“If You Build It, They Will Come”: Relationship between Attraction Features and Intention to Visit

The purpose of this study is to find out what themes and features of a tourist attraction are considered important by tourists, and whether or not these features influence their likelihood of visiting different types of attractions. First, for potential travelers to a rural destination, their likelihood of visiting different types of built tourist attractions was measured. Second, five attraction features (i.e., Experience, Cultural Value, Site Accessibility, Marketing, Leadership) were used to identify potential travelers’ preference. Finally, this study explored whether attraction features influenced potential travelers’ likelihood to visit different types of built attractions. The findings of this study can provide direction for the planning of cultural and heritage tourism

HOXA3 Modulates Injury-Induced Mobilization and Recruitment of Bone Marrow-Derived Cells

The regulated recruitment and differentiation of multipotent bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) to sites of injury are critical for efficient wound healing. Previously we demonstrated that sustained expression of HOXA3 both accelerated wound healing and promoted angiogenesis in diabetic mice. In this study, we have used green fluorescent protein-positive bone marrow chimeras to investigate the effect of HOXA3 expression on recruitment of BMDCs to wounds. We hypothesized that the enhanced neovascularization induced by HOXA3 is due to enhanced mobilization, recruitment, and/or differentiation of BMDCs. Here we show that diabetic mice treated with HOXA3 displayed a significant increase in both mobilization and recruitment of endothelial progenitor cells compared with control mice. Importantly, we also found that HOXA3-treated mice had significantly fewer inflammatory cells recruited to the wound compared with control mice. Microarray analyses of HOXA3-treated wounds revealed that indeed HOXA3 locally increased expression of genes that selectively promote stem/progenitor cell mobilization and recruitment while also suppressing expression of numerous members of the proinflammatory nuclear factor κB pathway, including myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 and toll-interacting protein. Thus HOXA3 accelerates wound repair by mobilizing endothelial progenitor cells and attenuating the excessive inflammatory response of chronic wounds

Brief Amici Curiae Legal Scholars of Sex and Gender In Support of Plaintiff-Appellant

This amicus brief was filed in Griffith v. El Paso County, Colorado, case no. 23-1135 (10th Circuit) in support of appellant Darlene Griffith. Amici curiae are legal scholars of sex and gender. They offerexpertise in their personal capacities to assist the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in assessing whether the El Paso County Sheriff officials violated Ms. Griffith’s Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection when they refused to house Ms. Griffith, a transgender woman, in the women\u27s unit of the El Paso County Jail as a pretrial detainee

Olfactory cues are sufficient to elicit social approach behaviors but not social transmission of food preference in C57BL/6J mice

Mouse models for the study of autistic-like behaviors are increasingly needed to test hypotheses about the causes of autism, and to evaluate potential treatments. Both the automated 3-chambered social approach test and social transmission of food preference have been proposed as mouse behavioral assays with face validity to diagnostic symptoms of autism, including aberrant reciprocal social interactions and impaired communication. Both assays measure aspects of normal social behavior in the mouse. However, little is known regarding the salient cues present in each assay that elicit normal social approach and communication. To deconstruct the critical components, we focused on delivering discrete social and non-social olfactory and visual cues within the context of each assay. Results indicate that social olfactory cues were sufficient to elicit normal sociability in the 3-chambered social approach test On social transmission of food preference, isolated social olfactory cues were sufficient to induce social investigation, but not sufficient to induce food preference. These findings indicate that olfactory cues are important in mouse social interaction, but that additional sensory cues are necessary in certain situations. The present evidence that both the 3-chambered social approach assay and the social transmission of food preference assay require socially relevant cues to elicit normal behavior supports the use of these two assays to investigate autism-related behavioral phenotypes in mice

Vitamin D status in female military personnel during combat training

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for maintaining bone health. Recent data suggest that vitamin D and calcium supplementation might affect stress fracture incidence in military personnel. Although stress fracture is a health risk for military personnel during training, no study has investigated changes in vitamin D status in Soldiers during United States (US) Army basic combat training (BCT). This longitudinal study aimed to determine the effects of BCT on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in female Soldiers. Serum 25(OH)D and PTH were assessed in 74 fasted Soldier volunteers before and after an 8-week BCT course conducted between August and October in Columbia, South Carolina. In the total study population, 25(OH)D levels decreased (mean ± SD) from 72.9 ± 30.0 to 63.3 ± 19.8 nmol/L (P < 0.05) and PTH levels increased from 36.2 ± 15.8 to 47.5 ± 21.2 pg/mL (P < 0.05) during BCT. Ethnicity affected changes in vitamin D status (ethnicity-by-time interaction, P < 0.05); 25(OH)D decreased (P < 0.05) in both Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites, but did not change in non-Hispanic blacks. Ethnicity did not affect BCT-induced changes in PTH. These data indicate that vitamin D status in female Soldiers may decline during military training in the late summer and early autumn months in the Southeastern US. Future studies should strive to determine the impact of military clothing and seasonality on vitamin D status, as well as the functional impact of declining vitamin D status on bone health

Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control

Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10–18 years and their parents (N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network closure. Results indicate that an orthodox religious identity for Catholic and Protestant parents and higher levels of religious attendance for parents as a whole are associated with increases in monitoring activities and normative regulations of American adolescents

Association of the SULT1A1 R213H polymorphism with colorectal cancer

1. Sulphotransferases are a superfamily of enzymes involved in both detoxification and bioactivation of endogenous and exogenous compounds. The arylsulphotransferase SULT1A1 has been implicated in a decreased activity and thermostability when the wild-type arginine at position 213 of the coding sequence is substituted by a histidine. SULT1A1 is the isoform primarily associated with the conversion of dietary N -OH arylamines to DNA binding adducts and is therefore of interest to determine whether this polymorphism is linked to colorectal cancer. 2. Genotyping, using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis, was performed using DNA samples of healthy control subjects (n = 402) and patients with histologically proven colorectal cancer (n = 383). Both control and test populations possessed similar frequencies for the mutant allele (32.1 and 31%, respectively; P = 0.935). Results were not altered when age and gender were considered as potential confounders in a logistic regression analysis. 3. Examination of the sulphonating ability of the two allozymes with respect to the substrates p -nitrophenol and paracetamol showed that the affinity and rate of sulphonation was unaffected by substitution of arginine to histidine at position 213 of the amino acid sequence. 4. From this study, we conclude that the SULT1A1 R213H polymorphism is not linked with colorectal cancer in this elderly Australian population

Transplantation in Remission Improves the Disease-Free Survival of Patients with Advanced Myelodysplastic Syndromes Treated with Myeloablative T Cell-Depleted Stem Cell Transplants from HLA-Identical Siblings

AbstractFrom 1985 to 2004, 49 patients with advanced myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) (≥5% blasts) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) transformed from MDS underwent T cell depleted bone marrow or peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from HLA-identical siblings following conditioning with a myeloablative regimen that included total body irradiation (44 patients) or busulfan (5 patients). Thirty-six patients received chemotherapy (3 low dose and 33 induction doses) before conditioning, and 13 patients did not receive any chemotherapy. Prior to transplantation, 22 of the 36 treated patients were in hematologic remission; 4 were in a second refractory cytopenia phase (26 responders); 8 had failed to achieve remission; and 2 of the responders had progression or relapse of their MDS (10 failures). No post-transplantation pharmacologic prophylaxis for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was given. The median age was 48 yrs (range 13-61). Forty-five of the 49 patients engrafted; 2 had primary graft failure; and 2 died before engraftment. Only 3 patients developed acute GVHD (aGVHD) (grades I and III) and 1 chronic GVHD (cGVHD). At 3 yrs post-transplantation, the overall survival (OS) was 54% in the responders; 31% in the untreated group; and 0% in the failure group (P=.0004). The disease free survival (DFS) was 50%, 15% and 0% in each group respectively (P=.0008). In multivariate analysis, disease status before cytoreduction remained highly correlated with DFS (P<.001). The cumulative incidence (CI) of relapse at 2-yrs post-transplantation for the responders was 23%; for the untreated group was 38%; and for the failures was 50%. The CI of non-relapse mortality at 2-yrs post-transplantation, for the responders was 23%; for the untreated group was 38%; and for the failures was 40%. All survivors achieved a Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) of ≥90. These results indicate that patients with advanced MDS who achieve and remain in remission or a second refractory cytopenia phase with chemotherapy before conditioning can achieve successful long-term remissions following a myeloablative T cell depleted allogeneic HSCT

The necessity and possibility of powerful ‘regional’ knowledge: curriculum change and renewal

© 2016 Taylor & Francis. The paper argues that powerful regional knowledge is necessary and possible and that there are historical precedents supporting these claims. Regional knowledge is being used in a double sense: the first Bernsteinian, the second in relation to knowledge generated outside the academy. Both are important if the debate is not to be confined solely to the global north and if the curriculum is to be responsive to geo-political realities. In order to think critically about access to higher education, we need to consider the sorts of knowledge, engagement, and opportunities that are open to newer actors. This includes recognising the contextual nature of professional practice and also that social movements beyond the academy can and do challenge academic knowledge. The paper concludes that many of issues addressed are not capable of theoretical resolution alone and that we need more empirical work to inform curriculum change and renewal