Parenting beliefs and practices as precursors to academic outcomes in Chinese children.

Due to the rapid sociocultural changes in China, Chinese parents' childrearing beliefs and practices have undergone dramatic transformations. Against this context, this study examined whether Chinese parents' endorsement of progressive and traditional childrearing beliefs would predict children's academic achievement, as well as whether parenting practices would mediate this association. This study utilized a longitudinal design and followed 206 Chinese families for 2 years from the end of preschool to Grade 2. Parents showed greater endorsement of progressive than traditional childrearing beliefs, as well as higher use of authoritative than authoritarian parenting practices. Parents' childrearing beliefs in preschool predicted children's math achievement in Grade 2 via authoritative parenting. However, parenting beliefs were unrelated to authoritarian parenting, and authoritarian parenting did not predict any of the child academic outcomes in Grade 2. The findings suggest Chinese parents' orientations toward progressive parenting beliefs and authoritative parenting practices. They also highlight the utility of parenting beliefs in explaining disparities in early academic achievement. The nonsignificant findings pertinent to authoritarian parenting call for re-examination of the cultural meaning and effects of authoritarian parenting in Chinese society.

Predicting RNA polymerase II transcriptional elongation pausing and associated histone code.

RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) transcriptional elongation pausing is an integral part of the dynamic regulation of gene transcription in the genome of metazoans. It plays a pivotal role in many vital biological processes and disease progression. However, experimentally measuring genome-wide Pol II pausing is technically challenging and the precise governing mechanism underlying this process is not fully understood. Here, we develop RP3 (RNA Polymerase II Pausing Prediction), a network regularized logistic regression machine learning method, to predict Pol II pausing events by integrating genome sequence, histone modification, gene expression, chromatin accessibility, and protein-protein interaction data. RP3 can accurately predict Pol II pausing in diverse cellular contexts and unveil the transcription factors that are associated with the Pol II pausing machinery. Furthermore, we utilize a forward feature selection framework to systematically identify the combination of histone modification signals associated with Pol II pausing. RP3 is freely available at https://github.com/AMSSwanglab/RP3.

Design and rationale of the Comprehensive intelligent Hypertension managEment SyStem (CHESS) evaluation study: A cluster randomized controlled trial for hypertension management in primary care.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension management in China is suboptimal with high prevalence and low control rate due to various barriers, including lack of self-management awareness of patients and inadequate capacity of physicians. Digital therapeutic interventions including mobile health and computational device algorithms such as clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are scalable with the potential to improve blood pressure (BP) management and strengthen the healthcare system in resource-constrained areas, yet their effectiveness remains to be tested. The aim of this report is to describe the protocol of the Comprehensive intelligent Hypertension managEment SyStem (CHESS) evaluation study assessing the effect of a multifaceted hypertension management system for supporting patients and physicians on BP lowering in primary care settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The CHESS evaluation study is a parallel-group, cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in primary care settings in China. Forty-one primary care sites from 3 counties of China are randomly assigned to either the usual care or the intervention group with the implementation of the CHESS system, more than 1,600 patients aged 35 to 80 years with uncontrolled hypertension and access to a smartphone by themselves or relatives are recruited into the study and followed up for 12 months. In the intervention group, participants receive patient-tailored reminders and alerts via messages or intelligent voice calls triggered by uploaded home blood pressure monitoring data and participants' characteristics, while physicians receive guideline-based prescription instructions according to updated individual data from each visit, and administrators receive auto-renewed feedback of hypertension management performance from the data analysis platform. The multiple components of the CHESS system can work synergistically and have undergone rigorous development and pilot evaluation using a theory-informed approach. The primary outcome is the mean change in 24-hour ambulatory systolic BP from baseline to 12 months. DISCUSSION: The CHESS trial will provide evidence and novel insight into the effectiveness and feasibility of an implementation strategy using a comprehensive digital BP management system for reducing hypertension burden in primary care settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://www. CLINICALTRIALS: gov, NCT05605418.

