Predictors of custody and visitation decisions by a family court clinic.

Children's psychological adjustment following parental separation or divorce is a function of the characteristics of the custodial parent, as well as the degree of postdivorce parental cooperation. Over time, custody has shifted from fathers to mothers and currently to joint arrangements. In this retrospective chart review of family court clinic records we examined predictors of custody and visitation. Our work improves on previous studies by assessing a greater number of predictor variables. The results suggest that parental emotional instability, antisocial behavior, and low income all decrease chances of gaining custody. The findings also show that income predicts whether a father is recommended for visitation rights and access to his child or children. Furthermore, joint custody is not being awarded as a function of parental postdivorce cooperation. At issue is whether parental emotional stability, antisocial behavior, and income are appropriate markers for parenting capacity and whether visitation rights and joint custody are being decided in a way that serves the child's best interests.

Early hepatocyte DNA synthetic response posthepatectomy is modulated by IL-6 trans-signaling and PI3K/AKT activation.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a crucial factor in liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy (PH); however, the role of IL-6 and IL-6 trans-signaling in particular, in hepatocyte mitosis remains controversial. IL-6 trans-signaling relies upon the release of the soluble IL-6R (sIL-6R), which binds IL-6 to form an agonistic IL-6/sIL-6R complex. Herein we have examined the hypothesis that IL-6 trans-signaling plays a crucial and distinct role in liver regeneration following PH. METHODS: The specific IL-6/sIL-6R antagonist, sgp130Fc, was expressed in mice and analyzed for its effect on hepatocyte mitosis following PH. Alternatively, we examined the effect of the IL-6/sIL-6R super-agonist, Hyper-IL-6, or IL-6 expressed either alone or in combination with hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on hepatocyte mitosis in the absence of PH. RESULTS: Following PH, the dramatic rise of circulating IL-6 levels is accompanied by a concurrent ∼2-fold increase in circulating sIL-6R levels. Ectopic expression of sgp130Fc reduced hepatocyte mitosis by about 40% at early times following PH, while substantially reducing AKT, but not STAT3, activation. But, ectopic Hyper-IL-6 expression in mice without PH was not mitogenic to hepatocytes in vivo. Rather, Hyper-IL-6, but not IL-6, markedly increased HGF-induced hepatocyte mitosis. This cooperative effect correlated with greater resistance of HIL-6 than IL-6 to HGF-mediated reduction of AKT activation, rather than changes in STAT3 or MAPK signaling, and was completely blocked by PI3K inhibition. CONCLUSIONS: Following PH, IL-6/sIL-6R cooperates with growth factors, through a PI3K/AKT-dependent mechanism to promote entry of hepatocytes into the cell cycle.