The Effects of Helicopter Parenting in Emerging Adulthood: An Investigation of the Roles of Involvement and Perceived Intrusiveness

The term “helicopter parent” describes parents who provide extensive support with high constraint to their children with a variety of possible negative outcomes (Comstock, 2019). The present study examined the effects of intensive (i.e., “helicopter”) parenting among emerging college-aged adults by comparing evaluative and descriptive measures of intensive parenting and examining their differential associations with college students’ achievement and well-being. There were three main hypotheses of the study. First, I predicted that perceptions of parental intrusiveness, captured by an evaluative measure, would be more strongly correlated with negative outcomes (e.g., poorer grades, greater depression etc.) than would the frequency and extent of parental involvement, evaluated by a descriptive measure. Additionally, when applying a “goodness-of-fit” framework, I predicted that the association between the frequency of parental involvement (descriptive measure) and negative outcomes for emerging adults would be stronger for students who demonstrated positive academic and psychological adjustment in high school (i.e., they will perceive high levels of involvement as intrusive). Finally, I expected that helicopter parenting would exhibit many of the characteristics associated with criteria from traditional parenting domains and should subsequently be defined similarly to these conventional categories of parenting (permissive, authoritarian, authoritative). Results concluded that higher evaluative measures of helicopter parenting were associated with lower self-efficacy and lower college GPAs than descriptive measures. While students demonstrating positive academic adjustment in high school did not exhibit expected negative outcomes due to helicopter parenting, those displaying lower academic achievement in high school were associated with higher college GPAs when higher levels of parental involvement were introduced. Results of the study also indicated that evaluative measures of helicopter parenting were associated with authoritarian parenting styles while descriptive measures were correlated with authoritative and permissive domains

Physical disruption of intervertebral disc promotes cell clustering and a degenerative phenotype

© 2019, The Author(s). To test the hypothesis that physical disruption of an intervertebral disc disturbs cell-matrix binding, leading to cell clustering and increased expression of matrix degrading enzymes that contribute towards degenerative disc cell phenotype. Lumbar disc tissue was removed at surgery from 21 patients with disc herniation, 11 with disc degeneration, and 8 with adolescent scoliosis. 5 μm sections were examined with histology, and 30-µm sections by confocal microscopy. Antibodies were used against integrin α5beta1, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) 1, MMP-3, caspase 3, and denatured collagen types I and II. Spatial associations were sought between cell clustering and various degenerative features. An additional, 11 non-herniated human discs were used to examine causality: half of each specimen was cultured in a manner that allowed free ‘unconstrained’ swelling (similar to a herniated disc in vivo), while the other half was cultured within a perspex ring that allowed ‘constrained’ swelling. Changes were monitored over 36 h using live-cell imaging. 1,9-Di-methyl methylene blue (DMMB) assay for glycosaminoglycan loss was carried out from tissue medium. Partially constrained specimens showed little swelling or cell movement in vitro. In contrast, unconstrained swelling significantly increased matrix distortion, glycosaminoglycan loss, exposure of integrin binding sites, expression of MMPs 1 and 3, and collagen denaturation. In the association studies, herniated disc specimens showed changes that resembled unconstrained swelling in vitro. In addition, they exhibited increased cell clustering, apoptosis, MMP expression, and collagen denaturation compared to ‘control’ discs. Results support our hypothesis. Further confirmation will require longitudinal animal experiments

The ORGAN Experiment: An axion haloscope above 15 GHz

We present first results and future plans for the Oscillating Resonant Group AxioN (ORGAN) experiment, a microwave cavity axion haloscope situated in Perth, Western Australia designed to probe for high mass axions motivated by several theoretical models. The first stage focuses around 26.6 GHz in order to directly test a claimed result, which suggests axions exist at the corresponding mass of $110~\mu$eV. Later stages will move to a wider scan range of 15-50 GHz ($60-210~\mu$eV). We present the results of the pathfinding run, which sets a limit on $g_{a\gamma\gamma}$ of $2.02\times 10^{-12}$eV$^{-1}$ at 26.531 GHz, or 110~$\mu$eV, in a span of 2.5 neV (shaped by the Lorentzian resonance) with $90 \%$ confidence. Furthermore, we outline the current design and future strategies to eventually attain the sensitivity to search for well known axion models over the wider mass range.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. V2: As published in Physics of Dark Univers

The costs of kleptoparasitism: a study of mixed-species seabird breeding colonies

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from OUP via the DOI in this record.Mixed-species assemblages are common in nature, providing mutual benefits to associating species including anti-predator advantages or resource facilitation. However, associating with other species may also impose costs through kleptoparasitism (food theft). Identification of these costs, and how they vary when different species breed alongside one another, is essential to understand the payoffs of mixed-species assemblages. We explore the costs of kleptoparasitism for greater crested terns Thalasseus bergii provisioning offspring at a single-species colony, where individuals suffer kleptoparasitism from conspecifics, and at a mixed colony where terns breed alongside Hartlaub’s gulls Chroicocephalus hartlaubii and are vulnerable to both intra and interspecific kleptoparasitism. Gull presence likely contributes to increases in both kleptoparasitic attacks and the proportion of prey lost or stolen during provisioning, relative to the single-species colony. Provisioning adults suffered additional energetic costs in response to gull kleptoparasitism, requiring more attempts to deliver prey, taking longer to do so, and swallowing more prey (to the detriment of their offspring). Gulls also appear to increase the duration of tern vulnerability to kleptoparasitism, because they continued to steal food from adults and chicks after precocial chicks left the nest, when intraspecific kleptoparasitism is negligible. Terns breeding in a mixed colony, therefore, suffer direct and indirect costs through decreased provisioning and increased provisioning effort, which may ultimately affect reproductive success, resulting in colony decline where kleptoparasitism is frequent. This study illustrates how forming a mixed-species seabird breeding assemblage has costs as well as benefits, potentially fluctuating between a parasitic and a mutualistic relationship.This work was supported by a Department of Science and TechnologyCentre of Excellence grant to the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology. R.B.S.  was supported by a fellowship from the Leiden Conservation Foundation. This research was approved by SANParks (CONM1182), the Department of Environmental Affairs (RES2013/24, RES2014/83, and RES2015/65) and the animal ethics committee of the University of Cape Town (2013/V3/TC)

Scrutinizing human MHC polymorphism:supertype analysis using Poisson-Boltzmann electrostatics and clustering

Peptide-binding MHC proteins are thought the most variable proteins across the human population; the extreme MHC polymorphism observed is functionally important and results from constrained divergent evolution. MHCs have vital functions in immunology and homeostasis: cell surface MHC class I molecules report cell status to CD8+ T cells, NKT cells and NK cells, thus playing key roles in pathogen defence, as well as mediating smell recognition, mate choice, Adverse Drug Reactions, and transplantation rejection. MHC peptide specificity falls into several supertypes exhibiting commonality of binding. It seems likely that other supertypes exist relevant to other functions. Since comprehensive experimental characterization is intractable, structure-based bioinformatics is the only viable solution. We modelled functional MHC proteins by homology and used calculated Poisson-Boltzmann electrostatics projected from the top surface of the MHC as multi-dimensional descriptors, analysing them using state-of-the-art dimensionality reduction techniques and clustering algorithms. We were able to recover the 3 MHC loci as separate clusters and identify clear sub-groups within them, vindicating unequivocally our choice of both data representation and clustering strategy. We expect this approach to make a profound contribution to the study of MHC polymorphism and its functional consequences, and, by extension, other burgeoning structural systems, such as GPCRs

Disentangling effective temperatures of individual eclipsing binary components by means of color-index constraining

Eclipsing binary stars are gratifying objects because of their unique geometrical properties upon which all important physical parameters such as masses, radii, temperatures, luminosities and distance may be obtained in absolute scale. This poses strict demand on the model to be free of systematic effects that would influence the results later used for calibrations, catalogs and evolution theory. We present an objective scheme of obtaining individual temperatures of both binary system components by means of color-index constraining, with the only requirement that the observational data-set is acquired in a standard photometric system. We show that for a modest case of two similar main-sequence components the erroneous approach of assuming the temperature of the primary star from the color index yields temperatures which are systematically wrong by ~100K.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; to appear in proceedings of the Close Binaries in the 21st Century conference in Syros, Greec

Definition of a Novel Pathway Centered on Lysophosphatidic Acid To Recruit Monocytes during the Resolution Phase of Tissue Inflammation.

