Hope, Ethnic Pride, and Academic Achievement: Positive Psychology and Latino Youth

Previous studies have found that hope has beneficial effects in athletics, academics, physical health, and mental well being in majority populations. Given the challenges Latino youth face in the United States, ethnic identity and hope may be a powerful buffer from these negative stressors. The current study aimed to identify whether chronic levels of hope related to academic performance, whether an ethnic pride manipulation altered state hope levels, and whether there was a link between ethnic identity and chronic hope among a sample of Latino youth. Results indicated that GPA and chronic hope levels were not related, a manipulation to boost ethic pride increased state hope, and that ethnic identity was related to chronic levels of hope. The findings suggest that ethnic identity is an important contributor to hope levels

Childhood cancer survival trends in Queensland 1956-80.

The true survival rates for the various forms of childhood cancer are best determined from a population-based study rather than from the results of clinical trials. Population-based survival rates have been calculated for four periods between 1956 and 1980 in Queensland. There was a significant improvement in survival for children who developed cancer after 1973 compared with those diagnosed before this date. There has however been no significant improvement in the survival rate for childhood cancer overall, or for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia since 1973. Over the 25 year period significant trends in survival rates were seen in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, Wilms' tumour, medulloblastoma, and retinoblastoma. No such trend was seen for acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia, neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, juvenile or anaplastic astrocytoma, brain stem glioma, histiocytosis X, or bone tumours. There is a need for continuing research into better methods of treatment of childhood cancer

Intercomparison of numerical models of flaring coronal loops

The proposed Benchmark Problem consists of an infinitesimal magnetic flux tube containing a low-beta plasma. The field strength is assumed to be so large that the plasma can move only along the flux tube, whose shape remains invariant with time (i.e., the fluid motion is essentially one-dimensional). The flux tube cross section is taken to be constant over its entire length. In planar view the flux tube has a semi-circular shape, symmetric about its midpoint s = s sub max and intersecting the chromosphere-corona interface (CCI) perpendicularly at each foot point. The arc length from the loop apex to the CCI is 10,000 km. The flux tube extends an additional 2000 km below the CCI to include the chromosphere, which initially has a uniform temperature of 8000 K. The temperature at the top of the loop was fixed initially at 2 X 1 million K. The plasma is assumed to be a perfect gas (gamma = 5/3), consisting of pure hydrogen which is considered to be fully ionized at all temperatures. For simplicity, moreover, the electron and ion temperatures are taken to be everywhere equal at all times (corresponding to an artificially enhanced electron-ion collisional coupling). While there was more-or-less unanimous agreement as to certain global properties of the system behavior (peak temperature reached, thermal-wave time scales, etc.), no two groups could claim satisfactory accord when a more detailed comparison of solutions was attempted

Father Involvement with Children with Developmental Delays

Children with developmental delays (DD) pose unique caregiving challenges, given their developmental problems and risks for behavior problems (Baker, McIntyre, Blacher, Crnic, Edelbrock, & Low, 2003). Most of the studies involving caregivers of children with DD have highlighted the role of mothers, with very few studies focusing specifically on fathers. Studies on father involvement in home and school settings provide a theoretical rationale for increasing father involvement to support positive outcomes in children with DD. Synthesizing research on father involvement can further contribute to and shape legislation that ensures equitable access to education for young children with disabilities (i.e., the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). This paper summarizes findings from a systematic literature review of father involvement across home and school settings in families of preschool-aged children with or at risk for DD

SIMULTANEOUS OBSERVATIONS OF GIANT PULSES FROM THE CRAB PULSAR, WITH THE MURCHISON WIDEFIELD ARRAY AND PARKES RADIO TELESCOPE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE GIANT PULSE EMISSION MECHANISM

We report on observations of giant pulses from the Crab pulsar performed simultaneously with the Parkes radio telescope and the incoherent combination of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) antenna tiles. The observations were performed over a duration of approximately one hour at a center frequency of 1382 MHz with 340 MHz bandwidth at Parkes, and at a center frequency of 193 MHz with 15 MHz bandwidth at the MWA. Our analysis has led to the detection of 55 giant pulses at the MWA and 2075 at Parkes above a threshold of 3.5σ and 6.5σ, respectively. We detected 51% of the MWA giant pulses at the Parkes radio telescope, with spectral indices in the range of -3.6 > α > -4.9 (S[subscript v] ∝ v[superscript α]). We present a Monte Carlo analysis supporting the conjecture that the giant pulse emission in the Crab is intrinsically broadband, the less than 100% correlation being due to the relative sensitivities of the two instruments and the width of the spectral index distribution. Our observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the spectral index of giant pulses is drawn from normal distribution of standard deviation 0.6, but with a mean that displays an evolution with frequency from −3.00 at 1382 MHz, to −2.85 at 192 MHz

FGF15 promotes neurogenesis and opposes FGF8 function during neocortical development

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Growth, differentiation and regional specification of telencephalic domains, such as the cerebral cortex, are regulated by the interplay of secreted proteins produced by patterning centers and signal transduction systems deployed in the surrounding neuroepithelium. Among other signaling molecules, members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family have a prominent role in regulating growth, differentiation and regional specification. In the mouse telencephalon the rostral patterning center expresses members of the <it>Fgf </it>family (<it>Fgf8</it>, <it>Fgf15</it>, <it>Fgf17</it>, <it>Fgf18</it>). FGF8 and FGF17 signaling have major roles in specification and morphogenesis of the rostroventral telencephalon, whereas the functions of FGF15 and FGF18 in the rostral patterning center have not been established.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using <it>Fgf15</it>^-/-mutant mice, we provide evidence that FGF15 suppresses proliferation, and that it promotes differentiation, expression of <it>CoupTF1 </it>and caudoventral fate; thus, reducing <it>Fgf15 </it>and <it>Fgf8 </it>dosage have opposite effects. Furthermore, we show that FGF15 and FGF8 differentially phosphorylate ERK (p42/44), AKT and S6 in cultures of embryonic cortex. Finally, we show that FGF15 inhibits proliferation in cortical cultures.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>FGF15 and FGF8 have distinct signaling properties, and opposite effects on neocortical patterning and differentiation; FGF15 promotes <it>CoupTF1 </it>expression, represses proliferation and promotes neural differentiation.</p