The changes in life effectiveness following ropes course participation for Becoming an Outdoors -Woman (BOW) participants

The purpose of the study was to examine the changes in life effectiveness following ropes course participation for participants of the Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) program using a quasi-experimental design. Ropes course participation was also examined as a potential program modification to the existing BOW. The Life Effectiveness Questionnaire (LEQ) was administered to 85 of the 90 participants at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman Program sponsored by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Participants in the control group (N=65) and experimental group (N=20) both completed a ten question demographic survey and the LEQ on three occasions (pre-test, post-test, and one month follow-up). The experimental group completed a ropes course two weeks following BOW and immediately prior to the post-test. The ropes course participants were also observed using the LEQ observation sheet and a random group (N=8) was selected to participate in one-on-one interviews one week following the ropes course.;The General Linear Model was used to measure the differences between the three observations for both the control and experimental groups. An independent samples t-test was used to measure the differences between the experimental and control group for each of the three observations. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to measure the differences between the three observations for both groups for each of the eight sub-scales of the LEQ.;The results showed a significant increase in LEQ scores at the post-test which remained the same at the one month follow-up for the experimental group. The control group also showed a significant increase at the post-test, but the group did return to pre-test levels one month following participation in BOW. These findings do indicate that the ropes course experience did have a long term effect on overall LEQ scores. The Cronbach\u27s Alpha Reliability Estimates indicated strong and consistent reliability scores for the LEQ

A Cross-cultural and Intra-cultural Analysis of Six Values of Students in Greece and the United States

This entry includes two separate PDF files: "Main article" 112 pages, and "Skyros mileu" 16 pages.It is my hope that this introduction will provide you with a comfortable framework for experiencing this study. The sections that follow will further expand on my process and findings. My involvement with this study began in January of 1974 while I was on a one semester Study Abroad Program in Athens, Greece. I traveled to Greece eager to enhance my personal growth in the social and physical milieu of a foreign country, and to increase my experience as an environmental design student. At the onset of the program (Study in Greece, Inc.), Ms. Katharine Butterworth, the director, arranged far me to do an environmental design project with Mr. Nikos Kalogeras , an Athenian architect/planner. Early in the semester, after preliminary social and physical analysis, I defined my environmental design project problem statement as: "The island of Skyros does not have adequate educational opportunities to meet the needs of the local inhabitants." I then began to thoroughly research the Skyrian milieu- qualitatively and quantitatively- in order ta develop an understanding of the social and physical forces that substantiated my problem statement. My research techniques included observing, reading, interviewing, questionnaire sampling, and participating

Variations in Subjective Culture: A Comparison of Females and Males in Three Settings

12 pagesThis article examines differences in subjective culture among three societies that vary in their extent of urbanization and differentiation and within these societies between females and males. David Bakan's agency-communion and Talcott Parsons' instrumental-expressive distinctions are used to capture both these rural-urban and male-female differences using data collected with Harry Triandis' antecedent-consequent method of studying subjective culture. Both between society and within-society differences in subjective culture are found, although they occur independently of each other, Cross-cultural differences are stronger for concepts dealing with group life, and sex differences are stronger for concepts regarding individual actions and self-orientations. Specifications and extensions of existing theory, as well as directions for future research, are suggested

Autoethnography as an Instrument for Professional (Trans) Formation in Pharmaceutical Care Practice

The recent inclusion of pharmacists in primary healthcare in Brazil through the Family Health Support Team has encouraged them to reflect on the need to change from a professional focused on medications to one focused on individuals. This autoethnography allowed a pharmacist to confront her perspectives on clinical practice between 2014 and 2016, a period when she decided to challenge her traditional training as a pharmacist centered on medications. Using pharmaceutical care practice as the theoretical framework that prompted the profession of pharmacy to change its focus to the patient, the authors collaborated to construct a monologue that engages readers in the meanings of becoming patient centered. The research findings also support the versatility of application of the reflective process provided by autoethnography. Through fieldwork, reflective writing and interviews, the pharmacist discovered a new way to relate to caring and patients in her daily routine

An African-Specific Variant of TP53 Reveals PADI4 as a Regulator of p53-Mediated Tumor Suppression

TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene in cancer, yet key target genes for p53-mediated tumor suppression remain unidentified. Here, we characterize a rare, African-specific germline variant of TP53 in the DNA-binding domain Tyr107His (Y107H). Nuclear magnetic resonance and crystal structures reveal that Y107H is structurally similar to wild-type p53. Consistent with this, we find that Y107H can suppress tumor colony formation and is impaired for the transactivation of only a small subset of p53 target genes; this includes the epigenetic modifier PADI4, which deiminates arginine to the nonnatural amino acid citrulline. Surprisingly, we show that Y107H mice develop spontaneous cancers and metastases and that Y107H shows impaired tumor suppression in two other models. We show that PADI4 is itself tumor suppressive and that it requires an intact immune system for tumor suppression. We identify a p53–PADI4 gene signature that is predictive of survival and the efficacy of immune-checkpoint inhibitors. Significance: We analyze the African-centric Y107H hypomorphic variant and show that it confers increased cancer risk; we use Y107H in order to identify PADI4 as a key tumor-suppressive p53 target gene that contributes to an immune modulation signature and that is predictive of cancer survival and the success of immunotherapy

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

Auto-Retratos da Classe Média: Hierarquias de "Cultura" e Consumo em São Paulo

Based on 17 months of field research in São Paulo (1993-94), this paper examines how middle-class adults in 42 surveyed households verbalized their class identity during the inflation crisis. It concludes that consumption (goods and practices) are foundational to their class definitions, both in relation to other major classes and to other middle-class sectors