Advances in the phylogenesis of Agaricales and its higher ranks and strategies for establishing phylogenetic hypotheses

We present an overview of previous research results on the molecular phylogenetic analyses in Agaricales and its higher ranks (Agaricomycetes/Agaricomycotina/Basidiomycota) along with the most recent treatments of taxonomic systems in these taxa. Establishing phylogenetic hypotheses using DNA sequences, from which an understanding of the natural evolutionary relationships amongst clades may be derived, requires a robust dataset. It has been recognized that single-gene phylogenies may not truly represent organismal phylogenies, but the concordant phylogenetic genealogies from multiple-gene datasets can resolve this problem. The genes commonly used in mushroom phylogenetic research are summarized.     

Predictors of psychological distress and positive resources among Palestinian adolescents: trauma, child, and mothering characteristics

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to examine how traumatic and stressful events, responses to violence, child characteristics, and mothering quality, as measured in middle childhood predict psychological distress and positive resources in adolescence. METHOD: The participants were 65 Palestinian adolescents (17+/-.85 years; 52% girls), who had been studied during the First Intifada (T1), during the Palestinian Authority rule (T2) and before the Second Al Aqsa Intifada (T3) in Gaza. Psychological distress was indicated by PTSD, and depressive symptoms and positive resources by resilient attitudes and satisfaction with quality of life, all measured at T3. The predictors that were measured at T1 were exposure to military violence, active coping with violence and children's intelligence, cognitive capacity, and neuroticism. Mothering quality and stressful life-events were measured at T2, the former reported by both the mother and the child, and the latter by the mother. RESULTS: Adolescents' PTSD symptoms were most likely if they had been exposed to high levels of traumatic and stressful experiences and had poor cognitive capacity and high neuroticism in middle childhood. Only high levels of childhood military violence and stressful life-events predicted high depressive symptoms and low satisfaction with quality of life in adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: Military violence in childhood forms risks for both increased psychological distress and decreased positive resources. However, child characteristics such as cognitive capacity and personality are important determinants of psychological vulnerability in military trauma.     

减少飞行中的人为失误

航空事故有三分之二以上是因飞机机组人员的失误造成的。通过培训提高机组人员的集体表现可能有助于减少具有致命后果的失误。     

Weak and strong novice readers of english as a foreign language: Effects of first language and socioeconomic status

This study examined individual differences among beginning readers of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study concentrated on the effects of underlying first language (L1) knowledge as well as EFL letter and vocabulary knowledge. Phonological and morphological awareness, spelling, vocabulary knowledge, and word reading in Hebrew L1, in addition to knowledge of EFL letters and EFL vocabulary, were measured. The study also investigated the effect of socioeconomic background (SES) on beginning EFL readers. Participants included 145 fourth graders from three schools representing two socioeconomic backgrounds in the north of Israel. The results indicate that knowledge of English letters played a more prominent role than knowledge of Hebrew L1 components in differentiating between strong and weak EFL readers. The Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis was supported by L1 phonological awareness, word reading, and vocabulary knowledge appearing as part of discriminating functions. The presence of English vocabulary knowledge as part of the discriminant functions provides support for English word reading being more than just a decoding task for EFL beginner readers. Socioeconomic status differentiated the groups for EFL word recognition but not for EFL reading comprehension.     

Risk factors for infant maltreatment: a population-based study

CONTEXT: Of the approximately 900,000 children who were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect by US child protective services in 2002, the birth-to-3 age group had the highest rate of victimization (1.6%) and children younger than 1 accounted for the largest percentage of victims (9.6%). OBJECTIVE: To identify perinatal and sociodemographic risk factors associated with maltreatment of infants up to 1 year of age. DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: 189,055 children born in 1996 in Florida. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Infant maltreatment, defined as a verified report of abuse, neglect, or threatened harm that occurred between day 3 of life and 1 year. RESULTS: 1,602 children (.85%) of the 1996 birth cohort had verified instances of maltreatment by age 1. Of 15 perinatal and sociodemographic variables studied, 11 were found to be significantly related to infant maltreatment. Five factors had adjusted relative risks (RR) of two or greater: Mother smoked during pregnancy (RR 2.8); more than two siblings (RR 2.7); Medicaid beneficiary (RR 2.1); unmarried marital status (RR 2.0); low birth weight infant (RR 2.0). Infants who had four of these five risk factors had a maltreatment rate seven times higher than the population average. CONCLUSIONS: Data on nearly all risk factors found to be significantly associated with infant maltreatment are available on the birth certificate. Such information can be incorporated into a population-based risk-assessment tool that could identify subpopulations at highest risk for infant maltreatment. Because resources are limited, these groups should be given priority for enrollment in child abuse prevention programs.