Is Parent-Initiated Triangulation Associated with Pathological Narcissism in Youth?

The current study examined the proposed link between parent-initiated triangulation (i.e., directly involving a child in parental conflict in such a way that he/she forms an alliance with one parent against the other parent) and pathological narcissism in a sample of 148 adolescents, ages 12-14. Moreover, the moderating influence that different parenting practices and styles (i.e., parental overindulgence, overvaluation, warmth, inconsistent discipline) have on the relation between parent-initiated triangulation and pathological narcissism was explored. Findings from the current study indicated that adolescent self-reported pathological narcissism was associated with higher levels of adolescent-reported triangulation and parental overvaluation and was negatively related to parental warmth. The Vulnerable Narcissism dimension of pathological narcissism was positively related to inconsistent discipline. Contrary to hypotheses, no significant relation emerged between pathological narcissism and parental overindulgence; moreover, none of the maladaptive parenting approaches significantly moderated the relation between triangulation and pathological narcissism. Results suggest that perceived triangulation, parental overvaluation, inconsistent discipline, and lack of parental warmth are all parenting approaches that may relate to maladaptive adolescent self-perception

THE URE AS A VEHICLE FOR EMPLOYABILITY DEVELOPMENT – THE SUPERVISORS SPEAK

BACKGROUND Employers report STEM graduates lack appropriate employability skills and work experience (Deloitte Access Economics, 2014). In a previous study (Carpenter, Nguyen, Davis & Rowland, 2021), we explored Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) students’ understanding of employability and how they believe the URE impacted their employability development. Findings showed students had a varied and underdeveloped employability understanding. AIMS In this study, we considered URE supervisors, aiming to determine the current landscape of employability understanding of supervisors who facilitate UREs. DESIGN AND METHODS Eighteen supervisors across six UQ Faculty of Science Schools were interviewed. A deductive, inductive hybrid approach was implemented, using the validated framework previously developed in the student study. RESULTS Supervisors commonly defined employability as ‘the ability to be employed’. Most supervisors commented employability learnings were tacitly gained as a side-effect of URE engagement when asked how they facilitated employability development in UREs. Supervisors’ examples predominantly focused on research pathways and felt strongly they should not be responsible for their students’ employability development. CONCLUSIONS This supports a need for explicit employability curricula, to improve student employability understanding. In this presentation, we will discuss the role of supervisors in student employability development, and some ways to move forward that leverages the URE without placing additional teaching strain on supervisors. REFERENCES Deloitte Access Economics (2014) Australia’s STEM workforce: a survey of employers: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-australia-stem-workforce-report-010515.pdf Carpenter, L., Nguyen, B., Davis, L. and S. L. Rowland. (2021) The URE as a vehicle for employability development – the student participants’ speak. [In review]

Understanding how industry conceptualises a valuable science graduate

BACKGROUND The Australian Government consistently incentivises increasing the STEM capabilities of our workforce, with the recent Job-Ready Graduates Package illustrating this (Department of Education, Skills and Employment, 2021). However, science graduates struggle to find employment post-graduation, while industry struggles to recruit sufficiently skilled science graduates (Deloitte Access Economics, 2014). It appears universities may be insufficiently preparing science graduates for the workforce. AIMS In this study, we explore the idea that miscommunication between universities and industry may contribute to the “problem” of science graduate “job-readiness”. Does industry truly understand what they want from science graduates? Can they clearly articulate it? DESIGN AND METHODS This study asks science industry employers about their conceptions of graduates who thrive in their workplace. We ask them to describe this graduate’s qualities and capabilities and explain how they demonstrate value to employers. RESULTS The results reveal surprising conceptions of “job-ready” and “industry-valuable” graduates, across a range of science industry contexts. The results also suggest ways universities can better prepare graduates to demonstrate their value to employers. CONCLUSIONS In this interactive session, we will examine how our conceptions compare with the results from industry perceptions. We will discuss the current terminology of “job-readiness” and consider ways we can improve industry-university collaboration around “industry-valuable” graduates. REFERENCES Deloitte Access Economics (2014). Australia’s STEM Workforce: A Survey of Employers. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-australia-stem-workforce-report-010515.pdf Department of Education, Skills and Employment (2021). Job-ready Graduates Package. https://dese.gov.au/job-read

Do students understand how undergraduate research experiences improve their employability?

BACKGROUND Employers report STEM graduates lack appropriate employability skills and work experience; work-integrated learning (WIL) is an important pedagogical tool to address these deficits. Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are WIL opportunities, but there is little information on whether students view UREs as employability development vehicles. AIMS This study addresses this deficiency by collecting and examining students’ reflections on their UREs and their resultant perceived use for increasing employability. DESIGN AND METHODS We interviewed five students who had completed 15 UREs in total, asking questions around students’ understandings of employability as a construct, their URE-related activities, and how they felt UREs had affected their employability. The data were double coded using an inductively-developed Nvivo framework. The framework was validated using a test for inter-rater agreement. RESULTS When defining employability, students’ responses were varied and underdeveloped. All participants articulated multiple themes and examples of learnings from their UREs, but they struggled to translate these learnings into employability awareness. They recognised that engaging in UREs had improved their employability but could not elaborate on how this occurred. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that students could benefit from URE curriculum components that foregrounded employability. The student participants’ insights have informed future research into supervisors’ perceptions of UREs as employability-development vehicles

Understanding poverty and disability in Johannesburg

It is often difficult to ascertain how many people are living with a disability in South Africa, primarily due to a lack of awareness about certain types of disabilities (particularly learning disabilities); stigma that is sometimes associated with disability, and the fine line that exists between chronic illness and disability, particularly in relation to the disability grant in South Africa. In addition, as Schneider, Dasappa, Khan and Khan, (2009: 246) point out, “large differences in disability statistics are currently observed internationally due to a lack of consistency in what is being measured as ‘disability’.” Nevertheless estimates suggest that globally between 10% and 12% of the population is currently living with a disability

230 Th normalization: new insights on an essential tool for quantifying sedimentary fluxes in the modern and quaternary ocean

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Costa, K. M., Hayes, C. T., Anderson, R. F., Pavia, F. J., Bausch, A., Deng, F., Dutay, J., Geibert, W., Heinze, C., Henderson, G., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Hoffmann, S., Jaccard, S. L., Jacobel, A. W., Kienast, S. S., Kipp, L., Lerner, P., Lippold, J., Lund, D., Marcantonio, F., McGee, D., McManus, J. F., Mekik, F., Middleton, J. L., Missiaen, L., Not, C., Pichat, S., Robinson, L. F., Rowland, G. H., Roy-Barman, M., Alessandro, Torfstein, A., Winckler, G., & Zhou, Y. 230 Th normalization: new insights on an essential tool for quantifying sedimentary fluxes in the modern and quaternary ocean. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 35(2), (2020): e2019PA003820, doi:10.1029/2019PA003820.230Th normalization is a valuable paleoceanographic tool for reconstructing high‐resolution sediment fluxes during the late Pleistocene (last ~500,000 years). As its application has expanded to ever more diverse marine environments, the nuances of 230Th systematics, with regard to particle type, particle size, lateral advective/diffusive redistribution, and other processes, have emerged. We synthesized over 1000 sedimentary records of 230Th from across the global ocean at two time slices, the late Holocene (0–5,000 years ago, or 0–5 ka) and the Last Glacial Maximum (18.5–23.5 ka), and investigated the spatial structure of 230Th‐normalized mass fluxes. On a global scale, sedimentary mass fluxes were significantly higher during the Last Glacial Maximum (1.79–2.17 g/cm2kyr, 95% confidence) relative to the Holocene (1.48–1.68 g/cm2kyr, 95% confidence). We then examined the potential confounding influences of boundary scavenging, nepheloid layers, hydrothermal scavenging, size‐dependent sediment fractionation, and carbonate dissolution on the efficacy of 230Th as a constant flux proxy. Anomalous 230Th behavior is sometimes observed proximal to hydrothermal ridges and in continental margins where high particle fluxes and steep continental slopes can lead to the combined effects of boundary scavenging and nepheloid interference. Notwithstanding these limitations, we found that 230Th normalization is a robust tool for determining sediment mass accumulation rates in the majority of pelagic marine settings (>1,000 m water depth).We thank Zanna Chase and one anonymous reviewer for valuable feedback. K. M. C. was supported by a Postdoctoral Scholarship at WHOI. L. M. acknowledges funding from the Australian Research Council grant DP180100048. The contribution of C. T. H., J. F. M., and R. F. A. were supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (US‐NSF). G. H. R. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/L002434/1). S. L. J. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants PP002P2_144811 and PP00P2_172915). This study was supported by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, which in turn received support from the Swiss Academy of Sciences and the US‐NSF. This work grew out of a 2018 workshop in Aix‐Marseille, France, funded by PAGES, GEOTRACES, SCOR, US‐NSF, Aix‐Marseille Université, and John Cantle Scientific. All data are publicly available as supporting information to this document and on the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/28791

Risk estimation of distant metastasis in node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer patients using an RT-PCR based prognostic expression signature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Given the large number of genes purported to be prognostic for breast cancer, it would be optimal if the genes identified are not confounded by the continuously changing systemic therapies. The aim of this study was to discover and validate a breast cancer prognostic expression signature for distant metastasis in untreated, early stage, lymph node-negative (N-) estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) patients with extensive follow-up times.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>197 genes previously associated with metastasis and ER status were profiled from 142 untreated breast cancer subjects. A "metastasis score" (MS) representing fourteen differentially expressed genes was developed and evaluated for its association with distant-metastasis-free survival (DMFS). Categorical risk classification was established from the continuous MS and further evaluated on an independent set of 279 untreated subjects. A third set of 45 subjects was tested to determine the prognostic performance of the MS in tamoxifen-treated women.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A 14-gene signature was found to be significantly associated (p < 0.05) with distant metastasis in a training set and subsequently in an independent validation set. In the validation set, the hazard ratios (HR) of the high risk compared to low risk groups were 4.02 (95% CI 1.91–8.44) for the endpoint of DMFS and 1.97 (95% CI 1.28 to 3.04) for overall survival after adjustment for age, tumor size and grade. The low and high MS risk groups had 10-year estimates (95% CI) of 96% (90–99%) and 72% (64–78%) respectively, for DMFS and 91% (84–95%) and 68% (61–75%), respectively for overall survival. Performance characteristics of the signature in the two sets were similar. Ki-67 labeling index (LI) was predictive for recurrent disease in the training set, but lost significance after adjustment for the expression signature. In a study of tamoxifen-treated patients, the HR for DMFS in high compared to low risk groups was 3.61 (95% CI 0.86–15.14).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The 14-gene signature is significantly associated with risk of distant metastasis. The signature has a predominance of proliferation genes which have prognostic significance above that of Ki-67 LI and may aid in prioritizing future mechanistic studies and therapeutic interventions.</p

