paternal care had no effect on developmental rate. Rather, hatching plasticity was due to embryos actively hatching at different developmental stages, probably in response to deteriorating conditions without fathers. Our experimental results are supported by a significant correlation between the natural timing of abandonment and hatching in an unmanipulated population. This study demonstrates that embryos can respond to conditions resulting from parental abandonment, and provides insights into how variation in care can affect selection on egg-stage adaptations.

Glassfrog embryos hatch early after parental desertion

PubMed Central

Delia, Jesse R. J.; Ramírez-Bautista, Aurelio; Summers, Kyle

2014-01-01

Both parental care and hatching plasticity can improve embryo survival. Research has found that parents can alter hatching time owing to a direct effect of care on embryogenesis or via forms of care that cue the hatching process. Because parental care alters conditions critical for offspring development, hatching plasticity could allow embryos to exploit variation in parental behaviour. However, this interaction of parental care and hatching plasticity remains largely unexplored. We tested the hypothesis that embryos hatch early to cope with paternal abandonment in the glassfrog Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni (Centrolenidae). We conducted male-removal experiments in a wild population, and examined embryos' response to conditions with and without fathers. Embryos hatched early when abandoned, but extended development in the egg stage when fathers continued care. Paternal care had no effect on developmental rate. Rather, hatching plasticity was due to embryos actively hatching at different developmental stages, probably in response to deteriorating conditions without fathers. Our experimental results are supported by a significant correlation between the natural timing of abandonment and hatching in an unmanipulated population. This study demonstrates that embryos can respond to conditions resulting from parental abandonment, and provides insights into how variation in care can affect selection on egg-stage adaptations. PMID:24789892

Mindful Parenting Training in Child Psychiatric Settings: Heightened Parental Mindfulness Reduces Parents' and Children's Psychopathology.

PubMed

Meppelink, Renée; de Bruin, Esther I; Wanders-Mulder, Femy H; Vennik, Corinne J; Bögels, Susan M

Mindful parenting training is an application of mindfulness-based interventions that allows parents to perceive their children with unbiased and open attention without prejudgment and become more attentive and less reactive in their parenting. This study examined the effectiveness of mindful parenting training in a clinical setting on child and parental psychopathology and of mindfulness as a predictor of these outcomes. Seventy parents of 70 children (mean age = 8.7) who were referred to a mental health care clinic because of their children's psychopathology participated in an 8-week mindful parenting training. Parents completed questionnaires at pre-test, post-test and 8-week follow-up. A significant decrease was found in children's and parents' psychopathology and a significant increase in mindful parenting and in general mindful awareness. Improvement in general mindful awareness, but not mindful parenting, was found to predict a reduction in parental psychopathology, whereas improvement in mindful parenting, but not general mindful awareness, predicted the reduction of child psychopathology. This study adds to the emerging body of evidence indicating that mindful parenting training is effective for parents themselves and, indirectly, for their children suffering from psychopathology. As parents' increased mindful parenting, but not increased general mindfulness, is found to predict child psychopathology, mindful parenting training rather than general mindfulness training appears to be the training of choice. However, RCTs comparing mindful parenting to general mindfulness training and to parent management training are needed in order to shed more light on the effects of mindful parenting and mechanisms of change.

Effective Group Work for Elementary School-Age Children Whose Parents Are Divorcing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeLucia-Waack, Janice; Gerrity, Deborah

2001-01-01

Parental divorce is the issue of most concern for elementary school children. This article describes interventions for children-of-divorce groups for elementary school children. Suggests guidelines related to goal setting; securing agency and parental consent; leadership planning; recruitment, screening, and selection of members; group member…

Listening for Details of Talk: Early Childhood Parent-Teacher Conference Communication Facilitators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheatham, Gregory A.; Ostrosky, Michaelene M.

2009-01-01

In this article, the authors present parent-educator conversations, which were selected to illustrate common communication patterns and provide links to some of the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children's recommended practices for communicating and collaborating with parents. Using conversation analysis, researchers…

How important are parents during the college years? A longitudinal perspective of indirect influences parents yield on their college teens’ alcohol use

PubMed Central

Abar, Caitlin; Turrisi, Robert

2008-01-01

Building on previous findings supporting the continuing influence of parents on their teens after they have gone to college (Turrisi et al., 2001; 2000), this study examined the possible indirect influence that parents may have on their teen’s alcohol use through the selection of alcohol using peers in college. Friend use served as a mediator of the relationship between parenting characteristics and alcohol use in a longitudinal college sample. As part of a larger study, 392 incoming college freshmen were assessed for their perceptions of their parent’s parenting practices, and peer alcohol use. Results from SEM indicated that friend alcohol use (first semester freshman year) mediated the relationship between parental knowledge about what their teen was doing in his/her free time (baseline pre-matriculation to college) and individual use in college (second semester freshman year). Findings suggest that even at this late stage of early adulthood parents continue to exhibit influence on the choices their teens make as far as friends, which in turn influences their teens’ drinking in college. Implications for prevention are discussed. PMID:18635318

Impact of Stepping Stones Triple P on Parents with a Child Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for School Psychologists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

VanVoorhis, Richard W.; Miller, Kenneth L.; Miller, Susan M.; Stull, Judith C.

2015-01-01

The Stepping Stones Positive Parenting Program (Stepping Stones Triple P; SSTP) was designed for caregivers of children with disabilities to improve select parental variables such as parenting styles, parental satisfaction, and parental competency, and to reduce parental stress and child problem behaviors. This study focused on SSTP training for…

Can the Single Parent Parent As Well?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flanzer, Jerry P.

