Gender Differences, Social Roles, And Treatment Responses: Are Female Adolescents Better Responders In The Context Of School Mental Health?

Though some studies with youth suggested that females might respond more favorably to psychotherapy than their male counterparts, other literature suggests there are no differences in improvement based on gender. The question of whether female adolescents showed differential response rates to psychotherapy compared to male adolescents was examined in a school mental health (SMH) sample. Approximately 267 high school students (151 female adolescents, 116 male adolescents) between the ages of 13-19 years old were referred to the Assessment, Support, and Counseling (ASC) Center at Watauga High School, Ashe County High School, and Alleghany High School for psychotherapy services over approximately 5 years (2012-2017). Each participant completed the Youth Outcome Questionnaire (YOQ-30) at baseline and at least every other therapy session over the course of treatment. Upon completion of treatment, participants completed a final YOQ. Based on the literature, it was hypothesized that there would not be a difference between male and female adolescents in the trajectory of recovery after receiving services in a SMH program. Multilevel Modeling was used to analyze possible gender interactions regarding psychotherapy outcomes over time in a SMH setting. As predicted, though both males and females showed improvements by the end of treatment, there were no significant gender differences in psychotherapy response over time after completing services in a SMH program

Agrarianism, Industry, the Environment, and Change: Gold Mining in Antebellum North Carolina, 1799-1860

Using personal correspondence, geological surveys, travelers’ accounts, and tools and methodologies borrowed from other studies of mineral extraction, this thesis argues that gold mining in North Carolina was an important aspect of southern antebellum industry. It traces the development of the industry from the agrarian, subsistence-agriculture based society that characterized the western and southern Piedmont counties of the state into the increasingly mechanized, modernized, and economically stratified society of the late antebellum period. The economic changes that the state underwent during the first half of the nineteenth century occurred alongside significant environmental alterations. Because these economic and environmental changes were intimately linked, this thesis argues that agrarians and industrialists had differing views of the environment. Cataloguing the environmental consequences of the gold mining industry presents a fuller understanding of the process of economic change and sheds light on the complex and vacillating relationship between people and the environment

The North Carolina Community College System Critical Success Factor 1 and the Association with Leadership Styles Practiced by North Carolina Community College Presidents

This study examined the association between the North Carolina Community College System’s Critical Success Factors - Factor 1: Core Indicators of Student Success, and the practiced leadership styles of North Carolina community college presidents. The mixed-method research design involved a constructive epistemology. The first stage used quantitative research to gather and analyze data from the Leadership Competence Assessment Instrument and the North Carolina Community College System Annual Reports (2007 – 2009). The second stage used qualitative research to develop interview questions for selected presidents based on the results of the first stage. The third and final stage for this research was comprehensive and combined strategies, approaches, and methods from stages one and two

Childhood resilience of African American school leaders

The purpose of this study was to determine what African Americans who serve in upper-level school leadership positions and who have faced significant barriers as children attribute to their resilience and success. I focused on individual resilience, using the definition summarized by VanBreda (2001): "[R]esilience theory addresses the strengths that people and systems demonstrate that enable them to rise above adversity" (p. 1). The researcher utilized qualitative methodology in conducting research. To select participants, the researcher used a purposive sampling method. The participant sampling was also a sampling of convenience, as the researcher tried to find participants located within the same county of the researcher's residence. In order to identify potential participants, I networked with professional contacts who have knowledge, position, and power to gain access to the participants. My networking contacts called Gatekeepers provided me with the names of African American male and female participants who are currently serving as principals, assistant principals, or in upper level district positions. Pseudonyms were used for the gatekeepers and the participants. During a three-month period, in-depth individual interviews were conducted with five African American male and female principals who excelled academically despite adversity. The participant's perspectives on how they overcame adversity and achieved academic success are essential for identifying and understanding the factors attributed to their resilience and success. Ideally, the results of this study may be helpful to districts in providing professional development opportunities that focuses on school factors that will contribute to the success of African American students demonstrating resilience. Furthermore, it may inform the parents and community regarding programs focused on creating and enhancing the personal and environmental attributes that promote achievement outcomes for other youth in high risk environments (Fraser, 2004; Wang & Gordon, 1994). Findings from the study revealed that protective factors across multiple contexts of students' lives contributed to their academic success despite adversity. Eight themes emerged: precise parenting practices, financial hardships as a motivator, school-based professionals as parental figures, creating a cultural of high expectations, positive student praise and recognition, supportive relational networks within the community, community and church participation, and belief in God

Coronary artery to left ventricle fistula

BACKGROUND: Coronary cameral fistulas are an uncommon entity, the etiology of which may be congenital or traumatic. They involve abnormal termination of a coronary artery, usually the right coronary, into a cardiac chamber, usually the right ventricle. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe a case of female patient with severe aortic stenosis and interventricular septal hypertrophy that underwent bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement with concomitant septal myectomy. On subsequent follow-up an abnormal flow traversing the septum into the left ventricle was identified and Doppler interrogation demonstrated a continuous flow, with a predominantly diastolic component, consistent with coronary arterial flow. CONCLUSION: The literature on coronary cameral fistulas is reviewed and the etiology of the diagnostic findings discussed. In our patient, a coronary artery to left ventricle fistula was the most likely explanation secondary to trauma to the septal perforator artery during myectomy. Since the patient was asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis no intervention was recommended and has done well on follow-up

Utility of In Vivo Transcription Profiling for Identifying Pseudomonas aeruginosa Genes Needed for Gastrointestinal Colonization and Dissemination

Microarray analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa mRNA transcripts expressed in vivo during animal infection has not been previously used to investigate potential virulence factors needed in this setting. We compared mRNA expression in bacterial cells recovered from the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of P. aeruginosa-colonized mice to that of P. aeruginosa in the drinking water used to colonize the mice. Genes associated with biofilm formation and type III secretion (T3SS) had markedly increased expression in the GI tract. A non-redundant transposon library in P. aeruginosa strain PA14 was used to test mutants in genes identified as having increased transcription during in vivo colonization. All of the Tn-library mutants in biofilm-associated genes had an attenuated ability to form biofilms in vitro, but there were no significant differences in GI colonization and dissemination between these mutants and WT P. aeruginosa PA14. To evaluate T3SS factors, we tested GI colonization and neutropenia-induced dissemination of both deletional (PAO1 and PAK) and insertional (PA14) mutants in four genes in the P. aeruginosa T3SS, exoS or exoU, exoT, and popB. There were no significant differences in GI colonization among these mutant strains and their WT counterparts, whereas rates of survival following dissemination were significantly decreased in mice infected by the T3SS mutant strains. However, there was a variable, strain-dependent effect on overall survival between parental and T3SS mutants. Thus, increased transcription of genes during in vivo murine GI colonization is not predictive of an essential role for the gene product in either colonization or overall survival following induction of neutropenia

Post-genomic approaches to understanding interactions between fungi and their environment

Fungi inhabit every natural and anthropogenic environment on Earth. They have highly varied life-styles including saprobes (using only dead biomass as a nutrient source), pathogens (feeding on living biomass), and symbionts (co-existing with other organisms). These distinctions are not absolute as many species employ several life styles (e.g. saprobe and opportunistic pathogen, saprobe and mycorrhiza). To efficiently survive in these different and often changing environments, fungi need to be able to modify their physiology and in some cases will even modify their local environment. Understanding the interaction between fungi and their environments has been a topic of study for many decades. However, recently these studies have reached a new dimension. The availability of fungal genomes and development of post-genomic technologies for fungi, such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, have enabled more detailed studies into this topic resulting in new insights. Based on a Special Interest Group session held during IMC9, this paper provides examples of the recent advances in using (post-)genomic approaches to better understand fungal interactions with their environments

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal