Super-Nernstian Shifts of Interfacial Proton-Coupled Electron Transfers: Origin and Effect of Noncovalent Interactions

Peer reviewed

Super-Nernstian Shifts of Interfacial Proton-Coupled Electron Transfers: Origin and Effect of Noncovalent Interactions

Peer reviewed

The Perspectives of Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Adolescent Males with Parent-Child Sex Communication

Problem: Gay, bisexual, and queer (GBQ) adolescent males are disproportionately affected by negative sexual health outcomes compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Their sex education needs are not sufficiently addressed in the home and the larger ecological systems. The omission of their sex education needs at a time when they are forming a sexual identity during adolescence compels GBQ males to seek information in unsupervised settings. Evidence-based interventions aimed at ensuring positive sexual health outcomes through sex communication cannot be carried out with these youth as research on how parents and GBQ males discuss sex in the home has been largely uninvestigated.

Methods: This naturalistic qualitative study focused on the interpretive reports of 15- to 20-year-old GBQ males’ discussions about sex-related topics with their parents. From a purposive sample of 30 male adolescents who self-identified as GBQ, participants who could recall at least one conversation about sex with their parents were recruited for one-time interviews and card sorts. This strategy revealed, using Bronfenbrenners’ Bioecological Theory, their perceptions about sex communication in the context of their reciprocal relationship and the ecological systems that GBQ males and their parents navigate.

Results: Parents received poor ratings as sex educators, were generally viewed as not confident in their communication approach, and lacked knowledge about issues pertinent to GBQ sons. Nevertheless, participants viewed parents as their preferred source of sex information and recognized multiple functions of sex communication. The value placed by GBQ youth on sex communication underscores their desire to ensure an uninterrupted parent-child relationship in spite of their GBQ sexual orientation. For GBQ children, inclusive sex communication is a proxy for parental acceptance.

Results show that the timing, prompts, teaching aids, and setting of sex communication for this population are similar to what has been reported with heterosexual samples. However, most GBQ sons rarely had inclusive guidance about sex and sexuality that matched their attraction, behavior, and identities. Furthermore, the assumption of heterosexuality resulted in the early awareness of being different from their peers which led them to covertly search for sex information. The combination of assumed heterosexuality and their early reliance on themselves for applicable information is a missed parental opportunity to positively impact the health of GBQ sons. More importantly, due to the powerful reach of new media, there is a critical period of maximum receptiveness that has been identified which makes inclusive sex communication paramount in the pre-sexual stage for this population. Our findings also indicate that there are plenty of opportunities for systemic improvements to meet this population’s sexual education needs.

A comparison of three methods for detecting KRAS mutations in formalin-fixed colorectal cancer specimens.

BACKGROUND: KRAS mutation testing is required to select patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) to receive anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibodies, but the optimal KRAS mutation test method is uncertain. METHODS: We conducted a two-site comparison of two commercial KRAS mutation kits - the cobas KRAS Mutation Test and the Qiagen therascreen KRAS Kit - and Sanger sequencing. A panel of 120 CRC specimens was tested with all three methods. The agreement between the cobas test and each of the other methods was assessed. Specimens with discordant results were subjected to quantitative massively parallel pyrosequencing (MPP). DNA blends were tested to determine detection rates at 5% mutant alleles. RESULTS: Reproducibility of the cobas test between sites was 98%. Six mutations were detected by cobas that were not detected by Sanger, and five were confirmed by MPP. The cobas test detected eight mutations which were not detected by the therascreen test, and seven were confirmed by MPP. Detection rates with 5% mutant DNA blends were 100% for the cobas and therascreen tests and 19% for Sanger. CONCLUSION: The cobas test was reproducible between sites, and detected several mutations that were not detected by the therascreen test or Sanger. Sanger sequencing had poor sensitivity for low levels of mutation.

Ferulates and lignin structural composition in cork

The structure of lignin and suberin, and ferulic acid (FA) content in cork from Quercus suber L. were studied. Extractive-free cork (Cork), suberin, desuberized cork (Cork(sap)), and milled-cork lignins (MCL) from Cork and Cork(sap) were isolated. Suberin composition was determined by GC-MS/FID, whereas the polymers structure in Cork, Corksap, and MCL was studied by Py-TMAH and 2D-HSQC-NMR. Suberin contained 94.4% of aliphatics and 3.2% of phenolics, with 90% of omega-hydroxyacids and alpha,omega-diacids. FA represented 2.7% of the suberin monomers, overwhelmingly esterified to the cork matrix. Py-TMAH revealed significant FA amounts in all samples, with about 3% and 6% in cork and cork lignins, respectively. Py-TMAH and 2D-HSQC-NMR demonstrated that cork lignin is a G-lignin (>96% G units), with a structure dominated by beta-O-4' alkyl-aryl ether linkages (80% and 77% of all linkages in MCL and MCLsap, respectively), followed by phenylcoumarans (18% and 20% in MCL and MCLsap, respectively), and smaller amounts of resinols (ca. 2%) and dibenzodioxocins (1%). HSQC also revealed that cork lignin is heavily acylated (ca. 50%) exclusively at the side-chain gamma-position. Ferulates possibly have an important function in the chemical assembly of cork cell walls with a cross-linking role between suberin, lignin and carbohydrates.

