Conceptualizations of lesbians and lesbian relationships

There have been many studies that examine the attitudes of heterosexuals towards lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (Herek & Capitanio, 1999 & 1996; Engstrom & Sedlacek, 1997; Kite & Whitley, 1996; Whitley & Kite, 1995; Pratte, 1993; and Kite, 1984). Currently, there is no qualitative research that focuses on a particular population\u27s conceptualizations of lesbians. The need for this study lies in the abundance of stereotypes surrounding both lesbians and heterosexual men\u27s view of lesbians as well as the lack of research. For these reasons, the purpose of the study is to examine the conceptualization of lesbians and lesbian relationships by white, heterosexual, single, 25- 32 year old, college-educated, men, and, secondly, to examine the role socialization plays in this conceptualization. Qualitative research methodology is used for this research and queer theory is the theoretical frame. Long interviews are conducted with nine participants in order to provide their perspective. Four major themes emerge from the interviews: The Road to Conceptualization, Beliefs Regarding Lesbians and Lesbian Relationships, Conceptualization by Comparison, and Conceptualization via Struggle. There are also numerous sub-themes revealed from the data analysis

A global evaluation of streamflow drought characteristics

How drought is characterised depends on the purpose and region of the study and the available data. In case of regional applications or global comparison a standardisation of the methodology to characterise drought is preferable. In this study the threshold level method in combination with three common pooling procedures is applied to daily streamflow series from a wide range of hydrological regimes. Drought deficit characteristics, such as drought duration and deficit volume, are derived, and the methods are evaluated for their applicability for regional studies. Three different pooling procedures are evaluated: the moving-average procedure (MA-procedure), the inter-event time method (IT-method), and the sequent peak algorithm (SPA). The MA-procedure proved to be a flexible approach for the different series, and its parameter, the averaging interval, can easily be optimised for each stream. However, it modifies the discharge series and might introduce dependency between drought events. For the IT-method it is more difficult to find an optimal value for its parameter, the length of the excess period, in particular for flashy streams. The SPA can only be recommended as pooling procedure for the selection of annual maximum series of deficit characteristics and for very low threshold levels to ensure that events occurring shortly after major events are recognized. Furthermore, a frequency analysis of deficit volume and duration is conducted based on partial duration series of drought events. According to extreme value theory, excesses over a certain limit are Generalized Pareto (GP) distributed. It was found that this model indeed performed better than or equally to other distribution models. In general, the GP-model could be used for streams of all regime types. However, for intermittent streams, zero-flow periods should be treated as censored data. For catchments with frost during the winter season, summer and winter droughts have to be analysed separately

Excellent diagnostic characteristics for ultrafast gene profiling of DEFA1-IL1B-LTF in detection of prosthetic joint infections

The timely and exact diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is crucial for surgical decision-making. Intraoperatively, delivery of the result within an hour is required. Alpha-defensin lateral immunoassay of joint fluid (JF) is precise for the intraoperative exclusion of PJI; however, for patients with a limited amount of JF and/or in cases where the JF is bloody, this test is unhelpful. Important information is hidden in periprosthetic tissues that may much better reflect the current status of implant pathology. We therefore investigated the utility of the gene expression patterns of 12 candidate genes (TLR1, -2, -4, -6, and 10, DEFA1, LTF, IL1B, BPI, CRP, IFNG, and DEFB4A) previously associated with infection for detection of PJI in periprosthetic tissues of patients with total joint arthroplasty (TJA) (n = 76) reoperated for PJI (n = 38) or aseptic failure (n = 38), using the ultrafast quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) Xxpress system (BJS Biotechnologies Ltd.). Advanced data-mining algorithms were applied for data analysis. For PJI, we detected elevated mRNA expression levels of DEFA1 (P < 0.0001), IL1B (P < 0.0001), LTF (P < 0.0001), TLR1 (P = 0.02), and BPI (P = 0.01) in comparison to those in tissues from aseptic cases. A feature selection algorithm revealed that the DEFA1-IL1B-LTF pattern was the most appropriate for detection/exclusion of PJI, achieving 94.5% sensitivity and 95.7% specificity, with likelihood ratios (LRs) for positive and negative results of 16.3 and 0.06, respectively. Taken together, the results show that DEFA1-IL1B-LTF gene expression detection by use of ultrafast qRT-PCR linked to an electronic calculator allows detection of patients with a high probability of PJI within 45 min after sampling. Further testing on a larger cohort of patients is needed.Web of Science5592697268

Tobacco use increases susceptibility to bacterial infection

Active smokers and those exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk of bacterial infection. Tobacco smoke exposure increases susceptibility to respiratory tract infections, including tuberculosis, pneumonia and Legionnaires disease; bacterial vaginosis and sexually transmitted diseases, such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea; Helicobacter pylori infection; periodontitis; meningitis; otitis media; and post-surgical and nosocomial infections. Tobacco smoke compromises the anti-bacterial function of leukocytes, including neutrophils, monocytes, T cells and B cells, providing a mechanistic explanation for increased infection risk. Further epidemiological, clinical and mechanistic research into this important area is warranted

Implementation of a process-based catchment model in a poorly gauged, highly glacierized Himalayan headwater

The paper presents a catchment modeling approach for remote glacierized Himalayan catchments. The distributed catchment model TAC^D, which is widely based on the HBV model, was further developed for the application in highly glacierized catchments on a daily timestep and applied to the Nepalese Himalayan headwater Langtang Khola (360 km²). Low laying reference stations are taken for temperature extrapolation applying a second order polynomial function. Probability based statistical methods enable bridging data gaps in daily precipitation time series and the redistribution of cumulated precipitation sums over the previous days. Snow and ice melt was calculated in a distributed way based on the temperature-index method employing calculated daily potential sunshine durations. Different melting conditions of snow and ice and melting of ice under debris layers were considered. The spatial delineation of hydrological response units was achieved by taking topographic and physiographic information from maps and satellite images into account, and enabled to incorporate process knowledge into the model. Simulation results demonstrated that the model is able to simulate daily discharge for a period of 10 years and point glacier mass balances observed in the research area with an adequate reliability. The simple but robust data pre-processing and modeling approach enables the determination of the components of the water balance of a remote, data scarce catchment with a minimum of input data

Singular Modes of the Electromagnetic Field

We show that the mode corresponding to the point of essential spectrum of the electromagnetic scattering operator is a vector-valued distribution representing the square root of the three-dimensional Dirac's delta function. An explicit expression for this singular mode in terms of the Weyl sequence is provided and analyzed. An essential resonance thus leads to a perfect localization (confinement) of the electromagnetic field, which in practice, however, may result in complete absorption.Comment: 14 pages, no figure

Ice Cores from the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, Canada: Their Significance for Climate, Atmospheric Composition and Volcanism in the North Pacific Region

A major achievement in research supported by the Kluane Lake Research Station was the recovery, in 2001 –02, of a suite of cores from the icefields of the central St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, by teams of researchers from Canada, the United States, and Japan. This project led to the development of parallel, long (103 – 104 year) ice-core records of climate and atmospheric change over an altitudinal range of more than 2 km, from the Eclipse Icefield (3017 m) to the ice-covered plateau of Mt. Logan (5340 m). These efforts built on earlier work recovering single ice cores in this region. Comparison of these records has allowed for variations in climate and atmospheric composition to be linked with changes in the vertical structure and dynamics of the North Pacific atmosphere, providing a unique perspective on these changes over the Holocene. Owing to their privileged location, cores from the St. Elias Icefields also contain a remarkably detailed record of aerosols from various sources around or across the North Pacific. In this paper we review major scientific findings from the study of St. Elias Mountain ice cores, focusing on five main themes: (1) The record of stable water isotopes (δ18O, δD), which has unique characteristics that differ from those of Greenland, other Arctic ice cores, and even among sites in the St. Elias; (2) the snow accumulation history; (3) the record of pollen, biomass burning aerosol, and desert dust deposition; (4) the record of long-range air pollutant deposition (sulphate and lead); and (5) the record of paleo-volcanism. Our discussion draws on studies published since 2000, but based on older ice cores from the St. Elias Mountains obtained in 1980 and 1996

Modeling Sprawling Locomotion of the Stem Amniote Orobates: An Examination of Hindlimb Muscle Strains and Validation Using Extant Caiman

The stem amnioteOrobates pabstihas been reconstructed to be capable of relatively erect, balanced, and mechanically power-saving terrestrial locomotion. This suggested that the evolution of such advanced locomotor capabilities preceded the origin of crown-group amniotes. We here further investigate plausible body postures and locomotion ofOrobatesby taking soft tissues into account. Freely available animation software BLENDERis used to first reconstruct the lines of action of hindlimb adductors and retractors forOrobatesand then estimate the muscle strain of these muscles. We experimentally varied different body heights in modeled hindlimb stride cycles ofOrobatesto find the posture that maximizes optimal strains over the course of a stride cycle. To validate our method, we usedCaiman crocodilus. We replicated the identical workflow used for the analysis ofOrobatesand compared the locomotor posture predicted forCaimanbased on muscle strain analysis with this species’ actual postural data known from a previously published X-ray motion analysis. Since this validation experiment demonstrated a close match between the modeled posture that maximizes optimal adductor and retractor muscle strain and thein vivoposture employed byCaiman, using the same method forOrobateswas justified. Generally, the use of muscle strain analysis for the reconstruction of posture in quadrupedal vertebrate fossils thus appears a promising approach. Nevertheless, results forOrobatesremained inconclusive as several postures resulted in similar muscle strains and none of the postures could be entirely excluded. These results are not in conflict with the previously inferred moderately erect locomotor posture ofOrobatesand suggest considerable variability of posture during locomotion.</jats:p

Passive Immunization against Pyroglutamate-3 Amyloid-β Reduces Plaque Burden in Alzheimer-Like Transgenic Mice: A Pilot Study

Background: N-terminally truncated and modified pyroglutamate-3 amyloid-β protein (pE3-Aβ) is present in most, if not all, cerebral plaque and vascular amyloid deposits in human Alzheimer's disease (AD). pE3-Aβ deposition is also found in AD-like transgenic (tg) mouse brain, albeit in lesser quantities than general Aβ. pE3-Aβ resists degradation, is neurotoxic, and may act as a seed for Aβ aggregation. Objective: We sought to determine if pE3-Aβ removal by passive immunization with a highly specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) impacts pathogenesis in a mouse model of Alzheimer's amyloidosis. Methods: APPswe/PS1ΔE9 tg mice were given weekly intraperitoneal injections of a new anti-pE3-Aβ mAb (mAb07/1) or PBS from 5.8 to 13.8 months of age (prevention) or from 23 to 24.7 months of age (therapeutic). Multiple forms of cerebral Aβ were quantified pathologically and biochemically. Gliosis and microhemorrhage were examined. Results: Chronic passive immunization with an anti-pE3-Aβ mAb significantly reduced total plaque deposition and appeared to lower gliosis in the hippocampus and cerebellum in both the prevention and therapeutic studies. Insoluble Aβ levels in hemibrain homogenates were not significantly different between immunized and control mice. Microhemorrhage was not observed with anti-pE3-Aβ immunotherapy. Conclusions: Selective removal of pE3-Aβ lowered general Aβ plaque deposition suggesting a pro-aggregation or seeding role for pE3-Aβ

Multilingual assessment of early child development: Analyses from repeated observations of children in Kenya.

In many low- and middle-income countries, young children learn a mother tongue or indigenous language at home before entering the formal education system where they will need to understand and speak a countrys official language(s). Thus, assessments of children before school age, conducted in a nations official language, may not fully reflect a childs development, underscoring the importance of test translation and adaptation. To examine differences in vocabulary development by language of assessment, we adapted and validated instruments to measure developmental outcomes, including expressive and receptive vocabulary. We assessed 505 2-to-6-year-old children in rural communities in Western Kenya with comparable vocabulary tests in three languages: Luo (the local language or mother tongue), Swahili, and English (official languages) at two time points, 5-6&nbsp;weeks apart, between September 2015 and October 2016. Younger children responded to the expressive vocabulary measure exclusively in Luo (44%-59% of 2-to-4-year-olds) much more frequently than did older children (20%-21% of 5-to-6-year-olds). Baseline receptive vocabulary scores in Luo (β&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.26, SE&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.05, p&nbsp;&lt;&nbsp;0.001) and Swahili (β&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.10, SE&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.05, p&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.032) were strongly associated with receptive vocabulary in English at follow-up, even after controlling for English vocabulary at baseline. Parental Luo literacy at baseline (β&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.11, SE&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.05, p&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.045) was associated with child English vocabulary at follow-up, while parental English literacy at baseline was not. Our findings suggest that multilingual testing is essential to understanding the developmental environment and cognitive growth of multilingual children