Authenticity in the Skateboarding World

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the values and norms that constitute legitimacy, or authenticity, in the skateboarding world. Both authors spent a considerable amount of time with the skateboarding world in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Lisa Weidman worked at a skateboarding magazine for several years, and Becky Beal did an extensive ethnographic study of skateboarders. Using our experiences and research, we describe the characteristics that skateboarders and the industry use to identify an authentic skateboarder. The first section, on the skaters\u27 perspective, is based primarily on Beal\u27s interactions with skateboarders; the second section, on the industry\u27s perspective, is based on Weidman\u27s experiences and interpretations of advertisements placed in the skateboarding magazines by companies selling skateboards and related products and services

Adolescents Occupational and Educational Goals: A Test of Reciprocal Relations

During adolescence, young people’s future aspirations and expectations begin to crystallize, especially in the domains of education and occupation. Much of the research in this area has emphasized development within a particular domain (e.g., education) and relations between aspirations and expectations across domains remain largely unexplored, resulting in a lack of information on how goals develop in tandem and affect each other. It is also unclear whether these developmental processes differ by gender and socioeconomic status. We tested reciprocal effects between occupational and educational goals using a longitudinal sample of 636 adolescents (52% boys). Results from dynamic systems models indicated change in occupational and educational goals across high school. For all youth, occupational aspirations predicted change in occupational expectations. Educational expectations predicted change in occupational aspirations for youth in high but not low parent education groups, and occupational expectations predicted change in educational expectations for girls but not boys

Burnout, Social Support, and Coping in Crisisline Volunteers

This study examined the relationship among burnout, social support, and coping in volunteers. In this study, 30 volunteers from Rape Crisis Center of Bloomington, Illinois, anonymously completed four questionnaires: the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the UCLA Social Support Inventory, a coping survey, and a demographic survey. The Maslach Burnout Inventory contains three subscales, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. A question is asked on the demographic questionnaire regarding the respondent\u27s perception of the turnover rate among the volunteers of the group. This response was correlated with the three subscales of the burnout measure in order to establish if perception of turnover is related to burnout. Also, the respondents\u27 scores on the subscales of the burnout inventory was correlated with the total support received and the rape crisis group support to determine the impact of social support on burnout. In addition, two different coping styles, control and escapist, was computed and correlated with the three subscales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure the relationship between coping and burnout. The correlations for escapist coping and emotional exhaustion and escapist coping and depersonalization were significant (p \u3c.05). Explanations for the findings and directions of future studies are presented

Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in Mesenchymal Progenitors Controls Osteoblast and Chondrocyte Differentiation during Vertebrate Skeletogenesis

SummaryChondrocytes and osteoblasts are two primary cell types in the skeletal system that are differentiated from common mesenchymal progenitors. It is believed that osteoblast differentiation is controlled by distinct mechanisms in intramembranous and endochondral ossification. We have found that ectopic canonical Wnt signaling leads to enhanced ossification and suppression of chondrocyte formation. Conversely, genetic inactivation of β-catenin, an essential component transducing the canonical Wnt signaling, causes ectopic formation of chondrocytes at the expense of osteoblast differentiation during both intramembranous and endochondral ossification. Moreover, inactivation of β-catenin in mesenchymal progenitor cells in vitro causes chondrocyte differentiation under conditions allowing only osteoblasts to form. Our results demonstrate that β-catenin is essential in determining whether mesenchymal progenitors will become osteoblasts or chondrocytes regardless of regional locations or ossification mechanisms. Controlling Wnt/β-catenin signaling is a common molecular mechanism underlying chondrocyte and osteoblast differentiation and specification of intramembranous and endochondral ossification

The Role of Emotional Reactivity, Self-regulation, and Puberty in Adolescents\u27 Prosocial Behaviors

This study was designed to examine the roles of emotional reactivity, self-regulation, and pubertal timing in prosocial behaviors during adolescence. Participants were 850 sixth graders (50% female, Mean age = 11.03, SD = .17) who were followed up at age 15. In hierarchical regression models, measures of emotional reactivity, self-regulation, pubertal timing and their interactions were used to predict (concurrently and over time) adolescents’ prosocial behaviors in the home and with peers. Overall, the findings provide evidence for pubertal and temperament based predictors of prosocial behaviors expressed in different contexts. Self-regulation was positively related to both forms of prosocial behavior, concurrently and longitudinally. Emotional reactivity showed moderately consistent effects, showing negative concurrent relations to prosocial behavior with peers and negative longitudinal relations (four years later) to prosocial behavior at home. Some curvilinear effects of temperament on prosocial behaviors were also found. Effects of pubertal timing were found to interact with gender, such that boys who were early maturers showed the highest levels of prosocial behavior at home concurrently. Discussion focuses on the role of temperament-based mechanisms in the expression of prosocial behaviors in different contexts in adolescence

