Children's drawings have previously been found to reflect their representations of family relationships. The present study examined whether evidence-based parent training for child conduct problems impacts on representations of family functioning using the Family Drawing Paradigm (FDP). N = 53 clinic-referred children (aged 3-15) with conduct problems and their families were assessed pre-treatment and at 6-month follow-up on a modified version of the FDP. Analyses of changes in the FDP revealed improvements in family functioning but not tone of language (as indicated by written descriptors) following treatment. Higher family dysfunction scores were associated with increased levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in the children pre-treatment. Children with high levels of CU, however, demonstrated greater change in FDP dysfunction than a low CU group, resulting in similar levels at follow-up. CU traits also moderated the association between change in family warmth and conduct problem severity, with increased FDP warmth more strongly related to improved conduct problems in the high vs. the low CU group. FDP drawings are sensitive to changes in family functioning arising from parent training, accounting for unique variance in child outcomes independent of verbal reports.

Chitinases (EC.3.2.1.14) hydrolyze the beta-1,4-linkages in chitin, an abundant N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosamine polysaccharide that is a structural component of protective biological matrices such as insect exoskeletons and fungal cell walls. The glycoside hydrolase 18 (GH18) family of chitinases is an ancient gene family widely expressed in archea, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Mammals are not known to synthesize chitin or metabolize it as a nutrient, yet the human genome encodes eight GH18 family members. Some GH18 proteins lack an essential catalytic glutamic acid and are likely to act as lectins rather than as enzymes. This study used comparative genomic analysis to address the evolutionary history of the GH18 multiprotein family, from early eukaryotes to mammals, in an effort to understand the forces that shaped the human genome content of chitinase related proteins.

Gene duplication and loss contribute to gene content differences as well as phenotypic divergence across species. However, the extent to which gene content varies among closely related plant species and the factors responsible for such variation remain unclear. Here, using the Solanaceae family as a model and Pfam domain families as a proxy for gene families, we investigated variation in gene family sizes across species and the likely factors contributing to the variation. We found that genes in highly variable families have high turnover rates and tend to be involved in processes that have diverged between Solanaceae species, whereas genes in low-variability families tend to have housekeeping roles. In addition, genes in high- and low-variability gene families tend to be duplicated by tandem and whole genome duplication, respectively. This finding together with the observation that genes duplicated by different mechanisms experience different selection pressures suggest that duplication mechanism impacts gene family turnover. We explored using pseudogene number as a proxy for gene loss but discovered that a substantial number of pseudogenes are actually products of pseudogene duplication, contrary to the expectation that most plant pseudogenes are remnants of once-functional duplicates. Our findings reveal complex relationships between variation in gene family size, gene functions, duplication mechanism, and evolutionary rate. The patterns of lineage-specific gene family expansion within the Solanaceae provide the foundation for a better understanding of the genetic basis underlying phenotypic diversity in this economically important family.

The Dickkopf (DKK) family comprises a set of proteins that function as regulators of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling and has a crucial role in development. Recent studies have revealed the involvement of this family in tumorigenesis, however their role in tumorigenesis is still remained unclear.

The high rate of negative thinking in family circles due to the presence of children with visual impairment has grossly affects the quality of family life. In the case of Nigeria, low quality of family life is prevalent among parents of children with visual loss. This study attempts to validate the efficacy of a rational emotional family health therapy in addressing family values and quality of life among parents of children with visual impairment in Enugu state Nigeria. A group randomized controlled design, participants comprised 132 parents whose children were living with visual impairment in Enugu state, Nigeria. The participants in REFHP-group were exposed to a 12-session treatment programme whereas their counterparts in the waitlisted control group did not receive this intervention. Two measures-Family Quality of Life Scale and Family Value Scale were utilized in assessing the participants at three time points. Data analyses were completed using repeated measures ANOVA. Findings revealed that rational emotive family health therapy had a significantly positive effect on increasing family values and quality of family life among the study participants of the treatment group. This study contributes to the scholarship on the efficacy of rational emotive family health therapy in improving family values and quality of family life among parents of children with visual impairment.

