Attitudes toward “Non-Traditional” Mothers: Examining the Antecedents of Mothers’ Competence Perceptions

Mothers are the protagonists in a widespread narrative that emphasizes motherhood as prolonged and exclusive attention to children, accompanied by references to natural competence in child-rearing skills. The present research aimed to investigate the linking mechanisms and conditional processes underlying the perception of mothers’ competence. Cisgender heterosexual Italian participants (N = 230) read one of four vignettes describing a situation in which a mother (i.e., heterosexual biological mother, heterosexual stepmothers, lesbian stepmother, and lesbian biological mother) interacts with her two children who had misbehaved. After reading the vignette, the participants rated the depicted mother’s competence and to what extent the children’s misbehaviour was attributable to the mother. Moderated-mediation analyses indicated that all the non-traditional mothers were perceived as being less competent compared to the heterosexual biological mother, by giving them greater responsibility for their children’s misbehaviour, among participants with medium–high levels of traditional gender-role beliefs. Sexual orientation and biology relatedness were not cumulative variables, but intersecting categories creating a unique way to perceive mothers. As the number of non-traditional families grows, negative societal attitudes toward non-traditional parents and their children should be increasingly considered

Real time noise-cancellation using ICA, PSO and PE [BBA, PSO ve SPÖ kullanilarak gerçek zamanli gürültügi̇deri̇mi̇]

In order to provide noiseless transmission of speech in wireless communication systems a real-time implementable noise cancellation algorithm is developed. Speech and noise sources are not known but only their mixtures are observed. That system is modeled with instantaneous mixture model. Combination of independent component analysis (ICA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms is used to separate speech and noise. However, ICA has an ambiguity such that it is not possible to know which one of the separated signals is speech or noise. As a result, the transmitted signal can be noise, instead of speech. To overcome this ambiguity problem, a pitch extraction (PE) algorithm is developed and combined with ICA-PSO. ICAPSO-PE algorithm is implemented in MATLAB. Contributions of this work are modifying objective functions of ICA algorithm to make them more robust, combining ICA with PSO to make it work fast and robust, and overcoming the ambiguity problem using PE algorithm. © 2012 IEEE

GC and VDR SNPs and Vitamin D Levels in Parkinson's Disease: The Relevance to Clinical Features

Vitamin D deficiency is suggested to be associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). Our aim was to investigate the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D-3 (25OHD) levels of PD patients in Turkish cohort, to investigate any association of vitamin D binding protein (GC) genotypes with PD due to the significant role of GC in vitamin D transport, to determine whether vitamin D receptor (VDR) haplotype that we previously demonstrated to be a risk haplotype for AD is also a common haplotype for PD and to investigate any relevant consequence of serum 25OHD levels, GC or VDR genotypes on clinical features of PD. Three hundred eighty-two PD patients and 242 healthy subjects were included in this study. The serum 25OHD levels were investigated by CLIA, and GC and VDR SNPs were evaluated with LightSnip. Our results indicated a strong relationship between low serum 25OHD levels and PD (p < 0.001). rs7041 of GC and ApaI of VDR were associated with the PD risk (p < 0.05). Minor allele carriers for BsmI of VDR gene in both PD patients and healthy subjects had significantly higher levels of serum 25OHD (p < 0.05). The homozygous major allele carriers for rs2282679, rs3755967 and rs2298850 of GC gene in PD patients with slower progression had significantly higher levels of serum 25OHD (p < 0.05). Minor allele carriers for FokI of VDR gene were more frequent in patients with advanced-stage PD (p < 0.05). Consequently, this is the first study demonstrating GC gene as a risk factor for PD. The relationship between PD's clinical features and low 25OHD or risk genotypes might have effects on PD independently

Kardiyovasküler İşlemlerde Görüntüleme

Doğum sırasındaki fizyolojik değişimlerle kapanması öngörülen foramen ovale erişkin populasyonun yaklaşık %75’inde tamamen kapanmış olarak izlenirken, %25’inde ise kapanmaz ve patent foramen ovale (PFO) olarak varlığını sürdürür.1 PFO, serebrovasküler olay dahil birçok patoloji (auralı migren, dalgıçlarda dekompresyon hastalığı vs.) ile ilişkilendirilmiştir. İskemik inmelerin %25’inde standart tanısal değerlendirmeye rağmen bir neden bulunamaz ve bu grup kriptojenik inme olarak adlandırılır. PFO ve kriptojenik inme arasındaki patofizyolojik ilişki paradoksal embolizm, PFO içerisinde meydana gelen trombüs, sol atriyal disfonksiyon ve atriyal aritmiler gibi nedenlere bağlı olabilir. Epidemiyolik veriler ve klinik gözlemsel çalışmalar, PFO kapatılmasıyla inme rekürrenslerinin azaldığını gösteren randomize kontrollü çalışmalar tarafından kuvvetle desteklenmektedir.2 PFO’nun tanısında ve perkütan tedavisinde çoklu görüntüleme yöntemleri önem arz etmektedir

The interleukin 1 alpha, interleukin 1 beta, interleukin 6 and alpha-2-macroglobulin serum levels in patients with early or late onset Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment or Parkinson's disease

© 2015 Elsevier B.V.Alzheimer's disease (EOAD, LOAD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy controls were included to determine the serum interleukin-1s (IL-1α, IL-1β), IL-6 and alpha-2-macroglobulin (α2M) levels using ELISA.IL-6 might be a significant contributor to the inflammatory response in LOAD. The MCI data indicate that IL-1s, α2M and BDNF are somehow related, and this relationship might allow MCI patients to be more similar to the healthy controls.A correlation analysis of multiple biomarkers in different neurodegenerative disorders might be more useful than determining the levels of a single cytokine in a single disorder