Developing a second, third, and fourth grade environmental unit on water education

Past research into the ability of students to 'bounce back' from everyday academic setback (academic buoyancy) has lacked sensitivity to the contexts in which children demonstrate this behavior. Here we aimed to contextualize past findings by reporting the results of an exploratory investigation that featured: (1) repeated measurement of students' self-reported buoyancy across English, mathematics, science, and physical education; (2) measures of students' psychological appraisal as a test of external validity; (3) a novel national context (England rather than Australia). In total 260 English secondary school students aged 11-16. years completed self-report questionnaires. Students were found to hold relatively consistent views about their ability to bounce back from everyday academic setbacks (e.g., negative feedback, poor results, study stress or pressure) compared to the relatively less consistent views they held regarding the difficulty of the four school subjects as well as corresponding personal competences and effort. These results are discussed in the context of past research, the implications for interventions, and the need for further confirmatory investigations

Academic buoyancy, student's achievement, and the linking role of control: A cross-lagged analysis of high school students

Background Previous research has indicated that although academic buoyancy and student's achievement are associated, the relationship is relatively modest. Aims We sought to determine whether another construct might link academic buoyancy and student's achievement. Based on prior theoretical and empirical work, we examined a sense of control as one possible linking mechanism. Sample The study analysed data from 2,971 students attending 21 Australian high schools. Methods We conducted a cross-lagged panel design as a first means of disentangling the relative salience of academic buoyancy, control, and achievement (Phase 1). Based upon these results, we proceeded with follow-up analyses of an ordered process model linking the constructs over time (Phase 2). Results Findings showed that buoyancy and achievement were associated with control over time, but not with one another (Phase 1). In addition, control appeared to play a role in how buoyancy influenced achievement and that a cyclical process may operate among the three factors over time (Phase 2). Conclusion The findings suggest that control may play an important role in linking past experiences of academic buoyancy and achievement to subsequent academic buoyancy and achievement.The authors would like to thank the Australian Research Council for funding this research

Introducció

Based on hypothesized reciprocal relations between psychological risk and academic buoyancy (dealing with ‘everyday’ academic setback in the ordinary course of school life), the present study used cross-lagged structural equation models to examine the relative salience of (1) prior academic buoyancy in predicting subsequent psychological risk and (2) prior psychological risk in predicting subsequent academic buoyancy. Academic buoyancy and psychological risk (academic anxiety, failure avoidance, uncertain control, emotional instability, neuroticism) measures were administered to 2971 students (11–19 years) from 21 Australian high schools at two time waves across a one-year interval. Analyses confirmed a reciprocal effects model in which psychological risk impacts academic buoyancy and academic buoyancy impacts psychological risk. The findings hold applied and conceptual implications for practitioners and researchers seeking to help students deal more effectively with adversity in school life

Turnip mosaic potyvirus probably first spread to Eurasian brassica crops from wild orchids about 1000 years ago

Turnip mosaic potyvirus (TuMV) is probably the most widespread and damaging virus that infects cultivated brassicas worldwide. Previous work has indicated that the virus originated in western Eurasia, with all of its closest relatives being viruses of monocotyledonous plants. Here we report that we have identified a sister lineage of TuMV-like potyviruses (TuMV-OM) from European orchids. The isolates of TuMV-OM form a monophyletic sister lineage to the brassica-infecting TuMVs (TuMV-BIs), and are nested within a clade of monocotyledon-infecting viruses. Extensive host-range tests showed that all of the TuMV-OMs are biologically similar to, but distinct from, TuMV-BIs and do not readily infect brassicas. We conclude that it is more likely that TuMV evolved from a TuMV-OM-like ancestor than the reverse. We did Bayesian coalescent analyses using a combination of novel and published sequence data from four TuMV genes [helper component-proteinase protein (HC-Pro), protein 3(P3), nuclear inclusion b protein (NIb), and coat protein (CP)]. Three genes (HC-Pro, P3, and NIb), but not the CP gene, gave results indicating that the TuMV-BI viruses diverged from TuMV-OMs around 1000 years ago. Only 150 years later, the four lineages of the present global population of TuMV-BIs diverged from one another. These dates are congruent with historical records of the spread of agriculture in Western Europe. From about 1200 years ago, there was a warming of the climate, and agriculture and the human population of the region greatly increased. Farming replaced woodlands, fostering viruses and aphid vectors that could invade the crops, which included several brassica cultivars and weeds. Later, starting 500 years ago, inter-continental maritime trade probably spread the TuMV-BIs to the remainder of the world

