Children from language minority (LM) environments speak a language at home that differs from that at school, are often from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and are at risk for reading impairment. We evaluated the main effects and interaction of language status and phonological memory and awareness on reading disorder in 352 children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. A significant phonological memory by language status interaction indicated that phonological memory problems were magnified in predicting reading impairment in children from LM versus English dominant (ED) homes. Among children without reading disorder, language minority status was unrelated to phonological processing.

Emotional distress during pregnancy is likely influenced by both maternal history of adversity and concurrent prenatal stressors, but prospective longitudinal studies are lacking. Guided by a life span model of pregnancy health and stress sensitization theories, this study investigated the influence of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy on the association between childhood adversity and prenatal emotional distress. Participants included an urban, community-based sample of 200 pregnant women (aged 18–24) assessed annually from ages 8 to 17 for a range of adversity domains, including traumatic violence, harsh parenting, caregiver loss, and compromised parenting. Models tested both linear and nonlinear effects of adversity as well as their interactions with IPV on prenatal anxiety and depression symptoms, controlling for potential confounds such as poverty and childhood anxiety and depression. Results showed that the associations between childhood adversity and pregnancy emotional distress were moderated by prenatal IPV, supporting a life span conceptualization of pregnancy health. Patterns of interactions were nonlinear, consistent with theories conceptualizing stress sensitization through an “adaptive calibration” lens. Furthermore, results diverged based on adversity subdomain and type of prenatal IPV (physical vs. emotional abuse). Findings are discussed in the context of existing stress sensitization theories and highlight important avenues for future research and practice.

Childhood exposure to stress can induce prolonged negative effects on health, which in turn confer risks for the next generation, but greater specificity is needed to inform intervention. A first step is to measure individual differences in emotional reactivity to stress early in life in ways that can account for heterogeneity in child exposure. The present study tested the hypothesis that mothers’ childhood exposure to stress would be differentially associated with patterns of positive and negative emotional reactivity in their offspring, suggesting transmission of stress response across generations. Participants were 268 young mothers (age 14–23 years) followed longitudinally since childhood, and their infants aged 3–9 months. Latent class analysis of infant emotions expressed before and during the still-face paradigm yielded five subgroups that varied in valence, intensity, and reactivity. After accounting for sociodemographic factors, infant temperament, and postpartum depression, multinomial regression models showed that, relative to an emotionally regulated still-face response, infants showing low negative reactivity were more likely to have mothers exposed to childhood emotional abuse, and infants showing high and increasing negative reactivity were more likely to have mothers exposed to childhood emotional neglect. Mechanisms by which early maternal stress exposure influences emotional reactivity in offspring are discussed.

Priming has proved to enhance seed germination, but most of the research dealing with this topic has been carried out with cultivated species. The potential applications that this process has on wild species, which can be useful for restoration, are usually overlooked. This study analyses the germination response after natural priming and hydropriming of Penstemon roseus and Castilleja tenuiflora, two perennial herbs growing in a protected area known as ‘Parque Ecológico de la Ciudad de México’. Photoblastism was evaluated for both species. Seeds were exposed to a hydration/dehydration cycle and then placed in germination chambers to determine responses to hydropriming. To identify the effects of natural priming, seeds were buried in natural conditions and then recovered every two months and placed in germination chambers. Germination percentages and rates were then quantified. Both species proved to have permeable seed coats. Penstemon roseus seeds are positive photoblastic whereas C. tenuiflora seeds are indifferent to light. Priming methods increased C. tenuiflora germination rates, but they did not affect germination capacity. For P. roseus, priming methods did not improve germination rates, and germination capacity of recovered seeds decreased after the rainy season, suggesting that P. roseus forms a short-term, transient, seed bank. The germination strategies of these two species allow them to occupy suitable microsites for germination and establishment. These responses can be helpful in developing restoration programmes based on the accelerated establishment of native and characteristic successional species.