SpecLoop predicts cell type-specific chromatin loop via transcription factor cooperation.

Cell-type-Specific Chromatin Loops (CSCLs) are crucial for gene regulation and cell fate determination. However, the mechanisms governing their establishment remain elusive. Here, we present SpecLoop, a network regularization-based machine learning framework, to investigate the role of transcription factors (TFs) cooperation in CSCL formation. SpecLoop integrates multi-omics data, including gene expression, chromatin accessibility, sequence, protein-protein interaction, and TF binding motif data, to predict CSCLs and identify TF cooperations. Using high resolution Hi-C data as the gold standard, SpecLoop accurately predicts CSCL in GM12878, IMR90, HeLa-S3, K562, HUVEC, HMEC, and NHEK seven cell types, with the AUROC values ranging from 0.8645 to 0.9852 and AUPR values ranging from 0.8654 to 0.9734. Notably SpecLoop demonstrates improved accuracy in predicting long-distance CSCLs and identifies TF complexes with strong predictive ability. Our study systematically explores the TFs and TF pairs associated with CSCL through effective integration of diverse omics data. SpecLoop is freely available at https://github.com/AMSSwanglab/SpecLoop.

Distinct patterns of grandparental involvement in childrearing and Chinese preschoolers' social-emotional development.

Grandparental involvement in childrearing has been associated with children's social-emotional development, yet findings are mixed. Grandparental involvement is a multidimensional concept that includes both quantity (i.e., the degree of grandparental involvement) and quality aspects (i.e., the quality of parent-grandparent coparenting and the quality of grandparenting practices). This study included both quantity and quality aspects to identify heterogeneous patterns of grandparental involvement and examined the associations between distinct patterns of grandparental involvement and children's social-emotional outcomes. Participants were 428 families with Chinese preschoolers (Mage = 53.75 months, SD = 10.32; 51.4% boys). Primary parental and grandparental caregivers completed the questionnaires. Four patterns of grandparental involvement emerged: the low-involvement mediocre-quality, the median, the high-involvement uneven-quality, and the high-involvement high-quality groups. Heterogeneous patterns of grandparental involvement exist and are differentially associated with children's social-emotional development. Children with grandparents in the high-involvement high-quality group demonstrated higher levels of social skills than those in the low-involvement mediocre-quality group and the high-involvement uneven-quality group. They also showed the lowest level of problem behaviors. This study highlights variations in grandparental involvement and helps to clarify previous inconsistent findings regarding the role of grandparental involvement in child development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Behavioral regulation and approaches to learning: Moderators of the association between extracurricular involvement and academic readiness.

Participation in organized extracurricular activities (EAs) has become increasingly common among preschool-aged children. Prior studies have shown inconsistent findings on the association between young children's involvement in EAs and their subsequent developmental outcomes. Moving beyond examining the main effects of EA participation, this study focused on whether children's behavioral regulation and approaches to learning-two important domain-general skills closely linked to learning-would moderate the association between EA participation and academic readiness. Participants included 317 Chinese preschoolers residing in Shanghai. The breadth of EA participation positively predicted children's early math skills, but only for those demonstrating relatively lower behavioral regulation or less positive approaches to learning. The findings provide support for the compensatory hypothesis that participation in EAs is more beneficial for children at greater developmental risk. Unexpectedly, the intensity of EA participation negatively predicted receptive vocabulary beyond certain thresholds among children with relatively poor behavioral regulation or approaches to learning (B = -2.272, p = .032, effect size (ES) = 0.423), but this relationship was not significant for children with better learning behaviors (B = 0.111, p = .712, ES = 0.021). According to the findings, children with worse behavioral regulation and approaches to learning were actually more vulnerable to the negative effects of intensive participation in EAs (B = -15.698, p = .022, ES = 1.797). EA participation did not predict children's Chinese word reading (ps > 0.05). The findings revealed a complex pattern of relationships between preschoolers' EA participation and academic readiness and have highlighted the importance of considering child characteristics when examining the developmental effects of EA involvement.

