How Much Do You Love Grey’s Anatomy?

Does the prominence of medical Television Shows impact people’s decision to pursue a medical career? We are constantly told that the things we see in media and entertainment influences how we think about things, but not much research has been done regarding its ability to impact major life choices such as career choice. This paper investigates this by examining the causal relationship between television and interest in the pursuit of a medical career. An ordinary least squares model, created using time series data over the last 24 years, tested specifically the effect of the number and quality of medical television shows both on the rate of change in medical school applications for men and women and the proportion of female applicants. This study found that while medical tv shows don’t have a statistically significant impact on application rates for men or women, female-driven shows cause a larger proportion of the applicant pool to be female

U.S. Citrus Import Demand: Seasonality and Substitution

Citrus fruits make up one-fifth of all fresh fruit consumed in the United States. Given the increasing importance of imported citrus in the diet of American consumers, it is perhaps surprising that no import demand analysis of U.S. citrus has been conducted. Using quarterly U.S. import data for six citrus commodities, we employed a demand systems model and evaluated aspects of seasonality. The results suggest wide variations in price responses to different types of imported citrus. The average amplitude and phase shift suggest that all citrus fruits exhibit some seasonality in their imports, likely a result of peak harvesting schedules of exporters.Fresh citrus, oranges, limes, lemons, grapefruit, mandarins, import demand, seasonality, Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade,

Molecular Mechanisms of Immune-Mediated Axon Regeneration in the Injured Central Nervous System.

In the injured adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS), severed axons fail to undergo spontaneous regeneration, leading to permanent neurological deficits, such as paralysis following spinal cord injury, and cognitive impairment following traumatic brain injury or stroke. A large body of work has established that neuron intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms pose barriers to efficient CNS repair. Inhibitory molecules, including myelin-associated inhibitors (MAIs) and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs), are expressed by injured CNS tissue and complex with neuronal surface receptors to prevent regenerative growth of axons. Following retro-orbital crush injury to the mouse optic nerve, injured retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons do not normally grow beyond the injury site. Deletion of multiple CSPG receptors enables significant, though modest, regeneration of RGC axons. In these mice, RGC axon regeneration can be greatly enhanced by induction of a local immune response. The underlying mechanisms of immune-mediated neurorepair are poorly understood. Here I show that post-injury manipulation of specific immunomodulatory pathways promotes extensive growth of injured RGC axons. Intraocular injection of zymosan, a yeast cell wall extract, leads to a rapid accumulation of blood-derived immune cells in the vitreous, and enables robust RGC axon regeneration by engaging the pattern recognition receptors dectin-1 and Toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2). Dectin-1 is expressed by retina-resident microglia and dendritic cells, but not by RGCs. Dectin-1 is also present on blood-derived myeloid cells that accumulate in the vitreous. Intraocular injection of the dectin-1 ligand curdlan (a particulate form of beta-glucan) elicits robust regeneration in WT, but not in dectin-1−/− mice. Studies with dectin-1−/−/WT reciprocal bone marrow chimeric mice revealed a requirement for dectin-1 on both retina-resident immune cells and bone-marrow derived cells for beta-glucan-elicited optic nerve regeneration. Collectively, these studies identify a molecular framework for how innate immunity enables repair of injured central nervous system neurons.PHDCellular and Molecular BiologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113473/1/koelzekt_1.pd

The use of a family agency in relocation for urban renewal.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Multiple roles for membrane-associated protein trafficking and signaling in gravitropism

Gravitropism is a process that allows plant organs to guide their growth relative to the gravity vector. It requires them to sense changes in their orientation and generate a biochemical signal that they transmit to the tissues that drive organ curvature. Trafficking between the plasma membrane and endosomal compartments is important for all of these phases of the gravitropic response. The sedimentation of starch-filled organelles called amyloplasts plays a key role in sensing reorientation, and vacuolar integrity is required for amyloplast sedimentation in shoots. Other proteins associated with the vesicle trafficking pathway contribute to early gravity signal transduction independently of amyloplast sedimentation in both roots and hypocotyls. Phosphatidylinositol signaling, which starts at the plasma membrane and later affects the localization of auxin efflux facilitators, is a likely second messenger in the signal transduction phase of gravitropism. Finally, membrane-localized auxin influx and efflux facilitators contribute to a differential auxin gradient across the gravistimulated organs, which directs root curvature

The effects of intensive language therapy on functional communication: A case study

Constraint induced language therapy is a relatively new treatment approach that has rejuvenated research interest in the effect of treatment intensity by demonstrating quick, robust, positive effects on naming in individuals with chronic aphasia. To our knowledge, none of the recent studies investigating treatment intensity have focused on the influence that short-term, intensive treatment has on functional communication. In a single-subject case study, a standardized measure of functional communication was administered and samples of narrative discourse were acquired and analyzed pre- and post-treatment. Preliminary data suggests that four weeks of massed practice improved functional communication in a chronically aphasic individual

Preliminary Evidence That CD38 Moderates the Association of Neuroticism on Amygdala-Subgenual Cingulate Connectivity.

CD38 genetic variation has been associated with autism spectrum disorders and social anxiety disorder, which may result from CD38's regulation of oxytocin secretion. Converging evidence has found that the rs3796863 A-allele contributes to increased social sensitivity compared to the CC genotype. The current study examined the moderating role of CD38 genetic variants (rs3796863 and rs6449182) that have been associated with enhanced (or reduced) social sensitivity on neural activation related to neuroticism, which is commonly elevated in individuals with social anxiety and depression. Adults (n = 72) with varying levels of social anxiety and depression provided biological samples for DNA extraction, completed a measure of neuroticism, and participated in a standardized emotion processing task (affect matching) while undergoing fMRI. A significant interaction effect was found for rs3796863 x neuroticism that predicted right amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) functional connectivity. Simple slopes analyses showed a positive association between neuroticism and right amygdala-sgACC connectivity among rs3796863 A-allele carriers. Findings suggest that the more socially sensitive rs3796863 A-allele may partially explain the relationship between a known risk factor (i.e. neuroticism) and promising biomarker (i.e. amygdala-sgACC connectivity) in the development and maintenance of social anxiety and depression