Blood-derived monocytes remove apoptotic cells and terminate inflammation in settings as diverse as atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. They express high levels of the proresolving receptor ALX/FPR2, which is activated by the protein annexin A1 (ANXA1), found in high abundance in inflammatory exudates. Using primary human blood monocytes from healthy donors, we identified ANXA1 as a potent CD14+CD16- monocyte chemoattractant, acting via ALX/FPR2. Downstream signaling pathway analysis revealed the p38 MAPK-mediated activation of a calcium independent phospholipase A2 with resultant synthesis of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) driving chemotaxis through LPA receptor 2 and actin cytoskeletal mobilization. In vivo experiments confirmed ANXA1 as an independent phospholipase A2-dependent monocyte recruiter; congruently, monocyte recruitment was significantly impaired during ongoing zymosan-induced inflammation in AnxA1-/- or alx/fpr2/3-/- mice. Using a dorsal air-pouch model, passive transfer of apoptotic neutrophils between AnxA1-/- and wild-type mice identified effete neutrophils as the primary source of soluble ANXA1 in inflammatory resolution. Together, these data elucidate a novel proresolving network centered on ANXA1 and LPA generation and identify previously unappreciated determinants of ANXA1 and ALX/FPR2 signaling in monocytes

Water emission from the high-mass star-forming region IRAS 17233-3606. High water abundances at high velocities

We investigate the physical and chemical processes at work during the formation of a massive protostar based on the observation of water in an outflow from a very young object previously detected in H2 and SiO in the IRAS 17233-3606 region. We estimated the abundance of water to understand its chemistry, and to constrain the mass of the emitting outflow. We present new observations of shocked water obtained with the HIFI receiver onboard Herschel. We detected water at high velocities in a range similar to SiO. We self-consistently fitted these observations along with previous SiO data through a state-of-the-art, one-dimensional, stationary C-shock model. We found that a single model can explain the SiO and H2O emission in the red and blue wings of the spectra. Remarkably, one common area, similar to that found for H2 emission, fits both the SiO and H2O emission regions. This shock model subsequently allowed us to assess the shocked water column density, N(H2O)=1.2x10^{18} cm^{-2}, mass, M(H2O)=12.5 M_earth, and its maximum fractional abundance with respect to the total density, x(H2O)=1.4x10^{-4}. The corresponding water abundance in fractional column density units ranges between 2.5x10^{-5} and 1.2x10^{-5}, in agreement with recent results obtained in outflows from low- and high-mass young stellar objects.Comment: accepted for publication as a Letter in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Distribution of macroinvertebrate communities across surface and groundwater habitats in response to hydrological variability

Macroinvertebrate communities are strongly influenced by hydrological variability in surface waters. However, the response of these communities in corresponding groundwater-dependent habitats is not well understood. This study characterised the macroinvertebrate fauna and physicochemical characteristics of a chalk aquifer and its rivers in southern England. Over one year, samples were collected from five paired benthic-hyporheic sites located in perennial or temporary rivers, and a further seven phreatic sites in the surrounding aquifer. The study was preceded by a period of below average rainfall, providing an opportunity to assess the response of macro-invertebrate communities to unseasonal declines in river discharge and groundwater levels. Benthic, hyporheic and phreatic habitats each supported a distinct macroinvertebrate community, with the hyporheic habitat support- ing both epigean taxa and stygofauna. As discharge declined, the composition of these communities changed. In particular, the abundance of the epigean amphipod Gammarus pulex was higher in hyporheic than benthic habitats during periods of low river discharge, suggesting potential refuge-seeking behaviour. Similarly, fluctuations in the abundance and distribution of two stygofauna, Crangonyx subterraneus and Niphargus fontanus, coincided with marked changes in groundwater levels, suggesting that the contraction of available habitat and changes in connectivity also influenced the phreatic community. The variable distribution of macroinvertebrates between these habitats, especially in response to hydrological variability, suggests a dynamic connection between the river and its aquifer. This connection is an important consideration for the assessment and conservation management of both surface and groundwater communities and may help underpin integrated, catchment-based management, especially in river systems with temporary reaches