In Pursuit of Paternal Significance: Fathers\u27 Influence on their Daughters\u27 and Sons\u27 Sexual Behaviors and Beliefs

The United States has the highest teen pregnancy and adolescent STD rates of any industrialized nation. Numerous factors are involved in adolescent sexual decision-making and the social-ecological framework suggests that there are multiple levels of influence on adolescent development, including familial. Utilizing survey data from the Virginia Abstinence Education Initiative (VAEI), this project specifically explores paternal influences on adolescent sexual behavior and beliefs by examining paternal residence in the home, perceived paternal figure sexual beliefs, and father-child relationship factors. Results indicate that paternal figures influence their daughters\u27 and sons\u27 sexual behaviors as well as beliefs. Differences in paternal figure influence across gender were found as well. Those endeavoring to develop more effective teen pregnancy prevention and abstinence education programs may consider the involvement of paternal figures in future efforts

"Its influence taints all": mathematics teachers resisting performativity through engagement with the past

In England, globalisation and neoliberal political agendas have created an environment in which teachers are constantly measured and ranked and subjected to a discourse of marketisation, managerialism and performativity. The effect is to erode their sense of independence and moral authority and to challenge their individual and collective professional and personal identities. The need to understand the current policy environment, to step aside and look on critically, becomes more important even as it becomes more difficult. Many teachers are engaged in re-storying themselves against this audit culture. We argue that it is possible, through excavating the past, to offer current day teachers stories to support this process of re-envisaging what they are, might be and might become in their professional lives. Here we offer a response from a currently serving teacher to the experience of performativity and illustrate some ways in which she is able to mobilise such stories in her resistance to dominant, neo-liberal discourses

Characterization of Microorganisms of Interest to Homeland Security and Public Health Utilizing Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Liquid chromatography/quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (LC/QTOF MS) utilizing electrospray ionization was employed to monitor protein expression in Escherichia coli and Shigella organisms. Automated charge state deconvolution, spectral subtraction and spectral mirroring were used to reveal subtle differences in the LC/MS data. Reproducible intact protein biomarkers were discovered based on their unique mass, retention time and relative intensity. These markers were implemented to differentiate closely related strain types, (e.g. two distinct isolates of E. coli O157:H7) and to correctly identify unknown pathogens. Notable, was the distinction of multiple serotypes of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli which cannot be distinguished by clinical manifestation alone. Additionally, speciation of Shigella was achieved, a task for which no commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers exist. This method was subsequently applied to two pathogenic Clostridium species: C. difficile and C. perfringens. Due to the increased difficulty during lysis, two new lysis protocols were developed, and each extracted a distinct set of proteins (by both mass and retention time). Extracts from both lysis procedures were utilized to discover biomarkers useful for identification and characterization at the species and strain levels. These biomarkers were successfully implemented to identify unknowns during a blind study and would enhance serological and genetic approaches by serving as new targets for detection. Two sets of the C. perfringens isolates that were deemed 100% similar by the gold standard for strain differentiation, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), were distinguished using LC/MS, demonstrating the high specificity of this approach. The final part of this work demonstrated the application of ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) to this project to improve the throughput of the method. Given that numerous small molecule applications of UPLC have been published, efforts were made to examine the potential of UPLC to enhance the separation of intact proteins. Beginning with typically employed conditions, column temperature and organic solvent were optimized followed by an HPLC vs. UPLC comparison. When applied to a mixture of ten protein standards, the optimized UPLC method yielded improved chromatographic resolution, enhanced sensitivity, and a three-fold increase in throughput. Application of this method to cell lysate analysis demonstrated no compromise in chromatographic or mass spectral data quality; a reduction in run time from 75 minutes to 25 minutes was achieved

Representações sociais do corpo, mídia e atitudes

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Florianópolis, 2009Este estudo teve como objetivo principal caracterizar as representações sociais dos estudantes universitários em relação à saúde e à estética corporais, assim como as atitudes destes frente às difusões midiáticas a respeito do corpo. Para a fundamentação teórica, utilizou-se a perspectiva das representações sociais, considerando as abordagens dinâmica (do saber, identitária e de orientação), dimensional (atitude e de campo) e estrutural (elementos da representação). Foram realizados dois tipos de procedimentos exploratórios distintos para levantamento de dados, ambos com abordagens quantitativas e qualitativas. O primeiro procedimento, de natureza descritiva, consistiu na análise documental de artigos relativos ao corpo difundidos pela mídia impressa em três revistas de circulação nacional (#Saúde#, #Boa Forma# e #Estilo#); o segundo de natureza empírico-descritiva, elaborado para caracterizar as representações sociais dos participantes a respeito do corpo e diagnosticar as atitudes destes frente a tais difusões midiáticas. Os resultados referentes ao material textual obtido a partir da pesquisa documental foram submetidos a uma análise lexical hierárquica descendente. Na segunda etapa, foi elaborado um instrumento pelo Laboratório de Psicologia Social da Comunicação e Cognição (LACCOS) em parceria com a Ecole des Hautes Etudes em Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Este instrumento foi respondido por 500 estudantes universitários dos cursos de Medicina, Moda, Educação Física e Nutrição da cidade de Florianópolis. Para análise e tratamento dos dados quantitativos obtidos a partir do instrumento, utilizaram-se procedimentos da estatística descritiva e relacional, quanto ao material textual, a análise foi pela classificação hierárquica descendente. Pelos resultados, obteve-se que a média de idade dos participantes foi de aproximadamente 22 anos, e 77% deles apresenta peso corporal normal. Houve diferença estatisticamente significativa entre o nível de satisfação corporal e o Índice de Massa Corporal categorizado dos estudantes; e, também entre o sexo dos participantes e o nível de satisfação corporal. As representações do corpo na mídia enfatizam duas principais temáticas, aspectos eminentemente físicos (saúde e estética); e, o corpo como unidade físico-psíquica. Os estudantes em suas representações do corpo, também consideram a saúde e a beleza, sendo esta determinante para os primeiros contatos e interações sociais e associada a uma condição subjetiva. Além disso, a gordura e a magreza corporal excessiva são paradigmas da feiúra. Os termos saúde e estética constituem o núcleo das representações sociais do corpo; e, os elementos organizadores foram saúde, beleza e práticas. Observou-se dissonância entre as dimensões atitudinais dos participantes, por contrastes entre como pensam, sentem e se comportam em relação ao seu corpo. Conclui-se que a beleza e a saúde estão estritamente relacionadas ao corpo magro neste estudo, e aparecem traços de condutas lipofóbicas dentre os participantes, que mesmo quando magros, preocupam-se com engordar. Há uma busca crescente pelo padrão corporal de beleza, e tanto os homens quanto as mulheres compartilham dessa idéia. A cirurgia estética aparece como forma de alcançar satisfação corporal e evitar o envelhecimento. O núcleo das representações sociais do corpo destes estudantes traz idéias de normatização e funcionalidade, associando práticas de saúde que levam à beleza corporal

Diferenças nas percepções de crianças sobre cuidado parental real e ideal quando pais vivem juntos ou separados

Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo principal identificar se os filhos cujos pais vivem juntos percebem diferenças no cuidado parental (real e ideal) em relação àqueles cujos pais são separados. Participaram do estudo 213 crianças, de duas escolas da rede municipal de ensino de Florianópolis, com faixa etária compreendida entre 10 e 11 anos. Os instrumentos utilizados foram dois questionários, contendo perguntas fechadas. Os resultados indicam diferenças estatisticamente significativa entre a percepção que os filhos têm do pai real em relação ao ideal, quando os pais não vivem juntos. A percepção da mãe real está mais próxima da ideal nos dois casos: de crianças que vivem com pai e mãe e de crianças cujos pais são separados. Como conclusão geral, pode-se afirmar que as crianças percebem o pai real bastante afastado do ideal em aspectos referentes ao cuidado e à interação, principalmente quando os pais são separados.The main objective of the present study is to identify if the children whose parents live together perceive differences concerning parental care (both real and ideal) in relation to those whose parents are separated. Two hundred and thirteen children altogether, regularly enrolled at municipal schools of Florianópolis, Brasil aged 10-11 years old, and participated of the study. Two questionnaires, which contained closed questions, were used. The results indicate significant statistic differences between the perception children have of the real father in relation to the ideal father when the parents do not live together. In relation to the mother, there was less significant difference. The mother is predominantly closer to the ideal model than the father in both the cases (when parents are married or separated). In conclusion, it can be stated that children perceive the real father quite distant from the ideal one regarding care and interaction, mainly when parents are separated

