Adolescents’ relationship with God and internalizing adjustment over time: The moderating role of maternal religious coping

A growing literature supports the importance of understanding the link between religiosity and youths' adjustment and development, but in the absence of rigorous, longitudinal designs, questions remain about the direction of effect and the role of family factors. This paper investigates the bidirectional association between adolescents' relationship with God and their internalizing adjustment. Results from 2-wave, SEM cross-lag analyses of data from 667 mother/adolescent dyads in Belfast, Northern Ireland (50% male, M age = 15.75 years old) supports a risk model suggesting that greater internalizing problems predict a weaker relationship with God 1 year later. Significant moderation analyses suggest that a stronger relationship with God predicted fewer depression and anxiety symptoms for youth whose mothers used more religious coping.

For vulnerable families, continued postnatal care, provided by family midwives, is associated with improved maternal care and parent–child relationship

This paper illustrates how findings from two related studies can enhance nursing and midwifery practice through the evaluation of the effectiveness of a family midwives (FMs) intervention.

Stabilisation of MAD2 expression through inhibition of miR-433; A novel mechanism for restoring chemo-responsiveness in ovarian tumours

Epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) is characterised by late diagnosis and recurrences, both of which contribute to the high morbidity and mortality of this cancer. Unfortunately, EOC has an innate susceptibility to become chemo-resistant. Specifically, up to 30% of patients may not respond to current standard chemotherapy (paclitaxel and platinum in combination) and of those who have an initial response, some patients relapse within a few months. Therefore, in order to improve patient outcome it is crucial to establish what factors influence a patients' individualised response to chemotherapy. We analysed MAD2 protein expression in a patient cohort of 35 ovarian tumours and a panel of 5 ovarian cancer cell lines. We have demonstrated that low nuclear MAD2 expression intensity was significantly associated with chemo-resistant ovarian tumours (p=0.0136). Moreover, in vitro studies of the 5 ovarian cancer cell lines revealed that reduced MAD2 expression was associated with paclitaxel resistance. In silico analysis identified a putative miR-433 binding domain in the MAD2 3′UTR and expression profiling of miR-433 in the ovarian cancer cell lines showed that low MAD2 protein expression was associated with high miR-433 levels. In vitro over-expression of miR-433 attenuated MAD2 protein expression with a concomitant increase in cellular resistance to paclitaxel. Over-expression of a morpholino oligonucleotide that blocks miR-433 binding to MAD2 3′UTR stabilised MAD2 protein expression and protects from miR-433 induced degradation. Furthermore, miR-433 expression analysis in 35 ovarian tumour samples revealed that high miR-433 expression was associated with advanced stage presentations (p=0.0236). In conclusion, ovarian tumours that display low nuclear MAD2 intensity are chemo-resistant and stabilising MAD2 expression by antagonising miR-433 activity is a potential mechanism for restoring chemo-responsiveness in these tumours.

Warm Dense Aluminum Plasma generated by the Free-Electron-Laser FLASH

We report on experiments aimed at the generation and characterization of solid density plasmas at the free-electron laser FLASH in Hamburg. Aluminum samples were irradiated with XUV pulses at 13.5 nm wavelength (92 eV photon energy). The pulses with duration of a few tens of femtoseconds and pulse energy up to 100 mu J are focused to intensities ranging from 10(13) to 10(17) W/cm(2). We investigate the absorption and temporal evolution of the sample under irradiation by use of XUV spectroscopy. We discuss the origin of saturable absorption, radiative decay, bremsstrahlung and ionic line emission. Our experimental results are in good agreement with hydrodynamic simulations.