An educational program to overcome language and cultural barriers to genetic services

Providing genetic services to families who do not speak English and whose cultures are quite diverse presents a unique challenge to genetic specialists. One approach that is being employed successfully is the use of specially trained genetic assistants to provide outreach, case finding, referral, support, interpretation, advocacy, and follow-up counseling. A basic genetic assistant training program for five bicultural/bilingual Southeast Asian case managers is described. The course syllabus can be used to train health workers who represent a variety of cultures and languages.     

Preconceptional family health evaluation: A regional education program for family planning clients and health professionals

The Preconceptional Family Health Evaluation Program was a regional project developed and funded for 2 years by the New England Regional Genetics Group (NERGG) to educate family planning health professionals about genetics, and to offer family planning clients preconceptional identification of genetic and environmental exposure risks. To meet these goals, genetic education was provided on a regional basis to 45 family planning professionals. A self-administered family health risk questionnaire adaptable to individual family planning settings was developed. Five hundred and twenty-nine family planning clients voluntarily completed the questionnaire. Cigarette smoking (35%) and alcohol use (57%) were two major categories of risks identified. The Preconceptional Family Health Evaluation Program was well received by all participants and provided an effective means for regional education of family planning health professionals. As a result of the program, state program planners, clinical genetics services, and family planning health professionals developed a strong relationship that will serve future educational and genetic risk screening efforts.     

Professional preparation of individuals who provide genetic counseling services

An unprecedented increase has occurred in demand for genetic counseling services during the current decade. This study examined the complex issue of who currently provides genetic counseling services and the professional preparation of these personnel. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 325 genetic counseling professionals in the southeastern United States who were members of the Southeast Regional Genetics Group (SERGG), National Society of Genetic Counselors, or American Society of Human Genetics States; 204 completed the questionnaire (63%). Seventy percent of respondents were female and 30% were male. Thirty percent of respondents held MD degrees; nine physicians held PhD degrees. Most physicians were male. Thirty-two percent of respondents held master's degrees in genetic counseling; five counselors held PhD degrees. Twenty-three percent of respondents were nurses; eight nurses held master's degrees. Three percent of respondents were social workers. Individuals with other degrees, such as an associate of science in medical technology and a doctoral degree in education, also provided genetic counseling. Genetic counseling typically involved a team effort, consisting mainly of physicians and genetic counselors. Most respondents reported college coursework in human genetics, supervised training, and seminar/workshop training. Thirty percent reported college coursework in counseling techniques, supervised training, and seminar/workshop training. Policy recommendations are offered concerning professional preparation of genetic counselors.     

Matching, maximizing, and the behavioral unit: concurrent reinforcement of response sequences.

Pigeons pecked two keys in a probability matching situation in which four two-peck sequences were intermittently reinforced: left-left, left-right, right-left and right-right. In Phase 1, relative reinforcement rate was varied with respect to the first response of a sequence: reinforcers were differentially assigned for left-left and left-right sequences as opposed to right-left and right-right sequences. The second response of reinforced sequences occurred equally on the left and right keys across conditions. In Phase II, relative reinforcement rate was varied for sequences that involve an alternation as opposed to those that did not. The relative outputs of the different sequences matched the relative reinforcement rates for the different sequences in both phases. Relative response rates for key pecks did not always match relative reinforcement rates. The intertrial interval separating responses was varied in both phases; increases in the intertrial interval affected the relative frequency of different sequences. The results demonstrate that response sequences acted as functional units influencing choice and thus support a structural account of choice. At the same time, the matching of relative sequence proportion and relative reinforcement rate supports a matching account.     

Agonistic behavior and social reactivity of LG/J mice in both an arena and a seminatural setting

