The purpose of this secondary analysis of data was to investigate the relationship between family factors and obesity in Mexican American and Anglo preschool children. The purposive sample consisted of 341 mothers and their children, of which 180 were Mexican Americans and 161 were Anglos. Demographic characteristics indicated that Mexican American children: were heavier; living in single parent families more frequently; had more body fat; had mothers with higher body mass index (BMI); had larger family size; were less likely to be first born or only children; had less educated parents with lower level occupations and lower family income; and had mothers who used control in feeding practices more often than their Anglo counterparts. Results identify areas for prevention of childhood obesity.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between specific infant and maternal characteristics with the developmental outcome of low birth weight infants. Birth weight was statistically significant in relation to the Mental Developmental Index (p =.001) and the Psychomotor Developmental Index for chronologic age (p =.023). Birth weight predicted 25% of the variance in infant cognitive development and 24% in infant motor development. There was no statistically significant positive correlation between maternal education and infant cognitive developmental outcome. There was a statistically significant correlation between: number of hospital days (MDI, P =.006; PDI P =.010); number of days on oxygen (MDI, p =.006; PDI p =.037); gestational age (MDI p =.006); and infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (MDI p =.020; PDI, p =.020) in relation to developmental outcome. These findings support the premise that co-morbidity of infants appears to increase the risk of developmental delay.

Despite decades of foreign aid, abundance of natural and human resources, and numerous development initiatives, the African continent remains largely underdeveloped, marginalised and excluded from major decision-making processes that shape today’s world. The purpose of this research is to examine the reasons for the continuous underdevelopment and marginalisation of the African continent and to advance pragmatic measures to be put in place to reverse the situation. The thesis demonstrates that Africa’s underdevelopment and marginalisation cannot be divorced from the effects of centuries of exploitation, domination, and exclusion through the slave trade, colonialism, and neo-colonialism on the one hand, and decades of poor socio-economic and political governance that have characterised the continent since independence, on the other. One of the main findings of the research is that, over the years, African leaders have consciously or unconsciously failed to recognise the fundamental link between human rights, human development, and peace as a foundation for development, and this failure has resulted in their inability to craft sustainable development initiatives for the continent. Given the prominent place human rights, good governance, democracy, peace and stability occupy in both the Constitutive Act of the African Union (CA-AU)1 and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development2 (referred throughout this thesis as the NEPAD Document), the thesis further demonstrates that there is an intrinsic relationship between human rights, human development, and peace which is necessary for development. It analyses the extent to which this relationship has been taken into account in 1 The Constitutive Act of the African Union, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/23.15, was adopted 11 July 2000 in Lomé, Togo and entered into force May 26, 2001. 2 The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD or the NEPAD Document) 2001. The NEPAD is an economic development program of the African Union. The NEPAD was adopted at the 37th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia. PhD Thesis Human Rights, Human Development and Peace – inseparable ingredients in Africa’s quest for prosperity xvi the conception, formulation, and implementation of the objectives of both the AU and the NEPAD; and concludes that the NEPAD and the AU initiatives provide a strong foundation and offer an excellent opportunity for Africans to begin to reverse centuries of exploitation, domination, and decades of socioeconomic and political exclusion, as well as re-orientate the governance and development strategy of the continent. The thesis is premised on the realisation that respect for human rights, the promotion of human development, and the consolidation of peace, coupled with good political and economic governance are conditions sine qua non for any meaningful development. It further reveals that respect for human rights provides a foundation upon which rests the political structures of human freedoms. The achievement of human freedom generates the will as well as the capacity for economic and social progress. The attainment of economic and social progress provides the basis for durable peace. The thesis concludes that human rights, human development, and peace are interdependent, interrelated, indivisible and mutually reinforcing, and thus inseparable ingredients in Africa’s quest for prosperity.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 35-02, Section: B, page: 0906. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1974.

