Treatment of Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma using Stem Cell Differentiation Stage Factors

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents the third leading cause of cancer-related death. Because HCC is multicentric with time, excluding the few transplanted patients, sooner or later it becomes untreatable with loco-regional therapies and, until some years ago, it was not responsive to systemic therapies. In 2005 a randomized trial indicated the efficacy of a product containing stem cell differentiation stage factors (SCDSF) taken from zebrafish embryos during the stage in which the totipotent stem cells are differentiating into the pluripotent adult stem cells. In such a trial the patients, with “intermediate” and “advanced” HCC according to Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer/American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (BCLC/AASLD) guidelines, presented benefit in terms of performance status and objective tumoral response, with some cases (2.4%) of complete response, that is, sustained disappearance of the neoplastic areas or blood supply therein, accompanied by normalization of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels (complete response [CR]). A second study reporting the experience of a tertiary referral center on patients with “advanced” stage confirmed the possibility to obtain CR. Out of 38 patients, 5 presented a sustained CR (13.1%). Improvement on PS was obtained in 17 patients (34.6%). No side effects occurred.     

5～6岁不同数学能力水平儿童的执行功能差异研究

为了考察不同数学能力水平儿童的执行功能差异,根据331名学前儿童的数学能力得分选取了潜在数学学习困难儿童组、低分组、典型发展儿童组和数学优秀组等4个实验组。首先分析了各组儿童的执行功能差异特点,之后使用判别分析进一步探索了各执行功能子结构对儿童早期数学能力差异分组的贡献。结果表明:相对于典型发展儿童组,潜在数学学习困难儿童在执行功能的更新、抑制和转换方面普遍缺损;低分组儿童则仅表现出数字更新能力不足;数学优秀组在数字更新和有时间要求的认知转换方面比典型发展组有明显优势。进一步判别分析表明,对早期数学能力差异分组贡献最大的并非独立执行功能子结构,而是更新和转换的共同因素结构。     

Depression and stressful environments: identifying gaps in conceptualization and measurement

Background and Objectives: Stress is well known as a trigger of depressive reactions, fear, anxiety, and behavioral disorders. However, there are many gaps in the conceptualization and measurement of environmental stress. Results: Exciting developments in the neuroscience of stress have increasingly expanded our knowledge of mechanisms by which stress may affect emotional and behavioral adjustment. Ironically, environmental stress has often been a silent player in human studies of stress processes. There is a significant need for increased efforts to include environmental stress variables in models of internalizing and other disorders. Measurement and conceptualization issues are prominent, and this article makes the case for improved methods of measuring acute, chronic, and early life stress, and for additional conceptualization of the dynamically changing and bidirectional effects of stress on disorder over time. Conclusions: There is a critical need for greater focus on and better measurement of the environment and its impact on emotional and other disorders, with emphasis on developmentally informed hypotheses. Empirical findings and new perspectives may contribute enormously to our understanding of normal and abnormal outcomes, and also to the challenge of effective interventions to promote mental health and optimal functioning.     

A Gendered Approach to Understanding the Roles of Social Bonding,Personal Control,and Strain on College Dating Violence in Emerging Adulthood

Borrowing insights from concepts that have been shown to predict deviant or criminal outcomes (i.e., social bonding, personal control, and strain), this study examined dating violence from the perpetrators’ and gender-relevance perspective among young college students (18–25 years old). This study raised 2 research questions: Were social bonding, personal control, and strain associated with college dating violence? How did these associations differ by gender? In sum, 2 types of social bonding (commitment to goal attainment and spending time with delinquent peers) were linked to psychological aggression in dating. Whereas self-control was negatively related to dating violence perpetration, antisocial tendencies were associated with physical aggression. Further, all the strain measures (i.e., daily hassles, relationship distress, and couple conflict) had a positive association with dating violence. When gender was considered, self-control had a protective effect for women and antisocial tendencies served as a risk factor for increased psychological violence among men.     

