Intergenerational Transmission of Risk Attitudes: A Revealed Preference Approach

This study investigates whether the willingness to take income risks revealed by occupational choice is transmitted from parents to their children. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we find that fathers' riskiness of job is a significant determinant of children's occupational risk, in particular sons' (excluding parent-child pairs with identical occupations). This is the first piece of evidence for intergenerational transmission of risk attitudes relying on real world behavior. It shows that not only individuals' own assessments of their risk attitudes correlate (found by previous studies) but also risk preferences shown in exactly the same situation.Risk preferences, intergenerational transmission, occupational choice

Use of the STAR PROCESS for Children with Sensory Processing Challenges

Background: This study examined the effectiveness of the STAR PROCESS, an intensive, short-term intervention that combines principles of sensory integration, relationship-based therapy, and parental-therapist collaboration for children with sensory processing challenges. Method: A nonconcurrent multiple baseline, repeated measures design was used. Four boys, aged 5 years 0 months to 7 years 9 months, participated in this study. The mean length of intervention was 22 sessions delivered 3 to 5 times per week. A behavioral coding system was used to measure change in four areas: play level, positive affect, joint attention, and novel use of equipment. The theory of change reflects the use of multisensory experiences in combination with parent participation to impact outcomes. Results: Improvement was noted in play level in all of the participants. Multisensory experiences and parent participation were associated with these changes in two participants. Discussion: The study results suggest a feasible methodology to study occupational therapy interventions. The behavioral coding system was sensitive to change. Play abilities changed in all four children. Preliminary support was provided for the theory of change combining multisensory experiences with parent participation. Conclusion: A targeted treatment approach that emphasizes parents as play partners in a multisensory environment shows promise in remediating these deficits

Chromosome breakage after G2 checkpoint release

DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair and checkpoint control represent distinct mechanisms to reduce chromosomal instability. Ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) cells have checkpoint arrest and DSB repair defects. We examine the efficiency and interplay of ATM's G2 checkpoint and repair functions. Artemis cells manifest a repair defect identical and epistatic to A-T but show proficient checkpoint responses. Only a few G2 cells enter mitosis within 4 h after irradiation with 1 Gy but manifest multiple chromosome breaks. Most checkpoint-proficient cells arrest at the G2/M checkpoint, with the length of arrest being dependent on the repair capacity. Strikingly, cells released from checkpoint arrest display one to two chromosome breaks. This represents a major contribution to chromosome breakage. The presence of chromosome breaks in cells released from checkpoint arrest suggests that release occurs before the completion of DSB repair. Strikingly, we show that checkpoint release occurs at a point when approximately three to four premature chromosome condensation breaks and approximately 20 gammaH2AX foci remain

Evaluation of the End of Life Care Train the Trainer (TTT) Education Model

Final Published versio

Perturbations in Lineage Specification of Granulosa and Theca Cells May Alter Corpus Luteum Formation and Function

Anovulation is a major cause of infertility, and it is the major leading reproductive disorder in mammalian females. Without ovulation, an oocyte is not released from the ovarian follicle to be fertilized and a corpus luteum is not formed. The corpus luteum formed from the luteinized somatic follicular cells following ovulation, vasculature cells, and immune cells is critical for progesterone production and maintenance of pregnancy. Follicular theca cells differentiate into small luteal cells (SLCs) that produce progesterone in response to luteinizing hormone (LH), and granulosa cells luteinize to become large luteal cells (LLCs) that have a high rate of basal production of progesterone. The formation and function of the corpus luteum rely on the appropriate proliferation and differentiation of both granulosa and theca cells. If any aspect of granulosa or theca cell luteinization is perturbed, then the resulting luteal cell populations (SLC, LLC, vascular, and immune cells) may be reduced and compromise progesterone production. Thus, many factors that affect the differentiation/lineage of the somatic cells and their gene expression profiles can alter the ability of a corpus luteum to produce the progesterone critical for pregnancy. Our laboratory has identified genes that are enriched in somatic follicular cells and luteal cells through gene expression microarray. This work was the first to compare the gene expression profiles of the four somatic cell types involved in the follicle-to-luteal transition and to support previous immunofluorescence data indicating theca cells differentiate into SLCs while granulosa cells become LLCs. Using these data and incorporating knowledge about the ways in which luteinization can go awry, we can extrapolate the impact that alterations in the theca and granulosa cell gene expression profiles and lineages could have on the formation and function of the corpus luteum. While interactions with other cell types such as vascular and immune cells are critical for appropriate corpus luteum function, we are restricting this review to focus on granulosa, theca, and luteal cells and how perturbations such as androgen excess and inflammation may affect their function and fertility