Disasters triggered by hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, droughts, and cyclones, pose significant impediments to sustainable development efforts in the most vulnerable and exposed countries. Mainstreaming disaster risk is hence seen as an important global agenda as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030. Yet, conventional development indicators remain largely negligent of the potential setbacks that may be posed by disaster risk. This article discusses the need to reflect disaster risk in development indicators and proposes a concept disaster risk-adjusted human development index (RHDI) as an example. Globally available national-level datasets of disaster risk to public and private assets (including health, educational facilities, and private housing) is combined with an estimate of expenditure on health, education, and capital formation to construct an RHDI. The RHDI is then analyzed across various regions and HDI groups, and contrasted with other HDI variants including inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) and the gender-specific female HDI (FHDI) to identify groups of countries where transformational disaster risk reduction (DRR) approaches may be necessary.

No study, to date, has systematically examined the interplay of social contact, depression, functional disability, and cardiovascular health when examining the relation between religious activity and all -cause mortality. This study used Cox regression models as well as a series of structural equation models to elucidate these relations and resultant mortality over a 5-year period. This sample included 3,607 persons, age 65 and older, who participated in the Cache County Study on Memory in Aging, and who were not demented. Results indicate that when using Cox regression modeling, after controlling for other variables related to mortality, both religious activity and social contact remained statistically significant predictors of survival time. Based on hazard ratios obtained from the Cox regression models, it was found that subjects who attend church activities at least once a week or more are 41.6% less likely to die than subjects who attend church less frequently. Subjects who increase their social contact by each additional level gain 3% protection against mortality. Surprisingly, depression was not related to mortality in any analyses. Therefore, the best-fitting structural equation model did not include depression. Possibly, the most interesting findings from this study were the mediating effects found between functional disability, religious activity, social contact, and all-cause mortality. Using a nested series of structural equation models, we found that social contact mediates the relation between functional disability and mortality and that religious activity mediates the relation between functional disability and social contact These results indicate that social contact may be a crucial underlying mechanism, which is triggered by religious activity, and therefore acts as a mediator between functional disability and mortality. Limitations of this study include narrow or unidimensional measures, as well as problems w1th reliability. Due to the homogeneity of this sample, it may be very difficult to justify generalizing these results to a different population. Despite these limitations, this study finds that both religious activity and social contact converge in their effects on mortality and their interconnectedness is evident from these results. Both religious activity and social contact have important implications for the health of our elderly. Nevertheless, many multilayered aspects of religious behavior and social networks have not been addressed in this study. Future work investigating the consequences of the longitudinal aspects of religious belief, social networking, and depression is needed.

The American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) recently sponsored Head Start-Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program partnerships. MFT programs can begin building similarly successful collaborative partnerships with Early Head Start (EHS) programs through using all or portions of this research study. This study has been dedicated to describing the occurrence, co-occurrence, and predictive characteristics of marital discord and depression in families served by EHS programs. This identification of at-risk families can then be used to bolster existing treatment efforts, develop new maritally based interventions, and facilitate increased referrals. Marital discord and depression are two often interrelated problems EHS mothers are at increased risk to face because they have low incomes and very young children (up to age three). Previous research has demonstrated the negative effects of marital discord and maternal depression on child, adult, and family development. Research with various married samples has further identified variables predictive of marital discord and depression. It was the aim of this study to reexamine these predictors and test couple measures to find the most effective identifying variables. Cross-sectional and prospective longitudinal research analyses were conducted from surveys with 148 EHS married mothers and their spouses to answer specific research questions. In general, results revealed that EHS married mothers were (a) slightly less depressed and maritally discordant than what might be expected of lower income parents, (b) more prone to experiencing these problems the more children they had, and (c) more accurately identified by considering couple data, which included similarity in earlier marital discord, earlier depression, religious activity, attachment attitudes or demographic variables. The limitations of this study included weaknesses in measurement and analytic procedures largely resulting from the use of data originally organized at a national level with Jess complementary purposes in mind. In the future research should address the limitations and incorporate the findings of this study into development and testing of theoretically driven marital interventions in EHS samples. Systemic implications and managing ethical concerns of using the proposed marital interventions in EHS- MFT collaborative effort are also discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of family life presently experienced by women who were premaritally pregnant as teenagers. Self-esteem and general life satisfaction were measured in order to evaluate the results of pregnancy decisions made five to 10 years earlier. A survey design was used to (1) obtain demographic data, (2) analyze the relationships between these women and their parents, (3) determine the level and type of education completed by the women, (4) compare mothers who married before the birth of the child, single mothers, and mothers releasing their children for adoption on many variables constituting well-being. Data were gathered during personal interviews with 46 women. In this small unrepresentative sample, the results show no significant differences in the present well-being of women based on their previous decisions. Each of the test groups exhibit interesting characteristics with regard to present marital status, amount of education completed, and relationships with children. The mothers who show higher levels of life satisfaction are also those who are employed either part-time or full- time and have higher family income levels. In general, women in the study were found to be satisfied with their lives and seemed to be functioning well. Some trends were noted, indicating a need for further study, particularly in the area of mothers relinquishing children for adoption.

In addition to its classical role as a guardian of the genome, p53 functions as a developmental regulator. In the embryonic mouse kidney, p53 prevents ectopic budding from the nephric duct by antagonizing GDNF-Ret signaling. Moreover, p53 regulates expression of a subset of renal function genes (RFG) via direct binding to the target promoters. Cellular p53 levels are normally kept low via proteosomal degradation mediated by interactions with the E3 ubiquitin ligase, mdm2. Upon cellular stress (e.g., DNA damage), p53 is activated via post-translational modifications, which induce dissociation and caspase-mediated cleavage of Mdm2. The mechanisms mediating p53 stabilization and activation in the embryonic kidney are unknown. Utilizing a panel of p53 antibodies directed against phosphorylated serine/threonine or acetylated lysines, we demonstrate that embryonic kidney p53 is phosphorylated on serines S6, S9, S15, S20 and S392 and acetylated on lysines K373, K382, and K386. Site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that some modifications are necessary, e.g., Ser15, Ser 20, Thr18, whereas others are dispensable, e.g., Ser392, K373, K382, K386, for p53 stability. Moreover, in vitro transfection experiments revealed that p53 modifications exert differential transcriptional effects on target renal differentiation genes. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation assays indicate that onset of nephron differentiation is accompanied by enhanced p53 binding to RFGs promoters. In vivo, selected p53 modifications tend to be associated with cell type-specific expression pattern; for example, p-p53S392 is enriched in differentiating proximal tubules, whereas ac-p53K373,K382/K386 is expressed in nephron progenitors and collecting ducts. In addition, embryonic p53 exists mostly in a mono-ubiquitinated form, whereas, in postnatal kidney, p53 is polyubiquitinated. This finding correlates with the developmental switch from cleaved to intact Mdm2. We conclude that factors within the embryonic microenvironment promote enhanced p53 stability via post-translational modifications / acase@tulane.edu

Epigenetic mechanisms play a key role in the control of gene expression and cell fate decisions. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a conserved group of epigenetic regulators and chromatin remodelers. While the critical role of HDACs in cancer and immune disorders is increasingly recognized, their role in organogenesis remains largely unknown. The present study investigates the developmental biology of Hdacs in the mouse metanephric kidney. We demonstrate that Class I Hdac genes are highly expressed during nephrogenesis and ureteric bud branching morphogenesis, and are downregulated postnatally. Whereas Class I Hdacs are enriched in the epithelial and mesenchyme cell lineages, Class II Hdacs are predominantly vascular. Utilizing distinct classes of HDAC inhibitors, we demonstrate that Hdacs regulate the master developmental programs of metanephric development. The Hdac-regulated transcriptome encompasses regulators of the cell cycle, Wnt/beta-catenin, TGF-beta/Smad and PI3K-Akt pathways. In the metanephric mesenchyme, the Osr1/Eya1/Pax2/Hox11/WT1 regulatory network is a primary target of Hdac activity. In the ureteric bud lineage, Wnt9b, Spry1 and Emx2 are among the Hdac-target genes. Consistent with these findings, expression of c-Myc, Cnd1, Axin2, Fgf8, Pax8, Wnt4, and Lhx1 genes is highly dependent on Hdac activity. Persistent inhibition of metanephric Hdac activity culminates in irreversible growth arrest and apoptosis. Gene knockdown in the metanephric mesenchyme cell line MK4 confirmed a cell-autonomous role for Hdac1 and Hdac2 in regulation of Pax2, Pax8, Sfrp1, and Wnt4 gene expression. Collectively, these data demonstrate that Hdacs are critical epigenetic regulators of metanephric gene expression, cell proliferation, and survival / acase@tulane.edu