Reviewing the research in children’s spirituality (2005–2015): proposing a pluricultural approach

Research on children’s spirituality seems to continue to be scarcely represented in the field of early childhood. In reviewing the literature, looking at empirical data-driven studies, this paper compiles an international review of the work completed in the last 10 years (2005–2015) on the topic of children’s spirituality. The research-based works reviewed are analysed and sorted taking into account: research methods, participant demographics (age, gender, ethnicity) and location (urban vs. suburban/rural, school vs. home), yet are presented in categories found related to their topic of study: (1) spiritual meaning-making and relationships to/with God, (2) children’s spirituality in education and (3) identity formation and sense of self. Finally, identification of gaps in the research literature regarding the study of children’s spirituality is presented. As well, avenues for future research are proposed, identifying methods and approaches. Also, the term pluricultural as a means to guide researchers in making sense of the complex phenomenon that is children’s spirituality is introduced.     

Young children and spirituality: understanding children’s connectedness in a group music class

In a fast-paced materialistic world, it is important to create opportunities for spirituality in early childhood music education, a developmental element often neglected in the scholarly literature. The purpose of the present hermeneutic phenomenological study is to understand the meanings that children ascribe to their experiences of connectedness in a group music class for 15 children, aged 4–5 years, at a nursery school in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Data were collected by means of interviews, close observations, diaries and drawings. In a qualitative data analysis, the following themes emerged regarding the children’s experiences in the music class: Music is the best; My body dances; Music takes me places; We can play together; You and me; I feel better and You can have mine. Music group classes in early childhood education could be useful in creating opportunities for spiritual experiences, promoting connectedness and consequently fostering children’s spiritual well-being.     

Feasibility of Undertaking Off‐Site Infant Eye‐Tracking Assessments of Neuro‐Cognitive Functioning in Early‐Intervention Centres

Recent work suggests that differences in functional brain development are already identifiable in 6‐ to 9‐month‐old infants from low socio‐economic status (SES) backgrounds. Investigation of early SES‐related differences in neuro‐cognitive functioning requires the recruitment of large and diverse samples of infants, yet it is often difficult to persuade low‐SES parents to come to a university setting. One solution is to recruit infants through early intervention children's centres (CCs). These are often located in areas of high relative deprivation to support young children. Given the increasing portability of eye‐tracking equipment, assessment of large clusters of infants could be undertaken in centres by suitably trained early intervention staff. Here, we report on a study involving 174 infants and their parents, carried out in partnership with CCs, exploring the feasibility of this approach. We report the processes of setting up the project and participant recruitment. We report the diversity of sample obtained on the engagement of CC staff in training and the process of assessment itself. We report the quality of the data obtained, and the levels of engagement of parents and infants. We conclude that this approach has great potential for recruiting large and diverse samples worldwide, provides sufficiently reliable data and is engaging to staff, parents and infants. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speaking of grief and the grief of speaking: martyrs’ speech and the perils of translation

In Derrida’s Monolinguism of the Other, a theory about the universal and constitutive alienation of the speaking subject from language finds its exemplary grounding in Derrida’s own experience as an Algerian Jew, one whose relationship to the French language is both totalizing and exiled (‘I have only one language, it is not mine.’). He equates speaking not only with contingent citizenship and a divestment of what one never really had in the first place, but also with the extreme experiences of torture, threat and physical violence. He indeed uses the words ‘passion’ and ‘martyr’ to describe his experience. In this paper, I will read Derrida ‘backwards,’ and against the universalizing move Derrida and those following him make in order to suggest a way of reading some scenes of violent death as scenes about diasporic cultural divestment. I’ll specifically attend to martyrs’ speech, and do so reading them as archives of the perils and inescapable expenses of entering dominant cultural ‘languages.’     

Stability and change in interests: A longitudinal examination of grades 7 through college

The joint issue of stability and change of interests in adolescence and early adulthood was investigated longitudinally over three years in three different grade cohorts. The patterns of structural stability, mean stability, rank order stability, and profile stability as well as how these patterns were moderated by gender were examined based on three cohorts of grades 7 and 8 (n = 3191), grades 9 and 10 (n = 6818), and grades 11 and 12 (n = 1078) using the Personal Globe Inventory-Short (Tracey, 2010). Results indicated that adherence to the RIASEC circular model was high and stable; there was a lack of appreciable change in interest means; interests were stable; interest crystallization, profile, and pattern were stable. While the results supported late adolescence and early adulthood being a stable period for interests in general, more changes were found among male and younger students. The implication of the current study was discussed along with its limitations and suggestions for future research.