Effects Of Group Psychoeducation For Parents Of At-Risk Adolescents

The efficacy of the Parent Project, a current group psychoeducational program for parents of at-risk adolescents, was explored in this investigation. In particular, determining whether a parent-focused psychoeducation approach would beneficially alter family interaction style as well as adolescent behavior was investigated. A within-subjects design was implemented to evaluate before and after treatment levels of function. The Parent Project psychoeducational program provided 34 participating parents with classroom instruction and processing time to help meet the participating parents with their 13- to 18- year-old children. The current sample of participating parents was referred to the Parent Project by the Child Guidance Center, Inc. and United Way of Jacksonville, FL. The main goal of the Parent Project training program was to teach parents the skills necessary to reduce harmful adolescent behavior. The aim of the program is to inform parents about ways to enhance their relationships with their adolescent via prevention and intervention techniques, with the secondary goal of reducing the adolescents’ difficult, defiant, and destructive behaviors. In the current investigation, parents reported enhanced family dynamics following their participation in the parenting psychoeducational program. In addition, a decline in adolescent externalizing behavior was found. These findings demonstrate that treatment programs targeting parents can effect change in families and in adolescents with behavioral problems

The Associations of Resting Metabolic Rate with Chronic Conditions and Weight Loss

Body weight is positively associated with RMR. However, there exists a paucity of research on the associations between baseline and changes in resting metabolic rate (RMR) with chronic conditions and weight loss (WL), with findings being inconsistent. Sex stratified analysis was undertaken. Despite having a significant WL of 6.2 8.5 kg (P 0.05). Men and women with high blood pressure had higher baseline RMR, and only women with high LDL had lower baseline RMR than those without the respective chronic condition (P0.05). This study suggests that participants with a low baseline RMR do not appear to be at a disadvantage for WL. Further, WL can occur without reductions in RMR in individuals with high levels of obesity and obesity-related comorbidities

Duplication and diversification of the LEAFY HULL STERILE1 and Oryza sativa MADS5 SEPALLATA lineages in graminoid Poales

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gene duplication and the subsequent divergence in function of the resulting paralogs via subfunctionalization and/or neofunctionalization is hypothesized to have played a major role in the evolution of plant form. The <it>LEAFY HULL STERILE1 (LHS1) SEPALLATA </it>(<it>SEP</it>) genes have been linked with the origin and diversification of the grass spikelet, but it is uncertain 1) when the duplication event that produced the <it>LHS1 </it>clade and its paralogous lineage <it>Oryza sativa MADS5 (OSM5) </it>occurred, and 2) how changes in gene structure and/or expression might have contributed to subfunctionalization and/or neofunctionalization in the two lineages.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Phylogenetic relationships among 84 <it>SEP </it>genes were estimated using Bayesian methods. RNA expression patterns were inferred using <it>in situ </it>hybridization. The patterns of protein sequence and RNA expression evolution were reconstructed using maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Phylogenetic analyses mapped the <it>LHS1/OSM5 </it>duplication event to the base of the grass family. MP character reconstructions estimated a change from cytosine to thymine in the first codon position of the first amino acid after the <it>Zea mays MADS3 </it>(<it>ZMM3</it>) domain converted a glutamine to a stop codon in the <it>OSM5 </it>ancestor following the <it>LHS1/OSM5 </it>duplication event. RNA expression analyses of <it>OSM5 </it>co-orthologs in <it>Avena sativa, Chasmanthium latifolium, Hordeum vulgare, Pennisetum glaucum</it>, and <it>Sorghum bicolor </it>followed by ML reconstructions of these data and previously published analyses estimated a complex pattern of gain and loss of <it>LHS1 </it>and <it>OSM5 </it>expression in different floral organs and different flowers within the spikelet or inflorescence.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Previous authors have reported that rice OSM5 and LHS1 proteins have different interaction partners indicating that the truncation of OSM5 following the <it>LHS1/OSM5 </it>duplication event has resulted in both partitioned and potentially novel gene functions. The complex pattern of <it>OSM5 </it>and <it>LHS1 </it>expression evolution is not consistent with a simple subfunctionalization model following the gene duplication event, but there is evidence of recent partitioning of <it>OSM5 </it>and <it>LHS1 </it>expression within different floral organs of <it>A. sativa, C. latifolium, P. glaucum </it>and <it>S. bicolor</it>, and between the upper and lower florets of the two-flowered maize spikelet.</p

Importance of the physical exam and in-office tests in the evaluation of vulvovaginal irritation

Background: Vulvovaginal irritation is a common gynecologic complaint. A number of factors may lead to a trial of therapy without undertaking a physical exam or diagnostic testing. Case Report: A 45 year-old woman presented to our colposcopy clinic for evaluation of an abnormal Papanicolaou (Pap) test. She reported a one month history of vulvovaginal irritation, for which Premarin vaginal cream had been empirically prescribed. Examination of the external genitalia showed ulcers and erythema of the labia minora. Speculum exam was deferred because of the patient’s discomfort. Wet mount microscopy from a vaginal swab revealed evidence of Trichomonas vaginalis, bacterial vaginosis (BV), and yeast. A swab of the ulcers was sent for herpes simplex virus (HSV) polymerase chain reaction (PCR); this confirmed HSV-2. Treatment was initiated for each of these conditions, and the patient returned for colposcopy 21 days later. Conclusion: This case illustrates the importance of the physical exam when evaluating a complaint of vulvovaginal irritation. In many cases, the cause(s) of vulvovaginal irritation can be identified based on physical exam findings and in-office testing with wet mount microscopy, vaginal pH, and the amine “whiff” test. In some cases, additional testing may be required to establish or confirm a diagnosis. Accurate diagnosis is essential not only to initiate appropriate therapy, but also to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted infections. In some cases, this may decrease the delay in diagnosing vulvar gynecologic malignancies

