Leveraging Youth Employment Systems to Prevent Unintended Pregnancy

Unanswered questions about this little-explored linkage between youth employment programs and pregnancy prevention remain, including questions about the extent of such linkages, the impact of unplanned pregnancy and parenting on youth employment programs, and the opinions of program staff about linkages between the two systems. In order to obtain some preliminary answers to these questions, CLASP surveyed youth employment programs around the country, analyzed data from almost 150 local programs (out of about 500 that received our survey), interviewed national program officials and youth employment experts, interviewed staff of selected local programs that are already making the link, and reviewed the youth employment evaluation literature. To our knowledge, this survey is the first attempt to gather program-level information about the intersection between youth employment and reproductive health and the most detailed summary of the youth employment literature as it relates to pregnancy and childbearing. In general, the data we provide should be taken not as a complete picture of what is going on in the field but as an indication about what is happening and what questions should be asked by further research. It is our hope that this report will spark a dialogue between practitioners in these two fields and the additional research necessary to address the many questions that are as yet unanswered

Greedy bisection generates optimally adapted triangulations

We study the properties of a simple greedy algorithm for the generation of data-adapted anisotropic triangulations. Given a function f, the algorithm produces nested triangulations and corresponding piecewise polynomial approximations of f. The refinement procedure picks the triangle which maximizes the local Lp approximation error, and bisect it in a direction which is chosen so to minimize this error at the next step. We study the approximation error in the Lp norm when the algorithm is applied to C2 functions with piecewise linear approximations. We prove that as the algorithm progresses, the triangles tend to adopt an optimal aspect ratio which is dictated by the local hessian of f. For convex functions, we also prove that the adaptive triangulations satisfy a convergence bound which is known to be asymptotically optimal among all possible triangulations.Comment: 24 page

Atomic interferometer measurements of Berry's and Aharonov-Anandan's phases for isolated spins S > 1/2 non-linearly coupled to external fields

The aim of the present paper is to propose experiments for observing the significant features of Berry's phases for S>1, generated by spin-Hamiltonians endowed with two couplings, a magnetic dipole and an electric quadrupole one with external B and E fields, as theoretically studied in our previous work. The fields are assumed orthogonal, this mild restriction leading to geometric and algebraic simplifications. Alkali atoms appear as good candidates for interferometric measurements but there are challenges to be overcome. The only practical way to generate a suitable E-field is to use the ac Stark effect which induces an instability of the dressed atom. Besides atom loss, this might invalidate Berry's phase derivation but this latter problem can be solved by an appropriate detuning. The former puts an upper limit to the cycle duration, which is bounded below by the adiabatic condition. By relying upon our previous analysis of the non-adiabatic corrections, we have been able to reach a compromise for the $^{87}$Rb hf level F=2, m=0 state, which is our candidate for an interferometric measurement of the exotic Berry's phase generated by a rotation of the E-field around the fixed B-field. By a numerical simulation we have shown that the non-adiabatic corrections can be kept below the 0.1% level. As an alternative candidate, we discuss the chromium ground state J=S=3, where the instability problem is easily solved. We make a proposal to extend the measurement of Aharonov-Anandan's phase beyond S=1/2 to the $^{87}$Rb hf level F=m=1, by constructing, with the help of light-shifts, a Hamiltonian able to perform a parallel transport along a closed circuit upon the density matrix space, without any adiabatic constraint. In Appendix A, Berry's phase difference for S=3/2 and 1/2, m=1/2 states is used to perform an entanglement of 3 Qbits.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, modifications in the introduction, two paragraphs adde

Intermittent stick-slip dynamics during the peeling of an adhesive tape from a roller

We study experimentally the fracture dynamics during the peeling at a constant velocity of a roller adhesive tape mounted on a freely rotating pulley. Thanks to a high speed camera, we measure, in an intermediate range of peeling velocities, high frequency oscillations between phases of slow and rapid propagation of the peeling fracture. This so-called stick-slip regime is well known as the consequence of a decreasing fracture energy of the adhesive in a certain range of peeling velocity coupled to the elasticity of the peeled tape. Simultaneously with stick-slip, we observe low frequency oscillations of the adhesive roller angular velocity which are the consequence of a pendular instability of the roller submitted to the peeling force. The stick-slip dynamics is shown to become intermittent due to these slow pendular oscillations which produce a quasi-static oscillation of the peeling angle while keeping constant the peeling fracture velocity (averaged over each stick-slip cycle). The observed correlation between the mean peeling angle and the stick-slip amplitude questions the validity of the usually admitted independence with the peeling angle of the fracture energy of adhesives.Comment: Forthcoming in Physical Review