Yukawa Unification and the Superpartner Mass Scale

Naturalness in supersymmetry (SUSY) is under siege by increasingly stringent LHC constraints, but natural electroweak symmetry breaking still remains the most powerful motivation for superpartner masses within experimental reach. If naturalness is the wrong criterion then what determines the mass scale of the superpartners? We motivate supersymmetry by (1) gauge coupling unification, (2) dark matter, and (3) precision b-tau Yukawa unification. We show that for an LSP that is a bino-Higgsino admixture, these three requirements lead to an upper-bound on the stop and sbottom masses in the several TeV regime because the threshold correction to the bottom mass at the superpartner scale is required to have a particular size. For tan beta about 50, which is needed for t-b-tau unification, the stops must be lighter than 2.8 TeV when A_t has the opposite sign of the gluino mass, as is favored by renormalization group scaling. For lower values of tan beta, the top and bottom squarks must be even lighter. Yukawa unification plus dark matter implies that superpartners are likely in reach of the LHC, after the upgrade to 14 (or 13) TeV, independent of any considerations of naturalness. We present a model-independent, bottom-up analysis of the SUSY parameter space that is simultaneously consistent with Yukawa unification and the hint for m_h = 125 GeV. We study the flavor and dark matter phenomenology that accompanies this Yukawa unification. A large portion of the parameter space predicts that the branching fraction for B_s to mu^+ mu^- will be observed to be significantly lower than the SM value.Comment: 34 pages plus appendices, 20 figure

Charged-Higgs phenomenology in the Aligned two-Higgs-doublet model

The alignment in flavour space of the Yukawa matrices of a general two-Higgs-doublet model results in the absence of tree-level flavour-changing neutral currents. In addition to the usual fermion masses and mixings, the aligned Yukawa structure only contains three complex parameters, which are potential new sources of CP violation. For particular values of these three parameters all known specific implementations of the model based on discrete Z_2 symmetries are recovered. One of the most distinctive features of the two-Higgs-doublet model is the presence of a charged scalar. In this work, we discuss its main phenomenological consequences in flavour-changing processes at low energies and derive the corresponding constraints on the parameters of the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model.Comment: 46 pages, 19 figures. Version accepted for publication in JHEP. References added. Discussion slightly extended. Conclusions unchange

On theories of enhanced CP violation in B_s,d meson mixing

The DO collaboration has measured a deviation from the standard model (SM) prediction in the like sign dimuon asymmetry in semileptonic b decay with a significance of 3.2 sigma. We discuss how minimal flavour violating (MFV) models with multiple scalar representations can lead to this deviation through tree level exchanges of new MFV scalars. We review how the two scalar doublet model can accommodate this result and discuss some of its phenomenology. Limits on electric dipole moments suggest that in this model the coupling of the charged scalar to the right handed u-type quarks is suppressed while its coupling to the d-type right handed quarks must be enhanced. We construct an extension of the MFV two scalar doublet model where this occurs naturally.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, v3 final JHEP versio

Mutations in genes encoding condensin complex proteins cause microcephaly through decatenation failure at mitosis