The question of whether single parents are able to parent as well as those in two-parent families, as well as the differences between attitudes and practices of single mothers and fathers toward child rearing, were investigated. Members (N=179) of the Southeastern Wisconsin Parents Without Partners group completed the Single Parent Questionnaire,…

Longitudinal Associations between Adolescent Alcohol Use and Parents' Sources of Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stavrinides, Panayiotis; Georgiou, Stelios; Demetriou, Andreas

2010-01-01

The aim of this study was to test the direction of effect in the relationship between parents' sources of knowledge (parental monitoring and child disclosure) and adolescent alcohol use. The participants were 215 adolescents and their mothers, randomly selected from urban and rural areas in Cyprus. A 3-month, two-timepoint longitudinal design was…

Personality and parenting style in parents of adolescents.

PubMed

Huver, Rose M E; Otten, Roy; de Vries, Hein; Engels, Rutger C M E

2010-06-01

Since parental personality traits are assumed to play a role in parenting behaviors, the current study examined the relation between parental personality and parenting style among 688 Dutch parents of adolescents in the SMILE study. The study assessed Big Five personality traits and derived parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and uninvolved) from scores on the underlying dimensions of support and strict control. Regression analyses were used to determine which personality traits were associated with parenting dimensions and styles. As regards dimensions, the two aspects of personality reflecting interpersonal interactions (extraversion and agreeableness) were related to supportiveness. Emotional stability was associated with lower strict control. As regards parenting styles, extraverted, agreeable, and less emotionally stable individuals were most likely to be authoritative parents. Conscientiousness and openness did not relate to general parenting, but might be associated with more content-specific acts of parenting.

Parental anxiety in childhood epilepsy: A systematic review.

PubMed

Jones, Chloe; Reilly, Colin

2016-04-01

The aim was to systematically review studies that have focused on symptoms of anxiety reported by parents of children (0-18 years) with epilepsy. PubMed was used to identify relevant studies. Selected studies were reviewed with respect to prevalence of above threshold scores and comparisons with controls on standardized measures of anxiety. Studies are also reported with respect to factors associated with parental anxiety, impact on child outcomes, and comparisons with studies that have included equivalent measures of symptoms of depression. Fifteen studies that met inclusion criteria were identified. None of the studies were population based. The percentage of parents scoring above cutoffs on standardized measures of anxiety was 9-58%. In comparison with parents of healthy controls, parents of children with epilepsy had higher mean scores in two of three studies where this was measured. Possible correlates of parental anxiety in childhood epilepsy that were considered varied widely across studies. Factors such as seizure frequency and use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have been associated with parental anxiety in some but not all studies. With respect to child outcome, increased parental anxiety has been associated with lower quality of life and lower scores on adaptive behavior domains. Symptoms of anxiety are common among parents of children with epilepsy. There is a need for more systematic, representative studies to identify the prevalence of clinically significant anxiety and track the course of symptoms. Such studies will help to identify more clearly factors associated with parental anxiety and impact of symptoms on child and parent outcomes. Intervention studies are needed to evaluate approaches that target a reduction in symptoms and the potential impact on parental and child functioning. Furthermore, there is a need to evaluate the impact of antiepileptic therapies and interventions that focus on child neurobehavioral comorbidities on parental anxiety

Personality and Parenting Style in Parents of Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huver, Rose M. E.; Otten, Roy; de Vries, Hein; Engels, Rutger C. M. E.

2010-01-01

Since parental personality traits are assumed to play a role in parenting behaviors, the current study examined the relation between parental personality and parenting style among 688 Dutch parents of adolescents in the SMILE study. The study assessed Big Five personality traits and derived parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian,…

Universal parent support groups for parents of adolescents: Which parents participate and why?

PubMed

Alfredsson, Elin K; Broberg, Anders G

2016-04-01

Leader-led parent support groups, offered universally to parents of adolescents, are increasingly common, yet little is known of the parents who use this support. The study presented here explored the characteristics of parents of 10- to 17-year-olds (N = 192) who had enlisted in universal support groups and their reasons for enrollment. Sociodemographic factors (parents' country of origin, educational level, long-term sick-leave or unemployment, and marital status) were compared to the general population (Statistics Sweden, 2012) and parents' psychological health and children's psychiatric symptoms were compared to a control group (the BITA study). Results showed that support group parents reported more psychosocial difficulties, such as higher frequency of long-term sick-leave or unemployment, more symptoms of anxiety and depression and more psychiatric symptoms in their children than parents in general. While about a fifth of the parents had problem-oriented (targeted) reasons for enrollment, most parents had general (universal) reasons. Thus, the universal approach does seem to reach its intended recipients. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Parental Divorce and Children's Schooling in Rural Malawi.

PubMed

Chae, Sophia

2016-12-01

A growing body of literature has examined the impact of different types of family structures on children's schooling in sub-Saharan Africa. These studies have investigated how living arrangements, gender of the household head, parental death, and paternal migration are related to schooling. Although many sub-Saharan African countries have high divorce rates, very few studies have explored the impact of parental divorce on children's schooling. The present study uses three waves of data from the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) to investigate the effect of parental divorce on children's schooling and the possible mechanisms driving this relationship. Unlike prior studies, this study uses child-level fixed-effects models to control for selection into divorce. Results show that parental divorce is associated with lower grade attainment and a larger schooling gap, defined as the number of years a child is behind in school (among children currently attending school). Although no association exists between parental divorce and current school attendance, girls affected by divorce are significantly less likely to be attending school. Differences in economic resources, maternal coresidence, or maternal psychological well-being do not explain the relationship between parental divorce and children's schooling.