Exforge® (amlodipine/valsartan combination) in hypertension: the evidence of its therapeutic impact

peer reviewedAbstract Introduction: Hypertension is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease and its management requires improvement. New treatment strategies are needed. Aims: This review analyses one of these strategies, which is the development of effective and safe combination therapy. Indeed, at least two antihypertensive agents are often needed to achieve blood pressure control. Exforge® (Novartis) is a new drug combination of the calcium channel blocker, amlodipine, and the angiotensin II receptor blocker, valsartan. Evidence review: The amlodipine/valsartan combination is an association of two well-known antihypertensive products with specific targets in cardiovascular protection, namely calcium channel blockade and antagonism of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. This kind of association, with neutral metabolic properties and significant antihypertensive efficacy, could be a useful new antihypertensive product. Currently available data have shown that this new combination is well-tolerated and effective even in severe hypertension. Clinical value: Clinical trials are ongoing for further assessment of the efficacy, compliance, and safety of this combination and its congeners. No data exist to prove that the amlodipine/valsartan combination is better than other antihypertensive strategies for cardiovascular or renal protection, but some trials with other combination therapies show such potential advantage

Phase-matched four wave mixing and quantum beam splitting of matter waves in a periodic potential

We show that the dispersion properties imposed by an external periodic potential ensure both energy and quasi-momentum conservation such that correlated pairs of atoms can be generated by four wave mixing from a Bose-Einstein condensate moving in an optical lattice potential. In our numerical solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, a condensate with initial quasi-momentum k_0 is transferred almost completely (>95%) into a pair of correlated atomic components with quasi-momenta k_1 and k_2, if the system is seeded with a smaller number of atoms with the appropriate quasi-momentum k_1.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A, Rapid Communication

GRP78 Protein Expression in Ovarian Cancer Patients and Perspectives for a Drug-Targeting Approach

Glucose-regulated protein of 78 kD (GRP78) is a chaperone protein mainly located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This protein is normally present at low levels in adult cells but its expression is triggered by ER stress including glucose deprivation and hypoxia. In tumor cells, it is overexpressed with fraction of protein found at the cell surface. This paper presents the physiology of GRP78 in the context of ovarian cancer and its potential use as drug delivery systems targeting ovarian cancer cell

The Grammaticalization of "Say" and "Do" : An Areal Phenomenon in the Horn of Africa

The grammaticalization of verbs meaning ‘say' and ‘do', in periphrastic constructions traditionnally named ‘descriptive compounds' allows transcategorial and intracategorial derivation, leading to more or less deep reorganizations of the verbal systems. This is a recurring phenomenon, attested over a period of five milleniums, in Afroasiatic languages. The issue is dealt with from a syntactic, morphological, semantic, diachronic, typological and areal perspective in dead and living languages of North-East Africa, genetically linked or not (Cushitic, Omotic, Afro-Semitic, Egyptian, Coptic, a Nilo-Saharan language and Nubian). The study in then extended to some Saharan and Chadic languages spoken further in Central Africa where the phenomenon has not always been recognized as such. A typological classification is proposed. The sudy shows that the use of descriptive compounds is linked to inter-subjective modalities but not to any TAM value, and that it is possible to find synchronically all the stages of the grammaticalization process.La grammaticalisation des verbes ‘dire' et ‘faire', dans les constructions périphrastiques traditionnellement dénommées ‘composés descriptifs' permet une dérivation transcatégorielle et intracatégorielle, entraînant une réorganisation des systèmes verbaux plus ou moins radicale, un phénomène récurrent et attesté sur cinq millénaires en chamito-sémitique. Elle est abordée sur les plans syntaxique, morphologique, sémantique, diachronique, typologique et aréal, dans des langues vivantes et éteintes d'Afrique du nord-est, apparentées ou non (langues couchitiques, omotiques, afro-sémitiques, égyptien et copte, une langue nilo-saharienne, le nubien). L'étude est ensuite étendu à quelques langues sahariennes et tchadiques situées plus au centre du continent africain et qui présentent un phénomène similaire, mais non toujours reconnu comme tel. Tout en proposant une classification typologique des constructions, nous avons montré que l'utilisation des composés descriptifs relèvent du domaine de la modalité inter-subjective et non des TAM, et que l'on trouve, en synchronie, toutes les étapes de la grammaticalisation du procédé

Involvement of MAPK pathway in TNF-α-induced MMP-9 expression in human trophoblastic cells

The aim of this article was to investigate the signalling pathways involved in metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) expression induced by tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in first-trimester trophoblastic cells. TNF-α-induced MMP-9 expression, secretion and activity were completely blocked by stress-activated protein kinase/jun kinase (SAPK/JNK) and Erk inhibitors (SP600 125 and U0126 respectively) but not by p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors (SB203 580 and SB202 190). Stimulation of HIPEC 65 cells with TNF-α caused phosphorylation of JNK and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (Erk1/2), with a peak after 20 min of treatment. Transcription factors nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and activator protein 1 (AP-1)-binding site were identified as the cis-elements involved in TNF-α activation as determined by electromobility shift assays. TNF-α-induced transactivation of NF-κB was inhibited by U0126, whereas TNF-α-induced transactivation of AP-1 was inhibited by SP600 125. Taken together, these results indicate that in trophoblastic cells, TNF-α probably activates two different pathways leading to MMP-9 expression: (a) Erk1/2 pathway which in turn initiates NF-κB activation and (b) SAPK/JNK pathway that activates AP-