Nurture net of nature: Re-evaluating the role of shared environments in academic achievement and verbal intelligence

Prominent authors in the behavioral genetics tradition have long argued that shared environments do not meaningfully shape intelligence and academic achievement. However, we argue that these conclusions are erroneous due to large violations of the additivity assumption underlying behavioral genetics methods – that sources of genetic and shared and nonshared environmental variance are independent and non-interactive. This is compounded in some cases by the theoretical equation of the effective and objective environments, where the former is defined by whether siblings are made more or less similar, and the latter by whether siblings are equally subject to the environmental characteristic in question. Using monozygotic twin fixed effects models, which compare outcomes among genetically identical pairs, we show that many characteristics of objectively shared environments significantly moderate the effects of nonshared environments on adolescent academic achievement and verbal intelligence, violating the additivity assumption of behavioral genetic methods. Importantly, these effects would be categorized as nonshared environmental influences in standard twin models despite their roots in shared environments. These findings should encourage caution among those who claim that the frequently trivial variance attributed to shared environments in behavioral genetic models means that families, schools, and neighborhoods do not meaningfully influence these outcomes.     

Extended pairwise local alignment of wild card DNA/RNA sequences using dynamic programming

Optimal string alignment is used to discover evolutionary relationships or mutations in DNA/RNA or protein sequences. Errors, missing parts or uncertainty in such a sequence can be covered with wild cards, so-called wild bases. This makes an alignment possible even when the data are corrupted or incomplete. The extended pairwise local alignment of wild card DNA/RNA sequences requires additional calculations in the dynamic programming algorithm and necessitates a subsequent best- and worst-case analysis for the wild card positions. In this paper, we propose an algorithm which solves the problem of input data wild cards, offers a highly flexible set of parameters and displays a detailed alignment output and a compact representation of the mutated positions of the alignment. An implementation of the algorithm can be obtained at https://github.com/sysbio-bioinf/swat+ and http://sysbio.uni-ulm.de/?Software:Swat+.     

Contested attachments: rethinking adoptive kinship in the era of open adoption

Since its legal inception in 1926, adoption work has been centrally concerned with the matter of the adopted child's ‘first’ or prior life, whilst also focussed on achieving a new and secure substitute family for that child. Adoptive kinship has been formed through this dual and contradictory concern, a concern that has produced diverse policies and practices over the last 90 years. Drawing on Foucault's concept of technologies of the subject, this paper is an exploration of adoptive kinship within the new context of open adoption, a set of practices that more actively promotes the involvements of the adopted child's former family. These practices both promote a radical reworking of adoptive kinship, as well as confirming its more orthodox moorings. Drawing on an adoption archive study, the paper concludes with an analysis of letterbox contact to explore how far this form of open practice transforms adoptive kinship in the contemporary era.     

Maternal and paternal reactions to child sadness predict children's psychosocial outcomes: A family‐centered approach

Parents' reactions to children's emotions shape their psychosocial outcomes. Extant research on emotion socialization primarily uses variable‐centered approaches. This study explores family patterns of maternal and paternal responses to children's sadness in relation to psychosocial outcomes in middle childhood. Fifty‐one families with 8‐ to 12‐year‐old children participated. Mothers and fathers reported their reactions to children's sadness and children's social competence and psychological adjustment. Cluster analyses revealed three family patterns: Supportive (high supportive and low non‐supportive reactions from both parents), Not Supportive (low supportive reactions from both parents), and Father Dominant (high paternal supportive and non‐supportive reactions, low maternal supportive and non‐supportive reactions). Supportive families had children with higher social competence and more internalizing symptoms whereas Father Dominant families had children with lower social competence and fewer internalizing symptoms. Not Supportive families had children with average social competence and fewer internalizing symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to the “divergence model” which proposes that a diverse range of parental responses to children's sadness, rather than a uniformly supportive approach, may facilitate children's psychosocial adjustment.     