Asociación del trastorno del desarrollo de la coordinación con otros trastornos del desarrollo infantil en la ciudad de Cali

INTRODUCCION. El trastorno del Desarrollo de la Coordinación TDC en la infancia es una problemática importante desde la salud pública, ya que tiene repercusiones importantes desde las diferentes esferas del desarrollo: motora, cognitiva, psicosocial y emocional, por lo mismo, es frecuente la presencia de comorbilidad con otros trastornos del desarrollo infantil. Se presenta un estudio multicéntrico que caracteriza la asociación del TDC con otros trastornos del desarrollo. OBJETIVO. Determinar la asociación del TDC con otros trastornos del desarrollo infantil en la ciudad de Cali. METODOLOGÍA. Estudio transversal, descriptivo y de asociación, en una muestra de 140 niños de 6 a 12 años de edad, aleatorizados en instituciones públicas y privadas de la ciudad de Cali. Entrevista estructurada y aplicación de cuestionarios a padres y profesores para determinar la presencia de Trastorno del Desarrollo de la Coordinación y su asociación con el trastorno de la conducta, el déficit de atención e hiperactividad y el trastorno del aprendizaje. Se realizó análisis descriptivo univariado para la caracterización sociodemográfica, pruebas de asociación con coeficiente de correlación a través de prueba Chi 2 y grado de dependencia con coeficientes Phi. RESULTADOS. La prevalencia del TDC en la población estudiada fue del 12%; un 45% de los niños estudiado presentan posible trastorno de aprendizaje y solo un 5% presentan TDAH. Se encontró asociación negativa entre el Trastorno del desarrollo de la coordinación y Trastorno de aprendizaje de -0,186, con un P valor de 0,028. No se encontró asociación estadísticamente significativa entre el trastorno del desarrollo de la coordinación con los demás trastornos del desarrollo, en tanto que los P valor fueron mayor a 0,05. CONCLUSIONES. Existe asociación negativa con significancia estadística entre el Trastorno del desarrollo de la coordinación y el trastorno de aprendizaje. La prevalencia del TDC en la población estudiada es coherente con la reportada a nivel internacional.

Alberto Vélez Escobar, lo mejor no es lo mejor de lo ideal sino lo mejor de lo posible

Fondo Margaritainés Restrepo

Nuevas aplicaciones sintéticas de pequeños heterocíclos. 2H-Azirinas fosforadas.

238 p.

La Cuestión Rural y la Construcción de Paz en Colombia

Teniendo en cuenta la apuesta institucional del Gobierno de llevar lo acordado en La Habana a la realidad de los territorios del país y la deuda histórica que hay con el campo colombiano, este documento se presenta como un análisis de la relación entre el conflicto armado y la ruralidad, las estrategias de política social y de reforma a la institucionalidad que se han propuesto, con el objetivo de fortalecer el desarrollo rural y asegurando su correspondencia con las necesidades de la población campesina. Para ello, en primer lugar se analiza la relación entre el conflicto armado y la ruralidad para el caso colombiano, haciendo énfasis en el desarrollo económico insuficiente y desigual y el sesgo anticampesino que lo ha caracterizado. Luego se expone una definición para el campesinado colombiano y su relación con la Política de Desarrollo Rural, de acuerdo con el análisis de las propuestas encontradas en dos documentos: el borrador del primer punto de los Acuerdos de La Habana y el informe de la Misión para la Transformación del Campo. En tercer lugar se presentan las Zonas de Reserva Campesina como iniciativas que contribuyen a la construcción de paz territorial, a partir de la exposición de su marco normativo y del análisis de los Planes de Desarrollo Sostenible. Finalmente se plantean algunas conclusiones en torno a la discusión sobre la cuestión rural y la construcción de paz en Colombia.

Causal factors of anxiety symptoms in children

Aim: The present work aimed to investigate the impact of the child’s cognitions associated with ambiguous stimuli that refer to anxiety, both parents’ fears and anxiety, and parents’ attributions to the child’s interpretations of ambiguous stimuli on child anxiety. The influence of parental modelling on child’s cognitions was also analyzed. Method: The final sample was composed of 111 children (62 boys; 49 girls) with ages between 10 and 11 years (M = 10.6, SD = 0.5) from a community population, and both their parents. The variables identified as most significant were included in a predictive model of anxiety. Results: Results revealed the children’s thoughts (positive and negative) related to ambiguous stimuli that describe anxiety situations. Parents’ fears and mothers’ anxiety significantly predict children’s anxiety. Those variables explain 29% of the variance in children general anxiety. No evidence was found for a direct parental modeling of child cognitions. Conclusion: Children’s positive thoughts seem to be cognitive aspects that buffer against anxiety. Negative thoughts are vulnerability factors for the development of child anxiety. Parents’ fears and anxiety should be analyzed in separate as they have distinct influences over children’s anxiety. Mothers’ fears contribute to children’s anxiety by reducing it, revealing a possible protective effect. It is suggested that the contribution of both parents’ fears to children’s anxiety may be interpreted acknowledging the existence of “psychological and/or behavioral filters”. Mothers’ filters seem to be well developed while fathers’ filters seem to be compromised. The contribution of mothers’ anxiety (but not fathers’ anxiety) to children’s anxiety is also understood in light of the possible existence of a “proximity space” between the child and parents, which is wider with mothers than with fathers.

Estudiantes que participaron en la primera manifestación Estudiantil en Argelia

Estudiantes que participaron en la primera manifestación Estudiantil en Argelia. C. 1.958