Ex vivo Drug Sensitivity Imaging-based Platform for Primary Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells

Resistance of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells to chemotherapy, whether present at diagnosis or acquired during treatment, is a major cause of treatment failure. Primary ALL cells are accessible for drug sensitivity testing at the time of new diagnosis or at relapse, but there are major limitations with current methods for determining drug sensitivity ex vivo. Here, we describe a functional precision medicine method using a fluorescence imaging platform to test drug sensitivity profiles of primary ALL cells. Leukemia cells are co-cultured with mesenchymal stromal cells and tested with a panel of 40 anti-leukemia drugs to determine individual patterns of drug resistance and sensitivity ("pharmacotype"). This imaging-based pharmacotyping assay addresses the limitations of prior ex vivo drug sensitivity methods by automating data analysis to produce high-throughput data while requiring fewer cells and significantly decreasing the labor-intensive time required to conduct the assay. The integration of drug sensitivity data with genomic profiling provides a basis for rational genomics-guided precision medicine. Key features Analysis of primary acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) blasts obtained at diagnosis from bone marrow aspirate or peripheral blood. Experiments are performed ex vivo with mesenchymal stromal cell co-culture and require four days to complete. This fluorescence imaging-based protocol enhances previous ex vivo drug sensitivity assays and improves efficiency by requiring fewer primary cells while increasing the number of drugs tested to 40. It takes approximately 2-3 h for sample preparation and processing and a 1.5-hour imaging time. Graphical overview

Bodyweight Perceptions among Texas Women: The Effects of Religion, Race/Ethnicity, and Citizenship Status

Despite previous work exploring linkages between religious participation and health, little research has looked at the role of religion in affecting bodyweight perceptions. Using the theoretical model developed by Levin et al. (Sociol Q 36(1):157–173, 1995) on the multidimensionality of religious participation, we develop several hypotheses and test them by using data from the 2004 Survey of Texas Adults. We estimate multinomial logistic regression models to determine the relative risk of women perceiving themselves as overweight. Results indicate that religious attendance lowers risk of women perceiving themselves as very overweight. Citizenship status was an important factor for Latinas, with noncitizens being less likely to see themselves as overweight. We also test interaction effects between religion and race. Religious attendance and prayer have a moderating effect among Latina non-citizens so that among these women, attendance and prayer intensify perceptions of feeling less overweight when compared to their white counterparts. Among African American women, the effect of increased church attendance leads to perceptions of being overweight. Prayer is also a correlate of overweight perceptions but only among African American women. We close with a discussion that highlights key implications from our findings, note study limitations, and several promising avenues for future research

Extraformational sediment recycling on Mars

Extraformational sediment recycling (old sedimentary rock to new sedimentary rock) is a fundamental aspect of Earth's geological record; tectonism exposes sedimentary rock, whereupon it is weathered and eroded to form new sediment that later becomes lithified. On Mars, tectonism has been minor, but two decades of orbiter instrument-based studies show that some sedimentary rocks previously buried to depths of kilometers have been exposed, by erosion, at the surface. Four locations in Gale crater, explored using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Curiosity rover, exhibit sedimentary lithoclasts in sedimentary rock: At Marias Pass, they are mudstone fragments in sandstone derived from strata below an erosional unconformity; at Bimbe, they are pebble-sized sandstone and, possibly, laminated, intraclast-bearing, chemical (calcium sulfate) sediment fragments in conglomerates; at Cooperstown, they are pebble-sized fragments of sandstone within coarse sandstone; at Dingo Gap, they are cobble-sized, stratified sandstone fragments in conglomerate derived from an immediately underlying sandstone. Mars orbiter images show lithified sediment fans at the termini of canyons that incise sedimentary rock in Gale crater; these, too, consist of recycled, extraformational sediment. The recycled sediments in Gale crater are compositionally immature, indicating the dominance of physical weathering processes during the second known cycle. The observations at Marias Pass indicate that sediment eroded and removed from craters such as Gale crater during the Martian Hesperian Period could have been recycled to form new rock elsewhere. Our results permit prediction that lithified deltaic sediments at the Perseverance (landing in 2021) and Rosalind Franklin (landing in 2023) rover field sites could contain extraformational recycled sediment.With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737