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus Replication in Human Intestinal Cells Reveals Potential Susceptibility to Cross-Species Infection.

Various coronaviruses have emerged as a result of cross-species transmission among humans and domestic animals. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV; family Coronaviridae, genus Alphacoronavirus) causes acute diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and high mortality in neonatal piglets. Porcine small intestinal epithelial cells (IPEC-J2 cells) can be used as target cells for PEDV infection. However, the origin of PEDV in pigs, the host range, and cross-species infection of PEDV remain unclear. To determine whether PEDV has the ability to infect human cells in vitro, human small intestinal epithelial cells (FHs 74 Int cells) were inoculated with PEDV LJX and PEDV CV777 strains. The results indicated that PEDV LJX, but not PEDV CV777, could infect FHs 74 Int cells. Furthermore, we observed M gene mRNA transcripts and N protein expression in infected FHs 74 Int cells. A one-step growth curve showed that the highest viral titer of PEDV occurred at 12 h post infection. Viral particles in vacuoles were observed in FHs 74 Int cells at 24 h post infection. The results proved that human small intestinal epithelial cells are susceptible to PEDV infection, suggesting the possibility of cross-species transmission of PEDV.

PCGF6/MAX/KDM5D facilitates MAZ/CDK4 axis expression and pRCC progression by hypomethylation of the DNA promoter.

Polycomb group RING finger protein 6 (PCGF6) plays an important role as a regulator of transcription in a variety of cellular processes, including tumorigenesis. However, the function and expression of PCGF6 in papillary RCC (pRCC) remain unclear. In the present study, we found that PCGF6 expression was significantly elevated in pRCC tissues, and high expression of PCGF6 was associated with poor survival of patients with pRCC. The overexpression of PCGF6 promoted while depletion of PCGF6 depressed the proliferation of pRCC cells in vitro. Interestingly, myc-related zinc finger protein (MAZ), a downstream molecular of PCGF6, was upregulated in pRCC with hypomethylation promoter. Mechanically, PCGF6 promoted MAZ expression by interacting with MAX and KDM5D to form a complex, and MAX recruited PCGF6 and KDM5D to the CpG island of the MAZ promoter and facilitated H3K4 histone demethylation. Furthermore, CDK4 was a downstream molecule of MAZ that participated in PCGF6/MAZ-regulated progression of pRCC. These results indicated that the upregulation of PCGF6 facilitated MAZ/CDK4 axis expression and pRCC progression by hypomethylation of the MAZ promoter. The PCGF6/MAZ/CDK4 regulatory axis may be a potential target for the treatment of ccRCC.

Chinese parents' perceived social change and their organisation of preschoolers' learning activities.

China has experienced dramatic transformations over recent decades, which has significant implications for childrearing. This study examined whether Chinese parents' perceived social change would mediate the association between family socioeconomic status (SES) and children's involvement in various learning activities in the home, community and extracurricular contexts. The study included 312 urban Chinese parents with preschool-aged children. Parents completed measures on perceived social change, their involvement in children's home literacy, numeracy and play activities, as well as children's participation in community-based activities and commercially provided extracurricular activities (EAs). The results indicated that higher-SES parents perceived more opportunities and prospects and less work-related risk and adversity as a function of social change. Parents who perceived more opportunities and prospects were more involved in almost all types of children's learning activities except EAs. Parents who perceived more work-related risk and adversity only showed decreased involvement in home literacy activities. Parents who endorsed new values more strongly were more likely to enrol their children in EAs and demonstrate greater involvement in children's home literacy activities. The findings revealed substantial within-group variations in parents' subjective experiences with social change and how parents' perceived social change might shape their ways of organising children's learning environment.

Bioinformatic analysis of the S protein of human respiratory coronavirus.