Wnt-5a inhibits the canonical Wnt pathway by promoting GSK-3–independent β-catenin degradation

Wnts are secreted signaling molecules that can transduce their signals through several different pathways. Wnt-5a is considered a noncanonical Wnt as it does not signal by stabilizing β-catenin in many biological systems. We have uncovered a new noncanonical pathway through which Wnt-5a antagonizes the canonical Wnt pathway by promoting the degradation of β-catenin. This pathway is Siah2 and APC dependent, but GSK-3 and β-TrCP independent. Furthermore, we provide evidence that Wnt-5a also acts in vivo to promote β-catenin degradation in regulating mammalian limb development and possibly in suppressing tumor formation

Prevalence of strong bottom currents in the greater Agulhas system

Deep current meter data and output from two high-resolution global ocean circulation models are used to determine the prevalence and location of strong bottom currents in the greater Agulhas Current system. The two models and current meter data are remarkably consistent, showing that benthic storms, with bottom currents greater than 0.2 m s(-1), occur throughout the Agulhas retroflection region south of Africa more than 20% of the time. Furthermore, beneath the mean Agulhas Current core and the retroflection front, bottom currents exceed 0.2 m s(-1) more than 50% of the time, while away from strong surface currents, bottom currents rarely exceed 0.2 m s(-1). Implications for sediment transport are discussed and the results are compared to atmospheric storms. Benthic storms of this strength (0.2 m s(-1)) are comparable to a 9 m s(-1) (Beaufort 5) windstorm, but scaling shows that benthic storms may be less effective at lifting and transporting sediment than dust storms

Sea surface slope as a proxy for Agulhas Current strength

The linear relation between the strength of the Agulhas Current at nominal latitude 34°S and the gradient in sea level height anomaly across the current is investigated in a 1/10° resolution regional numerical ocean model. Our results show that the strength of the current can be estimated with reasonable accuracy using altimeter data, once it has been calibrated using in-situ transport measurements. Three years of transport measurements provide a calibration with worst-case correlation R = 0.78. In that case the errors in proxy transport have a standard deviation of 9.8 Sv, compared to a 20.2 Sv standard deviation of the transport time series itself. From these results we conclude that the design of the Agulhas Current Timeseries (ACT) experiment, a three-year deployment of moorings across the Agulhas Current and along a TOPEX/Jason altimeter ground track, will likely produce a good quality multi-decadal time series of Agulhas Current strength

A dinucleotide deletion in the ankyrin promoter alters gene expression, transcription initiation and TFIID complex formation in hereditary spherocytosis

Ankyrin defects are the most common cause of hereditary spherocytosis (HS). In some HS patients, mutations in the ankyrin promoter have been hypothesized to lead to decreased ankyrin mRNA synthesis. The ankyrin erythroid promoter is a member of the most common class of mammalian promoters which lack conserved TATA, initiator or other promoter cis elements and have high G+C content, functional Sp1 binding sites and multiple transcription initiation sites. We identified a novel ankyrin gene promoter mutation, a TG deletion adjacent to a transcription initiation site, in a patient with ankyrin-linked HS and analyzed its effects on ankyrin expression. In vitro, the mutant promoter directed decreased levels of gene expression, altered transcription initiation site utilization and exhibited defective binding of TATA-binding protein (TBP) and TFIID complex formation. In a transgenic mouse model, the mutant ankyrin promoter led to abnormalities in gene expression, including decreased expression of a reporter gene and altered transcription initiation site utilization. These data indicate that the mutation alters ankyrin gene transcription and contributes to the HS phenotype by decreasing ankyrin gene synthesis via disruption of TFIID complex interactions with the ankyrin core promoter. These studies support the model that in promoters that lack conserved cis elements, the TFIID complex directs preinitiation complex formation at specific sites in core promoter DNA and provide the first evidence that disruption of TBP binding and TFIID complex formation in this type of promoter leads to alterations in start site utilization, decreased gene expression and a disease phenotype in viv