Group Identity and Intergroup Discrimination: Does Importance to Identity Play a Special Role?

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the relationship between a specific dimension of collective identity, importance to identity, and intergroup discrimination. Three sets of studies explored this association. The first set (Studies 1a – 1d) assessed whether emphasising vs. de-emphasising the intergroup context affected the relationship between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination. Findings from Studies 1a – 1d revealed a significant positive relationship between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination when intergroup relations were emphasised. No such association was found when intergroup relations were de-emphasised. When the intergroup context was emphasised, New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward both Americans and Asians, than other New Zealanders. Both men and women whose gender identities were important to them showed more discrimination toward members of the opposite sex than members of their own sex. The second set of studies (Studies 2a – 2f) evaluated whether 12 potentially overlapping variables explained the relationship found between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination. In addition to completing measures of importance to identity and intergroup discrimination, participants in each of the 6 separate studies that comprised Study 2 responded to 2 measures assessing potentially overlapping variables (12 of these variables were assessed altogether, across the 6 studies). These were state (personal) self-esteem, private collective self-esteem (private CSE), public collective self-esteem (public CSE), membership collective self-esteem (membership CSE), perceived intergroup conflict, quality of social identity, group identification, trait self-esteem, affective commitment, categorisation, social dominance orientation (SDO) and right wing authoritarianism (RWA). Findings from Studies 2a – 2f revealed that importance to identity uniquely predicted intergroup discrimination. Northern Irish individuals whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward Polish immigrants, than other Northern Irish individuals. New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward both Asians and Americans, than other New Zealanders. Both men and women whose gender identities were important to them showed more discrimination toward members of the opposite sex than members of their own sex. None of these associations were explained by any of the 12 potentially overlapping constructs. The third set of studies (Studies 3a – 3b) investigated whether importance to identity served as a dependent variable, as well as an independent variable, in relation to intergroup discrimination. Findings from Studies 3a – 3b revealed that importance to identity both predicted and was predicted by intergroup discrimination. New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward Americans than other New Zealanders and this discrimination in turn strengthened the importance of their national identity. Women whose gender identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward men than other women and this in turn strengthened the importance of their gender identity. The findings across all three sets of studies (1a – 1d, 2a – 2f and 3a – 3b) show that when a particular group identity is important to a person, they are more likely to engage in discrimination against outgroup members. This act of engaging in intergroup discrimination is, in turn, likely to increase the importance a person attaches to that group identity. The implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for future research directions are made

Clinically Actionable Hypercholesterolemia and Hypertriglyceridemia in Children with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

OBJECTIVE: To determine the percentage of children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in whom intervention for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or triglycerides was indicated based on National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute guidelines. STUDY DESIGN: This multicenter, longitudinal cohort study included children with NAFLD enrolled in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network. Fasting lipid profiles were obtained at diagnosis. Standardized dietary recommendations were provided. After 1 year, lipid profiles were repeated and interpreted according to National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Expert Panel on Integrated Guidelines for Cardiovascular Health and Risk Reduction. Main outcomes were meeting criteria for clinically actionable dyslipidemia at baseline, and either achieving lipid goal at follow-up or meeting criteria for ongoing intervention. RESULTS: There were 585 participants, with a mean age of 12.8 years. The prevalence of children warranting intervention for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol at baseline was 14%. After 1 year of recommended dietary changes, 51% achieved goal low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 27% qualified for enhanced dietary and lifestyle modifications, and 22% met criteria for pharmacologic intervention. Elevated triglycerides were more prevalent, with 51% meeting criteria for intervention. At 1 year, 25% achieved goal triglycerides with diet and lifestyle changes, 38% met criteria for advanced dietary modifications, and 37% qualified for antihyperlipidemic medications. CONCLUSIONS: More than one-half of children with NAFLD met intervention thresholds for dyslipidemia. Based on the burden of clinically relevant dyslipidemia, lipid screening in children with NAFLD is warranted. Clinicians caring for children with NAFLD should be familiar with lipid management

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

In Children with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Zone 1 Steatosis is Associated with Advanced Fibrosis

Background & Aims Focal zone 1 steatosis, although rare in adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), does occur in children with NAFLD. We investigated whether focal zone 1 steatosis and focal zone 3 steatosis are distinct subphenotypes of pediatric NAFLD. We aimed to determine associations between the zonality of steatosis and demographic, clinical, and histologic features in children with NAFLD. Methods We performed a cross-sectional study of baseline data from 813 children (age <18 years; mean age, 12.8 ± 2.7 years). The subjects had biopsy-proven NAFLD and were enrolled in the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network. Liver histology was reviewed using the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network scoring system. Results Zone 1 steatosis was present in 18% of children with NAFLD (n = 146) and zone 3 steatosis was present in 32% (n = 244). Children with zone 1 steatosis were significantly younger (10 vs 14 years; P < .001) and a significantly higher proportion had any fibrosis (81% vs 51%; P < .001) or advanced fibrosis (13% vs 5%; P < .001) compared with children with zone 3 steatosis. In contrast, children with zone 3 steatosis were significantly more likely to have steatohepatitis (30% vs 6% in children with zone 1 steatosis; P < .001). Conclusions Children with zone 1 or zone 3 distribution of steatosis have an important subphenotype of pediatric NAFLD. Children with zone 1 steatosis are more likely to have advanced fibrosis and children with zone 3 steatosis are more likely to have steatohepatitis. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of pediatric NAFLD, studies of pathophysiology, natural history, and response to treatment should account for the zonality of steatosis

Historical astronomical data : urgent need for preservation, digitization enabling scientific exploration

AbstractOver the past decades and even centuries, the astronomical community has accumulated a significant heritage of recorded observations of a great many astronomical objects. Those records contain irreplaceable information about long-term evolutionary and non-evolutionary changes in our Universe, and their preservation and digitization is vital. Unfortunately, most of those data risk becoming degraded and thence totally lost. We hereby call upon the astronomical community and US funding agencies to recognize the gravity of the situation, and to commit to an international preservation and digitization efforts through comprehensive long-term planning supported by adequate resources, prioritizing where the expected scientific gains, vulnerability of the originals and availability of relevant infrastructure so dictates. The importance and urgency of this issue has been recognized recently by General Assembly XXX of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in its Resolution B3: "on preservation, digitization and scientific exploration of historical astronomical data". We outline the rationale of this promotion, provide examples of new science through successful recovery efforts, and review the potential losses to science if nothing it done.The preservation of astronomy’s historical data is critical for understanding our changing Universe, but those data are at increasing risk of becoming lost. Concerted efforts are needed urgently by the entire astronomical community to ensure that that does not happen. The data must be transformed digitally so that they can be accessible and used for the benefit of scientific exploration and thence of society.Abstract Over the past decades and even centuries, the astronomical community has accumulated a significant heritage of recorded observations of a great many astronomical objects. Those records contain irreplaceable information about long-term evolutionary and non-evolutionary changes in our Universe, and their preservation and digitization is vital. Unfortunately, most of those data risk becoming degraded and thence totally lost. We hereby call upon the astronomical community and US funding agencies to recognize the gravity of the situation, and to commit to an international preservation and digitization efforts through comprehensive long-term planning supported by adequate resources, prioritizing where the expected scientific gains, vulnerability of the originals and availability of relevant infrastructure so dictates. The importance and urgency of this issue has been recognized recently by General Assembly XXX of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in its Resolution B3: "on preservation, digitization and scientific exploration of historical astronomical data". We outline the rationale of this promotion, provide examples of new science through successful recovery efforts, and review the potential losses to science if nothing it done. The preservation of astronomy’s historical data is critical for understanding our changing Universe, but those data are at increasing risk of becoming lost. Concerted efforts are needed urgently by the entire astronomical community to ensure that that does not happen. The data must be transformed digitally so that they can be accessible and used for the benefit of scientific exploration and thence of society

