The relationship of psychosocial factors and academic success

Background: Predicting who will succeed in an academic and career setting is of critical importance during an era of high unemployment rates, spiraling cost in education, and a changing economy. Previous research related to students who succeed has focused primarily on academic cognitive factors. However, this study aims to illuminate the impact of psychosocial factors on predicting academic success. Methods: This project consisted of 595 college students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Each student was given a research packet to fill out that evaluated their work personality, academic engagement, and social support, specifically the effects of the constructs on academic outcomes. The study analyzed the variables in regards to their relationship, incremental effect, and moderation on academic success. Results: Key findings illustrated that: (1) all three of the operational definitions of academic success were all positively related to the study variables of work personality, engagement, and social support, (2) the study variables accounted for the strongest variance (19%) of the effort alone model, which, was the most variance accounted for in all three hierarchical regressions for the second research aim of the study, (3) in regards to gender, females scored higher on all three models of academic success compared to males, (4) in regards to race, whites scored higher on two of the models of academic success (i.e., grade point average alone and the composites score of effort & grade point average), compared to non-whites, although whites did not score higher than the non-whites on the self-reported effort model of academic success, and (5) gender had moderator effects for the subscales of the Revised Developmental Work Personality Scale, the Ultrecht Work Engagement Scale, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support for predicting academic success, (6) work personality and social support was more salient for females for predicting academic success, and (7) engagement was more relevant for males for predicting academic success. Conclusion: This dissertation illustrated that the psychosocial factors of work personality, academic engagement, and social support play a role in the academic outcomes of college students and could be used as the infrastructure for follow-up studies with different populations of college students. Through continuing research, it is hoped that the findings from this study will become useful for the vocational rehabilitation field and university administrators for designing academic and career transitional interventions

The ICAM-3/LFA-1 interaction is critical for epidermal Langerhans cell alloantigen presentation to CD4 + T cells

Intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-3 is a recently described member of the immunoglobulin superfamily and, as such, is closely related to ICAM-1 and ICAM-2. All three ICAMS are cognate for the counter-receptor lymphocyte function associated antigen-1 (LFA-L CD11a/CD18). Unlike ICAM-1 and ICAM-2. ICAM-3 is constitutively expressed at high levels on resting leucocytes. We investigated the expression and function of ICAM-3 in normal skin ( n = 5), as well as its expression in psoriasis ( n = 4). atopic eczema ( n = 4), allergic (rhus) contact dermatitis ( n =3). and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL. n =2). Five-micrometre cryostat sections of skin were stained using monoclonal antibodies to ICAM-3 and A well characterized immunoperoxidase technique. In normal skin. ICAM-3 was expressed by all cutaneous leucocytes hut most striking was the strong expression of ICAM-3 by Langerhans cells within both epidermis and dermis. This observation was confirmed by double-labelling with CD1a and negative staining with an IgG1 isotype control. In psoriasis, atopic eczema, allergic contact dermatitis, and CTCL. ICAM-3 was co-expressed on all CD1a + cells, although, in psoriasis, the intensity of ICAM-3 expression was reduced. Functional blocking experiments were performed to determine whether the observed ICAM-3 expression on Langerhans cells was functionally important in antigen presentation. CD4 + T cells were prepared from peripheral blood and 10 5 CD4 + T cells combined with 10 5 epidermal cells harvested from keratome biopsies of normal skin of an individual allogeneic to the T-cell donor. Addition of 50 Μg anti-ICAM-3 to the co-culture resulted in a consistent (50%) reduction in degree of alloantigen presentation by Langerhans cells to T cells. Inhibition was 77% of that produced by the addition of anti-LFA-1. These data indicate that ICAM-3 is constitutively expressed by Langerhans cells and is a major ligand for LFA-1 on CD4 + T cells during their response to Langerhans cells. Because fresh Langerhans ceils constitutively express little ICAM-1. whereas ICAM-3 is constitutively expressed at high levels, it would appear that 1CAM-3 is the dominant functional ICAM on in situ Langerhans cells in the normal epidermis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73969/1/j.1365-2133.1995.tb06911.x.pd

Sleep and immune function

Sleep and the circadian system exert a strong regulatory influence on immune functions. Investigations of the normal sleep–wake cycle showed that immune parameters like numbers of undifferentiated naïve T cells and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines exhibit peaks during early nocturnal sleep whereas circulating numbers of immune cells with immediate effector functions, like cytotoxic natural killer cells, as well as anti-inflammatory cytokine activity peak during daytime wakefulness. Although it is difficult to entirely dissect the influence of sleep from that of the circadian rhythm, comparisons of the effects of nocturnal sleep with those of 24-h periods of wakefulness suggest that sleep facilitates the extravasation of T cells and their possible redistribution to lymph nodes. Moreover, such studies revealed a selectively enhancing influence of sleep on cytokines promoting the interaction between antigen presenting cells and T helper cells, like interleukin-12. Sleep on the night after experimental vaccinations against hepatitis A produced a strong and persistent increase in the number of antigen-specific Th cells and antibody titres. Together these findings indicate a specific role of sleep in the formation of immunological memory. This role appears to be associated in particular with the stage of slow wave sleep and the accompanying pro-inflammatory endocrine milieu that is hallmarked by high growth hormone and prolactin levels and low cortisol and catecholamine concentrations

Pathogenic mechanisms and clinical implications of congenital neutropenia syndromes

Purpose of reviewThe purpose of this review is to summarize pathogenic mechanisms and clinical implications of the most illustrative genetic entities of congenital neutropenia syndromes.Recent findingsCongenital neutropenia comprise monogenetic entities with or without additional immunologic and extrahaematopoietic syndromatic features. Continuous careful explorations of known entities such as ELANE, GFI1, HAX1, G6PC3 deficiency and XLN help to define principles controlling differentiation and function of neutrophil granulocytes. Furthermore, the identification of novel genetic defects associated with congenital neutropenia, such as VPS45 deficiency, broadens our understanding of neutrophil biology. Pathogenic mechanisms imply protein and vesicle mistrafficking, endoplasmic reticulum stress, the unfolded protein response, destabilization of the mitochondrial membrane potential, disturbed energy metabolism, dysglycosylation and deregulated actin polymerization.SummaryAdvanced genetic and biochemical techniques have helped to expand our knowledge of congenital neutropenia syndromes. Known and novel genetic entities shed light on fundamental biological processes important for the homeostatis and functioning not only of the neutrophil granulocyte but as well of the entire haematopoietic system. Furthermore, treatment decisions become more tailored and might pave the road towards personalized molecular medicine

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio