The Relationship Between Early Sexual Debut and Psychosocial Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study of Dutch Adolescents

In a longitudinal dataset of 470 Dutch adolescents, the current study examined the ways in which early sexual initiation was related to subsequent attachment, self-perception, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. For male adolescents, analyses revealed general attachment to mother and externalizing problems at Wave 1 to predict to early transition at Wave 2. However, there was no differential change in these psychosocial factors over time for early initiators of sexual intercourse and their non-initiating peers. For female adolescents, the model including psychosocial factors at Wave 1 did not predict to sexual initiation at Wave 2. However, univariate repeated measures analyses revealed early initiators to have significantly larger increases in self-concept and externalizing problems than their non-initiating female peers. While the difference between female early initiators and non-initiators were statistically significant, the mean levels of problem behaviors were very low. The findings suggest that, contrary to previous research, early sexual initiation does not seem to be clustered with problem behaviors for this sample of Dutch adolescents

Predictors of nurturant parenting in teen mothers living in three generational families

Direct and indirect effects of grandparents on maternal nurturance in teen mothers (TM) living in three-generational families were explored with path analytic techniques in a sample of 107 working-class families. Perceived support from the teen's mother, grandparents' nurturance toward the baby, and the presence of the grandfather as a father figure in the home were hypothesized as increasing TM nurturance. TM nurturance was found to be positively predicted by grandparent nurturance and negatively predicted by TM perceived support from her mother. The strongest predictor of TM nurturance was grandfather nurturance toward the baby.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43953/1/10578_2006_Article_BF02353198.pd

Analysis of Proteomic Spectral Data by Multi Resolution Analysis and Self-Organizing-Maps

Schleif F-M, Villmann T, Hammer B. Analysis of Proteomic Spectral Data by Multi Resolution Analysis and Self-Organizing-Maps. In: Masulli F, Mitra S, Pasi G, eds. Application of Fuzzy Sets Theory. Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Fuzzy Logic and Applications. LNAI 4578. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007: 563-570

Supervised Neural Gas for Functional Data and its Application to the Analysis of Clinical Proteom Spectra

Schleif F-M, Hammer B, Villmann T. Supervised Neural Gas for Functional Data and its Application to the Analysis of Clinical Proteom Spectra. In: Sandoval F, Prieto A, Cabestany J, Grana M, eds. Computational and Ambient Intelligence. Proceedings of the 9th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks. LNCS, 4507. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007: 1036-1044

The N-Terminal Region of the VP1 Protein of Swine Vesicular Disease Virus Contains a Neutralization Site That Arises upon Cell Attachment and Is Involved in Viral Entry

The N-terminal region of VP1 of swine vesicular disease virus (SVDV) is highly antigenic in swine, despite its internal location in the capsid. Here we show that antibodies to this region can block infection and that allowing the virus to attach to cells increases this blockage significantly. The results indicate that upon binding to the cell, SVDV capsid undergoes a conformational change that is temperature independent and that exposes the N terminus of VP1. This process makes this region accessible to antibodies which block virus entry