Political consensus: Ability of government students to make political decions [sic]

The purpose of this study is to examine the ability of students in an Introduction to American Government class to make decisions and participate in politics. Throughout simulations designed to emulate Congress, students create legislation, attempt to gain support for it, and pass new laws dealing with four separate topics during the semester; my focus is, specifically, on the issue of prayer in public schools. Often, it seemed that students were conforming to the beliefs of the friends they had made in the class instead of supporting and promoting their own beliefs. While dissent was encouraged and some students were being persuaded by their classmates, some appeared to be completely abandoning their opinions so that they would not stand out from the group. By the end of the semester, students were changing their opinions more in the simulations than at the beginning and more readily admitting that it was for reasons other than legitimate persuasion

Rethinking retirement

Four of the seven chapters in this volume are based on papers originally presented at the 6th Annual John K. Friesen Lecture Series in Gerontology held at Simon Fraser University April 3-4, 1995. The impetus for the symposium and the volume was provided by the profound changes that are taking place in Canada and throughout the developed world in the way retirement is being conceptualized, timed, and reflected in corporate and public policy.\u27 A systematic examination of these changes seemed warranted.TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. Introduction. 2. Population Aging: A Contested Terrain of Social Policy/ Ellen M. Gee; 3. Rethinking Retirement: Issues for the Twenty-First Century / Victor W. Marshall; 4. The Older Worker in Canadian Society: Is There a Future? / Victor W Marshall; 5. Security for Social Security - Raise the Age of Entitlement? / Robert L. Brown; 6. Work, Retirement and Women in Later Life / Susan A. McDaniel; 7. Women\u27s Retirement: Shifting Ground / Lynne MacFadgen and Lillian Zimmerman

Ideological (Mis)Perception: Views of the Ideology of Candidates for Office

Americans know very little about politics, but are somehow still making political decisions. This paper seeks to determine some of the criteria used to make those decisions. First, through the theory of motivated reasoning, it examines the beliefs that citizens hold about the ideology of candidates for office and finds that these beliefs are mostly correct, but often biased. Then, by examining the policy preferences of candidates for office and survey respondents as well as non-policy related beliefs about candidates, this paper finds that these personality traits, as well as policy preferences, are useful in understanding the perceptions voters have of candidate ideology. Whereas ideology ratings should be determined strictly by policy preferences because ideology is a question of policy, perceived ideology is explained by both policy and personality. This finding leads to a conclusion that the judgments made by voters about candidates are, at least to some degree, based on things unrelated to the actual ideology of candidates.Master of Art

Revealing genes associated with vitellogenesis in the liver of the zebrafish (Danio rerio) by transcriptome profiling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In oviparous vertebrates, including fish, vitellogenesis consists of highly regulated pathways involving 17β-estradiol (E2). Previous studies focused on a relatively small number of hepatic expressed genes during vitellogenesis. This study aims to identify hepatic genes involved in vitellogenesis and regulated by E2, by using zebrafish microarray gene expression profiling, and to provide information on functional distinctive genes expressed in the liver of a vitellogenic female, using zebrafish as a model fish.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Genes associated with vitellogenesis were revealed by the following paired t-tests (SAM) comparisons: a) two-month old vitellogenic (Vit2) females were compared with non-vitellogenic (NV) females, showing 825 differentially expressed transcripts during early stages of vitellogenesis, b) four-month old vitellogenic (Vit4) females were compared with NV females, showing 1,046 differentially expressed transcripts during vitellogenesis and c) E2-treated males were compared with control males, showing 1,828 differentially expressed transcripts regulated by E2. A Venn diagram revealed 822 common transcripts in the three groups, indicating that these transcripts were involved in vitellogenesis and putatively regulated by E2. In addition, 431 transcripts were differentially expressed in Vit2 and Vit4 females but not in E2-treated males, indicating that they were putatively not up-regulated by E2. Correspondence analysis showed high similarity in expression profiles of Vit2 with Vit4 and of NV females with control males. The E2-treated males differed from the other groups. The repertoire of genes putatively regulated by E2 in vitellogenic females included genes associated with protein synthesis and reproduction. Genes associated with the immune system processes and biological adhesion, were among the genes that were putatively not regulated by E2. E2-treated males expressed a large array of transcripts that were not associated with vitellogenesis.</p> <p>The study revealed several genes that were not reported before as being regulated by E2. Also, the hepatic expression of several genes was reported here for the first time.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Gene expression profiling of liver samples revealed 1,046 differentially expressed transcripts during vitellogenesis of which at least ~64% were regulated by E2. The results raise the question on the regulation pattern and temporal pleiotropic expression of hepatic genes in vitellogenic females.</p

miR-17/20 sensitization of breast cancer cells to chemotherapy-induced apoptosis requires Akt1.

