Development of the Culturally Affirming and Responsive Experiences (CARE) Measure: Observing Responsiveness and Ethnic-Racial Cultural Socialization in Mother-Child Interactions.

The existing literature on the importance of maternal responsiveness and the growing body of literature supporting early ethnic-racial cultural socialization highlight the need for an observational measure of how they co-occur during mother-child interactions. This study presents the development and initial validation of the Culturally Affirming and Responsive Experiences (CARE) measure, an observational measure of the presence and quality of responsiveness and ethnic-racial cultural socialization within early mother-child interactions. Pilot study results with 103 racially and ethnically diverse mother-child dyads demonstrated initial reliability and validity of the CARE measure. Implications of applying the CARE measure to early mother-child interactions to assess quality of responsiveness and ethnic-racial cultural socializations are discussed.

Accountability for the Rights of People with Psychosocial Disabilities: An Assessment of Country Reports for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been identified as a milestone in human rights protection, offering people with psychosocial disabilities the opportunity to hold their governments accountable for the realization of their rights. To facilitate such accountability, the country reports produced under the CRPD reporting process should adequately reflect these persons' experiences and relevant positive or negative developments in the country. Our study used content analysis to review the extent and quality of reporting related to mental health and psychosocial disabilities in 19 country reports. The criteria used were based on provisions of the CRPD and on priorities identified by a steering committee of people with psychosocial disabilities. We found a wide variation in the quantity and quality of states' reporting, with an indication that this variation relates to countries' economic development. Increasing the participation of representative organizations of people with psychosocial disabilities is needed for state parties to fulfill their reporting obligations. While there has been progress in improving organizations of persons with disabilities capacity to be heard at the global level, our findings suggest low levels of participation in CRPD processes at the national level in many countries. State parties must actively include these groups to ensure implementation of the CRPD principles.

Abstract social categories facilitate access to socially skewed words.

Recent work has shown that listeners process words faster if said by a member of the group that typically uses the word. This paper further explores how the social distributions of words affect lexical access by exploring whether access is facilitated by invoking more abstract social categories. We conduct four experiments, all of which combine an Implicit Association Task with a Lexical Decision Task. Participants sorted real and nonsense words while at the same time sorting older and younger faces (exp. 1), male and female faces (exp. 2), stereotypically male and female objects (exp. 3), and framed and unframed objects, which were always stereotypically male or female (exp. 4). Across the experiments, lexical decision to socially skewed words is facilitated when the socially congruent category is sorted with the same hand. This suggests that the lexicon contains social detail from which individuals make social abstractions that can influence lexical access.

Hepatic nitroreduction, toxicity and toxicokinetics of the anti-tumour prodrug CB 1954 in mouse and rat.

5-(Aziridin-1-yl)-2,4-dinitrobenzamide (CB 1954), a promising anti-tumour compound, is associated with clinical hepatotoxicity. We have previously demonstrated that human liver preparations are capable of endogenous 2- and 4-nitroreduction of CB 1954 to generate highly potent cytotoxins. The present study initially examined the in vitro metabolism of CB 1954 in S9 preparations of several non-clinical species and strains. The CD-1 nu/nu mouse and Sprague-Dawley rat were subsequently chosen for further assessment of in vivo metabolism and hepatotoxicity of CB 1954, as well as the mechanisms that may be involved. Animals were administered the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). At 562 micromol/kg, the mouse exhibited transaminase elevation and centrilobular hepatocyte injury. Moreover, thiol adducts as well as hepatic glutathione depletion paralleled temporally by maximal nitroreduction were observed. The rat had a much lower MTD of 40 micromol/kg and showed signs of gastro-intestinal disturbances. In contrast to mouse, peri-portal damage and biliary changes were observed in rat without any alterations in plasma biomarkers or hepatic glutathione levels. Immunohistochemical analysis did not reveal any correlation between the location of injury and expression of cytochrome P450 reductase and NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase 1, two enzymes implicated in the bioactivation of this drug. In conclusion, the present study showed that following administration of CB 1954 at the respective MTDs, hepatotoxicity was observed in both mouse and rat. However, the degree of sensitivity to the drug and the mechanisms of toxicity involved appear to be widely different between CD-1 nu/nu mice and Sprague-Dawley rats.