Media Effects: Cultural Appropriation And Attitudes Towards Cosmetic Surgery

The current study investigates media\u27s influence on Caucasian women to culturally appropriate the physical features generally ascribed to African American women through non-surgical and or surgical cosmetic procedures and vice versa. Participants were 26 African American women and 54 Caucasian women who had previously undergone either non-surgical or surgical cosmetic procedures. Results indicate that African American women were more likely to culturally appropriate than Caucasian women. For African American women high media exposure to cosmetic surgery media messages played a significant role in the cultural appropriation process. Results also indicated that Caucasian women culturally appropriate at the same level, whether media use content and media exposure to cosmetic surgery media messages was high or low. Older age was also a factor in cultural appropriation for Caucasian women. Cultural appropriation was measured using the Cosmetic Surgery Physical Feature Scale (CSPFS; Lee, 2009). High media use content and high exposure to cosmetic surgery media messages were directly related to African American women\u27s endorsement of cosmetic surgery for social reasons. Caucasian women were also more likely than African American women to endorse cosmetic surgery for intrapersonal reasons. The Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery (ACSS; Henderson-King & Henderson-King, 2005) social and intrapersonal subscales were used to measure social and intrapersonal reasons for endorsement of cosmetic surgery

Impact of Resilience on the Academic Achievement of At-Risk Students in the Upward Bound Program in Georgia

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between resilience and the academic achievement of at-risk students in the Upward Bound Program in Georgia. The researcher used a quantitative method to collect data for the study. The researcher used the Healthy Kids Survey (Module B) instrument to assess the resilience of participants; it had 33 items on it and the researcher added a demographic section to the survey to collect information about the participants\u27 families, schools, GPAs, and SAT/ACT scores. All of the participants chosen for this study were at-risk students due to their status as low-income and potential first-generation-to attend college, high school seniors in the Upward Bound Program in both rural and urban communities in Georgia. There were 200 participants selected for this study and 91 chose to participate. The researcher found several interesting results. The researcher found that at-risk students in the Upward Bound Program in Georgia were highly resilient and that their resilience was positively related to their GPAs. Also, the females in the study were more resilient than the males and had higher GPAs. Furthermore, urban participants in the study were only slightly more resilient than their rural counterparts, and participants living with both parents were more resilient than students living with one parent. On other academic indicators such as the SAT and ACT, the study found that there was not a significant relationship between resilience and these college entrance tests. However, there were surprising findings related to the participants\u27 performance on these tests. African American males scored quite high on the SAT. Also, urban students outperformed rural students on the SAT and participants living with both parents scored higher than those living with one parent. The researcher noted several conclusions from the study. An important conclusion was that the Upward Bound Program helps to build resilience and that resilience positively impacts the participants\u27 GPAs. Maintaining good grades in school is a major factor in students staying in school and going to college; therefore, educators should promote fostering resilience for at-risk students, especially for African American males. Another conclusion was that rural students need more opportunities to participate in programs that foster resilience. Key factors of resilience programs are caring, and supportive adults, who are interested in the students, school work, and adults who have high expectations for the students. School leaders and educators should seek to create warm, supportive school climates and opportunities for all students to achieve. The implications for the study can be very useful to educators and educational leaders as well as for professionals who work in dropout prevention and pre-college programs in Georgia. Also, the findings in the study can serve as a basis for strengthening parental involvement and support from adult mentors for K-12 students. Ultimately, the findings should provide a basis for promoting resilience in all students, especially at-risk students due to poverty

Negative Stress Margins - Are They Real?

Advances in modeling and simulation, new finite element software, modeling engines and powerful computers are providing opportunities to interrogate designs in a very different manner and in a more detailed approach than ever before. Margins of safety are also often evaluated using local stresses for various design concepts and design parameters quickly once analysis models are defined and developed. This paper suggests that not all the negative margins of safety evaluated are real. The structural areas where negative margins are frequently encountered are often near stress concentrations, point loads and load discontinuities, near locations of stress singularities, in areas having large gradients but with insufficient mesh density, in areas with modeling issues and modeling errors, and in areas with connections and interfaces, in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) transitions, bolts and bolt modeling, and boundary conditions. Now, more than ever, structural analysts need to examine and interrogate their analysis results and perform basic sanity checks to determine if these negative margins are real

