987 research outputs found
Motivational and control mechanisms underlying adolescent versus adult alcohol use
Increased motivation towards alcohol use and suboptimal behavioral control are suggested
to predispose adolescents to alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Paradoxically however, most adolescent
AUDs resolve over time without any formal intervention, suggesting adolescent resilience to AUDs.
Importantly, studies directly comparing adolescent and adult alcohol use are largely missing.
We therefore aimed to unravel the moderating role of age in the relation between alcohol use and
motivational and control-related cognitive processes in 45 adolescent drinkers compared to 45 adults.
We found that enhancement drinking motives and impulsivity related positively to alcohol use.
Although enhancement drinking motives and impulsivity were higher in adolescents, the strength of
the relation between these measures and alcohol use did not differ between age groups. None of
the alcohol use-related motivational measures (i.e., craving, attentional bias, and approach bias) and
behavioral control measures (i.e., interference control, risky decision making, and working-memory)
were associated with alcohol use or differed between age groups. These findings support the role of
impulsivity and affective sensitivity in adolescent drinking but question the moderating role of age
therein. The current study contributes towards understanding the role of age in the relation between
alcohol use and cognition
DDF and Pohlmeyer invariants of (super)string
We show how the Pohlmeyer invariants of the bosonic string are expressible in
terms of DDF invariants. Quantization of the DDF observables in the usual way
yields a consistent quantization of the algebra of Pohlmeyer invariants.
Furthermore it becomes straightforward to generalize the Pohlmeyer invariants
to the superstring as well as to all backgrounds which allow a free field
realization of the worldsheet theory.Comment: 17 pp, minor typos corrected, references to papers by Isaev and
Borodulin added, which contain essentially the same results as reported her
Effects of a Water Aerobics Program on the Blood Pressure, Percentage of Body Fat, Weight, and Resting Pulse Rate of Senior Citizens
Ten men and 18 women aged 57 to 76 participated in a 16-week water exercise class at Rose State College, Oklahoma City. The class met for one hour twice a week for the 16 weeks and was composed of flexibility exercises, aerobic exercises, and cool-down exercises. Pre- and postclass measurements were taken for blood pressure, weight, percentage of body fat, and resting pulse rate and were compared using a paired t-test. Reductions significant at the .05 level were recorded for diastolic blood pressure, weight, and percentage of body fat. There were no significant reductions in systolic blood pressure and resting pulse rate. I concluded that water aerobics is an ideal modality for senior citizens'aerobic exercise because of the favorable changes it produces in the health parameters investigated and because it places little stress on the weight-bearing joints during exercise.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
A daily diary study on adolescents’ mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pande
Adolescence is a formative phase for social development. The COVID-19 pandemic and
associated regulations have led to many changes in adolescents’ lives, including limited
opportunities for social interactions. The current exploratory study investigated the effect of
the first weeks of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on Dutch adolescents’ (N = 53 with attrition, N = 36 without attrition) mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior. Longitudinal analyses
comparing pre-pandemic measures to a three-week peri-pandemic daily diary study showed
(i) decreases in empathic concern, opportunities for prosocial actions, and tension, (ii) stable
levels of social value orientation, altruism, and dire prosociality, and (iii) increased levels of
perspective-taking and vigor during the first weeks of lockdown. Second, this study investigated peri-pandemic effects of familiarity, need, and deservedness on giving behavior. To
this end, we utilized novel hypothetical Dictator Games with ecologically valid targets associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents showed higher levels of giving to a friend
(a familiar other, about 51% of the total share), a doctor in a hospital (deserving target,
78%), and individuals with COVID-19 or a poor immune system (targets in need, 69 and
63%, respectively) compared to an unfamiliar peer (39%) This suggests that during the pandemic need and deservedness had a greater influence on adolescent giving than familiarity.
Overall, this study demonstrates detrimental effects of the first weeks of lockdown on adolescents’ empathic concern and opportunities for prosocial actions, which are important predictors of healthy socio-emotional development. However, adolescents also showed
marked resilience and a willingness to benefit others as a result of the lockdown, as evidenced by improved perspective-taking and mood, and high sensitivity to need and
deservedness in giving to others
The torsion cosmology in Kaluza-Klein theory
We have studied the torsion cosmology model in Kaluza-Klein theory. We
considered two simple models in which the torsion vectors are
and ,
respectively. For the first model, the accelerating expansion of the Universe
can be not explained without dark energy which is similar to that in the
standard cosmology. But for the second model, we find that without dark energy
the effect of torsion can give rise to the accelerating expansion of the
universe and the alleviation of the well-known age problem of the three old
objects for appropriated value of the model parameter . These
outstanding features of the second torsion cosmology model have been supported
by the Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) data.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in JCA
Genetic and phenotypic characterization of indolent T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders of the gastrointestinal tract.