In order to determine the relatively long-term effects of having been primed for agonistic behaviors in an arena setting, 28 male LG/J mice were observed for these behaviors in a seminatural environment for a period of 5 days following a 20 min arena test. The mice were first placed in an arena in which they were allowed either immediate physical contact with another strain (control condition) or were briefly separated from another strain by a transparent partition before being allowed physical access to them (priming condition). Subjects, recorded as either having fought or not fought in the arena, were then placed in a 101 cm square seminatural setting. Seven trials, using 8 LGs each (4 arenaexperienced males and 4 naive females), were made, and agonistic behaviors were recorded for the priming and control condition subjects. The results showed that the control condition fighters (CF) like the priming condition fighters (PF) fought in the arena situation, but different agonistic patterns in the seminatural setting were noted. While in the seminatural environment, both CF and PF mice were attacked frequently and submitted frequently, but PF mice attacked opponents more frequently than did CF subjects (p < 0.025) and elicited significantly more submissions from opponent mice than did CF mice (p < 0.025). It is concluded that: (1) there are more and different agonistic behavior patterns available in the more natural environment than in the arena setting, and more specifically (2) there is a greater effect on agonistic behaviors in a seminatural environment for mice that fought when exposed to the arena priming procedure as compared with mice having fought in the arena control condition.     

Predatory aggression in lines of wild mice selected for interfemale aggression

Mice descending from lines previously selected for high and low levels of interfemale aggression and from a nonselected control line were exposed to live crickets on two consecutive test days. Latencies both to attack and to eat the cricket were recorded. No line or sex differences in attacking were found, although latency to attack decreased over test days. Control line mice were more likely to engage in the eating of the cricket than either the high or low selected lines, suggesting that the selection procedure may have dissociated attacking and eating components of predatory behavior.     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Development and Stability of Executive Functions in Children of Preschool Age: A Longitudinal Study of Japanese Twins

Executive functions (EF) are an important predictor of later adaptive development. A number of environmental influences, such as parenting, have been suggested as important promoters of EF development. However, behavioural genetic research has demonstrated that many environmental influences could be affected by genetic influences. Therefore, it is important to consider genetic variations when investigating environmental influences on EF development in children. To date, few studies have used genetically informative designs to assess the etiology of EF development during the preschool years, a period of rapid development. As a result, it remains unclear how and to what extent the environmental influences that are not confounded by genetic influences affect EF development during this developmental period. The present study explored EF development during the preschool years using a longitudinal and genetically informative design and a non‐Western population. Japanese twins were visited at their homes and individually tested on EF measures at 24, 36, and 48 months of age. Phenotypic correlations and confirmatory factor analyses suggested that EF are less cohesive at 24 months of age and emerge as a common single factor at 36 and 48 months. Additionally, longitudinal and multivariate behavioural genetic analyses indicated that the EF developmental change during this period is promoted by both shared and nonshared environmental influences as well as genetic influences, while EF stability is brought about by shared environments. The present findings elucidated the etiology of EF development during the preschool years and confirmed that this period is an important transitional stage for EF development. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

多巴胺系统基因对注意网络的调控作用

多巴胺是脑内重要的神经递质之一,与注意活动紧密相关。本文选取作用于突触前膜、间隙和后膜的多巴胺系统基因——多巴胺转运蛋白基因、儿茶酚氧化甲基转移酶基因和多巴胺受体基因,整合影像遗传学研究,探讨多巴胺基因对注意网络的调控。元分析发现背侧和腹侧注意网络的主要脑区均有较大的基因调控效应,且腹侧网络的效应值显著大于背侧网络,表明多巴胺系统基因在全脑范围内调控注意网络,且对腹侧网络的调控作用更强于背侧网络。     

Experimental analyses of gene-brain-behavior relations: some notes on their application.

The fields of genetics and neuroscience are yielding findings useful in understanding complex behavior-environment relations. We believe that these developments in interdisciplinary basic research are of interest to applied behavior analysts because of the long history of basic findings being used by the readership of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis to improve everyday human activities. An awareness of contemporary developments in a range of basic research disciplines may facilitate the systematic replication of those functional relations in applied settings. In this context, we selectively review papers published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and other basic research journals that relate to gene-brain-behavior relations.     

兼职蛋白质及其哲学思考

在蛋白质组学天空中,新近提出的兼职蛋白质概念正越来越受到人们的关注。研究发现,某些蛋白质因其细胞定位、细胞类型、寡聚状态的不同及其配体、底物、辅因子和产物在细胞内浓度的变化而表现出不同的功能,从而对细胞和机体产生诸多有益作用,并使其发展出一系列完善机制以实现不同功能间的转换。兼职蛋白质概念的提出不仅改变了一个基因－－一种蛋白质－－一种功能的传统观念,也为大分子间相互作用、细胞复杂性及生物多样性研究