Perinatal precursors of home stimulation in families of sick newborns.

The relationship between biological, psychosocial, and demographic perinatal factors and the adequacy of the children's home environment was evaluated in a sample of 69 families 3 years after their children had been discharged from a newborn intensive care unit. Almost 40% of the variance (p = .0001) in the amount of home stimulation was explained by income, race, and maternal age. Three maternal perinatal psychosocial characteristics explained an additional 12% of the variance (p = .0001). Both maternal demographic and psychosocial factors appear to contribute to the preschool home environment. Research focused on the precursors of an adequate early home environment could suggest specific interventions for the primary prevention of parenting problems.

Evidence for correlation between mutability of an unstable anthocyanin-governing locus and abundance of anthocyanin.

The pal-rec gene of Antirrhinum majus suppresses anthocyanin except in those cell lines where pal-rec has mutated to Pal, so that anthocyanin-coloured flecks appear on whitish petals. Antirrhinum majus families of very high and very low anthocyanin content (Dark and Pale) were obtained and crossed with two pal-rec pal-rec lines, one with consistently high and the other consistently low mutability. Mutable offspring from Dark parents tended to show higher mutability than those from Pale parents in crosses with either mutable line, providing evidence for an association between intense pigmentation and high mutability. Such an association is discussed in the context of relationship between precursor availability for conversion by a gene product and initiation of activity of that gene.

The association between mothers' social support and provision of stimulation to their children.

Specific forms of maternal social support were analyzed for their relationship to a validated measure of home stimulation (the Inventory of Home Stimulation). The 69 study families were chosen to represent a wide variability of social support at the time of the child's birth. All index children had been discharged from a neonatal intensive care unit 3 years before the study. The overall Maternal Social Support Index (MSSI) developed for the study explained a significant (p less tha 0.1) amount of variance in the home stimulation of 3-year-olds after income, race, maternal age, and other possible confounding variables had been controlled. In addition, specific MSSI items were strongly associated with various forms of environmental stimulation. The data suggest that augmentation of specific aspects of mothers' social support networks may increase their children's informal learning opportunities.

Provocation of mutability in the level of mutation expressed at the pal-rec gene in Antirrhinum majus.

The pallida gene of Antirrhinum majus governs anthocyanin production. The nature of the mutability displayed by its unstable allele pal-rec was dramatically altered following crosses between two pal-rec pal-rec lines with certain separately maintained lines. In both cases a minority of progeny in F1 or F2 revealed unprecedented infrequent mutability termed 'Low mutability'. These Low plants and their sibs showed many areas of contrasting mutability superimposed on their initial mutability level. This frequent 'shifting' and Low mutability persisted through several generations of offspring obtained by both selfing and crossing to a non-mutable tester line. Evidence is presented to suggest a hypothesis that the two features of altered mutability are two aspects of the same phenomenon caused by joint action of two independent factors J and k, one contributed by each parental line at the outcross.A separate gene, eosinea, governs anthocyanin type, eos eos plants having pelargonin in place of wild-type magenta cyanin. In addition to the previously known simple depression of pal-rec to Pal mutation frequency in eos eos plants, eos also influences the action of J and k when heterozygous (i.e. Eos eos), thus contributing a basal and a third tier of control influencing mutability of pal-rec.Three levels of control are thus identified, the middle tier being governed by the partnership of J and k producing not a simple change but a complex mutability of mutability.