The present study aimed to apply bioinformatic methods to analyze the structure of the S protein of human respiratory coronaviruses, including severe respiratory disease syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1), and severe respiratory disease syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We predicted and analyzed the physicochemical properties, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, transmembrane regions, signal peptides, phosphorylation and glycosylation sites, epitopes, functional domains, and motifs of the S proteins of human respiratory coronaviruses. All four S proteins contain a transmembrane region, which enables them to bind to host cell surface receptors. All four S proteins contain a signal peptide, phosphorylation sites, glycosylation sites, and epitopes. The predicted phosphorylation sites might mediate S protein activation, the glycosylation sites might affect the cellular orientation of the virus, and the predicted epitopes might have implications for the design of antiviral inhibitors. The S proteins of all four viruses have two structural domains, S1 (C-terminal and N-terminal domains) and S2 (homology region 1 and 2). Our bioinformatic analysis of the structural and functional domains of human respiratory coronavirus S proteins provides a basis for future research to develop broad-spectrum antiviral drugs, vaccines, and antibodies.

Identification of differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs and messenger RNAs involved with muscle development in Dazu black goats through RNA sequencing.

This study aimed to explore the genetic basis of muscle development in goats. The transcriptome dataset for differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs) and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of goat muscle at different developmental stages were obtained using RNA-Seq. A total of 447,806,481 and 587,559,465 clean reads in the longissimus dorsi muscle of Dazu black goats between 75d embryonic stage and 1d after birth were generated through Illumina paired-end sequencing, and their mapping rates were 89.82 and 90.99%, respectively. Moreover, 4517 DEGs and 648 DELs were identified, and 4784 lncRNA-mRNA targeting relationships were predicted. Gene function annotation results showed that 4101 DEGs were significantly enriched to 1098 GO terms, and 2014 DEGs were significantly enriched to 40 KEGG pathways, including many GO terms and pathways related to muscle development, such as cell differentiation and Wnt signaling pathway. Then, 10 DELs and 20 DEGs were randomly selected for RT-qPCR verification, and the agreement rate between the verification and RNA-Seq results was 90%, indicating the high reliability of the RNA-Seq data analysis. In conclusion, this study obtained several mRNAs and lncRNAs related to the muscle development of Dazu black goats and identified several targeted regulatory pairs of lncRNA-mRNA. This study may serve as a reference to understand the genetic basis and molecular mechanism of muscle development in goats.

Variations in Pedicel Structural Properties Among Four Pear Species (Pyrus): Insights Into the Relationship Between the Fruit Characteristics and the Pedicel Structure.

Fruit pedicel is the bridge linking the parent tree and the fruit, which is an important channel for water and nutrients transport to the fruit. The genetic specificity determines the characteristics of the pedicel and the fruit, but the relationship between the pedicel structure and the fruit characteristics is unexplored. Combining the investigation of fruit characteristics, the statistical analysis of the pedicel structural properties, and the 2D and 3D anatomical observation of the pedicel, this study found distinctive contributions of the pedicel elements to the fruit characteristics in four pear species. The European pear (Conference) showed distinct fruit shape index and pedicel structural properties compared with the oriental pears (Akizuki, Yali, and Nanguoli). The fruit size positively correlated with pedicel length, fiber area, pedicel diameter, the area percentage of the cortex, and the area percentage of phloem; however, fruit firmness and soluble solids concentration are showed a stronger positive correlation with xylem area, pith area, the area percentage of xylem, the area percentage of sieve tube, and the area percentage of pith. Pedicel elements, including pith, fiber, and cortex, likely play a certain role in the fruit growth due to the variations of their characteristics demonstrated in the four pear species. The porosity, the ratio of the surface area to the volume, and the spatial arrangement of the vessels showed significant variations across the pear species, indicating the distinction of the hydraulic conductance of the pedicels. Our findings provided direct evidence that pedicel structural elements contributed distinctively to the fruit characteristics among pear species.

A Novel ZNF304/miR-183-5p/FOXO4 Pathway Regulates Cell Proliferation in Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma.

