The relationship between child sexual abuse and academic achievement in a sample of adolescent psychiatric inpatients

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between sexual abuse and academic achievement in an adolescent inpatient psychiatric population. Individual factors expected to influence this relationship were measured to explore the way they each interacted with sexual abuse and its relationship to academic achievement. METHOD: Eighty-one adolescent psychiatric inpatients participated in the study (aged 12--18 years: M=16.0). Participants were administered tests of academic achievement (dependent variable) and intelligence, and completed a number of self-report measures of their experience of different types of maltreatment, their perception of the parenting they received, socio-economic status, substance abuse, and psychopathology. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that intelligence was the main predictor of academic achievement (uniquely explaining 26% of the variance). A number of interaction effects were also significant indicating that intelligence, substance abuse, internalizing behavior problems, externalizing behavior problems all influenced the relationship between sexual abuse and academic achievement. DISCUSSION: Examining the impact of sexual abuse is complex because it is typically an experience embedded in a range of other risk factors, such as poverty, family dysfunction, and other types of maltreatment. This study demonstrated coexistence between sexual abuse and a number of other variables, including other maltreatment types and parental overprotection, underscoring the requirement for complex models of research that more accurately reflect the experience of abused children.     

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Changes of root morphology and Pb uptake by two species of Elsholtzia under Pb toxicity

Elsholtzia argyi and Elsholtzia splendens, which are Chinese endemic Pb/Zn mined and Cu mined ecotype respectively, were investigated on the aspect of their response to Pb toxicity in the presence or absence of EDTA addition. After 8 d's Pb treatment, root length, root surface area and root volume of E. splendens decreased much more than those ofE. argyi, and reduced considerably with increase of Pb, while no marked change was noted for root average diameter. Compared to E. argyi, length of root with diameter (D)＜0.2 mm was significantly reduced for E. splendens as Pb increased. D＜0.1 mm E. splendens root had cross-sectional surface area at Pb≥10 mg/L, while for E. argyi, it was at Pb＞25 mg/L. With increase ofPb, DW ofE. splendens decreased much more than that of E. argyi. E. argyi exhibited much more tolerance to Pb toxicity than E. splendens. Treatment with 100 mg/L Pb plus 50 mmol/L EDTA significantly decreased the length and surface area of D≤0.2 mm root, increased the length and surface area of 0.2≤D≤0.8 mm root for the case ofE. argyi, while for E. splendens, length and surface area of D＜0.6 mm root reduced, as compared to 100 mg/L Pb treatment, alone. At 100 mg/L Pb, shoot Pb accumulation in E. splendens and E. argyi were 27.9 and 89.0 μg/plant DW respectively, and much more Pb was uptaken by the root and translocated to the stem ofE. argyi as compared to E. splendens. Treatment of the plant with 100 mg/L Pb plus 50 mmol/L EDTA increased leaf Pb accumulation from 16.8 to 84.9 g/plant for E. splendens and from 18.8 to 52.5 g/plant for E. argyi, while both root and stem Pb pronouncedly reduced for both Elsholtzia species. The increased translocation of Pb to the leaf ofE. splendens being than that ofE. argyi after treatment with 100 mg/L Pb plus 50 mmol/L EDTA should be further investigated.     

Continuing education as a catalyst for inter-professional collaboration

Do nurses have access to the tools and resources they need for evidence-based practice? Are librarians prepared to work with nurses to provide access to appropriate resources and services, and teach the needed information literacy skills? The authors work with professional library and nursing organizations to present interdisciplinary continuing education to improve the information literacy of nurses and the ability of librarians to provide resources and services that meet nurses' information needs. This article reviews behavioral and practice changes reported by nurses and librarian participants in symposia on evidence-based nursing in March 2001 and May 2003.     

