Parent Physical and Psychological Aggression and Youth Dating Violence: A Latent Class Analysis Approach

Adolescent dating violence is a national public health issue and research suggests that aggressive parenting may predict the likelihood that a child will subsequently experience abuse. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of parent physical and psychological aggression on adolescent dating violence perpetration and victimization. Data derived from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study resulted in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of adolescents in dating relationships at the age of 15 years (N = 952). Utilizing both parent and adolescent data which assessed parenting practices at ages 3, 5, 9, and 15, and adolescent dating violence victimization and perpetration at age 15, we analyzed the data using a latest class analysis. Youth were typologized into three classes: the non-physically aggressive parenting, nonaggressive dating class (Class 1; 16% of youth), the aggressive parenting, nonaggressive dating class (Class 2; 76% of youth), and the aggressive parenting, aggressive dating class (Class 3; 8% of youth). Parents across all three classes utilized high levels of psychologically aggressive parenting. An important finding from this study is that parents’ use of both physically and psychologically aggressive parenting only predicted subsequent dating violence victimization and perpetration among a small portion of adolescents. Findings suggest that additional risk factors, including household income and adolescent impulsivity, may help to elucidate pathways to adolescent dating violence. There is also a need to further explore the resiliency factors at play for youth who, despite having experienced both psychologically and physically aggressive parenting across the lifespan, did not experience dating violence victimization or perpetration

Indoor/Ambient Residential Air Toxics Results in Rural Western Montana

Indoor and ambient concentrations of 21 Volatile Organic Compounds (including 14 Hazardous Air Pollutants) were measured in the homes of nearly 80 western Montana (Missoula) high school students as part of the ‘Air Toxics Under the Big Sky’ program during the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 school years. Target analytes were measured using low flow air sampling pumps and sorbent tubes, with analysis of the exposed samples by Thermal Desorption/Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (TD/GC/MS). The results reported here present the findings of the first indoor/ambient air toxics monitoring program conducted in a semi-rural valley location located in the Northern Rocky Mountain/western Montana region. Of all of the air toxics quantified in this study, toluene was found to be the most abundant compound in both the indoor and ambient environments during each of the two school years. Indoor log-transformed mean concentrations were found to be higher when compared with ambient log-transformed mean concentrations at P \u3c 0.001 for the majority of the compounds, supporting the results of previous studies conducted in urban areas. For the air toxics consistently measured throughout this program, concentrations were approximately six times higher inside the student’s homes compared to those simultaneously measured directly outside their homes. For the majority of the compounds, there were no significant correlations between indoor and ambient concentrations

Reviews and syntheses: Spatial and temporal patterns in seagrass metabolic fluxes

Seagrass meadow metabolism has been measured for decades to gain insight into ecosystem energy, biomass production, food web dynamics, and, more recently, to inform its potential in ameliorating ocean acidification (OA). This extensive body of literature can be used to infer trends and drivers of seagrass meadow metabolism. Here, we synthesize the results from 56 studies reporting in situ rates of seagrass gross primary productivity, respiration, and/or net community productivity to highlight spatial and temporal variability in oxygen (O2) fluxes. We illustrate that daytime net community production (NCP) is positive overall and similar across seasons and geographies. Full-day NCP rates, which illustrate the potential cumulative effect of seagrass beds on seawater biogeochemistry integrated over day and night, were also positive overall but were higher in summer months in both tropical and temperate ecosystems. Although our analyses suggest seagrass meadows are generally autotrophic, the effects on seawater oxygen are relatively small in magnitude. We also find positive correlations between gross primary production and temperature, although this effect may vary between temperate and tropical geographies and may change under future climate scenarios if seagrasses approach thermal tolerance thresholds. In addition, we illustrate that periods when full-day NCP is highest could be associated with lower nighttime O2 and increased diurnal variability in seawater O2. These results can serve as first-order estimates of when and where OA amelioration by seagrasses may be likely. However, improved understanding of variations in NCPdic:NCPO2 ratios and increased work directly measuring metabolically driven alterations in seawater pH will further inform the potential for seagrass meadows to serve in this context

Vaccine hesitancy: clarifying a theoretical framework for an ambiguous notion.

Today, according to many public health experts, public confidence in vaccines is waning. The term "vaccine hesitancy" (VH) is increasingly used to describe the spread of such vaccine reluctance. But VH is an ambiguous notion and its theoretical background appears uncertain. To clarify this concept, we first review the current definitions of VH in the public health literature and examine its most prominent characteristics. VH has been defined as a set of beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours, or some combination of them, shared by a large and heterogeneous portion of the population and including people who exhibit reluctant conformism (they may either decline a vaccine, delay it or accept it despite their doubts) and vaccine-specific behaviours. Secondly, we underline some of the ambiguities of this notion and argue that it is more a catchall category than a real concept. We also call into question the usefulness of understanding VH as an intermediate position along a continuum ranging from anti-vaccine to pro-vaccine attitudes, and we discuss its qualification as a belief, attitude or behaviour. Thirdly, we propose a theoretical framework, based on previous literature and taking into account some major structural features of contemporary societies, that considers VH as a kind of decision-making process that depends on people's level of commitment to healthism/risk culture and on their level of confidence in the health authorities and mainstream medicine

Using Radical Adult Education to Map Change in a Globalized World

Radical adult education using a sociological frame can support adult educators to see their roles as change agents within their spheres of influence. Using cultural mapping, adult educators define these spheres, stake claims, set benchmarks, grow networks, or develop participatory action research within the identified community

Correlating Changes in Spot Filling Factors with Stellar Rotation: The Case of LkCa 4

We present a multi-epoch spectroscopic study of LkCa 4, a heavily spotted non-accreting T Tauri star. Using SpeX at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), 12 spectra were collected over five consecutive nights, spanning $\approx$ 1.5 stellar rotations. Using the IRTF SpeX Spectral Library, we constructed empirical composite models of spotted stars by combining a warmer (photosphere) standard star spectrum with a cooler (spot) standard weighted by the spot filling factor, $f_{spot}$. The best-fit models spanned two photospheric component temperatures, $T_{phot}$ = 4100 K (K7V) and 4400 K (K5V), and one spot component temperature, $T_{spot}$ = 3060 K (M5V) with an $A_V$ of 0.3. We find values of $f_{spot}$ to vary between 0.77 and 0.94 with an average uncertainty of $\sim$0.04. The variability of $f_{spot}$ is periodic and correlates with its 3.374 day rotational period. Using a mean value for $f^{mean}_{spot}$ to represent the total spot coverage, we calculated spot corrected values for $T_{eff}$ and $L_\star$. Placing these values alongside evolutionary models developed for heavily spotted young stars, we infer mass and age ranges of 0.45-0.6 $M_\odot$ and 0.50-1.25 Myr, respectively. These inferred values represent a twofold increase in the mass and a twofold decrease in the age as compared to standard evolutionary models. Such a result highlights the need for constraining the contributions of cool and warm regions of young stellar atmospheres when estimating $T_{eff}$ and $L_\star$ to infer masses and ages as well as the necessity for models to account for the effects of these regions on the early evolution of low-mass stars.Comment: 21 pages, 9 Figures; Accepted for publication in Ap