Long working hours and stressful urban lifestyles pose major challenges to family communication and well-being in Hong Kong. A community-based family intervention derived from a positive psychology framework, by using cooking and dining as a platform, was developed for improving family communication and well-being. Social workers and teachers from 31 social service units and schools in collaboration with an academic partner organized and conducted the intervention programs for 2,070 individuals from 973 families in a deprived district in Hong Kong. The participants were randomly assigned into the intervention or control group in a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT). The core intervention covered one of five positive psychology themes: joy, gratitude, flow, savoring, and listening. Assessments at pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, and 4 and 12 weeks post-intervention showed improved family communication and well-being with sustainable effects up to 12 weeks. Positive changes in family happiness and family health were greater in the intervention group than in the control group. The savoring intervention had the most improved outcomes among the five themes. We concluded that this large-scale brief cRCT developed and conducted in real-world settings provided evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of a community-based family intervention. This study was registered under ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01796275).

Retrotransposons have been suggested to provide a substrate for non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) and thereby promote gene family expansion. Their precise role, however, is controversial. Here we ask whether retrotransposons contributed to the recent expansions of the Androgen-binding protein (Abp) gene families that occurred independently in the mouse and rat genomes.

To develop and validate the Diabetes Family Impact Scale, a scale to measure the impact of diabetes on families.

Research on work incivility has been abundant while that on family incivility is still in infancy stage. The current research attempts to bridge this gap. Using Ten Brummelhuis and Bakker's (2012) Work-Home Resources model (W-HR model), this study tested the role of active coping and self-efficacy in moderating the impact of family incivility on work engagement mediated through family-work enrichment. Data from 478 university faculty in different educational institutions across India tend to suggest that active coping and self-efficacy assist this sample in negating the negative impact of family incivility on work engagement through family-work enrichment. The mediated relationship between family incivility, family-work enrichment and work engagement was found to be stronger for those respondents with the dual resources of active coping and self - efficacy. The study found significant support for core propositions of the W-HR model and puts forward both theoretical and several practical implications. Future directions are also presented.

Studies have shown that the quality of family health history (FHH) collection in primary care is inadequate to assess disease risk. To use FHH for risk assessment, collected data must have adequate detail. To address this issue, we developed a patient facing FHH assessment tool, MeTree. In this paper we report the content and quality of the FHH collected using MeTree.

This study describes the Norplant prescribing experience, training, and attitudes of South Carolina family practice and general practice (FP/GP) physicians.

Myc-family proteins are key controllers of the metabolic and proliferative status of the cell, and are subjected to a complex network of regulatory events that guarantee their efficient and fast modulation by extracellular stimuli. Hence, unbalances in regulatory mechanisms leading to altered Myc levels or activities are often reported in cancer cells. Here we show that c- and N-Myc are conjugated to SUMO proteins at conserved lysines in their C-terminal domain. No obvious effects of SUMOylation were detected on bulk N-Myc stability or activities, including the regulation of transcription, proliferation or apoptosis. N-Myc SUMOylation could be induced by cellular stresses, such as heat shock and proteasome inhibition, and in all instances concerned a small fraction of the N-Myc protein. We surmise that, as shown for other substrates, SUMOylation may be part of a quality-control mechanism acting on misfolded Myc proteins.

The Cas4 family endonuclease is a component of the adaptation module in many variants of CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity systems. Unlike most of the other Cas proteins, Cas4 is often encoded outside CRISPR-cas loci (solo-Cas4) and is also found in mobile genetic elements (MGE-Cas4).

A classical problem in comparative genomics is to compute the rearrangement distance, that is the minimum number of large-scale rearrangements required to transform a given genome into another given genome. The traditional approaches in this area are family-based, i.e., require the classification of DNA fragments of both genomes into families. Furthermore, the most elementary family-based models, which are able to compute distances in polynomial time, restrict the families to occur at most once in each genome. In contrast, the distance computation in models that allow multifamilies (i.e., families with multiple occurrences) is NP-hard. Very recently, Bohnenkämper et al. (J Comput Biol 28:410-431, 2021) proposed an ILP formulation for computing the genomic distance of genomes with multifamilies, allowing structural rearrangements, represented by the generic double cut and join (DCJ) operation, and content-modifying insertions and deletions of DNA segments. This ILP is very efficient, but must maximize a matching of the genes in each multifamily, in order to prevent the free lunch artifact that would otherwise let empty or almost empty matchings give smaller distances.

Objective: Family function is one of the main effective factors on stability of the family. Family therapy can promote family function and performances. This study aimed to assess the effects of family therapy on family function among couples in Yazd province (Iran) based on the McMaster model. Method : The research population was selected from volunteer couples in Yazd in 2017 who were invited by publicity announcement to participate in this research. Finally, 40 couples were selected and randomly divided into 2 intervention and control groups. Participants answered to the demographic and Family Assessment Device (FAD) questionnaires. The acquired information was analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics and SPSS 21 software. Results: The outcomes showed significant differences between the intervention and control groups in problem-solving (p = 0.01), communication (p < 0.0001), emotional responsiveness (p = 0.01), emotional involvement (p < 0.0001), and general function (p = 0.04). The roles and behavior control domains were improved after the intervention in 2 groups, but the differences were not significant. Conclusion: Family therapy based on McMaster model can promote the skills of problem- solving, family communication, emotional responsiveness, emotional involvement, and general function in couples. Healthy family functioning is a substantial domain of concern for mental health specialists who provide family interventions. Our findings enhance considerably to family professionals' knowledge about patterns of family function in Iranian families.

In mammals, IFIT (Interferon [IFN]-induced proteins with Tetratricopeptide Repeat [TPR] motifs) family genes are involved in many cellular and viral processes, which are tightly related to mammalian IFN response. However, little is known about non-mammalian IFIT genes. In the present study, IFIT genes are identified in the genome databases from the jawed vertebrates including the cartilaginous elephant shark but not from non-vertebrates such as lancelet, sea squirt and acorn worm, suggesting that IFIT gene family originates from a vertebrate ancestor about 450 million years ago. IFIT family genes show conserved gene structure and gene arrangements. Phylogenetic analyses reveal that this gene family has expanded through lineage-specific and species-specific gene duplication. Interestingly, IFN gene family seem to share a common ancestor and a similar evolutionary mechanism; the function link of IFIT genes to IFN response is present early since the origin of both gene families, as evidenced by the finding that zebrafish IFIT genes are upregulated by fish IFNs, poly(I:C) and two transcription factors IRF3/IRF7, likely via the IFN-stimulated response elements (ISRE) within the promoters of vertebrate IFIT family genes. These coevolution features creates functional association of both family genes to fulfill a common biological process, which is likely selected by viral infection during evolution of vertebrates. Our results are helpful for understanding of evolution of vertebrate IFN system.

The relationships within a curated set of 112 insertion sequences (ISs) currently assigned to the IS6 family, here re-named the IS6/IS26 family, in the ISFinder database were examined. The encoded DDE transposases include a helix-helix-turn-helix (H-HTH) potential DNA binding domain N-terminal to the catalytic (DDE) domain, but 10 from Clostridia include one or two additional N-terminal domains. The transposase phylogeny clearly separated 75 derived from bacteria from 37 from archaea. The longer bacterial transposases also clustered separately. The 65 shorter bacterial transposases, including Tnp26 from IS26, formed six clades but share significant conservation in the H-HTH domain and in a short extension at the N-terminus, and several amino acids in the catalytic domain are completely or highly conserved. At the outer ends of these ISs, 14 bp were strongly conserved as terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) with the first two bases (GG) and the seventh base (G) present in all except one IS. The longer bacterial transposases are only distantly related to the short bacterial transposases, with only some amino acids conserved. The TIR consensus was longer and only one IS started with GG. The 37 archaeal transposases are only distantly related to either the short or the long bacterial transposases and different residues were conserved. Their TIRs are loosely related to the bacterial TIR consensus but are longer and many do not begin with GG. As they do not fit well with most bacterial ISs, the inclusion of the archaeal ISs and the longer bacterial ISs in the IS6/IS26 family is not appropriate.

Smart schools prioritise work in the educational community, identifying the participation of families as an opportunity, rather than a form of intrusiveness. There are currently a multitude of ways of sharing education with families, ranging from communication to training, with teachers being the driving force in promoting the different roles that families can assume. In this respect, the aim of this cross-sectional, evaluative, non-experimental and quantitative study is to establish the family participation facilitation profiles of 542 teachers working in schools in a multicultural municipality in the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, in south-eastern Spain. They completed a validated questionnaire with 91 items regarding the different dimensions of family participation, carrying out a cluster analysis to determine the teacher facilitation profiles. The results obtained from the application of the questionnaire show two statistically differentiated teaching profiles. The first of these, with a smaller number of teachers, with fewer years of experience and linked to the pre-primary and secondary stages in public schools, shows less participation in all the modalities considered. In contrast, the profile with the greatest commitment to promoting participation is characterised by having a greater number of teachers, predominantly from state-subsidised centres, that are experienced and linked to the primary stage. In relation to the previous literature, it was possible to confirm the presence of a differentiated profile, finding, on the one hand, teachers interested in the involvement of families and, on the other hand, teachers who do not identify the family-school relationship as a priority. This highlights the need to improve the prior and ongoing training of teachers to raise awareness and sensitise them to the inclusion of families in the educational community.

Family caregivers and care providers are increasingly becoming more distressed and reaching a breaking point within current systems of care. First Nations family caregivers and the health and community providers employed in First Nations communities have to cope with colonial, discriminatory practices that have caused intergenerational trauma and a myriad of siloed, disconnected, and difficult-to-navigate federal-, provincial/territorial-, and community-level policies and programs. Indigenous participants in Alberta's Health Advisory Councils described Indigenous family caregivers as having more difficulty accessing support than other Alberta caregivers. In this article, we report on family caregivers', providers', and leaders' recommendations to support First Nations family caregivers and the health and community providers employed in First Nations. We used participatory action research methods in which we drew on Etuaptmumk (the understanding that being in the world is the gift of multiple perspectives) and that Indigenous and non-Indigenous views are complementary. Participants were from two First Nation communities in Alberta and included family caregivers (n = 6), health and community providers (n = 14), and healthcare and community leaders (n = 6). Participants advised that family caregivers needed four types of support: (1) recognize the family caregivers' role and work; (2) enhance navigation and timely access to services, (3) improve home care support and respite, and (4) provide culturally safe care. Participants had four recommendations to support providers: (1) support community providers' health and wellbeing; (2) recruit and retain health and community providers; (3) improve orientation for new providers; and (4) offer providers a comprehensive grounding in cultural awareness. While creating a program or department for family caregivers may be tempting to address caregivers' immediate needs, improving the health of First Nations family caregivers requires a population-based public health approach that focuses on meaningful holistic system change to support family caregivers.

The myriad of negative effects brought about by the incarceration of a family member have consistently been demonstrated in research. However, previous works have tended to focus on the perspectives of family members separately, rather than exploring the dynamic relationships within the family as an entire unit. Moreover, such research is still limited in the Chinese cultural context. Thus, the current study aimed to examine the applicability of the Family Process Theory on a small sample of Chinese fathers who were imprisoned and have returned to their communities, conceptualizing the challenges faced by their families under the theoretical elements of rules of transformation, rituals, ambiguous loss, and boundary ambiguity. A total of 17 participants were recruited through the assistance of service organizations, and data were collected via semi-structured interviews. As congruent with the theory, inmates' families were found to come across problems particularly in the transitioning phase and establishment of new rituals, while ambiguity surrounding the incarceration and the blurred role of the father led to problems with fatherhood identity both during and after the incarceration. Recommendations are made, in line with these findings and the suggestions of ex-prisoners, for services to have more of a focus on preserving the integrity of inmates' families. Given the right circumstances, families can even serve as a motivator for incarcerated fathers to improve themselves and mature, leveraging the important supportive role of the family and the fear of again being separated from one's family as effective deterrents to recidivism.