Zinc-finger protein 304 (ZNF304) plays a critical role in silencing genes through transcription, regulating cell survival, proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation during development. However, the roles of transcription factor ZNF304 and its clinical significance in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) remain unclear. In this study, we found that the expression of ZNF304 was downregulated in ccRCC tissues. Lower levels of ZNF304 were correlated with poor survival. Downregulation of ZNF304 promoted ccRCC cell growth in vitro, whereas overexpression of ZNF304 inhibited growth. Our results indicated that miR-183-5p/FOXO4 mediated ZNF304 regulation of cell growth. Interestingly, we revealed that ZNF304 promoted FOXO4 expression in ccRCC cells. Mechanistically, ZNF304 binds to miR-183 promoter and inhibits miR-183-5p transcription. Furthermore, the expression of miR-183-5p wes increased in ccRCC tissues, and the upregulation of miR-183-5p was related to the poor prognosis of ccRCC patients. miR-183-5p upregulation repressed the expression of FOXO4 and promoted ccRCC progression. These results demonstrated that ZNF304/miR-183-5p/FOXO4 axis played essential role in promoting ccRCC progression, which suggests that disruption of this axis may be a potential therapeutic target in ccRCC.

TTK (threonine tyrosine kinase) regulates the malignant behaviors of cancer cells and is regulated by microRNA-582-5p in ovarian cancer.

There is growing evidence that threonine tyrosine kinase (TTK) dysregulation is linked to the progression of multiple malignancies. Nonetheless, the role of TTK in ovarian cancer (OC) remains unclear. The GEO2R method was employed to screen out the mRNAs that were abnormally expressed between OC tissues and normal ovarian tissues using three datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database: GSE14407, GSE18520, and GSE36668. Moreover, the Kaplan-Meier plotter was utilized to investigate the association between TTK expression and OC patients' prognosis. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was applied to examine miR-582-5p expression and TTK mRNA expression in OC tissues and cells. Additionally, immunohistochemistry (IHC) experiment and Western blot were executed to examine TTK protein expression in OC tissues and cells, respectively. In addition, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), transwell, and flow-cytometry experiments were performed to examine the multiplication, migration, and apoptosis of OC cells, respectively. In addition, dual-luciferase reporter gene tests were executed to validate the targeting relationship between miR-582-5p and TTK. We demonstrated that TTK expression was up-regulated in OC tissues and cells, and its overexpression was found to be associated with an adverse prognosis in OC patients. TTK overexpression enhanced OC cell multiplication and migration, and repressed apoptosis. Mechanistically, TTK was a downstream target of miR-582-5p. Furthermore, miR-582-5p overexpression impeded OC cell multiplication and migration, while TTK overexpression reversed this phenomenon. These data suggest that miR-582-5p and TTK are promising targets for OC diagnosis and therapy.

Myc-associated zinc-finger protein promotes clear cell renal cell carcinoma progression through transcriptional activation of the MAP2K2-dependent ERK pathway.

BACKGROUND: The dysfunction of myc-related zinc finger protein (MAZ) has been proven to contribute to tumorigenesis and development of multiple cancer types. However, the biological roles and clinical significance of MAZ in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) remain unclear. METHODS: MAZ expression was examined in ccRCC and normal kidney tissue by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate the clinical correlation between MAZ expression and clinicopathological characteristics to determine the relationship between MAZ expression and the survival of ccRCC patients. The biological roles of MAZ in cells were investigated in vitro using MTT and colony assays. Luciferase reporter assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) were used to investigate the relationship between MAZ and its potential downstream signaling molecules. RESULTS: MAZ expression is elevated in ccRCC tissues, and higher levels of MAZ were correlated with poor survival of patients with ccRCC. MAZ upregulation elevates the proliferation ability of ccRCC cells in vitro, whereas silencing MAZ represses this ability. Our results further reveal that MAZ promotes cell growth, which is dependent on ERK signaling. Importantly, we found that MAZ positively regulates MAP2K2 expression in ccRCC cells. Mechanistically, MAZ binds to the MAP2K2 promoter and increases MAP2K2 transcription. Furthermore, MAP2K2 levels were shown to be increased in ccRCC tissues and to be associated with a poor prognosis of ccRCC patients. MAP2K2 upregulation activates the ERK signaling pathway and promotes ccRCC progression. CONCLUSION: These results reveal that the MAZ/MAP2K2/ERK signaling axis plays a crucial role in promoting ccRCC progression, which suggests the potential therapeutic utility of MAZ in ccRCC.

