Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control

Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10–18 years and their parents (N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network closure. Results indicate that an orthodox religious identity for Catholic and Protestant parents and higher levels of religious attendance for parents as a whole are associated with increases in monitoring activities and normative regulations of American adolescents

Vitrified magnesia dissolution and its impact on plutonium residue processing

Aqueous chloride operations at the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility cannot directly dispose of acidic waste solutions because of compatibility problems with existing disposal lines. Consequently, all hydrochloric acid must be neutralized and filtered prior to exiting the facility. From a waste minimization standpoint, the use of spent magnesia pyrochemical crucibles as the acid neutralization agent is attractive since this process would take a stream destined for transuranic waste and use it as a reagent in routine plutonium residue processing. Since Los Alamos National Laboratory has several years of experience using magnesium hydroxide as a neutralizing agent for waste acid from plutonium processing activities, the use of spent magnesia pyrochemical crucibles appeared to be an attractive extension of this activity. In order to be competitive with magnesium hydroxide, however, size reduction of crucible shards had to be performed effectively within the constraints of glovebox operations, and acid neutralization time using crucible shards had to be comparable to neutralization times observed when using reagent-grade magnesium hydroxide. The study utilized non-plutonium-contaminated crucibles for equipment evaluation and selection and used nonradioactive acid solutions for completing the neutralization experiments. This paper discusses experience in defining appropriate size reduction equipment and presents results from using the magnesia crucibles for hydrochloric acid neutralization, a logical precursor to introduction into glovebox enclosures

Perceived quality of life among caregivers of children with a childhood-onset dystrophinopathy: a double ABCX model of caregiver stressors and perceived resources

Background: Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies, collectively referred to as dystrophinopathies, are recessive X-linked disorders characterized by progressive muscle weakness and ultimately cardiac and respiratory failure. Immediate family members are often primary caregivers of individuals with a dystrophinopathy. Methods: We explored the impact of this role by inviting primary caregivers (n = 209) of males diagnosed with childhood-onset dystrophinopathy who were identified by the Muscular Dystrophy Surveillance, Tracking, and Research Network (MD STARnet) to complete a mailed questionnaire measuring perceived social support and stress, spirituality, and family quality of life (FQoL). Bivariate and multivariate analyses examined associations between study variables using the Double ABCX model as an analytic framework. Results: Higher stressor pile-up was associated with lower perceived social support (r = -0.29, p 0.05). FQoL was positively associated with all support measures (correlations ranged from: 0.25 to 0.58, p-values 0.01-0.001) and negatively associated with perceived stress and control (r = -0.49, p <.001). The association between stressor pile-up and FQoL was completely mediated through global perceived social support, supportive family relationships, and perceived stress and control; supportive non-family relationships did not remain statistically significant after controlling for other mediators. Conclusions: Findings suggest caregiver adaptation to a dystrophinopathy diagnosis can be optimized by increased perceived control, supporting family resources, and creation of a healthy family identity. Our findings will help identify areas for family intervention and guide clinicians in identifying resources that minimize stress and maximize family adaptation.CDC [5U01DD000831, 5U01DD000187, 5U01DD000189, 5U01DD000191, 5U01DD000190]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

International criticality benchmark comparison exercise in support of nuclear data validation

The objective of this paper is to present the main results of the keff inter-comparison exercise performed in 2019-2022 by LANL, LLNL, ORNL and IRSN on a set of common benchmarks. The paper includes a description of the methodology to make the inter-comparison, presents the set of selected cases along with the main tendencies that could be at-tributed to nuclear data. In addition, it identifies some issues on the processing and interpretation of nuclear data done by the various codes of the intercomparison

Targeting Wnt-driven Cancer Through the inhibition of Porcupine by LGK974

Wnt signaling is one of the key oncogenic pathways in multiple cancers, and targeting this pathway is an attractive therapeutic approach. However, therapeutic success has been limited because of the lack of therapeutic agents for targets in the Wnt pathway and the lack of a defined patient population that would be sensitive to a Wnt inhibitor. We developed a screen for small molecules that block Wnt secretion. This effort led to the discovery of LGK974, a potent and specific small-molecule Porcupine (PORCN) inhibitor. PORCN is a membrane-bound O-acyltransferase that is required for and dedicated to palmitoylation of Wnt ligands, a necessary step in the processing of Wnt ligand secretion. We show that LGK974 potently inhibits Wnt signaling in vitro and in vivo, including reduction of the Wnt-dependent LRP6 phosphorylation and the expression of Wnt target genes, such as AXIN2. LGK974 is potent and efficacious in multiple tumor models at well-tolerated doses in vivo, including murine and rat mechanistic breast cancer models driven by MMTV-Wnt1 and a human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma model (HN30). We also show that head and neck cancer cell lines with loss-of-function mutations in the Notch signaling pathway have a high response rate to LGK974. Together, these findings provide both a strategy and tools for targeting Wnt-driven cancers through the inhibition of PORCN