Parental rearing style as a predictor of attachment and psychosocial adjustment during young adulthood

Parental rearing-styles are crucial for psychosocial adjustment both during childhood and adulthood. The current study examined whether: (a) parental rearing-styles predicted psychosocial adjustment in young-adulthood, (b) this relationship was mediated by attachment styles , and ( c ) gender differences occur in these relationships. Two hundred and forty (103 male and 132 female) university students completed measures assessing parental rearing-style , current attachment style, romantic relationship satisfaction, friendship quality, self-esteem, and social competence. Multigroup structural equation modelling, conducted separately by gender, revealed that parental rearing-style predicted psychosocial adjustment during young-adulthood. Further, there was also evidence of gender differences and that self-models and other-models of attachment mediated this relationship. Together, these findings reinforce the importance of perceived parental rearing-style for subsequent psychosocial adjustment

Viral population estimation using pyrosequencing

The diversity of virus populations within single infected hosts presents a major difficulty for the natural immune response as well as for vaccine design and antiviral drug therapy. Recently developed pyrophosphate based sequencing technologies (pyrosequencing) can be used for quantifying this diversity by ultra-deep sequencing of virus samples. We present computational methods for the analysis of such sequence data and apply these techniques to pyrosequencing data obtained from HIV populations within patients harboring drug resistant virus strains. Our main result is the estimation of the population structure of the sample from the pyrosequencing reads. This inference is based on a statistical approach to error correction, followed by a combinatorial algorithm for constructing a minimal set of haplotypes that explain the data. Using this set of explaining haplotypes, we apply a statistical model to infer the frequencies of the haplotypes in the population via an EM algorithm. We demonstrate that pyrosequencing reads allow for effective population reconstruction by extensive simulations and by comparison to 165 sequences obtained directly from clonal sequencing of four independent, diverse HIV populations. Thus, pyrosequencing can be used for cost-effective estimation of the structure of virus populations, promising new insights into viral evolutionary dynamics and disease control strategies.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figure

Making Associativity Operational

The purpose of this paper is to propose an operational idea for developing algebraic thinking in the absence of alphanumeric symbols. The paper reports on a design experiment encouraging preschool children to use the associative property algebraically. We describe the theoretical basis of the design, the tasks used, and examples of algebraic thinking in 5–6-year-old children. Theoretically, the paper makes a critical distinction between operational and structural meanings of the notion of equality. We argue that mathematical thinking involving equality among young learners can comprise both an operational and a structural conception and that the operational conception has a side that is productively linked to the structural conception. Using carefully designed hands-on tasks, the crux of the paper is the realization of algebraic thinking (in verbal mathematics) as operationally experienced in the ability to transform one number structure, with a quantity that is subject to change, into another through equality-preserving transformations

Quantifying trends in disease impact to produce a consistent and reproducible definition of an emerging infectious disease.

The proper allocation of public health resources for research and control requires quantification of both a disease's current burden and the trend in its impact. Infectious diseases that have been labeled as "emerging infectious diseases" (EIDs) have received heightened scientific and public attention and resources. However, the label 'emerging' is rarely backed by quantitative analysis and is often used subjectively. This can lead to over-allocation of resources to diseases that are incorrectly labelled "emerging," and insufficient allocation of resources to diseases for which evidence of an increasing or high sustained impact is strong. We suggest a simple quantitative approach, segmented regression, to characterize the trends and emergence of diseases. Segmented regression identifies one or more trends in a time series and determines the most statistically parsimonious split(s) (or joinpoints) in the time series. These joinpoints in the time series indicate time points when a change in trend occurred and may identify periods in which drivers of disease impact change. We illustrate the method by analyzing temporal patterns in incidence data for twelve diseases. This approach provides a way to classify a disease as currently emerging, re-emerging, receding, or stable based on temporal trends, as well as to pinpoint the time when the change in these trends happened. We argue that quantitative approaches to defining emergence based on the trend in impact of a disease can, with appropriate context, be used to prioritize resources for research and control. Implementing this more rigorous definition of an EID will require buy-in and enforcement from scientists, policy makers, peer reviewers and journal editors, but has the potential to improve resource allocation for global health

Meanings given to algebraic symbolism in problem posing

Some errors in the learning of algebra suggest students have difficulties giving meaning to algebraic symbolism. In this paper, we use problem posing in order to analyze the students’ capacity to assign meaning to algebraic symbolism and the difficulties that students encounter in this process depending on the characteristics of the algebraic statements given. We designed a written questionnaire composed of eight closed algebraic statements expressed symbolically, which was administered to 55 students who had finished their compulsory education and that had some previous experience in problem posing. In our analysis of the data, we examine both syntactic and semantic structures of the problem posed. We note that in most cases students posed problems with syntactic structures different to those given. They did not include computations within variables, and changed the kinds of relationships connecting variables. Students easily posed problems for statements with additive structures. Other differences in the type of problems posed depend on the characteristics of the given statements

Analisis Kekuatan Massa Batugamping Dengan Menggunakan Kaidah Hoek-Brown Failure Criterion-Roclab Di Daerah Gunung Sudo Kabupaten Gunung Kidul YOGYAKARTA

The research area is a limestone quarry region prospect, located in Gunung Sudo, Gunung Kidul Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta Province. Safety factor of bench in limestone quarry is extremely determined by rock mass quality. The aim of this research is analyzing of rock mass strength of limestone in the quarry prospect using the Hoek-Brown failure criterion. The research used quantitative method. To obtain rock mass strength analysis of limestone needs some parameters. The main parameters are uniaxial compressive strength of intact rock, GSI, lithology, disturbance factor, unit weight and application for slope (height).To solve this analysis is assisted by Roclab software. The Roclab is a software program for determining rock mass strength parameters based on the generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion. Final result of the research will be used for safely mine design of the limestone quarry

Benthic pH gradients across a range of shelf sea sediment types linked to sediment characteristics and seasonal variability

This study used microelectrodes to record pH profiles in fresh shelf sea sediment cores collected across a range of different sediment types within the Celtic Sea. Spatial and temporal variability was captured during repeated measurements in 2014 and 2015. Concurrently recorded oxygen microelectrode profiles and other sedimentary parameters provide a detailed context for interpretation of the pH data. Clear differences in profiles were observed between sediment type, location and season. Notably, very steep pH gradients exist within the surface sediments (10–20 mm), where decreases greater than 0.5 pH units were observed. Steep gradients were particularly apparent in fine cohesive sediments, less so in permeable sandier matrices. We hypothesise that the gradients are likely caused by aerobic organic matter respiration close to the sediment–water interface or oxidation of reduced species at the base of the oxic zone (NH4+, Mn2+, Fe2+, S−). Statistical analysis suggests the variability in the depth of the pH minima is controlled spatially by the oxygen penetration depth, and seasonally by the input and remineralisation of deposited organic phytodetritus. Below the pH minima the observed pH remained consistently low to maximum electrode penetration (ca. 60 mm), indicating an absence of sub-oxic processes generating H+ or balanced removal processes within this layer. Thus, a climatology of sediment surface porewater pH is provided against which to examine biogeochemical processes. This enhances our understanding of benthic pH processes, particularly in the context of human impacts, seabed integrity, and future climate changes, providing vital information for modelling benthic response under future climate scenarios

Non-Invasive Brain-to-Brain Interface (BBI): Establishing Functional Links between Two Brains

Transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) is capable of modulating the neural activity of specific brain regions, with a potential role as a non-invasive computer-to-brain interface (CBI). In conjunction with the use of brain-to-computer interface (BCI) techniques that translate brain function to generate computer commands, we investigated the feasibility of using the FUS-based CBI to non-invasively establish a functional link between the brains of different species (i.e. human and Sprague-Dawley rat), thus creating a brain-to-brain interface (BBI). The implementation was aimed to non-invasively translate the human volunteer's intention to stimulate a rat's brain motor area that is responsible for the tail movement. The volunteer initiated the intention by looking at a strobe light flicker on a computer display, and the degree of synchronization in the electroencephalographic steady-state-visual-evoked-potentials (SSVEP) with respect to the strobe frequency was analyzed using a computer. Increased signal amplitude in the SSVEP, indicating the volunteer's intention, triggered the delivery of a burst-mode FUS (350 kHz ultrasound frequency, tone burst duration of 0.5 ms, pulse repetition frequency of 1 kHz, given for 300 msec duration) to excite the motor area of an anesthetized rat transcranially. The successful excitation subsequently elicited the tail movement, which was detected by a motion sensor. The interface was achieved at 94.0 +/- 3.0% accuracy, with a time delay of 1.59 +/- 1.07 sec from the thought-initiation to the creation of the tail movement. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of a computer-mediated BBI that links central neural functions between two biological entities, which may confer unexplored opportunities in the study of neuroscience with potential implications for therapeutic applications.open12

Nerve growth factor induces neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells by promoting Gβγ-microtubule interaction

Background: Assembly and disassembly of microtubules (MTs) is critical for neurite outgrowth and differentiation. Evidence suggests that nerve growth factor (NGF) induces neurite outgrowth from PC12 cells by activating the receptor tyrosine kinase, TrkA. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) as well as heterotrimeric G proteins are also involved in regulating neurite outgrowth. However, the possible connection between these pathways and how they might ultimately converge to regulate the assembly and organization of MTs during neurite outgrowth is not well understood. Results: Here, we report that Gβγ, an important component of the GPCR pathway, is critical for NGF-induced neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells. We have found that NGF promoted the interaction of Gβγ with MTs and stimulated MT assembly. While Gβγ-sequestering peptide GRK2i inhibited neurite formation, disrupted MTs, and induced neurite damage, the Gβγ activator mSIRK stimulated neurite outgrowth, which indicates the involvement of Gβγ in this process. Because we have shown earlier that prenylation and subsequent methylation/demethylation of γ subunits are required for the Gβγ-MTs interaction in vitro, small-molecule inhibitors (L-28 and L-23) targeting prenylated methylated protein methyl esterase (PMPMEase) were tested in the current study. We found that these inhibitors disrupted Gβγ and ΜΤ organization and affected cellular morphology and neurite outgrowth. In further support of a role of Gβγ-MT interaction in neuronal differentiation, it was observed that overexpression of Gβγ in PC12 cells induced neurite outgrowth in the absence of added NGF. Moreover, overexpressed Gβγ exhibited a pattern of association with MTs similar to that observed in NGF-differentiated cells. Conclusions: Altogether, our results demonstrate that βγ subunit of heterotrimeric G proteins play a critical role in neurite outgrowth and differentiation by interacting with MTs and modulating MT rearrangement. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12868-014-0132-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users