Differential generation of hydrogen peroxide upon exposure to zinc and cadmium in the hyperaccumulating plant specie （Sedum alfredii Hance）

Sedum alfredii Hance has been identified as zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) co-hyperaccumulator. In this paper the relationships of Zn or Cd hyperaccumulation to the generation and the role of H2O2 in Sedum alfredii H. were examined, The results show that Zn and Cd contents in the shoots of Sedum alfredii H. treated with 1000 μmol/L Zn2 and/or 200 μmol/L Cd2 increased linearly within 15 d. Contents of total S, glutathione (GSH) and H2O2 in shoots also increased within 15 d, and then decreased. Total S and GSH contents in shoots were higher under Cd2 treatment than under Zn2 treatment. However, reverse trends of H2O2 content in shoots were obtained, in which much higher H2O2 content was observed in Zn2 -treated shoots than in Cd2 -treated shoots. Similarly, the microscopic imaging of H2O2 accumulation in leaves using H2O2 probe technique showed that much higher H2O2 accumulation was observed in the Zn2 -treated leaf than in the Cd2 -treated one. These results suggest that there are different responses in the generation of H2O2 upon exposure to Zn2 and Cd2 for the hyperaccumulator Sedum alfredii H. And this is the first report that the generation of H2O2 may play an important role in Zn hyperaccumulation in the leaves. Oar results also imply that GSH may play an important role in the detoxification of dissociated Zn/Cd and the generation of H2O2.     

Gama-aminobutyric acid accumulation in Elsholtzia splendens in response to copper toxicity

A solution with different Cu supply levels was cultured to investigate gama-aminobutyric acid (GABA) accumulation in Elsholtzia splendens, a native Chinese Cu-tolerant and accumulating plant species. Increasing Cu from 0.25 to 500 μmol/L significantly enhanced levels of GABA and histidine (His), but considerably decreased levels of aspartate (Asp) and glutamate (Glu) in the leaves. The leaf Asp level negatively correlated with leaf Cu level, while leaf GABA level positively correlated with leaf Cu level. The leaf Glu level negatively correlated with leaf GABA level in Elsholtzia splendens. The depletion of leaf Glu may be related to the enhanced synthesis of leaf GABA under Cu stress.     

Teachers' use and perceptions of progress monitoring

Progress monitoring is a set of techniques used to assess students' academic performance on a regular and frequent basis. Different forms of progress monitoring have been used effectively in the field of general special education for more than 20 years. However, to date, limited information about how progress monitoring is being used in the field of deaf education is available. The present study was undertaken to examine how progress monitoring is being used with students who are deaf or hard of hearing and to find out teachers' perceptions about the utilization and value of using progress monitoring. Overall, participants were very positive. They reported that the use of progress monitoring improved students' motivation and helped them better evaluate the effectiveness of their instruction. Participants' primary concern was with the amount of time progress monitoring takes away from teaching. Additional results and recommendations are provided.     

Pharmacogenetic Aspects of Coumarinic Oral Anticoagulant Therapies

Coumarinic oral-anticoagulants (COAs) are commonly used for treatment of thromboembolic events. However, these medications have a narrow therapeutic range and there are large inter-individual variations in drug response. This is especially important in the initial phases of oral-anticoagulant therapy. Recent advancements in pharmacogenetics have established that clinical outcomes in oral-anticoagulant therapy are affected by genetic factors. The allelic variants of genes like cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9) and vitamin K epoxide reductase complex subunit 1 (VKORC1) are closely associated with maintenance dose of oral anti-coagulants. In addition, GGCX (Gamma-glutamyl carboxylase) polymorphism at position 12970 (rs11676382), CYP4F2 (rs2108622; V433M; 1347 C > T) and Apolipoprotein E (APOE) variants have been shown to explain a small but significant influence on dose requirements. There are large differences in the frequencies of these polymorphisms between different world populations which are also related to the requirements of oral anticoagulants. However, the final drug dosage in an individual is determined by complex sets of genetic and environmental factors and several dosing algorithms which combine clinical and genetic parameters to predict therapeutic COA doses have also been developed. The algorithm based dose prediction shows the importance of pharmacogenetic testing in patients undergoing oral anticoagulant therapies.