Parental cultural models and resources for understanding mathematical achievement in culturally diverse school settings

This paper proposes that the theoretical concept of cultural models can offer useful insights into parental involvement in their child’s mathematical achievement and the resources they use to go about gaining information in culturally diverse learning settings. This examination takes place within a cultural-developmental framework and draws on the notion of cultural models to explicate parental understandings of their child’s mathematics achievement and what resources are used to make sense of this. Three parental resources are scrutinized: (a) the teacher, (b) examination test results, and (c) constructions of child development. The interviews with 22 parents revealed some ambiguity around the interpretation of these resources by the parent, which was often the result of incongruent cultural models held between the home and the school. The resources mentioned are often perceived as being unambiguous but show themselves instead to be highly interpretive because of the diversity of cultural models in existence in culturally diverse settings. Parents who are in minority or marginalized positions tend to have difficulties in interpreting cultural models held by school, thereby disempowering them to be parentally involved in the way the school would like

Dynamical R-parity Breaking at the LHC

In a class of extensions of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with (B-L)/left-right symmetry that explains the neutrino masses, breaking R-parity symmetry is an essential and dynamical requirement for successful gauge symmetry breaking. Two consequences of these models are: (i) a new kind of R-parity breaking interaction that protects proton stability but adds new contributions to neutrinoless double beta decay and (ii) an upper bound on the extra gauge and parity symmetry breaking scale which is within the large hadron collider (LHC) energy range. We point out that an important prediction of such theories is a potentially large mixing between the right-handed charged lepton ($e^c$) and the superpartner of the right-handed gauge boson ($\widetilde W_R^+$), which leads to a brand new class of R-parity violating interactions of type $\widetilde{\mu^c}^\dagger\nu_\mu^c e^c$ and \widetilde{d^c}^\dagger\u^c e^c. We analyze the relevant constraints on the sparticle mass spectrum and the LHC signatures for the case with smuon/stau NLSP and gravitino LSP. We note the "smoking gun" signals for such models to be lepton flavor/number violating processes: $pp\to \mu^\pm\mu^\pm e^+e^-jj$ (or $\tau^\pm\tau^\pm e^+e^-jj$) and $pp\to\mu^\pm e^\pm b \bar{b} jj$ (or $\tau^\pm e^\pm b \bar{b} jj$) without significant missing energy. The predicted multi-lepton final states and the flavor structure make the model be distinguishable even in the early running of the LHC.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables, reference adde

Radiative contribution to neutrino masses and mixing in μν\mu\nuSSM

In an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (popularly known as the $\mu\nu$SSM), three right handed neutrino superfields are introduced to solve the $\mu$-problem and to accommodate the non-vanishing neutrino masses and mixing. Neutrino masses at the tree level are generated through $R-$parity violation and seesaw mechanism. We have analyzed the full effect of one-loop contributions to the neutrino mass matrix. We show that the current three flavour global neutrino data can be accommodated in the $\mu\nu$SSM, for both the tree level and one-loop corrected analyses. We find that it is relatively easier to accommodate the normal hierarchical mass pattern compared to the inverted hierarchical or quasi-degenerate case, when one-loop corrections are included.Comment: 51 pages, 14 figures (58 .eps files), expanded introduction, other minor changes, references adde

Outcomes of allogeneic stem cell transplantation among patients with acute myeloid leukemia presenting active disease: Experience of a single European Comprehensive Cancer Center

Introduction: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) represents a potentially curative approach for patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We report the outcome of relapsed/refractory AML patients treated with ASCT.Method: A retrospective cohort from 1994 to 2013 that included 61 patients with diagnosis of relapsed/refractory AML. Outcomes of interest were transplant-related mortality (TRM), incidence of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), relapse incidence, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Statistical significance was set at p<0.05.Results: The median age was 61 years (range 1 to 65). The cumulative incidence of 90 days, 1 year, and 3 years TRM were 60%, 26.7%, and 13.3%, respectively (p< 0.001). The incidence of relapse was 21.7% at 1 year, 13% at 3 years, and 8.7% at 5 years. Median OS was estimated to be 8 months (95CI 3.266-12.734) and median PFS, 3 months (95CI 1.835-4.165).Conclusion: In our cohort, TRM in first years after ASCT remains considerable, but ASCT in this setting seems to be a good choice for AML patients with active disease. However, novel approaches are needed to reduce TRM and relapse in this set of patients

Alpha-Linolenic Acid: Is It Essential to Cardiovascular Health?