《全清词·雍乾卷》辑补61首

《全清词·雍乾卷》共收词人约1000多家，词作35000多首。然由于清代词籍的复杂性，遗漏在所难免。今翻检清人诗文集及地方志等，为之补录靳之隆、康载、王天发、王翰青、张礼等五家凡61首，以备续编采择之需。     

探析我国出口信用证结算地位弱化的成因及影响

鉴于信用证具有比较强的收汇保障的性能和贸易融资功能，因此也一直是我国出口企业贸易结算的首选，使用率高居90％。但是近年来，其结算的“霸主”地位不断弱化，并由此对我国外贸出口产生了较大的不利影响。本文探讨了其中具体的原因及影响，并辅以对策。     

唐人对女娲神话书写考述

唐人在著述中常常提及到女娲神话,而在文学中女娲也逐渐演化为一种文学母题原型,成为"创造万物、构建秩序、救民困厄"的文学意象符号,演变成了造福人类的意象载体。与唐代以前女娲神话的文学书写意象不同,唐代的文人更多的是以女娲神话作为一种符号来表达自我情怀。而这种模式也使得女娲神话的书写呈现出由集体政治意识向个体生命意识、由宏大理想向现实情怀的转变。从唐人对女娲神话的态度和评价的转变中,可以更好地了解作家们的思想心态,从而更本真地把握唐代文学。     

Prosocial Behavior: Long‐term Trajectories and Psychosocial Outcomes

This study investigated developmental trajectories for prosocial behavior for a sample followed from the age of 10–18 and examined possible adjustment outcomes associated with membership in different trajectory groups. Participants were 136 boys and 148 girls, their teachers, and their parents (19.4 percent African‐American, 2.4 percent Asian, 51.9 percent Caucasian, 19.5 percent Hispanic, and 5.8 percent other). Teachers rated children's prosocial behavior yearly in grades 4–12. At the end of the 12th grade year, teachers, parents, and participants reported externalizing behaviors and participants reported internalizing symptoms, narcissism, and features of borderline personality disorder. Results suggested that prosocial behavior remained stable from middle childhood through late adolescence. Group‐based mixture modeling revealed three prosocial trajectory groups: low (18.7 percent), medium (52.8 percent), and high (29.6 percent). Membership in the high prosocial trajectory group predicted lower levels of externalizing behavior as compared with the low prosocial trajectory group, and for girls, lower levels of internalizing symptoms. Membership in the medium prosocial trajectory group also predicted being lower on externalizing behaviors. Membership in the high prosocial trajectory group predicted lower levels of borderline personality features for girls only.     

What are the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior Among Low‐income Youth in CapeTown?

Research in high‐income countries has identified an array of risk factors for youth antisocial behavior. However, in low‐ and middle‐income countries, despite higher prevalence of offending and antisocial behavior, there is a paucity of prospective, longitudinal evidence examining predictors. South Africa is a middle‐income country with high rates of violence and crime, and a unique social context, characterized by striking income and gender inequality, and increasing number of children orphaned by AIDS. We tested predictors of antisocial behavior at community, family, and individual levels over four years. One thousand and twenty five adolescents from poor, urban South African settlements were assessed in 2005 (50 percent female; M = 13.4 years) and followed up in 2009. The sample analyzed consisted of the 723 youth (71 percent) assessed at both time points. We employed sociodemographic questionnaires and standardized scales. Validity of our antisocial behavior measure was supported by cross‐sectional associations with well‐evidenced concomitants of youth antisocial behavior, including drug taking and truancy. Regression analysis indicated that male gender and experience of community violence, but not poverty or abuse, predicted antisocial behavior. Despite many South African youth experiencing abuse and poverty at the family level, our findings suggest that high levels of violence in communities may be a more important factor contributing to the development of antisocial behavior, particularly among males.     

得失参半的创新之作——《剑桥中国文学史》评议

《剑桥中国文学史》旨在打破以往文学史写作中的习惯性范畴,开创新的文学史范式。其中最引人注目的是它特殊的"文学文化史"的书写姿态,立足于在文化史的背景下考察中国文学的发展进程。这种书写策略为我们认识文学史提供了新的视角与方法,但并没有在全书中得到全面的贯彻。《剑桥中国文学史》的文学史分期方式也引人注目,某些基于文学文化史立场的分期方式显得新颖别致。全书的文学史分期方式并没有统一的标准,也存在着按世纪、朝代为文学史分期的现象。由于全书的编者热衷于探求"过去的文学"原貌,在实践中往往对某些重要作家作品叙述较少,而对次要的文学现象评价过高。这种迥异于时流的评价可新人耳目,但有些评价是出于臆测,并没有坚实的依据。