Risk and injury portrayal in boys' and girls' favourite television programmes

Objectives: To analyse the injury-related content of children’s television programmes preferred by boys and by girls, and to determine whether there are more televised models of unsafe behaviour in programmes preferred by boys. Methods: Parents of 4–11-year-old children identified their children’s favourite television programmes. Content analysis of 120 episodes of children’s favourite programmes was used to quantify safe and risky behaviours, actual injuries and potential injuries. The gender of the characters portraying the behaviours was also analysed. Results: More risky behaviour was portrayed in the boys’ favourite programmes (mean per episode =6.40) than in the girls’ favourite programmes (mean=2.57). There were almost twice as many potential injuries (n=310) as actual injuries (n=157). Potential injuries were portrayed more often by male characters (mean=1.92) than female characters (mean=0.98), mostly in the boys’ favourite programmes. Actual injuries occurred more often to male characters (mean=1.04) than to female characters (mean=0.27) overall. Conclusions: Television programmes preferred by this sample of boys portrayed male role models engaging in risky behaviours and injuries more often than the programmes preferred by the sample of girls

Experimental determination of pressure drop and flow characteristics of dilute gas-solid suspensions

Loading ratio, glass particle size, and air Reynolds number effects on pressure drop and flow characteristics of air-solid suspension in turbulent pipe flo

Identification of a New Family of Enzymes with Potential \u3cem\u3eO\u3c/em\u3e-acetylpeptidoglycan esterase activity in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

Background: The metabolism of the rigid bacterial cell wall heteropolymer peptidoglycan is a dynamic process requiring continuous biosynthesis and maintenance involving the coordination of both lytic and synthetic enzymes. The O-acetylation of peptidoglycan has been proposed to provide one level of control on these activities as this modification inhibits the action of the major endogenous lytic enzymes, the lytic transglycosylases. The O-acetylation of peptidoglycan also inhibits the activity of the lysozymes which serve as the first line of defense of host cells against the invasion of bacterial pathogens. Despite this central importance, there is a dearth of information regarding peptidoglycan O-acetylation and nothing has previously been reported on its de-acetylation. Results: Homology searches of the genome databases have permitted this first report on the identification of a potential family of O-Acetylpeptidoglycan esterases (Ape). These proteins encoded in the genomes of a variety of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including a number of important human pathogens such as species of Neisseria, Helicobacter, Campylobacter, and Bacillus anthracis, have been organized into three families based on amino acid sequence similarities with family 1 being further divided into three sub-families. The genes encoding these proteins are shown to be clustered with Peptidoglycan O-acetyltransferases (Pat) and in some cases, together with other genes involved in cell wall metabolism. Representative bacteria that encode the Ape proteins were experimentally shown to produce O-acetylated peptidoglycan. Conclusion: The hypothetical proteins encoded by the pat and ape genes have been organized into families based on sequence similarities. The Pat proteins have sequence similarity to Pseudomonas aeruginosa AlgI, an integral membrane protein known to participate in the O-acetylation of the exopolysaccaride, alginate. As none of the bacteria that harbor the pat genes produce alginate, we propose that the Pat proteins serve to O-acetylate peptidoglycan which is known to be a maturation event occurring in the periplasm. The Ape sequences have amino acid sequence similarity to the CAZy CE 3 carbohydrate esterases, a family previously known to be composed of only O-acetylxylan esterases. They are predicted to contain the α/β hydrolase fold associated with the GDSL and TesA hydrolases and they possess the signature motifs associated with the catalytic residues of the CE3 esterases. Specific signature sequence motifs were identified for the Ape proteins which led to their organization into distinct families. We propose that by expressing both Pat and Ape enzymes, bacteria would be able to obtain a high level of localized control over the degradation of peptidoglycan through the attachment and removal of O-linked acetate. This would facilitate the efficient insertion of pores and flagella, localize spore formation, and control the level of general peptidoglycan turnover

The effects of peer influence on adolescent pedestrian road-crossing decisions

Objective: Adolescence is a high-risk period for pedestrian injury. It is also a time of heightened susceptibility to peer influence. The aim of this research was to examine the effects of peer influence on the pedestrian road-crossing decisions of adolescents. Methods: Using 10 videos of road-crossing sites, 80 16- to 18-year-olds were asked to make pedestrian road-crossing decisions. Participants were assigned to one of 4 experimental conditions: negative peer (influencing unsafe decisions), positive peer (influencing cautious decisions), silent peer (who observed but did not comment), and no peer (the participant completed the task alone). Peers from the adolescent’s own friendship group were recruited to influence either an unsafe or a cautious decision. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between peer conditions. Participants least often identified safe road-crossing sites when accompanied by a negative peer and more frequently identified dangerous road-crossing sites when accompanied by a positive peer. Both cautious and unsafe comments from a peer influenced adolescent pedestrians’ decisions. Conclusions: These findings showed that road-crossing decisions of adolescents were influenced by both unsafe and cautious comments from their peers. The discussion highlighted the role that peers can play in both increasing and reducing adolescent risk-taking

Mechanisms of Porphyrinoid and Carotenoid Spectral Tuning Revealed with Quantum Chemistry

Continued advances in a myriad of biomedical and technological fields require the rational design of molecules or supramolecular architectures with specific photophysical properties. Central to this endeavor is a mechanistic understanding of optical property modulation as a function of molecular structure, conformation, and environment. Natural pigments and protein-pigment complexes constitute a ‘solutions manual’ to challenges in electronic (optical) engineering that has been refined over a few billion years of evolution, and from which design principles can be deduced. In this thesis, unique mechanisms for modulating the optical properties of natural or synthetic porphyrinoid and carotenoid pigments are elucidated with quantum chemical methods. Our investigations add a new conformational mechanism, as well as design principles for regioisomer-dependent electronic substituent effects to the cannon of structural tools for regulating the optical properties of pyrrole-modified porphyrins. The lessons learned provide insight into analogous spectral tuning mechanisms found in nature. We also delineate the molecular factors optimally regulating light harvesting in a natural photosynthetic antenna complex. These discoveries have advanced the fundamental understanding and practical utilization of structure-optical property modulation mechanisms, and may aid the design of next-generation photonic-based technologies

Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations

This study examines what drives organizational adoption and use of social media through a model built around four key factors - strategy, capacity, governance, and environment. Using Twitter, Facebook, and other data on 100 large US nonprofit organizations, the model is employed to examine the determinants of three key facets of social media utilization: 1) adoption, 2) frequency of use, and 3) dialogue. We find that organizational strategies, capacities, governance features, and external pressures all play a part in these social media adoption and utilization outcomes. Through its integrated, multi-disciplinary theoretical perspective, this study thus helps foster understanding of which types of organizations are able and willing to adopt and juggle multiple social media accounts, to use those accounts to communicate more frequently with their external publics, and to build relationships with those publics through the sending of dialogic messages.Comment: Seungahn Nah and Gregory D. Saxton. (in press). Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations. New Media & Society, forthcomin

Immigrants and the Community

First in a series based on the research project "Integrating the Needs of Immigrant Workers and Rural Communities," which attempts to inform New York communities about the nature and consequences of increasing immigrant settlement.Many upstate New York communities have experienced population loss and decline in the last decade. Increasing numbers of immigrants have settled in many of these communities, which poses possible community development challenges and opportunities. Because each community must address these issues in its own way, this report is intended to make communities aware of changes in their populations and highlight issues they may choose to address.USDA Fund for Rural America (grant #2001-36201-11283) and Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (grant #33452