A Comparison Of The Market Orientation Of Chinese And US Firms

A lack of empirical research exists on marketing orientation in China.  In order to begin to address this research gap, a study was conducted assessing managers’ perceptions of the market orientation of Chinese firms and its impact on business performance. Multiple measures of market orientation and business performance were assessed and analysis was conducted across different types of organizations and in different industries.  This analysis shows that Chinese firms have a strong market orientation. They recognize the importance of being kept informed about environmental trends, competitor activities and the evolving needs of their customers.  They disseminate information among their staff and respond to opportunities to provide better products and quality services to their customers.   Although the relationship between market orientation and business performance may be complex, this study provides some empirical evidence that better performance will be achieved by the market-oriented organization.

Prehospital Delay, Precipitants of Admission, and Length of Stay in Patients With Exacerbation of Heart Failure

BACKGROUND: Factors that precipitate hospitalization for exacerbation of heart failure provide targets for intervention to prevent hospitalizations. OBJECTIVES: To describe demographic, clinical, behavioral, and psychosocial factors that precipitate admission for exacerbation of heart failure and assess the relationships between precipitating factors and delay before hospitalization, and between delay time and length of hospital stay. METHODS: All admissions in 12 full months to a tertiary medical center were reviewed if the patient had a discharge code related to heart failure. Data on confirmed admissions for exacerbation of heart failure were included in the study. Electronic and paper medical records were reviewed to identify how long it took patients to seek care after they became aware of signs and symptoms, factors that precipitated exacerbation, and discharge details. RESULTS: Exacerbation of heart failure was confirmed in 482 patients. Dyspnea was the most common symptom (92.5% of patients), and 20.3% of patients waited until they were severely dyspneic before seeking treatment. The most common precipitating factor was poor medication adherence. Delay times from symptom awareness to seeking treatment were shorter in patients who had a recent change in medicine for heart failure, renal failure, or poor medication adherence and longer in patients with depressive symptoms and hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: Depressive symptoms, recent change in heart failure medicine, renal failure, poor medication adherence, and hypertension are risk factors for hospitalizations for exacerbation of heart failure

Reversible linkage of two distinct small molecule inhibitors of myc generates a dimeric inhibitor with improved potency that is active in myc over-expressing cancer cell lines

We describe the successful application of a novel approach for generating dimeric Myc inhibitors by modifying and reversibly linking two previously described small molecules.We synthesized two directed libraries of monomers, each comprised of a ligand, a connector, and a bioorthogonal linker element, to identify the optimal dimer configuration required to inhibit Myc. We identified combinations of monomers, termed self-assembling dimeric inhibitors, which displayed synergistic inhibition of Myc-dependent cell growth. We confirmed that these dimeric inhibitors directly bind to Myc blocking its interaction with Max and affect transcription of MYC dependent genes. Control combinations that are unable to form a dimer do not show any synergistic effects in these assays. Collectively, these data validate our new approach to generate more potent and selective inhibitors of Myc by self-assembly from smaller, lower affinity components. This approach provides an opportunity for developing novel therapeutics against Myc and other challenging protein:protein interaction (PPI) target classes. © 2015 Wanner et al

Loss of Cytokine-STAT5 Signaling in the CNS and Pituitary Gland Alters Energy Balance and Leads to Obesity

Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) are critical components of cytokine signaling pathways. STAT5A and STAT5B (STAT5), the most promiscuous members of this family, are highly expressed in specific populations of hypothalamic neurons in regions known to mediate the actions of cytokines in the regulation of energy balance. To test the hypothesis that STAT5 signaling is essential to energy homeostasis, we used Cre-mediated recombination to delete the Stat5 locus in the CNS. Mutant males and females developed severe obesity with hyperphagia, impaired thermal regulation in response to cold, hyperleptinemia and insulin resistance. Furthermore, central administration of GM-CSF mediated the nuclear accumulation of STAT5 in hypothalamic neurons and reduced food intake in control but not in mutant mice. These results demonstrate that STAT5 mediates energy homeostasis in response to endogenous cytokines such as GM-CSF