Selected Factors Contributing to Depression Among Women.

It has been a consistent epidemiological finding that women are more prone to develop symptoms of depression than men. The present investigation examines women\u27s greater vulnerability to depression in terms of Beck\u27s cognitive theory of depression. Sixty women were divided into a depressed group and a non-depressed group on the basis of criteria scores on Scale 2 of the MMPI and on the Beck Depression Inventory. The groups did not differ significantly in age, education or employment status. Each subject was administered the MMPI, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Hopelessness Scale, the Personal Attributes Questionaire (PAQ), and Levenson\u27s Internal, Powerful Others and Chance Scale. Five primary hypotheses were examined. Results strongly supported Beck\u27s cognitive theory of depression in that the depressed women displayed significantly more helplessness, more hopelessness, and lower self-esteem than the non-depressed group. These hypotheses were tested using the one-tailed t-tests. Furthermore, as predicted, more of the feminine sex-typed women displayed lower self-esteem. The relationship of sex-role to depression was more ambiguous. This appears to be the result of the Personal Attributes Questionaire\u27s focus upon measuring only positive attributes of either sex. Such a focus fails to examine the effects of the possible negative aspects of sex types. The present investigation found that for women, displaying a feminine sex-type as defined by possession of positive feminine traits was not associated with higher rates of depression. An important implication is that current sex-type instruments which neglect possible negative sex-type attributes, appear to offer an incomplete assessment of sex roles which realistically are a complex blend of positive and negative traits. Theoretical and treatment implications of these findings are discussed

“I Don’t Feel Like I’m Up Against a Wall of Men”: Negotiating Difference, Identity and the Glass Ceiling in Sports Information

This research explores how women in college sports public relations cope with their minority status and the related notion of a glass ceiling in the workplace. Drawing from a socialist feminist perspective and Wrigley’s (2002) “negotiated resignation” model, we explore how these women negotiate the tension of working in an industry with a glass ceiling, arguing that many may deny a gender identity altogether, instead blaming discrimination on exterior factors or women themselves

The Power of “Small Stories:” Narratives and Notions of Gender Equality in Conversations About Sport

This study examines narratives by young adults about sport and gender in relation to equality. Specifically, we explore how focus-group participants used small stories to situate male and female athletes and Title IX. The U.S. law has been credited for increasing opportunities for girls and women but is considered a source of tension for gender relations. Our findings suggest that participants’ stories ultimately did not support emancipatory goals for girls and women because they positioned equality as a right women had not earned. We argue that feminists cannot underestimate the need to inject counternarratives into public discourse at every level, including stories shared with children about sport. These narratives must address misconceptions about equality and gender equity and, ultimately, challenge gender ideology

Case Studies in Athletic-Academic Integration: A Closer Look at Schools That Implement COIA’s Best Practices

This research follows a 2009 survey jointly conducted by the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) and the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State to assess the “best practices” of FBS institutions in regard to the integration of athletics into academics. Case studies of the six highest-scoring institutions—the University of Houston, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, Oklahoma State University, University of South Carolina, and Southern Methodist University—were conducted. The aim of these case studies was to highlight those institutions that implement more of COIA’s best practices than other surveyed schools. Further, the aim was to develop a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between COIA’s suggested practices, the “Athletics Integration into Academics” survey, and the local conditions of FBS institutions

Integration of Athletics and Academics: Survey of Best Practices at FBS Schools

The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA), an alliance of 57 university faculty senates, was founded in 2002 to provide a faculty voice in the national discussion about how to best maintain academic integrity in big-time college sports. COIA’s most recent white paper, Framing the Future: Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics (2007), proposes best practices for individual universities to help ensure that college sports are more fully integrated into their academic goals, values and missions. Reported here are the results of a national survey that gauged the extent to which COIA’s best practices have been adopted by schools participating in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The findings suggest that big-time athletics programs have a number of underutilized tools at their disposal that can assist them in protecting core academic values and standards at universities competing at the highest level of intercollegiate sport

The Nuances of Cropland Markets: Estimating Prices and Rental Rates and a Look through Time at the Farm Business Sector during Cycles