The Invisible Men: Analyzing the Virtual Subculture of England\u27s Punters

Research on prostitution has flourished over the last few decades with a new emphasis on the online sex market. To study the online market, researchers have utilized qualitative methods to investigate escort review websites. Coding for violent rhetoric and perceived intimacy are two conventional techniques that have been utilized using qualitative methods. Other areas investigated include the overall characteristics of sex buyers, price variation, and socialization of buyers. What has lacked in current literature has been the use of quantitative methods to study what factors influence the presence of positive reviews. To expand on limited existing literature utilizing quantitative methods, the current study used data from an escort review website titled Punternet.com for the years 2015 through 2017. Punternet is a public website where sex buyers (punters in the UK) can review sex workers and discuss aspects of sex buying culture in community forums. Factors that influence the presence of positive reviews were investigated including various sexual acts (oral, anal, vaginal, manual, group sex), session variables (length, cost, location, climax, condom usage, and intimacy), and a factor related to the type of sex worker (escort). Symbolic interactionism theory was used to explain the presence of intimacy within the reviews. The results from a binary logistic regression indicate that a variety of different factors are significant in regard to influencing the presence of positive reviews. For example, the odds that positive reviews occurred were increased when intimacy, or perceived intimacy, occurred throughout the sessions and whether at least one climax occurred. Future research in this area should continue to use quantitative methods to investigate what factors influence intimacy within the sessions, due to the high significance finding in the present research

LIGHTMOTIFS: GRAVITY, LEITMOTIF, AND LIGHTING DESIGN IN WAGNER’S DAS RHEINGOLD

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Algorithms for phylogenetic tree correction in species and cancer evolution

Reconstructing evolutionary trees, also known as phylogenies, from molecular sequence data is a fundamental problem in computational biology. Classically, evolutionary trees have been estimated over a set of species, where leaves correspond to extant species and internal nodes correspond to ancestral species. This type of phylogeny is colloquially thought of as the “Tree of Life” and assembling it has been designated as a Grand Challenge by the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. However, processes other than speciation are also shaped by evolution. One notable example is in the development of a malignant tumor; tumor cells rapidly grow and divide, acquiring new mutations with each subsequent generation. Tumor cells then compete for resources, often resulting in selection for more aggressive cell types. Recent advancements in sequencing technology rapidly increased the amount of sequencing data taken from tumor biopsies. This development has allowed researchers to attempt reconstructing evolutionary histories for individual patient tumors, improving our understanding of cancer and laying the groundwork for precision therapy. Despite algorithmic improvements in the estimation of both species and tumor phylogenies from molecular sequence data, current approaches still suffer a number of limitations. Incomplete sampling and estimation error can lead to missing leaves and low-support branches in the estimated phylogenies. Moreover, commonly posed optimization problems are often under-determined given the limited amounts and low quality of input data, leading to large solution spaces of equally plausible phylogenies. In this dissertation, we explore current limitations in both species and tumor phylogeny estimation, connecting similarities and highlighting key differences. We then put forward four new methods that improve phylogeny estimation methods by incorporating auxiliary information: OCTAL, TRACTION, PhySigs, and RECAP. For each method, we present theoretical results (e.g., optimization problem complexity, algorithmic correctness, running time analysis) as well as empirical results on simulated and real datasets. Collectively, these methods show we can significantly improve the accuracy of leading phylogeny estimation methods by leveraging additional signal in distinct, but related datasets

Invest to Save: Report and Recommendations of the NSF-DELOS Working Group on Digital Archiving and Preservation

Digital archiving and preservation are important areas for research and development, but there is no agreed upon set of priorities or coherent plan for research in this area. Research projects in this area tend to be small and driven by particular institutional problems or concerns. As a consequence, proposed solutions from experimental projects and prototypes tend not to scale to millions of digital objects, nor do the results from disparate projects readily build on each other. It is also unclear whether it is worthwhile to seek general solutions or whether different strategies are needed for different types of digital objects and collections. The lack of coordination in both research and development means that there are some areas where researchers are reinventing the wheel while other areas are neglected. Digital archiving and preservation is an area that will benefit from an exercise in analysis, priority setting, and planning for future research. The WG aims to survey current research activities, identify gaps, and develop a white paper proposing future research directions in the area of digital preservation. Some of the potential areas for research include repository architectures and inter-operability among digital archives; automated tools for capture, ingest, and normalization of digital objects; and harmonization of preservation formats and metadata. There can also be opportunities for development of commercial products in the areas of mass storage systems, repositories and repository management systems, and data management software and tools.

Banner News

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/banner_news/1140/thumbnail.jp

Dallas Center Elementary School Dallas Center, Iowa I-WALK Report Spring 2012

In the past three decades, the number of obese and overweight individuals in Iowa and across the nation has skyrocketed. With obesity comes the greater risk of health complications and life expectancy reduction. As a result, the current generation of youth face a new and growing threat to their overall quality of life. In Iowa alone, 37.1% of 3rd grade students are identified as either overweight or obese.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iwalk_reports/1030/thumbnail.jp