Distinct patterns of organized activity participation and their associations with school readiness among Chinese preschoolers.

Organized extracurricular activities (EAs) constitute an important part of many young children's lives. However, the role of EAs in children's development during early childhood is poorly understood. The current study examined the associations between EA participation and a range of school readiness outcomes in a sample of 345 urban Chinese preschoolers. Using three waves of data collected on EA participation and applying growth mixture modeling, we discovered two distinct trajectory classes with respect to the breadth of EA participation as well as two classes for EA attendance intensity. With a series of covariates controlled for, children's greater initial levels of or rates of increase in EA breadth were related to better early math skills. Greater probabilities of belonging to the higher-intensity class were also associated with better early math skills in children. However, EA participation did not predict other aspects of children's school readiness, including Chinese reading, receptive vocabulary, expressive language, social skills, and problem behaviors. This study extends existing EA literature, which has primarily focused on school-aged populations in Western contexts, by demonstrating substantial individual variations in Chinese preschoolers' trajectories of EA participation. Our findings suggest that EAs seem to have little unique contribution to children's school readiness except for early math skills.

Disentangling the Relations Between Different Components of Family Socioeconomic Status and Chinese Preschoolers' School Readiness.

Family socioeconomic status (SES) has been frequently linked to children's early development. Treating SES as an aggregated variable has many issues, as different components of SES may relate to child outcomes through divergent mechanisms. The purpose of the study was to examine whether parents' engagement in home learning activities and children's participation in extracurricular activities (EAs) would function as pathways through which individual SES components related to children's school readiness. A total of 588 families with preschool-aged children were recruited from Guangdong province in China. Children's receptive vocabulary, Chinese reading, and early math skills were individually assessed at three time points, and children's social skills were rated by parents. Parents reported their engagement in home learning activities with children and their children's participation in EAs. The results showed that all three components of family SES were related to multiple aspects of children's school readiness, but through different pathways. Parental income was related to children's school readiness through EA participation only; parental education and occupational status were associated with school readiness via both parental engagement and child EA participation. The findings suggest that considering SES components separately will produce a more nuanced understanding of the divergent pathways through which family SES may relate to children's school readiness. Chinese government may provide parent education programs focused on cognitive stimulation for low-SES families to promote children's school readiness. Furthermore, the government needs to ensure children's equal access to EAs to prevent increasing the developmental gap among children from discrepant socioeconomic backgrounds.

El nivel socioeconómico familiar se ha asociado frecuentemente con el desarrollo de la primera infancia. Tratar el nivel socioeconómico familiar como una variable agregada tiene muchos problemas, ya que los diferentes componentes del nivel socioeconómico familiar pueden relacionarse con los resultados de los niños mediante diferentes mecanismos. El propósito del estudio fue analizar si la participación de los padres en actividades de aprendizaje en el hogar y la participación de los niños en actividades extracurriculares funcionan como vías por las cuales los componentes individuales del nivel socioeconómico se relacionan con la madurez de los niños para la escolaridad. Se convocó a un total de 588 familias con niños en edad preescolar de la provincia de Cantón en China. Se evaluaron individualmente el vocabulario receptivo de los niños, la lectura en chino y las habilidades matemáticas iniciales en tres intervalos de tiempo, y los padres calificaron las habilidades sociales de los niños. Los padres informaron su participación en actividades de aprendizaje en el hogar con los niños y la participación de sus hijos en actividades extracurriculares. Los resultados demostraron que los tres componentes del nivel socioeconómico familiar estuvieron relacionados con varios aspectos de la madurez de los niños para la escolaridad, pero mediante diferentes vías. Los ingresos de los padres estuvieron relacionados con la madurez de los niños para la escolaridad mediante la participación en actividades extracurriculares solamente; la educación de los padres y la situación ocupacional estuvieron asociadas con la madurez para la escolaridad mediante la participación de los padres y la participación de los niños en actividades extracurriculares. Los resultados sugieren que tener en cuenta los componentes del nivel socioeconómico por separado producirá una comprensión más sutil de las diversas vías mediante las cuales el nivel socioeconómico de la familia puede relacionarse con la madurez de los niños para la escolaridad. El gobierno chino puede proporcionar programas de capacitación para padres centrados en la estimulación cognitiva para familias de bajo nivel socioeconómico a fin de promover la madurez de los niños para la escolaridad. Además, el gobierno necesita garantizar el acceso equitativo de los niños a las actividades extracurriculares para evitar el aumento de la brecha en el desarrollo entre niños de diferentes orígenes socioeconómicos.