Rapid recovery following short-term acoustic disturbance in two fish species

ArticleNoise from human activities is known to impact organisms in a variety of taxa, but most experimental studies on the behavioural effects of noise have focused on examining responses associated with the period of actual exposure. Unlike most pollutants, acoustic noise is generally short-lived, usually dissipating quickly after the source is turned off or leaves the area. In a series of experiments, we use established experimental paradigms to examine how fish behaviour and physiology are affected, both during short-term (2 min) exposure to playback of recordings of anthropogenic noise sources and in the immediate aftermath of noise exposure. We considered the anti-predator response and ventilation rate of juvenile European eels (Anguilla anguilla), and ventilation rate of juvenile European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax). As previously found, additional-noise exposure decreased eel anti-predator responses, increased startle latency and increased ventilation rate relative to ambient-noise-exposed controls. Our results show for the first time that those effects quickly dissipated; eels showed rapid recovery of startle responses and startle latency, and rapid albeit incomplete recovery of ventilation rate in the 2 min after noise cessation. Seabass in both laboratory and open-water conditions showed an increased ventilation rate during playback of additional noise compared to ambient conditions. However, within 2 min of noise cessation, ventilation rate showed complete recovery to levels equivalent to ambient-exposed control individuals. Care should be taken in generalizing these rapid-recovery results, as individuals might have accrued other costs during noise exposure and other species might show different recovery times. Nonetheless, our results from two different fish species provide tentative cause for optimism concerning recovery following short-duration noise exposure, and suggest that considering periods following noise exposures could be important for mitigation and management decisions.DefraNER

“Its Influence Taints All”: Urban Math-ematics Teachers Resisting Performativity through Engagement with the Past

In England, globalisation and neoliberal political agendas have created an en-vironment in which teachers are constantly measured and ranked and subjected to a discourse of marketisation, managerialism, and performativity. This is par-ticularly strongly felt in urban schools, where a discourse that recognised the sys-tematic disadvantages that many urban children experience has been replaced by a discourse of “failing” students, teachers and schools. The effect is to erode teachers’ sense of independence and moral authority and to challenge their indi-vidual and collective professional and personal identities. The need to understand the current policy environment, to step aside and look on critically, becomes more important even as it becomes more difficult

Comparative analysis of Erk phosphorylation suggests a mixed strategy for measuring phospho-form distributions.

The functional impact of multisite protein phosphorylation can depend on both the numbers and the positions of phosphorylated sites-the global pattern of phosphorylation or 'phospho-form'-giving biological systems profound capabilities for dynamic information processing. A central problem in quantitative systems biology, therefore, is to measure the 'phospho-form distribution': the relative amount of each of the 2(n) phospho-forms of a protein with n-phosphorylation sites. We compared four potential methods-western blots with phospho-specific antibodies, peptide-based liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS; pepMS), protein-based LC/MS (proMS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR)-on differentially phosphorylated samples of the well-studied mitogen-activated protein kinase Erk2, with two phosphorylation sites. The MS methods were quantitatively consistent with each other and with NMR to within 10%, but western blots, while highly sensitive, showed significant discrepancies with MS. NMR also uncovered two additional phosphorylations, for which a combination of pepMS and proMS yielded an estimate of the 16-member phospho-form distribution. This combined MS strategy provides an optimal mixture of accuracy and coverage for quantifying distributions, but positional isomers remain a challenging problem

New experiences in the exercise of parentality: the report of adolescent daughters in joint custody living

Este estudo busca problematizar, a partir do ponto de vista de filhasadolescentes, como seus pais compartilham as atribuições parentais na vivência deguarda compartilhada. Este artigo tem como objetivo compreender as relações defilhas adolescentes em vivência de guarda compartilhada com seus pais e mães. Paraisso utilizou-se autores que abordam temáticas envolvendo família, guarda de filhose o exercício da parentalidade, a partir de diferentes olhares como psicológico,jurídico e social, uma vez que, esses diferentes núcleos de conhecimento serelacionam com a temática do estudo, que é de cunho interdisciplinar. Resulta deuma pesquisa qualitativa, realizada a partir de um estudo de casos múltiplos.Integraram este estudo três famílias com filhas adolescentes, com vivência de guardacompartilhada, cujos pais foram clientes de um Núcleo de Assistência Judiciária.Como instrumentos de coleta de dados, utilizou-se a análise documental nosprontuários dos clientes da instituição referida, o preenchimento de um formuláriocom os pais e com as adolescentes e uma entrevista semidirigida realizada com asadolescentes. A análise dos dados foi feita através da técnica de casos cruzados. Osresultados apontam que as mães ainda são consideradas as principais responsáveispelas filhas, entretanto, os pais mantiveram-se presentes também de forma afetiva,permitindo assim, o exercício da parentalidade. As considerações finais destacam oentendimento de que a parentalidade pode ser compreendida como umaexperiência singularizada em cada um destes contextos familiares, que secaracterizam pela vivência de guarda compartilhada, sem a evidência de um padrãoou modelo estabelecido para tal experiência.Palavras-chave: Parentalidade; Adolescentes; Guarda compartilhada. This study seeks to problematize, from the point of view of teenagedaughters, how their parents share the parental attributions in the shared guardexperience. This article aims to understand the relationships of teenage daughters inshared custody with their parents. In order to do this, we used authors that approach themes involving family, custody of children and the exercise of parenting, fromdifferent perspectives such as psychological, legal and social, since these differentknowledge centers are related to the theme of the study, which is of aninterdisciplinary nature. It consists on a qualitative research, which used themultiple case study method. Participants consisted in three families, with teenagedaughters in joint custody, whose parents were clients in the Núcleo de AssistênciaJudiciária (Legal Assistance Center). For data collection it was used a documentanalysis of clients’ reports in the mentioned institution, the fulfilment of a form withboth parents and adolescents and a semi-directive interview conducted with theteenage girls. Data analysis was done using the cross-case technique. Results basedon the narratives of the adolescents indicate that the mothers are still considered theprimary responsible person by their daughters, however, the fathers, in spite ofpresenting roles usually more driven to family support, kept present in the care oftheir daughters, enabling the action of parenting. The final considerations highlightthe understanding that parenting can be understood as an unique experience in eachof these family contexts, which are characterized by the joint custody, withoutevidences of pattern or model for such experience.Keywords: Parenting; Adolescents; Joint custody

Regulation of Selenocysteine Content of Human Selenoprotein P by Dietary Selenium and Insertion of Cysteine in Place of Selenocysteine

Selenoproteins are a unique group of proteins that contain selenium in the form of selenocysteine (Sec) co-translationally inserted in response to a UGA codon with the help of cis- and trans-acting factors. Mammalian selenoproteins contain single Sec residues, with the exception of selenoprotein P (SelP) that has 7–15 Sec residues depending on species. Assessing an individual’s selenium status is important under various pathological conditions, which requires a reliable selenium biomarker. Due to a key role in organismal selenium homeostasis, high Sec content, regulation by dietary selenium, and availability of robust assays in human plasma, SelP has emerged as a major biomarker of selenium status. Here, we found that Cys is present in various Sec positions in human SelP. Treatment of cells expressing SelP with thiophosphate, an analog of the selenium donor for Sec synthesis, led to a nearly complete replacement of Sec with Cys, whereas supplementation of cells with selenium supported Sec insertion. SelP isolated directly from human plasma had up to 8% Cys inserted in place of Sec, depending on the Sec position. These findings suggest that a change in selenium status may be reflected in both SelP concentration and its Sec content, and that availability of the SelP-derived selenium for selenoprotein synthesis may be overestimated under conditions of low selenium status due to replacement of Sec with Cys