Recent developments in U.S-Cuba relations have resulted in a proliferating global interest in Cuba, including its legal regime. This comprehensive Guide aims to fill a noticeable void in the availability of information in English on this enigmatic jurisdiction's legal order, and on how to conduct research related to it. Covered topics include “The Constitution,” “Legislation and Codes,” “The Judiciary,” “Cuba in the International Arena,” and “The Legal Profession.” A detailed section on “Cuban Legal Materials in U.S. and Canadian Libraries” is also featured. Although the Guide emphasizes sources in English and English-language translation, materials in Spanish are likewise included as English-language equivalents are often unavailable. The Guide's 12 authors are members of the Latin American Law Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries’ Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Special Interest Section (FCIL-SIS).

We recommend extending CLASH by incorporating two evolutionary accounts of the shift toward fast life histories under harsh, unpredictable conditions. These accounts, if integrated with CLASH, make different predictions about the distributions of aggression and violence within and between societies. We discuss these predictions and propose ways of testing them.

Although prevailing theories of antisocial behavior (ASB) emphasize distinct developmental trajectories, few studies have explored gene–environment interplay underlying membership in empirically derived trajectories. To improve knowledge about the development of overt (e.g., aggression) and covert (e.g., delinquency) ASB, we tested the association of the 44-base pair promoter polymorphism in the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region gene (5-HTTLPR), perceived parental support (e.g., closeness and warmth), and their interaction with ASB trajectories derived using latent class growth analysis in 2,558 adolescents followed prospectively into adulthood from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Three distinct trajectories emerged for overt (low desisting, adolescent peak, and late onset) and covert ASB (high stable, low stable, and nonoffending). Controlling for sex, parental support inversely predicted membership in the adolescent-peak overt ASB trajectory (vs. low desisting), but was unrelated to class membership for covert ASB. Furthermore, the 5-HTTLPR genotype significantly moderated the association of parental support on overt ASB trajectory membership. It is interesting that the pattern of Gene × Environment interaction differed by trajectory class: whereas short allele carriers were more sensitive to parental support in predicting the late-onset trajectory, the long/long genotype functioned as a potential “plasticity genotype” for the adolescent-peak trajectory group. We discuss these preliminary findings in the context of the differential susceptibility hypothesis and discuss the need for future studies to integrate gene–environment interplay and prospective longitudinal designs.

Objective: Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) is a neurological disorder presenting with gait, cognitive, and bladder symptoms in the context of ventricular enlargement. Although gait is the primary indicator for treatment candidacy and outcome, additional monitoring tools are needed. Line Tracing Test (LTT) and Serial Dotting Test (SDT), two psychomotor tasks, have been introduced as potential outcome measures but have not been widely studied. This preliminary study examined whether LTT and SDT are sensitive to motor dysfunction in INPH and determined if accuracy and time are important aspects of performance. Methods: Eighty-four INPH subjects and 36 healthy older adults were administered LTT and SDT. Novel error scoring procedures were developed to make scoring practical and efficient; interclass correlation showed good reliability of scoring procedures for both tasks (0.997; p<.001). Results: The INPH group demonstrated slower performance on SDT (p<.001) and made a greater number of errors on both tasks (p<.001). Combined Time/Error scores revealed poorer performance in the INPH group for original-LTT (p<.001), modified-LTT (p≤.001) and SDT (p<.001). Conclusions: These findings indicate LTT and SDT may prove useful for monitoring psychomotor skills in INPH. While completion time reflects impaired processing speed, reduced accuracy may suggest planning and self-monitoring difficulties, aspects of executive functioning known to be compromised in INPH. This is the first study to underscore the importance of performance accuracy in INPH and introduce practical/reliable error scoring for these tasks. Future work will establish reliability and validity of these measures and determine their utility as outcome tools. (JINS, 2016, 22, 341–349)

Recent developments in instrumentation mean that chemical analysis of large drill cores taken for geological purposes can be performed rapidly at sub-millimetre scales using core scanners equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometers. The present study describes the development of a calibration for the Itrax Core Scanner (Cox Analytical, Sweden), intended for whole cores of coal-seam sections, without the need for sample preparation. The calibration was developed for key major elements (Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Ti, and Fe) based on pressed pellets of reference coals, allowing semi-quantitative and, at times, quantitative analyses. The influence of core curvature and surface roughness compared with an ideal flat-surface was also examined using model samples, and their influence on the apparent sample composition evaluated.