•Children in community sample had a lower prevalence of attachment disorders compared to children in clinic and foster care.•Attachment disorder was associated with psychopathological symptoms and ...higher prevalence of mental disorders.•Attachment disorder was associated with lower cognitive and language abilities.•A high percentage (37.1%) of children fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for both types of attachment disorders.•Our findings corroborate previous literature suggesting that attachment representation is distinct from attachment disorder.
Currently, attachment quality and attachment disorder exist in parallel, but the mutual association is still insufficiently clarified. For policy makers and clinical experts, it can be difficult to differentiate between these constructs, but the distinction is crucial to develop mental-health services and effective treatment concepts.
We aimed to investigate the association between attachment representations (AR) and attachment disorders (AD), including Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED) in children aged between 5 and 9.
A total of 135 children aged between 5 and 9 years (M=7.17 years, SD=1.40, 63% male) and their primary caregivers participated in the study. Children were interviewed with the story stem method to assess AR, and the primary caregiver completed diagnostic interviews and questionnaires on mental disorders, AD, emotional and behavioral problems, and intelligence and development.
The prevalence of AR in children with AD was 28.6% for the ‘secure’ form of AR, 17.1% for the ‘insecure-avoidant’ form, 25.7% for the ‘insecure-ambivalent’ form, and 28.6% for the ‘disorganized’ form. Prevalences of the various AR forms did not differ statistically significantly, indicating that AR is conceptionally distinct from AD. Children with disorganized attachment scored significantly lower on language and intelligence skills than children with secure attachment. AD was significantly associated with a higher number of comorbidities, emotional and behavioral problems, and lower language skills.
Longitudinal studies using standardized assessment instruments are needed to systematically provide comparable and reliable empirical findings to improve current understanding of AR and AD as well as their etiological models.
In this commentary, Suess opines that comparing risk- and non-risk-groups, as is done in the study by Witting, Ruiz, and Ahnert (2016), is a favored approach in developmental psychopathology in order ...to learn more about underlying mechanisms of normal development, as well as developmental deviations. Witting and colleagues followed up this strategy to study variations in attachment mechanisms, comparing preterm and term born children in their case study. They have thereby used a multilevel and multi-method approach as highly recommended by developmental psychopathologists. However, unfortunately, assessments at the representational level, which would have been important to address fathers' "understanding of the vulnerability in their babies, especially in stressful situations," were left out, even though this issue was raised by the authors in the discussion section. In sum, the outline and the design of the study is suitable to serve as a model in order to inspire further research, and to inform practice for better supports of preterm children. As we better understand the transactional process, we may finally handle the empirically found vulnerabilities and long-lasting handicaps among some of the preterm children more effectively, and might be able to improve preventive interventions in this area. For "Variations in Early Attachment Mechanisms Contribute to Attachment Quality: Case Studies Including Babies Born Preterm," see EJ1142016.
The Minnesota longitudinal study of parents and children from birth to adulthood provides both a theoretical framework and a host of empirical findings that can serve to bridge the gap between ...research and clinical application. Key among these findings are: (a) the ongoing impact of early relationship experiences throughout the years, even with later experience and circumstances controlled; (b) the cumulative nature of experience and its continual impact with current context; (c) the important role of adult partner relationships; (d) the increasingly active role of the persons themselves in their own development; and (e) the interplay between experience, representation, and ongoing adaptation. These findings, and the theoretical structure underlying them, suggest the need for complex, comprehensive intervention that begins early, with a focus on altering the quality of parent - child relationships. At the same time, additional components, including couples therapy and efforts to alter the child's inner constructions of experience, are clearly suggested. One must attend to forces maintaining children on maladaptive developmental pathways once established, as well as understanding the factors that initiated such pathways.
An area of massive barite precipitations was studied at a tectonic horst in 1500 m water depth in the Derugin Basin, Sea of Okhotsk. Seafloor observations and dredge samples showed irregular, block- ...to column-shaped barite build-ups up to 10 m high which were scattered over the seafloor along an observation track 3.5 km long. High methane concentrations in the water column show that methane expulsion and probably carbonate precipitation is a recently active process. Small fields of chemoautotrophic clams (Calyptogena sp., Acharax sp.) at the seafloor provide additional evidence for active fluid venting. The white to yellow barites show a very porous and often layered internal fabric, and are typically covered by dark-brown Mn-rich sediment; electron microprobe spectroscopy measurements of barite sub-samples show a Ba substitution of up to 10.5 mol% of Sr. Rare idiomorphic pyrite crystals ( similar to 1%) in the barite fabric imply the presence of H sub(2)S. This was confirmed by clusters of living chemoautotrophic tube worms (1 mm in diameter) found in pores and channels within the barite. Microscopic examination showed that micritic aragonite and Mg-calcite aggregates or crusts are common authigenic precipitations within the barite fabric. Equivalent micritic carbonates and barite carbonate cemented worm tubes were recovered from sediment cores taken in the vicinity of the barite build-up area. Negative delta super(13)C values of these carbonates (> -43.5ppt PDB) indicate methane as major carbon source; delta super(18)O values between 4.04 and 5.88ppt PDB correspond to formation temperatures, which are certainly below 5 degree C. One core also contained shells of Calyptogena sp. at different core depths with super(14)C-ages ranging from 20 680 to > 49 080 yr. Pore water analyses revealed that fluids also contain high amounts of Ba; they also show decreasing SO sub(4) super(2-) concentrations and a parallel increase of H sub(2)S with depth. Additionally, S and O isotope data of barite sulfate ( delta super(34)S: 21.0-38.6ppt CDT; delta super(18)O: 9.0-17.6ppt SMOW) strongly point to biological sulfate reduction processes. The isotope ranges of both S and O can be exclusively explained as the result of a mixture of residual sulfate after a biological sulfate reduction and isotopic fractionation with 'normal' seawater sulfate. While massive barite deposits are commonly assumed to be of hydrothermal origin, the assemblage of cheomautotrophic clams, methane-derived carbonates, and non-thermally equilibrated barite sulfate strongly implies that these barites have formed at ambient bottom water temperatures and form the features of a Giant Cold Seep setting that has been active for at least 49 000 yr.
In situ oxygen fluxes were measured at vent sites in the Aleutian trench at a water depth of almost 5000 m using a TV-guided benthic flux chamber. The flux was 2 orders of magnitude greater than ...benthic oxygen fluxes in areas unaffected by venting on the continental margin off Alaska. Porewater profiles taken from the surface sediment below a vent site showed high concentrations of sulfide, methane, and ammonia. The reduced carbon and nitrogen compounds are transported to the vent site by fluids expelled from deeper anoxic sediment layers by the forces of plate convergence. The tectonically driven fluid flow was determined from the biochemical turnover in vent communities and was found to be 3.4 ± 0.5 m yr −1. A model was used to quantify the transport of silica, Ca 2+, and sulfate via diffusion, advection, and bioirrigation through the surface sediments of a vent site. A nonlocal mixing coefficient of 20–30 yr −1 was determined by fitting the model curves to the measured porewater profiles showing that the transport of solutes within the near-surface sediments and across the sediment-water interface is dominated by the activity of the vent fauna. Sulfate-containing oceanic bottom water and methane-rich vent fluids were mixed below the clam colony to produce sulfide and a CaCO 3 precipitate. The vent biota shape their immediate environment and control the sediment-water exchange and the benthic fluxes at vent sites. The oxygen consumption at vent sites is a major sink for oxygen at the study area.
Gene 1 of the human coronavirus HCV 229E encompasses approximately 20.7 kb and contains two overlapping open reading frames, ORF 1a and ORF 1b. The downstream ORF 1b is expressed by a mechanism ...involving (−1) ribosomal frameshifting. Translation of mRNA 1, which is thought to be equivalent to the viral genomic RNA, results in the synthesis of two large polyproteins, pp1a and pp1ab. These polyproteins contain motifs characteristic of papain-like and 3C-like proteinases, RNA-dependent RNA polymerases, helicases, and metal-binding proteins. In this study, we have produced pp1ab-specific monoclonal antibodies and have used them to detect an intracellular, 105-kDa viral polypeptide that contains the putative RNA polymerase domain. Furthermore, usingtranscleavage assays with bacterially expressed HCV 229E 3C-like proteinase, we have demonstrated that the 105-kDa polypeptide is released from pp1ab by cleavage at the dipeptide bonds Gln-4068/Ser-4069 and Gln-4995/Ala-4996. These data contribute to the characterization of coronavirus 3C-like proteinase-mediated processing of pp1ab and provide the first identification of an HCV 229E ORF 1ab-encoded polypeptide in virus-infected cells.
Methane hydrate crystals, in abundance in the ocean floor, contain methane molecules that offer enormous potential for energy development. Methane hydrates occur throughout the world in quantities ...that may equal all known deposits of gas, oil, and coal. Researchers are studying the accessibility of these methane resources, and also whether their decomposition is contributing to global warming. Methane hydrates formed in natural environments were first discovered in the 1960s in marshes; they were discovered in ocean deposits in the 1970s. Hydrate Ridge, a promontory on the ocean floor off Oregon, is one of the most accessible research sites for methane hydrate crystals. As the ice crystals that contain the methane hydrate melt at lower levels, plumes of methane as well as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are released.
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