356 research outputs found
Exploratory Factor Analysis of a Relational Aggression Self-report
Relational aggression (RA) represents a distinct form of bullying and refers to behaviors that harm others through damaging their friendships, their inclusion in social groups, and their feelings of acceptance. RA has been recognized as a significant problem, which has psychosocial and academic consequences for perpetrators, victims and bystanders. This study evaluated a self-report inventory that examined RA in 219 females ages 10 through 18 from Central Pennsylvania. Inter-item correlations revealed that none of the scaleâs items were highly correlated and therefore repetitive. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with an oblique rotation was used to identify the factors within the Girls Relationship Scale. Two factors were revealed with a âlenientâ alpha greater than .70, representing the factors of âRelationshipsâ and âSubstance Abuse.â A Pearson Correlational analysis found a significant negative relationship between the Age and the Substance Abuse factor (Pearson Correlation= -.166, p=.001), indicating the fact that older girls were more likely to endorse the willingness to smoke cigarettes or use drugs or alcohol if meant being accepted by other girls. A significant correlation was also found between the Age and the Total Scale score (Pearson Correlation= .495, p=.001), indicating that older girls were more likely to answer questions in a more self-assured and knowledgeable manner, or in the desired direction. An ANOVA revealed significant differences between the roles involved in relational aggression including the âbullyâ, âvictimâ, âbystanderâ or âotherâ, and the âRelationshipsâ factor (p=.002) and between the roles and the Total Scale score (p=.001). Post hoc tests to examine the significant differences further could not be performed, however, because of missing data caused by subjects not answering every question. Lack of significance was found between places and situations in which girls think that they have more problems with their relationships and their ethnic heritage and the factor and Total scale scores
Coevolutionary immune system dynamics driving pathogen speciation
We introduce and analyze a within-host dynamical model of the coevolution
between rapidly mutating pathogens and the adaptive immune response. Pathogen
mutation and a homeostatic constraint on lymphocytes both play a role in
allowing the development of chronic infection, rather than quick pathogen
clearance. The dynamics of these chronic infections display emergent structure,
including branching patterns corresponding to asexual pathogen speciation,
which is fundamentally driven by the coevolutionary interaction. Over time,
continued branching creates an increasingly fragile immune system, and leads to
the eventual catastrophic loss of immune control.Comment: main article: 16 pages, 5 figures; supporting information: 3 page
A dataset for assessing temporal changes in gene expression during the aging process of adult \u3ci\u3eDrosophila melanogaster\u3c/i\u3e
A Drosophila melanogaster genome-wide transcriptome dataset is
available for studies on temporal patterns of gene expression. Gene
expression was measured using two-dye color oligonucleotide arrays
derived from Version 2 of the Drosophila Genomics Resource Center.
A total of 15,158 oligonucleotide probes corresponded to a high
proportion of the coding genes in the genome. The source of the flies
was a highly genetically heterogeneous population maintained in an
overlapping generation population regime. This regime was
designed to maintain life history traits so that they were similar to
those found in natural populations. Flies collected for the cohorts
were obtained in a short period of time in a carefully controlled
manner before virgin females and males were allowed to mate.
Mated females were introduced into two large population cages in
unusually high numbers (approximately 12,000 per cage) for a
Drosophila laboratory longevity study. Samples were taken weekly
from each cohort for 11 weeks; only a small proportion of surviving
flies were present at the last two collection time points and thus
they were exceptionally old compared to those collected in early-tomidlife
samples. The data set is useful for studies of temporal patterns
of gene expression as flies age. The very large size of each
cohort, and relatively frequent incidence of temporal samples, allows
for a fine-scale study of gene expression from young to very old flies
A dataset for assessing temporal changes in gene expression during the aging process of adult \u3ci\u3eDrosophila melanogaster\u3c/i\u3e
A Drosophila melanogaster genome-wide transcriptome dataset is
available for studies on temporal patterns of gene expression. Gene
expression was measured using two-dye color oligonucleotide arrays
derived from Version 2 of the Drosophila Genomics Resource Center.
A total of 15,158 oligonucleotide probes corresponded to a high
proportion of the coding genes in the genome. The source of the flies
was a highly genetically heterogeneous population maintained in an
overlapping generation population regime. This regime was
designed to maintain life history traits so that they were similar to
those found in natural populations. Flies collected for the cohorts
were obtained in a short period of time in a carefully controlled
manner before virgin females and males were allowed to mate.
Mated females were introduced into two large population cages in
unusually high numbers (approximately 12,000 per cage) for a
Drosophila laboratory longevity study. Samples were taken weekly
from each cohort for 11 weeks; only a small proportion of surviving
flies were present at the last two collection time points and thus
they were exceptionally old compared to those collected in early-tomidlife
samples. The data set is useful for studies of temporal patterns
of gene expression as flies age. The very large size of each
cohort, and relatively frequent incidence of temporal samples, allows
for a fine-scale study of gene expression from young to very old flies
A New Variety of Lomatium ravenii (Apiaceae) from the Northern Great Basin and Adjacent Owyhee Region
Variability in the group of Lomatium species comprising L. nevadense, L. ravenii, and L. foeniculaceum has led to conflicting classification schemes. While some taxonomists have treated L. ravenii as a distinct species made up of all the populations from California, Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon, others considered L. ravenii to be nothing more than a morphological extreme of L. nevadense. We examined morphological and phylogenetic data from across the range of L. ravenii, concluding that variation in the species warrants varietal distinction. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis of 29 populations shows two distinct groupsâone from the vicinity of Ravendale, California, and one from the rest of the range in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho. Phylogenetic analysis of the ITS, rps16 intron, and cpDNA rpl32-trnLUAG genes from seven populations supports these two groups. We refer to the geographically widespread population as Lomatium ravenii var. paiutense and recommend reassessment of the conservation status of the more narrowly endemic Ravendale populations
Antiviral Immunity in the Fruit Fly, Drosophila melanogaster
The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is an extremely useful model to study innate immunity mechanisms. A fundamental understanding of these mechanisms as they relate to various pathogens has come to light over the past 30âyears. The discovery of Tollâlike receptors and their recognition of shared molecules (pathogenâassociated molecular patterns or PAMPs) among pathogenic bacteria were the first detailed set of receptors to be described that act in innate immunity. The immune deficiency pathway (Imd) described in D. melanogaster functions in a very similar way to the Toll pathway in recognizing PAMPs primarily from Gramânegative bacteria. The discovery of small interfering RNAs (RNAi) provided a means by which antiviral immunity was accomplished in invertebrates. Another related pathway, the JAK/STAT pathway, functions in a similar manner to the interferon pathways described in vertebrates, also providing antiviral defense. Recently, autophagy was also shown to function as a protective pathway against virus infection in D. melanogaster. At least three of these pathways (Imd, JAK/STAT, and RNAi) show signal integration in response to viral infection, demonstrating a coordinated immune response against viral infection. The number of pathways and the integration of them reflect the diversity of pathogens to which innate immune mechanisms must be able to respond. The viral pathogens that infect invertebrates have developed countermeasures to some of these pathways, in particular to RNAi. The evolutionary arms race of pathogen vs. host is ever ongoing
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