There is a large body of scientific evidence that has been confirmed in randomized controlled trials indicating a cardioprotective effect for omega-3 fatty acids from fish. For alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is the omega-3 fatty acid from plants, the relation to cardiovascular health is less clear. We reviewed the recent literature on dietary ALA intake, ALA tissue concentrations, and cardiovascular health in humans. Short-term trials (6–12 weeks) in generally healthy participants mostly showed no or inconsistent effects of ALA intake (1.2–3.6 g/d) on blood lipids, low-density lipoprotein oxidation, lipoprotein(a), and apolipoproteins A-I and B. Studies of ALA in relation to inflammatory markers and glucose metabolism yielded conflicting results. With regard to clinical cardiovascular outcomes, there is observational evidence for a protective effect against nonfatal myocardial infarction. However, no protective associations were observed between ALA status and risk of heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and sudden death. Findings from long-term trials of ALA supplementation are awaited to answer the question whether food-based or higher doses of ALA could be important for cardiovascular health in cardiac patients and the general population

Reduced Stability and Increased Dynamics in the Human Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) Relative to the Yeast Homolog

Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) is an essential factor for DNA replication and repair. PCNA forms a toroidal, ring shaped structure of 90 kDa by the symmetric association of three identical monomers. The ring encircles the DNA and acts as a platform where polymerases and other proteins dock to carry out different DNA metabolic processes. The amino acid sequence of human PCNA is 35% identical to the yeast homolog, and the two proteins have the same 3D crystal structure. In this report, we give evidence that the budding yeast (sc) and human (h) PCNAs have highly similar structures in solution but differ substantially in their stability and dynamics. hPCNA is less resistant to chemical and thermal denaturation and displays lower cooperativity of unfolding as compared to scPCNA. Solvent exchange rates measurements show that the slowest exchanging backbone amides are at the β-sheet, in the structure core, and not at the helices, which line the central channel. However, all the backbone amides of hPCNA exchange fast, becoming undetectable within hours, while the signals from the core amides of scPCNA persist for longer times. The high dynamics of the α-helices, which face the DNA in the PCNA-loaded form, is likely to have functional implications for the sliding of the PCNA ring on the DNA since a large hole with a flexible wall facilitates the establishment of protein-DNA interactions that are transient and easily broken. The increased dynamics of hPCNA relative to scPCNA may allow it to acquire multiple induced conformations upon binding to its substrates enlarging its binding diversity

Subterranean, herbivore-induced plant volatile increases biological control activity of multiple beneficial nematode species in distinct habitats

While the role of herbivore-induced volatiles in plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions is well documented aboveground, new evidence suggests that belowground volatile emissions can protect plants by attracting entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs). However, due to methodological limitations, no study has previously detected belowground herbivore-induced volatiles in the field or quantified their impact on attraction of diverse EPN species. Here we show how a belowground herbivore-induced volatile can enhance mortality of agriculturally significant root pests. First, in real time, we identified pregeijerene (1,5-dimethylcyclodeca-1,5,7-triene) from citrus roots 9-12 hours after initiation of larval Diaprepes abbreviatus feeding. This compound was also detected in the root zone of mature citrus trees in the field. Application of collected volatiles from weevil-damaged citrus roots attracted native EPNs and increased mortality of beetle larvae (D. abbreviatus) compared to controls in a citrus orchard. In addition, field applications of isolated pregeijerene caused similar results. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that pregeijerene increased pest mortality by attracting four species of naturally occurring EPNs in the field. Finally, we tested the generality of this root-zone signal by application of pregeijerene in blueberry fields; mortality of larvae (Galleria mellonella and Anomala orientalis) again increased by attracting naturally occurring populations of an EPN. Thus, this specific belowground signal attracts natural enemies of widespread root pests in distinct agricultural systems and may have broad potential in biological control of root pests.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio