doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.02.001

a b s t r a c t At-risk families' control style (autonomy support and coercive control) was examined in relation to children's school readiness; children's social skills and mastery motivation were hypothesized mediating variables. In two different, low-income samples from diverse ethnic backgrounds, one preschool sample recruited from Head Start (N = 199) and a school transition sample composed of children entering elementary school (N = 344), parental control styles were related to children's academic readiness modestly but significantly in the preschool sample and weakly in the school transition sample. Children's social skills and mastery motivation skills (persistence and goal orientation) were significantly related to the academic measures of school readiness, and fully mediated the association between parents' use of coercive behavioral control and academic readiness. Such mediation could not be tested for parental support of children's autonomy. The results indicate that a developmental cascade exists between parental control strategies and academic indices of school readiness, emphasizing the importance of family context models of school readiness. Furthermore, strong correlations between the domains of school readiness were found in both samples, reinforcing calls for a multidimensional approach to supporting school readiness in early childhood education programs

Sampling mobile oceanic fishes and sharks: implications for fisheries and conservation planning

Tuna, billfish, and oceanic sharks [hereafter referred to as ‘mobile oceanic fishes and sharks’ (MOFS)] are characterised by conservative life-history strategies and highly migratory behaviour across large, transnational ranges. Intense exploitation over the past 65 years by a rapidly expanding high-seas fishing fleet has left many populations depleted, with consequences at the ecosystem level due to top-down control and trophic cascades. Despite increases in both CITES and IUCN Red Listings, the demographic trajectories of oceanic sharks and billfish are poorly quantified and resolved at geographic and population levels. Amongst MOFS trajectories, those of tunas are generally considered better understood, yet several populations remain either overfished or of unknown status. MOFS population trends and declines therefore remain contentious, partly due to challenges in deriving accurate abundance and biomass indices. Two major management strategies are currently recognised to address conservation issues surrounding MOFS: (i) internationally ratified legal frameworks and their associated regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs); and (ii) spatio-temporal fishery closures, including no-take marine protected areas (MPAs). In this context, we first review fishery-dependent studies relying on data derived from catch records and from material accessible through fishing extraction, under the umbrella of RFMO-administrated management. Challenges in interpreting catch statistics notwithstanding, we find that fishery-dependent studies have enhanced the accuracy of biomass indices and the management strategies they inform, by addressing biases in reporting and non-random effort, and predicting drivers of spatial variability across meso- and oceanic scales in order to inform stock assessments. By contrast and motivated by the increase in global MPA coverage restricting extractive activities, we then detail ways in which fishery-independent methods are increasingly improving and steering management by exploring facets of MOFS ecology thus far poorly grasped. Advances in telemetry are increasingly used to explore ontogenic and seasonal movements, and provide means to consider MOFS migration corridors and residency patterns. The characterisation of trophic relationships and prey distribution through biochemical analysis and hydro-acoustics surveys has enabled the tracking of dietary shifts and mapping of high-quality foraging grounds. We conclude that while a scientific framework is available to inform initial design and subsequent implementation of MPAs, there is a shortage in the capacity to answer basic but critical questions about MOFS ecology (who, when, where?) required to track populations non-extractively, thereby presenting a barrier to assessing empirically the performance of MPA-based management for MOFS. This sampling gap is exacerbated by the increased establishment of large (>10000 km2) and very large MPAs (VLMPAs, >100000 km2) - great expanses of ocean lacking effective monitoring strategies and survey regimes appropriate to those scales. To address this shortcoming, we demonstrate the use of a non-extractive protocol to measure MOFS population recovery and MPA efficiency. We further identify technological avenues for monitoring at the VLMPA scale, through the use of spotter planes, drones, satellite technology, and horizontal acoustics, and highlight their relevance to the ecosystem-based framework of MOFS management

Profiles of school readiness skills among low-income preschoolers in the U.S.

2013 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The current population-based study employs a person-oriented approach to examine patterns of functioning across school readiness domains (pre-academic competence, self-regulatory abilities, and problematic social behaviors) at kindergarten entry within a national sample of low-income children (N = 2,073), utilizing data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP; 1996-2010). This study is the first to employ factor mixture analyses (FMA), a hybrid of latent transition analysis and factor analysis, to explore at-risk children's school readiness profiles and assess whether these profiles are salient indicators of academic and social functioning in fifth grade. Results from the FMA identified two distinct classes. Specifically, class 1 (poor school readiness profile) exhibited greater weaknesses in their school readiness profiles than class 2 as demonstrated by higher scores on problematic behavioral indicators that thwart early school success, and lower scores on pre-academic competences and regulatory abilities that support early school success. Additionally, class 1 displayed higher within-class correlations among school readiness indicators on each factor than class 2. Evidence for the predictive validity of these classes was found: In fifth grade, class 1 showed significantly lower scores on academic indicators of school success (e.g., reading, math), and significantly higher scores on indicators of maladaptive social functioning. Notably, class 1 demonstrated lower reading scores and higher scores on problematic behaviors (e.g., attention problems, aggressive behavior) than any of the high-risk groups identified in the final report of the EHSREP). These findings support the putative dynamic connections that exist across readiness domains, suggesting that at-risk children's school readiness is not simply an additive model. These findings point to analytic strategies that better illuminate variations in school readiness within high-risk samples, and also suggest that a significant minority of low-income preschoolers need intensive intervention if they are to succeed in school

The Public Face of Rhinoplasty: Impact on Perceived Attractiveness and Personality.

The authors assess the impact of rhinoplasty on public perception of a patient\u27s appearance and personality.A survey was created using standardized before-and-after photographs of 10 Caucasian women who had undergone primary rhinoplasty. Photographs of two additional women who had not undergone facial surgery were randomly included as controls, for a total of 12 survey items. Preoperative and postoperative photographs were placed side by side. The survey was administered by means of crowd-sourcing. Respondents were asked to evaluate which photograph better represented 11 traits of appearance or personality, according to a seven-point Likert scale. A score of 1 meant the preoperative photograph was much better, 7 meant the postoperative photograph was much better, and 4 meant no difference. T tests and analyses of variance were used to evaluate rating changes for each trait and differences between demographic groups.There were 264 responses received. Averaged scores across the 10 survey patients produced a value for each appearance or personality trait. In 10 of 11 categories (i.e., symmetry, youthfulness, facial harmony, likeability, trustworthiness, confidence, femininity, attractiveness, approachability, and intelligence), the postoperative photograph was significantly favorable compared with the preoperative photograph (p \u3c 0.00001). The preoperative photograph was rated higher only in aggressiveness (p \u3c 0.001). The same scores were calculated for the controls; no significant difference in any category was seen except confidence, where the right image was viewed as more confident (mean, 4.19; p \u3c 0.005).Aesthetic rhinoplasty improves the public perception of a person\u27s appearance and personality in multiple aspects

Eye movements while judging faces for trustworthiness and dominance.

Past studies examining how people judge faces for trustworthiness and dominance have suggested that they use particular facial features (e.g. mouth features for trustworthiness, eyebrow and cheek features for dominance ratings) to complete the task. Here, we examine whether eye movements during the task reflect the importance of these features. We here compared eye movements for trustworthiness and dominance ratings of face images under three stimulus configurations: Small images (mimicking large viewing distances), large images (mimicking face to face viewing), and a moving window condition (removing extrafoveal information). Whereas first area fixated, dwell times, and number of fixations depended on the size of the stimuli and the availability of extrafoveal vision, and varied substantially across participants, no clear task differences were found. These results indicate that gaze patterns for face stimuli are highly individual, do not vary between trustworthiness and dominance ratings, but are influenced by the size of the stimuli and the availability of extrafoveal vision