Indolent T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders of the gastrointestinal tract are rare clonal T-cell diseases that more commonly occur in the intestines and have a protracted clinical course. Different immunophenotypic subsets have been described, but the molecular pathogenesis and cell of origin of these lymphocytic proliferations is poorly understood. Hence, we performed targeted next-generation sequencing and comprehensive immunophenotypic analysis of ten indolent T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, which comprised CD4 <sup>+</sup> (n=4), CD8 <sup>+</sup> (n=4), CD4 <sup>+</sup> /CD8 <sup>+</sup> (n=1) and CD4 <sup>-</sup> /CD8 <sup>-</sup> (n=1) cases. Genetic alterations, including recurrent mutations and novel rearrangements, were identified in 8/10 (80%) of these lymphoproliferative disorders. The CD4 <sup>+</sup> , CD4 <sup>+</sup> /CD8 <sup>+</sup> , and CD4 <sup>-</sup> /CD8 <sup>-</sup> cases harbored frequent alterations of JAK-STAT pathway genes (5/6, 82%); STAT3 mutations (n=3), SOCS1 deletion (n=1) and STAT3-JAK2 rearrangement (n=1), and 4/6 (67%) had concomitant mutations in epigenetic modifier genes (TET2, DNMT3A, KMT2D). Conversely, 2/4 (50%) of the CD8 <sup>+</sup> cases exhibited structural alterations involving the 3' untranslated region of the IL2 gene. Longitudinal genetic analysis revealed stable mutational profiles in 4/5 (80%) cases and acquisition of mutations in one case was a harbinger of disease transformation. The CD4 <sup>+</sup> and CD4 <sup>+</sup> /CD8 <sup>+</sup> lymphoproliferative disorders displayed heterogeneous Th1 (T-bet <sup>+</sup> ), Th2 (GATA3 <sup>+</sup> ) or hybrid Th1/Th2 (T-bet <sup>+</sup> /GATA3 <sup>+</sup> ) profiles, while the majority of CD8 <sup>+</sup> disorders and the CD4 <sup>-</sup> /CD8 <sup>-</sup> disease showed a type-2 polarized (GATA3 <sup>+</sup> ) effector T-cell (Tc2) phenotype. Additionally, CD103 expression was noted in 2/4 CD8 <sup>+</sup> cases. Our findings provide insights into the pathogenetic bases of indolent T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and confirm the heterogeneous nature of these diseases. Detection of shared and distinct genetic alterations of the JAK-STAT pathway in certain immunophenotypic subsets warrants further mechanistic studies to determine whether therapeutic targeting of this signaling cascade is efficacious for a proportion of patients with these recalcitrant diseases
Thermal history of the string universe
Thermal history of the string universe based on the Brandenberger and Vafa's
scenario is examined. The analysis thereby provides a theoretical foundation of
the string universe scenario. Especially the picture of the initial oscillating
phase is shown to be natural from the thermodynamical point of view. A new tool
is employed to evaluate the multi state density of the string gas. This
analysis points out that the well-known functional form of the multi state
density is not applicable for the important region , and derives a
correct form of it.Comment: 39 pages, no figures, use revtex.sty, aps.sty, aps10.sty &
preprint.st
A probabilistic model for gene content evolution with duplication, loss, and horizontal transfer
We introduce a Markov model for the evolution of a gene family along a
phylogeny. The model includes parameters for the rates of horizontal gene
transfer, gene duplication, and gene loss, in addition to branch lengths in the
phylogeny. The likelihood for the changes in the size of a gene family across
different organisms can be calculated in O(N+hM^2) time and O(N+M^2) space,
where N is the number of organisms, is the height of the phylogeny, and M
is the sum of family sizes. We apply the model to the evolution of gene content
in Preoteobacteria using the gene families in the COG (Clusters of Orthologous
Groups) database
Characterization of a Legionella pneumophila gene encoding a lipoprotein antigen
A prominent 19kDa surface antigen of Legionella pneumophila , cloned in Escherichia coli , was found to be intimately associated with peptidoglycan. The DNA region encoding this antigen was mapped on an 11.9kb plasmid by means of deletion analysis and transposon mutagenesis. PhoA + gene fusions, generated by Tn phoA insertions into this region, confirmed the presence of a gene encoding a secreted protein. PhoA + transposon insertions were also associated with loss of the 19 kDa antigen in immunoassay s using a monoclonal antibody (mAb1E9) and the replacement of the 19kDa antigen with larger fusion proteins in immunoblots using Legionella immune serum. A 1540bp PstI fragment carrying the gene was sequenced, and the open reading frame encoding the antigen was identified. The gene encodes a polypeptide 176 amino acid residues long and 18913Da in size. The presence of a signal sequence of 22 amino acids with a consensus sequence for cleavage by signal peptidase II indicates that the antigen is a lipoprotein, and striking similarity with peptidoglycan-associated lipoproteins (PALs) from E. coli (51% amino acid homology) and Haemophilus influenzae (55% homology) is noted. We conclude that the 19kDa antigen of L. pneumophila is the structural equivalent of the PAL found in other Gram-negative species and suggest that its post-translational acylation may explain its potency as an immunogen.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75712/1/j.1365-2958.1991.tb00824.x.pd
Understanding sport clubs as sport policy implementers
The original publication is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17430430802196553This article aims at developing a theoretical framework for analysing the implementation of sport policy, as it is conducted by voluntary sport clubs at grass root level. First, three options are presented and discussed: (i) a classical top-down implementation model, (ii) the governance theory of policy tools, and (iii) the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Second, the theoretical perspectives are discussed, and criticized for failing to take sufficiently into account the implementing body of sport policy, namely the voluntary sport clubs. In that respect, an alternative theoretical framework is suggested as a possible solution for analysing the implementation of sport policy; which is the translation perspective of neo-institutionalism. It stresses that, if elements of central policy influence the implementation process at the local level, it does so by the active import, interpretation and implementation of it in the local context. The autonomy of the local sport club in relation to central policy is reinforced by the fact that the activity in sport clubs is mainly done on a voluntary basi
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