A post-genomic view of behavioral development and adaptation to the environment

Recent advances in molecular genetics and epigenetics are reviewed that have major implications for the bio-behavioral sciences and for understanding how organisms adapt to their environments at both phylogenetic and ontogenic levels. From a post-genomics perspective, the environment is as crucial as the DNA sequence for constructing the phenotype, and as a source of information in trying to predict phenotypes. The review is organized with respect to four basic processes by which phenotypes adapt to environmental challenges, with an emphasis on the data for humans: (1) developmental plasticity, (2) epigenetic mechanisms, (3) genotype-environment correlations, and (4) gene × environment interactions.     

Dangerous Transitions and the Traumatized Adolescent

One of the developmental tasks for the adolescent is to construct a new transitional space that leads to internal changes and adapts to the external world. When a nurturing matrix is unavailable, adolescents experience the entrance into the adult world as a dangerous transition. The author bases his arguments on psychoanalytic theories, mostly Winnicott's, and illustrates these with clinical material. He suggests that, even though these traumatized adolescents experienced nonfunctional transitional spaces, it is proven that they could be treated psychoanalytically. Here, the main task of the analyst is to establish a holding environment as a type of transference, resulting in less emphasis on interpretation of inner conflicts.     

SOIL CARBON TRANSFORMATIONS

Climate change is a wicked problem with causes and consequences overlapping with other wicked problems and no single solution (Hulme 2015). For example, the frequent droughts associated with climate change exacerbate another major problem facing humanity as we enter the Anthropocene: how to produce adequate food to feed a growing population without increasing pollution or “more food with low pollution (MoFoLoPo)” (Davidson et al. 2015). Soils represent an intersection of these two wicked problems, because they are integral to food production through agriculture and also are an important component of global climate models. Recent focus in the field of soil carbon cycling has facilitated a transformation in our understanding of the processes that control this important resource. This understanding is critical to responding to both wicked problems.     

Can home heal worn out parents?

The purpose of this study was to explore the conditions that make residences function as restorative environments for parents with young children. We analyzed how perceived restorativeness factors (being away, fascination, coherence, scope, and compatibility), the evaluation of the residence, interpersonal support, and the number of children contribute to actual psychological restoration in the residence using stepwise multiple regression. The results showed that perceived restorativeness factors needed for actual psychological restoration in residences depend on the working status and parental role. For nonworking mothers, fascination and interpersonal support significantly contributed to the prediction of their actual psychological restoration in the residence. For working mothers, only being away contributed significantly to predicting actual psychological restoration in the residence. For fathers, only compatibility contributed significantly to predicting actual psychological restoration in the residence. A need for future studies to examine whether the differences were caused by the fact that one is engaged in paid work or by the fact that potential stressors are distributed both inside and outside the residence was discussed.