Correction to Martin et al. available at: Genes & Development 30 (19): 2158 (http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/31/9/953.full.pdf+html).Compaction of chromosomes is essential for accurate segregation of the genome duringmitosis. In vertebrates, two condensin complexes ensure timely chromosome condensation, sister chromatid disentanglement, and maintenance of mitotic chromosome structure. Here,we report that biallelic mutations inNCAPD2,NCAPH, orNCAPD3, encoding subunits of these complexes, cause microcephaly. In addition, hypomorphic Ncaph2 mice have significantly reduced brain size, with frequent anaphase chromatin bridge formation observed in apical neural progenitors during neurogenesis. Such DNA bridges also arise in condensin-deficient patient cells, where they are the consequence of failed sister chromatid disentanglement during chromosome compaction. This results in chromosome segregation errors, leading to micronucleus formation and increased aneuploidy in daughter cells. These findings establish “condensinopathies” as microcephalic disorders, with decatenation failure as an additional disease mechanism for microcephaly, implicating mitotic chromosome condensation as a key process ensuring mammalian cerebral cortex size.This work was supported by funding from the Medical Research Council, the Lister Institute for Preventative Medicine, and the European Research Council (ERC; 281847 to A.P.J.); a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council grant (BB/ K017632/1 to P.V); a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship (grant 102560/ Z/13/Z to A.J.W.); Medical Research Scotland (to L.S.B.); the Potentials Foundation (to C.A.W.); and the Indian Council of Medical Research (BMS 54/2/2013 to S.R.P). The Deciphering Developmental Disorders Study presents independent research commissioned by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund (grant no. HICF-1009-003), a parallel funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (grant no. WT098051). The views expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Wellcome Trust or the Department of Health. The study has UK Research Ethics Committee approval (10/H0305/83) granted by the Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee, and GEN/ 284/12 granted by the Republic of Ireland. We acknowledge the support of the National Institute for Health Research through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network

Estimation of proteinuria as a predictor of complications of pre-eclampsia: a systematic review

Background Proteinuria is one of the essential criteria for the clinical diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. Increasing levels of proteinuria is considered to be associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. We aim to determine the accuracy with which the amount of proteinuria predicts maternal and fetal complications in women with pre-eclampsia by systematic quantitative review of test accuracy studies. Methods We conducted electronic searches in MEDLINE (1951 to 2007), EMBASE (1980 to 2007), the Cochrane Library (2007) and the MEDION database to identify relevant articles and hand-search of selected specialist journals and reference lists of articles. There were no language restrictions for any of these searches. Two reviewers independently selected those articles in which the accuracy of proteinuria estimate was evaluated to predict maternal and fetal complications of pre-eclampsia. Data were extracted on study characteristics, quality and accuracy to construct 2 × 2 tables with maternal and fetal complications as reference standards. Results Sixteen primary articles with a total of 6749 women met the selection criteria with levels of proteinuria estimated by urine dipstick, 24-hour urine proteinuria or urine protein:creatinine ratio as a predictor of complications of pre-eclampsia. All 10 studies predicting maternal outcomes showed that proteinuria is a poor predictor of maternal complications in women with pre-eclampsia. Seventeen studies used laboratory analysis and eight studies bedside analysis to assess the accuracy of proteinuria in predicting fetal and neonatal complications. Summary likelihood ratios of positive and negative tests for the threshold level of 5 g/24 h were 2.0 (95% CI 1.5, 2.7) and 0.53 (95% CI 0.27, 1) for stillbirths, 1.5 (95% CI 0.94, 2.4) and 0.73 (95% CI 0.39, 1.4) for neonatal deaths and 1.5 (95% 1, 2) and 0.78 (95% 0.64, 0.95) for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit admission. Conclusion Measure of proteinuria is a poor predictor of either maternal or fetal complications in women with pre-eclampsia

MFV Reductions of MSSM Parameter Space

The 100+ free parameters of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) make it computationally difficult to compare systematically with data, motivating the study of specific parameter reductions such as the cMSSM and pMSSM. Here we instead study the reductions of parameter space implied by using minimal flavour violation (MFV) to organise the R-parity conserving MSSM, with a view towards systematically building in constraints on flavour-violating physics. Within this framework the space of parameters is reduced by expanding soft supersymmetry-breaking terms in powers of the Cabibbo angle, leading to a 24-, 30- or 42-parameter framework (which we call MSSM-24, MSSM-30, and MSSM-42 respectively), depending on the order kept in the expansion. We provide a Bayesian global fit to data of the MSSM-30 parameter set to show that this is manageable with current tools. We compare the MFV reductions to the 19-parameter pMSSM choice and show that the pMSSM is not contained as a subset. The MSSM-30 analysis favours a relatively lighter TeV-scale pseudoscalar Higgs boson and $\tan \beta \sim 10$ with multi-TeV sparticles.Comment: 2nd version, minor comments and references added, accepted for publication in JHE