Family structure, parent-child conversation time and substance use among Chinese adolescents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The family plays a vital role in shaping adolescent behaviours. The present study investigated the associations between family structure and substance use among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 32,961 Form 1 to 5 (grade 7-12 in the US) Hong Kong students participated in the Youth Smoking Survey in 2003-4. An anonymous questionnaire was used to obtain information about family structure, daily duration of parent-child conversation, smoking, alcohol drinking and drug use. Logistic regression was used to calculate the adjusted odds ratios (OR) for each substance use by family structure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Adjusting for sex, age, type of housing, parental smoking and school, adolescents from non-intact families were significantly more likely to be current smokers (OR = 1.62), weekly drinkers (OR = 1.72) and ever drug users (OR = 1.72), with significant linear increases in ORs from maternal, paternal to no-parent families compared with intact families. Furthermore, current smoking (OR = 1.41) and weekly drinking (OR = 1.46) were significantly more common among adolescents from paternal than maternal families. After adjusting for parent-child conversation time, the ORs for non-intact families remained significant compared with intact families, but the paternal-maternal differences were no longer significant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Non-intact families were associated with substance use among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. The apparently stronger associations with substance use in paternal than maternal families were probably mediated by the poorer communication with the father.</p

Group Identity and Intergroup Discrimination: Does Importance to Identity Play a Special Role?

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the relationship between a specific dimension of collective identity, importance to identity, and intergroup discrimination. Three sets of studies explored this association. The first set (Studies 1a – 1d) assessed whether emphasising vs. de-emphasising the intergroup context affected the relationship between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination. Findings from Studies 1a – 1d revealed a significant positive relationship between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination when intergroup relations were emphasised. No such association was found when intergroup relations were de-emphasised. When the intergroup context was emphasised, New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward both Americans and Asians, than other New Zealanders. Both men and women whose gender identities were important to them showed more discrimination toward members of the opposite sex than members of their own sex. The second set of studies (Studies 2a – 2f) evaluated whether 12 potentially overlapping variables explained the relationship found between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination. In addition to completing measures of importance to identity and intergroup discrimination, participants in each of the 6 separate studies that comprised Study 2 responded to 2 measures assessing potentially overlapping variables (12 of these variables were assessed altogether, across the 6 studies). These were state (personal) self-esteem, private collective self-esteem (private CSE), public collective self-esteem (public CSE), membership collective self-esteem (membership CSE), perceived intergroup conflict, quality of social identity, group identification, trait self-esteem, affective commitment, categorisation, social dominance orientation (SDO) and right wing authoritarianism (RWA). Findings from Studies 2a – 2f revealed that importance to identity uniquely predicted intergroup discrimination. Northern Irish individuals whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward Polish immigrants, than other Northern Irish individuals. New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward both Asians and Americans, than other New Zealanders. Both men and women whose gender identities were important to them showed more discrimination toward members of the opposite sex than members of their own sex. None of these associations were explained by any of the 12 potentially overlapping constructs. The third set of studies (Studies 3a – 3b) investigated whether importance to identity served as a dependent variable, as well as an independent variable, in relation to intergroup discrimination. Findings from Studies 3a – 3b revealed that importance to identity both predicted and was predicted by intergroup discrimination. New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward Americans than other New Zealanders and this discrimination in turn strengthened the importance of their national identity. Women whose gender identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward men than other women and this in turn strengthened the importance of their gender identity. The findings across all three sets of studies (1a – 1d, 2a – 2f and 3a – 3b) show that when a particular group identity is important to a person, they are more likely to engage in discrimination against outgroup members. This act of engaging in intergroup discrimination is, in turn, likely to increase the importance a person attaches to that group identity. The implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for future research directions are made

Structure Enhancement Methodology Using Theory and Experiment: Gas-Phase Molecular Structures Using a Dynamic Interaction between Electron Diffraction, Molecular Mechanics, and Ab Initio Data

A new method of incorporating ab initio theoretical data dynamically into the gas-phase electron diffraction (GED) refinement process has been developed to aid the structure determination of large, sterically crowded molecules. This process involves calculating a set of differences between parameters that define the positions of peripheral atoms (usually hydrogen), as determined using molecular mechanics (MM), and those which use ab initio methods. The peripheral-atom positions are then updated continually during the GED refinement process, using MM, and the returned positions are modified using this set of differences to account for the differences between ab initio and MM methods, before being scaled back to the average parameters used to define them, as refined from experimental data. This allows the molecule to adopt a completely asymmetric structure if required, without being constrained by the MM parametrization, whereas the calculations can be performed on a practical time scale. The molecular structures of tri-tert-butylphosphine oxide and tri-tert-butylphosphine imide have been re-examined using this new technique, which we call SEMTEX (Structure Enhancement Methodology using Theory and EXperiment)