Expression of apolipoprotein E by cultured vascular smooth muscle cells is controlled by growth state.

Rat vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) in culture synthesize and secrete a approximately 38,000-Mr protein doublet or triplet that, as previously described (Majack and Bornstein. 1984. J. Cell Biol. 99:1688-1695), rapidly and reversibly accumulates in the SMC culture medium upon addition of heparin. In the present study, we show that this approximately 38,000-Mr heparin-regulated protein is electrophoretically and immunologically identical to apolipoprotein E (apo-E), a major plasma apolipoprotein involved in cholesterol transport. In addition, we show that expression of apo-E by cultured SMC varies according to growth state: while proliferating SMC produced little apo-E and expressed low levels of apo-E mRNA, quiescent SMC produced significantly more apo-E (relative to other proteins) and expressed markedly increased levels of apo-E mRNA. Northern analysis of RNA extracted from aortic tissue revealed that fully differentiated, quiescent SMC contain significant quantities of apo-E mRNA. These data establish aortic SMC as a vascular source for apo-E and suggest new functional roles for this apolipoprotein, possibly unrelated to traditional concepts of lipid metabolism

Conditional models for spatial extremes

Extreme environmental events endanger human life and cause serious damage to property and infrastructure. For example, Storm Desmond (2015) caused approximately £500m of damage in Lancashire and Cumbria, UK from high winds and flooding, while Storm Britta (2006) damaged shipping vessels and offshore structures in the southern North Sea, and led to coastal flooding. Estimating the probability of the occurrence of such events is key in designing structures and infrastructure that are able to withstand their impacts. Due to the rarity of these events, extreme value theory techniques are used for inference. This thesis focusses on developing novel spatial extreme value methods motivated by applications to significant wave height in the North Sea and north Atlantic, and extreme precipitation for the Netherlands. We develop methodology for analysing the dependence structure of significant wave height by utilising spatial conditional extreme value methods. Since the dependence structure of extremes between locations is likely to be complicated, with contributing factors including distance and covariates, we model dependence flexibly; otherwise, the incorrect assumption on the dependence between sites may lead to inaccurate estimation of the probabilities of spatial extreme events occurring. Existing methods for spatial extremes typically assume a particular form of extremal dependence termed asymptotic dependence, and often have intractable forms for describing the dependence of joint events over large numbers of locations. The model developed here overcomes these deficiencies. Moreover, the estimation of joint probabilities across sites under both asymptotic independence and asymptotic dependence, the two limiting extremal dependence classes, is possible with our model; this is not the case with other methods. We propose a method for the estimation of marginal extreme precipitation quantiles, utilising a Bayesian spatio-temporal hierarchical model. Our model parameters incorporate an autoregressive prior distribution, and use spatial interpolation to pool information on model parameters across neighbouring sites

Suggestions for Data Collection at Outdoor Recreation Sites

Survey research relies on sampling techniques that require data collectors to ask potential respondents to participate in their studies. This type of data collection occurs primarily through the mediums of mailed cover letters, telephone solicitation, email requests, Web sites, and face-to-face encounters. The purpose of this data collection guide is to provide direct, practical ideas for collecting survey data at recreation sites. A theoretical background provides a framework that is followed by specific suggestions for gaining the cooperation of respondents and collecting survey data

Cross-cultural transition, coping, and social support: relationships among psychological outcomes among British Migrants in Australia

This review examines the relationships among coping strategies, social support, and migrant adjustment. Research suggests that due to losses of the homeland, such as loss of family, friends and community, and adjustment difficulties in the new country, migration can be a difficult experience. Several key findings in the literature however, revealed that particular coping strategies and social support are two key factors that can ameliorate the negative effects of migration. Research has typically found an association between coping strategies and psychological outcomes, such that, problem-focused or active coping strategies, whereby migrants take direct action to solve the problem, are typically associated with better psychological outcomes. Social support has also been found to predict better psychological outcomes. Several limitations were also evident in the literature which included both methodological and measurement issues. The most prominent limitation is that the majority of the research has been conducted among non-English speaking background (NESB) immigrants that have relocated to an English speaking background (ESB) country, whilst there is a paucity of research on the stress-coping/social support relationship among ESB migrants who have relocated to an ESB country. Therefore, further research is required to determine the moderating effects of coping strategies and social support within these immigrant populations. This research aimed to examine the relationships among coping strategies, social support and psychological outcomes among a sample of 98 British migrants who had settled in Perth, Western Australia. A cross-sectional survey design was used with a self-report methodology. The COPE scale was utilised to measure coping strategies, whilst the Profile of Mood States and Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale assessed depressed/negative moo6\u27 and depression, respectively. Participants were recruited through volunteer sampling and snowball sampling. Correlational analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate statistical relations between coping styles and psychological outcomes. Consistent with previous research, the findings revealed that the avoidant coping strategy of denial was a significant predictor of depression and depressed mood. Contrary to the literature active coping and social support were not found to predict either depression or depressed mood. Limitations of the study are considered, and avenues for future research are suggested

MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD: AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID KRANTZ

David L. Krantz is Professor of Psychology at Lake Forest College. A Fromer Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Science, be has published articles and books in the social psychology of science and topic related to power, knowing, and life's meaning. He recently completed a book tentatively titled journays and Destinations: Searching for life's Meanings while a Visiting Professor at the University of Ghent, Belgium

Factors Influencing Particpants\u27 Trust in Outdoor Organizations and Outdoor Leaders

Trust plays a critical role in the field of outdoor education. The building of trust among participants is a common goal of outdoor educators (Honchalk, 1982; Smith, Roland, Hanes, & Hoyt, 1992; Fox & Mick, 1996) and 1s believed to influence learning outcomes (Rotter, 1967). The absence of trust in one\u27s leader may result in unrealized goals and lack of productivity (Kramer & Cook, 2004 ). The purpose of the current study was to explore, through action research, how trust is established between consumers and outdoor organizations and between participants in outdoor programs and their outdoor leaders. The identification of possible determinants of trust benefits both practitioner and organization by providing a list of positive and negative behaviors that may influence both interpersonal and organizational trust development and retention

The Importance of Trust in Outdoor Education: Exploring the Relationship between Trust in Outdoor Leaders and Developmental Outcomes

Recent studies have acknowledged the influence of the leader in the outdoor education process and have illuminated the need for strong interpersonal relationships between participants and leaders. Developing interpersonal trust is one among many ways that leaders can promote such positive interpersonal relationships between themselves and participants. Transdisciplinary literature suggests that trust in a leader can predict outcomes that are important to outdoor education. This study found a positive relationship between trust in outdoor leaders and the course outcomes of leadership development and outdoor skills development among students of National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) courses. Implications for program implementation and theory development are discussed

Benchmarking Monocular 3D Dog Pose Estimation Using In-The-Wild Motion Capture Data

We introduce a new benchmark analysis focusing on 3D canine pose estimation from monocular in-the-wild images. A multi-modal dataset 3DDogs-Lab was captured indoors, featuring various dog breeds trotting on a walkway. It includes data from optical marker-based mocap systems, RGBD cameras, IMUs, and a pressure mat. While providing high-quality motion data, the presence of optical markers and limited background diversity make the captured video less representative of real-world conditions. To address this, we created 3DDogs-Wild, a naturalised version of the dataset where the optical markers are in-painted and the subjects are placed in diverse environments, enhancing its utility for training RGB image-based pose detectors. We show that using the 3DDogs-Wild to train the models leads to improved performance when evaluating on in-the-wild data. Additionally, we provide a thorough analysis using various pose estimation models, revealing their respective strengths and weaknesses. We believe that our findings, coupled with the datasets provided, offer valuable insights for advancing 3D animal pose estimation.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, including supplementary, CV4Animals Workshop 2024 (CVPRW