The serine threonine kinase Akt1 has been implicated in the control of cellular metabolism, survival and growth. Herein, disruption of the ubiquitously expressed member of the Akt family of genes, Akt1, in the mouse, demonstrates a requirement for Akt1 in miRNA-mediated cellular apoptosis. The miR-17/20 cluster is known to inhibit breast cancer cellular proliferation through G1/S cell cycle arrest via binding to the cyclin D1 3\u27UTR. Here we show that miR-17/20 overexpression sensitizes cells to apoptosis induced by either Doxorubicin or UV irradiation in MCF-7 cells via Akt1. miR-17/20 mediates apoptosis via increased p53 expression which promotes Akt degradation. Akt1-/- mammary epithelial cells which express Akt2 and Akt3 demonstrated increased apoptosis to DNA damaging agents. Akt1 deficiency abolished the miR-17/20-mediated apoptosis. These results demonstrated a novel pathway through which miR17/20 regulate p53 and Akt controlling breast cancer cell apoptosis

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Fact book on aging in British Columbia, [1st Edition]

Table of Contents Page 1. Size of the Elderly Population 1 1.1 Past Trends and Future Growth 1 1.2 Population Aging Within the Older Population Itself 3 1.3 Median Age of the Population 5 2. Sex Ratios 7 3. Mortality 9 3.1 Trends in Life Expectancy 9 3.2 Mortality Rates 13 3.3 Causes of Death 15 4. Marital Status 17 5. Geographic Distribution and Mobility 20 5.1 The Older Population of B.C. in Relation to Other Provinces 20 5.2 Rural-Urban Distribution 22 5.3 Geographic Distribution Within British Columbia 24 5.3.1 Geographic Distribution Within the Greater Vancouver 26 Regional District 5.3.2 Geographic Distribution Within the Capital Regional 28 District 5.4 Mobility 30 5.4.1 Total Population and Population Aged 65+ 31 5.4.2 Distance Moved 32 5.4.3 Net Internal Migration 35 6.. Ethnic Composition 37 6.1 Predominant Groups 37 6.2 Proportion of Ethnic Origin Groups Aged 65+ 39 6.3 Original Peoples 41 7. Living Arrangements 42 7.1 Persons by Type 42 7.2 Private Households - Present and Future 44 8. Housing 47 8.1 Home Ownership 47 8.2 Preferred Structural Type 4.9 8.3 Condition of Dwelling 52 8.4 Housing Costs 54 9. Education 56 9.1 Education Attainment 56 10. Labour Force 59 10.1 Labour Force Participation Trneds 59 10.2 Occupations 61 10.3 Full and Part-time Employment 63 11. Income 65 11.1 Income of Individuals 65 11.2 Income of Families and Non-family Persons in Private 67 Households 12. Health Care Utilization 69 12.1 Hospitalization 69 12.2 Continuing Care 74 12.3 Physician Services 77 Appendice

Using structured observations to evaluate the effects of a personalized music intervention on agitated behaviors and mood in nursing home residents with dementia: Results from an embedded, pragmatic randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research was to determine if a personalized music intervention reduced the frequency of agitated behaviors as measured by structured observations of nursing home (NH) residents with dementia. DESIGN: The design was a parallel, cluster-randomized, controlled trial. SETTING: The setting was 54 NH (27 intervention, 27 control) from four geographically-diverse, multifacility NH corporations. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were 976 NH residents (483 intervention, 493 control) with Alzheimer\u27s disease or related dementias (66% with moderate to severe symptoms); average age 80.3 years (SD: 12.3) and 25.1% were Black. INTERVENTION: The intervention was individuals’ preferred music delivered via a personalized music device. MEASUREMENT: The measurement tool was the Agitated Behavior Mapping Instrument, which captures the frequency of 13 agitated behaviors and five mood states during 3-minute observations. RESULTS: The results show that no verbally agitated behaviors were reported in a higher proportion of observations among residents in NHs randomized to receive the intervention compared to similar residents in NHs randomized to usual care (marginal interaction effect (MIE): 0.061, 95% CI: 0.028–0.061). Residents in NHs randomized to receive the intervention were also more likely to be observed experiencing pleasure compared to residents in usual care NHs (MIE: 0.038; 95% CI: 0.008–0.073)). There was no significant effect of the intervention on physically agitated behaviors, anger, fear, alertness, or sadness. CONCLUSIONS: The conclusions are that personalized music may be effective at reducing verbally-agitated behaviors. Using structured observations to measure behaviors may avoid biases of staff-reported measures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved