Examining the Relationships Among Categorization, Stereotype Activation, and Stereotype Application.

Increased category salience is associated with increased stereotyping. Prior research has not examined the processes that may account for this relationship. That is, it is unclear whether category salience leads to increased stereotyping by increasing stereotype activation (i.e., increased accessibility of stereotypic information), application (i.e., increasing the tendency to apply activated stereotypes), or both processes simultaneously. We examined this question across three studies by manipulating category salience in an implicit stereotyping measure and by applying a process model that provides independent estimates of stereotype activation and application. Our results replicated past findings that category salience increases stereotyping. Modeling results showed that category salience consistently increased the extent of stereotype application but increased stereotype activation in more limited contexts. Implications for models of social categorization and stereotyping are discussed

Development of a Rooftop Collaborative Experimental Space through Experiential Learning Projects

The Solar, Water, Energy, and Thermal Laboratory (SWEAT Lab) is a rooftop experimental space at the University of Texas at Austin built by graduate and undergraduate students in the Cockrell School of Engineering. The project was funded by the Texas State Energy Conservation Office and the University’s Green Fee Grant, a competitive grant program funded by UT Austin tuition fees to support sustainability-related projects and initiatives on campus. The SWEAT Lab is an on-going experiential learning facility that enables engineering education by deploying energy and water-related projects. To date, the lab contains a full weather station tracking weather data, a rainwater harvesting system and rooftop garden. This project presented many opportunities for students to learn first hand about unique engineering challenges. The lab is located on the roof of the 10 story Engineering Teaching Center (ETC) building, so students had to design and build systems with constraints such as weight limitations and wind resistance. Students also gained experience working with building facilities and management for structural additions, power, and internet connection for instruments. With the Bird’s eye view of UT Austin campus, this unique laboratory offers a new perspective and dimension to applied student research projects at UT Austin.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Early Eocene fossils suggest that the mammalian order Perissodactyla originated in India

Cambaytheres (Cambaytherium, Nakusia and Kalitherium) are recently discovered early Eocene placental mammals from the Indo-Pakistan region. They have been assigned to either Perissodactyla (the clade including horses, tapirs and rhinos, which is a member of the superorder Laurasiatheria) or Anthracobunidae, an obscure family that has been variously considered artiodactyls or perissodactyls, but most recently placed at the base of Proboscidea or of Tethytheria (Proboscidea+Sirenia, superorder Afrotheria). Here we report new dental, cranial and postcranial fossils of Cambaytherium, from the Cambay Shale Formation, Gujarat, India (~54.5 Myr). These fossils demonstrate that cambaytheres occupy a pivotal position as the sister taxon of Perissodactyla, thereby providing insight on the phylogenetic and biogeographic origin of Perissodactyla. The presence of the sister group of perissodactyls in western India near or before the time of collision suggests that Perissodactyla may have originated on the Indian Plate during its final drift toward Asia

Determinants and processes of HIV status disclosure to HIV - infected children aged 4 to 17 years receiving HIV care services at Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Tanzania, Centre of Excellence (COE) in Mbeya: a cross-sectional study

This article presents Studies on disclosure of HIV sero-status to HIV-infected children is associated with reduced risk of death and better adherence to antiretroviral drugs.Background: Disclosure of HIV sero-status to HIV-infected children is associated with reduced risk of death and better adherence to antiretroviral drugs. However, caregivers find it difficult to determine when and how they should disclose the HIV sero-positive status to HIV-infected children. In this study, we assessed the determinants and processes of HIV status disclosure to HIV-infected children aged 4 to 17 years receiving HIV care services at the Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation Tanzania, Centre of Excellence (COE) in Mbeya. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 334 caregivers of HIV positive children attending the Baylor COE in Mbeya, Tanzania. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative data were collected on socio-demographic characteristics of children and caregivers using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi-Info version 3.5.1 and analyzed using STATA version10. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to obtain odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) associated with disclosing HIV positive status to HIV-infected children. Qualitative data were collected on the processes used in accomplishing the HIV status disclosure event using case histories and key informant interviews and analyzed manually using latent analysis techniques. Results: About one-third of the caregivers (32.6 %) disclosed the children’s HIV sero-positive status to them. Disclosure was more likely among children 10 years or older (adjusted OR [AOR] = 8.8; 95 % CI: 4.7, 16.5), caregivers with knowledge about HIV disclosure (AOR = 5.7; 95 % CI: 2.3, 13.7) and those earning more than Tsh 99,999 (US $62.5) per month (AOR = 2.4; 95 % CI: 1.3, 4.5). Qualitative findings showed that caregivers used a diversity of approaches to complete the HIV status disclosure event including direct, third-party, event-driven and use of drawings. Conclusions: Our study shows that disclosure is common among older children and is largely driven by the caregivers’ knowledge about HIV status disclosure and monthly earnings. HIV status disclosure was accomplished through a variety of approaches. These findings suggest a need to provide caregivers with knowledge about HIV status disclosure approaches to improve HIV status disclosure to HIV-infected children

Young people's uses of celebrity: Class, gender and 'improper' celebrity

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 34(1), 2013, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01596306.2012.698865.In this article, we explore the question of how celebrity operates in young people's everyday lives, thus contributing to the urgent need to address celebrity's social function. Drawing on data from three studies in England on young people's perspectives on their educational and work futures, we show how celebrity operates as a classed and gendered discursive device within young people's identity work. We illustrate how young people draw upon class and gender distinctions that circulate within celebrity discourses (proper/improper, deserving/undeserving, talented/talentless and respectable/tacky) as they construct their own identities in relation to notions of work, aspiration and achievement. We argue that these distinctions operate as part of neoliberal demands to produce oneself as a ‘subject of value’. However, some participants produced readings that show ambivalence and even resistance to these dominant discourses. Young people's responses to celebrity are shown to relate to their own class and gender position.The Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering and Technology

Increased shedding of HU177 correlates with worse prognosis in primary melanoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increased levels of cryptic collagen epitope HU177 in the sera of melanoma patients have been shown to be associated with thicker primary melanomas and with the nodular histologic subtype. In this study, we investigate the association between HU177 shedding in the sera and clinical outcome in terms of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serum samples from 209 patients with primary melanoma prospectively enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group at the New York University Langone Medical Center (mean age = 58, mean thickness = 2.09 mm, stage I = 136, stage II = 41, stage III = 32, median follow-up = 54.9 months) were analyzed for HU177 concentration using a validated ELISA assay. HU177 serum levels at the time of diagnosis were used to divide the study cohort into two groups: low and high HU177. DFS and OS were estimated by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and the log-rank test was used to compare DFS and OS between the two HU177 groups. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were employed to examine the independent effect of HU177 category on DFS and OS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>HU177 sera concentrations ranged from 0-139.8 ng/ml (mean and median of 6.2 ng/ml and 3.7 ng/ml, respectively). Thirty-eight of the 209 (18%) patients developed recurrences, and 34 of the 209 (16%) patients died during follow-up. Higher HU177 serum level was associated with an increased rate of melanoma recurrence (p = 0.04) and with increasing mortality (p = 0.01). The association with overall survival remained statistically significant after controlling for thickness and histologic subtype in a multivariate model (p = 0.035).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Increased shedding of HU177 in the serum of primary melanoma patients is associated with poor prognosis. Further studies are warranted to determine the clinical utility of HU177 in risk stratification compared to the current standard of care.</p

Troubling "understanding mathematics-in-depth": Its role in the identity work of student-teachers in England

Copyright @ The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.comThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.In this paper, we focus on an initiative in England devised to prepare non-mathematics graduates to train as secondary mathematics teachers through a 6-month Mathematics Enhancement Course (MEC) to boost their subject knowledge. The course documentation focuses on the need to develop “understanding mathematics in-depth” in students in order for them to become successful mathematics teachers. We take a poststructural approach, so we are not interested in asking what such an understanding is, about the value of this approach or about the effectiveness of the MECs in developing this understanding in their participants. Instead we explore what positions this discourse of “understanding mathematics in-depth” makes available to MEC students. We do this by looking in detail at the “identity work” of two students, analysing how they use and are used by this discourse to position themselves as future mathematics teachers. In doing so, we show how even benign-looking social practices such as “understanding mathematics in-depth” are implicated in practices of inclusion and exclusion. We show this through detailed readings of interviews with two participants, one of whom fits with the dominant discourses in the MEC and the other who, despite passing the MEC, experiences tensions between her national identity work and MEC discourses. We argue that it is vital to explore “identity work” within teacher education contexts to ensure that becoming a successful mathematics teacher is equally available to all.King’s College Londo

Mathematical stories: Why do more boys than girls choose to study mathematics at AS-level in England?

Copyright @ 2005 Taylor & FrancisIn this paper I address the question: How is it that people come to choose mathematics and in what ways is this process gendered? I draw on the findings of a qualitative research study involving interviews with 43 young people all studying mathematics in post-compulsory education in England. Working within a post-structuralist framework, I argue that gender is a project and one that is achieved in interaction with others. Through a detailed reading of Toni and Claudia’s stories I explore the tensions for young women who are engaging in mathematics, something that is discursively inscribed as masculine, while (understandably) being invested in producing themselves as female. I conclude by arguing that seeing ‘doing mathematics’ as ‘doing masculinity’ is a productive way of understanding why mathematics is so male dominated and by looking at the implications of this understanding for gender and mathematics reform work.This work is funded by the ESR

New Developments in Brief Interventions to Treat Problem Drinking in Nonspecialty Health Care Settings

The delivery of brief interventions (BIs) in health care settings to reduce problematic alcohol consumption is a key preventive strategy for public health. However, evidence of effectiveness beyond primary care is inconsistent. Patient populations and intervention components are heterogeneous. Also, evidence for successful implementation strategies is limited. In this article, recent literature is reviewed covering BI effectiveness for patient populations and subgroups, and design and implementation of BIs. Support is evident for short-term effectiveness in hospital settings, but long-term effects may be confounded by changes in control groups. Limited evidence suggests effectiveness with young patients not admitted as a consequence of alcohol, dependent patients, and binge drinkers. Influential BI components include high-quality change plans and provider characteristics. Health professionals endorse BI and feel confident in delivering it, but training and support initiatives continue to show no significant effects on uptake, prompting calls for systematic approaches to implementing BI in health care