Barriers to academic help-seeking: the relationship with gender-typed attitudes

In recent years, male students at UK schools and universities have been falling behind their female peers in academic achievement. Previous studies have shown that male students are less likely than female students to seek academic help, but have not investigated the relationship between gender-typical attitudes and reluctance to seek academic help. In the present study, 162 students at six UK universities completed the Help-Seeking Scales and the Traditional Gender Script Questionnaire. Data from this survey were analysed using MANOVA and multilple linear regression. The main findings were that reluctance to seek help was predicted by higher scores on the masculine gender script subscale Mastery and Control of feelings for both male (β =.448, p <.01) and female students (β = .497, p < .001). For male participants, being a Fighter and a Winner also predicted reluctance to seek help (β = −.322, p < .05) whereas, for female students, greater help-seeking was associated with more interest in creating Family Harmony (β = −.272, p < .05). These findings suggest that the help-seeking behaviour of both male and female students is related to specific gender-typical attitudes. We suggest that awareness of these attitudes can serve to inform educational practice by facilitating access to academic assistance and encouraging all students to seek academic help

An Alternative Paper Based Tissue Washing Method for Mass Spectrometry Imaging: Localized Washing and Fragile Tissue Analysis

Surface treatment of biological tissue sections improves detection of peptides and proteins for mass spectrometry imaging. However, liquid surface treatments can result in diffusion of surface analytes and fragile tissue sections can be easily damaged by typical washing solvents. Here, we present a new surface washing procedure for mass spectrometry imaging. This procedure uses solvent wetted fiber-free paper to enable local washing of tissue sections for mass spectrometry imaging and tissue profiling experiments. In addition, the method allows fragile tissues that cannot be treated by conventional washing techniques to be analyzed by mass spectrometry imaging

Synaptic Connections of the Neurokinin 1 Receptor-Like Immunoreactive Neurons in the Rat Medullary Dorsal Horn

The synaptic connections between neurokinin 1 (NK1) receptor-like immunoreactive (LI) neurons and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-, glycine (Gly)-, serotonin (5-HT)- or dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH, a specific marker for norepinephrinergic neuronal structures)-LI axon terminals in the rat medullary dorsal horn (MDH) were examined under electron microscope by using a pre-embedding immunohistochemical double-staining technique. NK1 receptor-LI neurons were observed principally in laminae I and III, only a few of them were found in lamina II of the MDH. GABA-, Gly-, 5-HT-, or DBH-LI axon terminals were densely encountered in laminae I and II, and sparsely in lamina III of the MDH. Some of these GABA-, Gly-, 5-HT-, or DBH-LI axon terminals were observed to make principally symmetric synapses with NK1 receptor-LI neuronal cell bodies and dendritic processes in laminae I, II and III of the MDH. The present results suggest that neurons expressing NK1 receptor within the MDH might be modulated by GABAergic and glycinergic inhibitory intrinsic neurons located in the MDH and 5-HT- or norepinephrine (NE)-containing descending fibers originated from structures in the brainstem

Understanding the decomposition reaction mechanism of chrysanthemic acid: a computational study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chrysanthemic acid (<b>CHA</b>) is a major product from the photodecomposition of pyrethrin which is an important class of pesticide compounds.</p> <p>In the following paper, Hybrid density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the potential energy surface (PES) for three possible channels decomposition of chrysanthemic acid <b>(</b>cis-trans isomerization, rearrangement and fragmentation) have been carried at the B3LYP/6-311+G** level of theory. DFT was employed to optimize the geometry parameters of the reactants, transition states, intermediates and products based on detailed potential energy surfaces (PES).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results suggest that all three pathways of <b>CHA </b>are endothermic. DFT calculations revealed that the activation barriers for cis-trans isomerization are low, leading to a thermodynamically favorable process than other two pathways. We also investigated the solvent effect on the PES using the polarizable continuum model (PCM). In addition, time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations showed that these reactions occur in the ground state rather than in an excited state.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The rearrangement process seems to be more favorable than the decomposition of <b>CHA </b>to carbene formation. The solvent effect calculations indicated no changes in the shape of the PES with three continua (water, ethanol and cyclohexane), although the solvents tend to stabilize all of the species.</p

Autism as a disorder of neural information processing: directions for research and targets for therapy

The broad variation in phenotypes and severities within autism spectrum disorders suggests the involvement of multiple predisposing factors, interacting in complex ways with normal developmental courses and gradients. Identification of these factors, and the common developmental path into which theyfeed, is hampered bythe large degrees of convergence from causal factors to altered brain development, and divergence from abnormal brain development into altered cognition and behaviour. Genetic, neurochemical, neuroimaging and behavioural findings on autism, as well as studies of normal development and of genetic syndromes that share symptoms with autism, offer hypotheses as to the nature of causal factors and their possible effects on the structure and dynamics of neural systems. Such alterations in neural properties may in turn perturb activity-dependent development, giving rise to a complex behavioural syndrome many steps removed from the root causes. Animal models based on genetic, neurochemical, neurophysiological, and behavioural manipulations offer the possibility of exploring these developmental processes in detail, as do human studies addressing endophenotypes beyond the diagnosis itself

PADB : Published Association Database

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although molecular pathway information and the International HapMap Project data can help biomedical researchers to investigate the aetiology of complex diseases more effectively, such information is missing or insufficient in current genetic association databases. In addition, only a few of the environmental risk factors are included as gene-environment interactions, and the risk measures of associations are not indexed in any association databases.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>We have developed a published association database (PADB; <url>http://www.medclue.com/padb</url>) that includes both the genetic associations and the environmental risk factors available in PubMed database. Each genetic risk factor is linked to a molecular pathway database and the HapMap database through human gene symbols identified in the abstracts. And the risk measures such as odds ratios or hazard ratios are extracted automatically from the abstracts when available. Thus, users can review the association data sorted by the risk measures, and genetic associations can be grouped by human genes or molecular pathways. The search results can also be saved to tab-delimited text files for further sorting or analysis. Currently, PADB indexes more than 1,500,000 PubMed abstracts that include 3442 human genes, 461 molecular pathways and about 190,000 risk measures ranging from 0.00001 to 4878.9.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>PADB is a unique online database of published associations that will serve as a novel and powerful resource for reviewing and interpreting huge association data of complex human diseases.</p

Field-induced p-n transition in yttria-stabilized zirconia

Oxide ion conducting yttria-stabilised zirconia ceramics show the onset of electronic conduction under a small bias voltage. Compositions with a high yttria content undergo a transition from p-type to n-type behavior at voltages in the range 2.4 to 10 V, which also depends on oxygen partial pressure. Surface reactions have a direct influence on bulk electronic conductivities, with possible implications for voltage-induced flash phenomena and resistive switching

Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of CD105 Expression with a 64Cu-Labeled Monoclonal Antibody: NOTA Is Superior to DOTA

Optimizing the in vivo stability of positron emission tomography (PET) tracers is of critical importance to cancer diagnosis. In the case of 64Cu-labeled monoclonal antibodies (mAb), in vivo behavior and biodistribution is critically dependent on the performance of the bifunctional chelator used to conjugate the mAb to the radiolabel. This study compared the in vivo characteristics of 64Cu-labeled TRC105 (a chimeric mAb that binds to both human and murine CD105), through two commonly used chelators: 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid (NOTA) and 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA). Flow cytometry analysis confirmed that chelator conjugation of TRC105 did not affect its CD105 binding affinity or specificity. PET imaging and biodistribution studies in 4T1 murine breast tumor-bearing mice revealed that 64Cu-NOTA-TRC105 exhibited better stability than 64Cu-DOTA-TRC105 in vivo, which resulted in significantly lower liver uptake without compromising the tumor targeting efficiency. In conclusion, this study confirmed that NOTA is a superior chelator to DOTA for PET imaging with 64Cu-labeled TRC105