Living with young onset dementia: Reflections on recent developments, current discourse, and implications for policy and practice

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.Recent research on young onset dementia (formal diagnosis at age <65) evidences emerging work around pre-diagnosis, diagnosis and the need to improve post-diagnostic support for this group. An increased awareness of young onset dementia has led to the establishment of peer-support groups, support networks and the involvement of people affected by dementia in research. However, the need to join up services at the systems level persists. Third-sector organisations that offer post-diagnostic support at the communitylevel rely heavily on volunteers. Implications for policy and practice are that community-based commissioning of integrated services between health care, social care and the third sector would go a long way to providing the continuity and stability required in dementia support and care along the illness trajectory. This discussion document was written in collaboration with diagnostic services, the charity sector and conversations with people living with, and affected by, dementia.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Excitation Backprop for RNNs

Deep models are state-of-the-art for many vision tasks including video action recognition and video captioning. Models are trained to caption or classify activity in videos, but little is known about the evidence used to make such decisions. Grounding decisions made by deep networks has been studied in spatial visual content, giving more insight into model predictions for images. However, such studies are relatively lacking for models of spatiotemporal visual content - videos. In this work, we devise a formulation that simultaneously grounds evidence in space and time, in a single pass, using top-down saliency. We visualize the spatiotemporal cues that contribute to a deep model's classification/captioning output using the model's internal representation. Based on these spatiotemporal cues, we are able to localize segments within a video that correspond with a specific action, or phrase from a caption, without explicitly optimizing/training for these tasks.Comment: CVPR 2018 Camera Ready Versio

Online Tactics and Successes: An Examination of the Obama for America New Media Campaign

Offers lessons learned from the 2008 Obama campaign on the effective use of various new media to organize volunteers, raise funds, and get out the vote. Examines the elements of success and supporting factors and identifies best practices for nonprofits

Perceived discrimination and satisfaction with life among ethnic minorities in the COVID-19 pandemic context

The present investigation examined the effects of the pandemic on perceived discrimination and satisfaction with life among people from ethnic minorities within the Portuguese population. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating role of ethnic identity in the relationship between ethnic identification with an ethnic minority and perceived discrimination. Thus, it was predicted that higher levels of ethnic identity would diminish perceived discrimination. We also compared the study variables and the level of “concern regarding the COVID-19 pandemic” among the ethnic minority and majority groups. This transversal and correlational study, carried out through an online questionnaire, counted with a total of 231 respondents, 142 participants on ethnic majority group and 89 participants on the ethnic minority group. The measures Everyday Discrimination Scale (in the COVID-19 context), Satisfaction with Life Scale, and an adaptation version of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, were used in the questionnaire to analyze the study’s variables. Results showed that the relationship between ethnic identification, with an ethnic minority, and satisfaction with life is mediated by perceived discrimination. They also showed that people from the ethnic minority group with high ethnic identity presented lower perceived discrimination, serving this variable as a protective factor. When comparing the study variables among the two ethnic groups, only perceived discrimination presented a difference. These findings are consistent with previous research.A presente investigação examinou os efeitos da pandemia na perceção de discriminação e na satisfação com a vida em pessoas pertencentes a grupos minoritários pertencentes à população portuguesa. Para além disso, analisou-se o papel moderador da identidade étnica na relação entre identificação étnica com um grupo minoritário e a perceção de discriminação. Assim, previu-se que uma maior identidade étnica iria amortecer a perceção de discriminação. Também se comparou as variáveis em estudo e o nível de “preocupação com a pandemia” entre os grupos étnicos minoritário e maioritário. Este estudo transversal e correlacional, realizado através de um questionário online, contou com um total de 231 participantes, sendo 142 do grupo de maioria étnica e 89 do grupo de minoria étnica. As medidas Everyday Discrimination Scale (no contexto da pandemia), Satisfaction with Life Scale, e uma versão adaptação da Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure foram utilizadas no questionário para analisar as variáveis em estudo. Os resultados mostraram que a relação entre a identificação étnica com uma minoria e a satisfação é mediada pela perceção de discriminação. Também mostraram que pessoas do grupo de minorias étnicas que tinham uma alta identidade étnica mostraram uma baixa perceção de discriminação, servindo a esta variável como um fator de proteção. Na comparação das variáveis entre os dois grupos étnicos, apenas a perceção de discriminação apresentou diferenças. Em traços gerais, estes resultados são coerentes com investigação anterior