Land values are a central part of the farm business sector and are the vast majority of assets on the farm business sector’s balance sheet. Land is the single largest collateral backing for agriculture debt with farm real estate representing about two hundred billion dollars of debt. In total, U.S. farm real estate is valued at over two trillion dollars. Farm real estate, and in particular, cropland values, have historically driven changes in farm business sector assets. In the past century, the farm business sector has witnessed three major boom-and-bust cycles, land values being at the center of each. Once again, cropland prices have increased at record rates. The recent growth in prices has brought into question the sustainability of the market price for cropland. This work addresses major shortcomings and gaps in the previous literature on cropland valuation. The work here has three goals. First, develop a model that replicates market land prices by addressing characteristics of the market that have previously been overlooked. The model uses a relative pricing approach which addresses the incomplete market structure of cropland markets. The approach implements the good-deal bound methodology to calculate the value of land given yearly rental income discounted by a stochastic discount factor. The model also uses a dynamic optimization framework allowing state variables, which determine each of the contract prices, to vary over states throughout time. Second, a further investigation into the determination of rental rates is performed. The outcome from the first analysis and earlier research has shown the difficulty in estimating land prices as a function of the income to land. A consensus has been made by previous literature that rental rates are the best proxy for income to land. The difficulty in determining rental rate deals with how they are “sticky” over time. The second analysis uses an error correction model to test the existence of asymmetric price transmissions between rental rates and crop prices. The error correction model tests for the presence of asymmetric price transmission between change in the income to land and the cropland prices. The model also allows for analysis on a short-run and long-run basis. Third, the paper discusses the connection between the current boom in cropland prices and previous cycles in the farm business sector. The analysis addresses the likely causes of the contractions of these markets by looking at capital expansion leading to unsustainable credit risk in the market. Capital expansion is analyzed structurally to allow for forecasting possible future changes in it. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank regional surveys are also considered to understand the creation of credit risk both from the perspective of the lenders and borrowers. Addressing both the demand and supply of debt considers, holistically, the composition of financial risk in agriculture markets and how both the demanders of debt and the suppliers of debt create and manage risk in the farm business sector

Prospectus, January 28, 1998

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1998/1002/thumbnail.jp

Resistin-Like Molecule-β Inhibits SGLT-1 Activity and Enhances GLUT2-Dependent Jejunal Glucose Transport

International audienceOBJECTIVE: An increased expression of RELM-beta (resistin-like molecule-beta), a gut-derived hormone, is observed in animal models of insulin resistance/obesity and intestinal inflammation. Intestinal sugar absorption is modulated by dietary environment and hormones/cytokines. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of RELM-beta on intestinal glucose absorption. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Oral glucose tolerance test was performed in mice and rats in the presence and the absence of RELM-beta. The RELM-beta action on glucose transport in rat jejunal sacs, everted rings, and mucosal strips was explored as well as downstream kinases modulating SGLT-1 and GLUT2 glucose transporters. RESULTS: Oral glucose tolerance test carried out in rodents showed that oral administration of RELM-beta increased glycemia. Studies in rat jejunal tissue indicated that mucosal RELM-beta promoted absorption of glucose from the gut lumen. RELM-beta had no effect on paracellular mannitol transport, suggesting a transporter-mediated transcellular mechanism. In studies with jejunal mucosa mounted in Ussing chamber, luminal RELM-beta inhibited SGLT-1 activity in line with a diminished SGLT-1 abundance in brush border membranes (BBMs). Further, the potentiating effect of RELM-beta on jejunal glucose uptake was associated with an increased abundance of GLUT2 at BBMs. The effects of RELM-beta were associated with an increased amount of protein kinase C betaII in BBMs and an increased phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). CONCLUSIONS: The regulation of SGLT-1 and GLUT2 by RELM-beta expands the role of gut hormones in short-term AMPK/protein kinase C mediated control of energy balance

The Customary International Law Game

Structural realists in political science and some rationalist legal scholars argue that customary international law cannot affect state behavior: that it is “epiphenomenal.” This article develops a game theoretic model of a multilateral prisoner’s dilemma in the customary international law context that shows that it is plausible that states would comply with customary international law under certain circumstances. Our model shows that these circumstances relate to: (i) the relative value of cooperation versus defection, (ii) the number of states effectively involved, (iii) the extent to which increasing the number of states involved increases the value of cooperation or the detriments of defection, including whether the particular issue has characteristics of a commons problem, a public good, or a network good, (iv) the information available to the states involved regarding compliance and defection, (v) the relative patience of states in valuing the benefits of long-term cooperation compared to short-term defection, (vi) the expected duration of interaction, (vii) the frequency of interaction, and (viii) whether there are also bilateral relationships or other multilateral relationships between the involved states. This model shows that customary international law is plausible in the sense that it may well affect state behavior where certain conditions are met. It shows what types of contexts, including malleable institutional features, may affect the ability of states to produce and comply with customary international law. This article identifies a number of empirical strategies that may be used to test the model