Extracurricular Activities and Chinese Children's School Readiness: Who Benefits More?

Organized extracurricular activities (EAs) are prevalent among Chinese preschoolers, yet their role in children's development is poorly understood. This study investigated the relations between EA participation and Chinese preschoolers' school readiness (N = 343; Mage  = 55.14 months) among a predominantly middle-class sample. EA breadth had positive linear relations with children's early math and social skills, while attendance intensity demonstrated nonlinear associations, partially supporting the overscheduling hypothesis. EA breadth had stronger associations with early reading and math skills among lower socioeconomic status children, as well as greater benefits for math skills in children with less exposure to home learning activities, indicating a compensatory role of EAs. The findings highlight the interplay between EA and family contexts in relation to child development.

GuidingNet: revealing transcriptional cofactor and predicting binding for DNA methyltransferase by network regularization.

The DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) (DNMT3A, DNMT3B and DNMT3L) are primarily responsible for the establishment of genomic locus-specific DNA methylation patterns, which play an important role in gene regulation and animal development. However, this important protein family's binding mechanism, i.e. how and where the DNMTs bind to genome, is still missing in most tissues and cell lines. This motivates us to explore DNMTs and TF's cooperation and develop a network regularized logistic regression model, GuidingNet, to predict DNMTs' genome-wide binding by integrating gene expression, chromatin accessibility, sequence and protein-protein interaction data. GuidingNet accurately predicted methylation experimental data validated DNMTs' binding, outperformed single data source based and sparsity regularized methods and performed well in within and across tissue prediction for several DNMTs in human and mouse. Importantly, GuidingNet can reveal transcription cofactors assisting DNMTs for methylation establishment. This provides biological understanding in the DNMTs' binding specificity in different tissues and demonstrate the advantage of network regularization. In addition to DNMTs, GuidingNet achieves good performance for other chromatin regulators' binding. GuidingNet is freely available at https://github.com/AMSSwanglab/GuidingNet.

The Relative Importance of Sleep Duration and Bedtime Routines for the Social-Emotional Functioning of Chinese Children.

OBJECTIVE: Although the importance of sleep has been widely supported by empirical research, researchers have only recently linked sleep to children's social-emotional development. This study aimed to investigate 2 aspects of sleep-namely, sleep duration and bedtime routines-in relation to the social skills and problem behavior in a group of Chinese school-aged children. METHOD: This study involved 228 Chinese children (mean age = 8.32 years). Parents reported their child's sleep duration, the consistency of bedtime routines, and social-emotional functioning. RESULTS: Both sleep duration and the consistency of bedtime routines had unique contributions to children's social-emotional functioning. Sex differences were found regarding the sleep-child adjustment link. Sleep duration was negatively associated with child problem behavior for both boys and girls. However, the relationship between bedtime routines and social skills was more pronounced for boys, while the relation between sleep duration and social skills was more evident for girls. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the importance of consistent bedtime routines and adequate sleep for the social-emotional development of Chinese school-aged children.