Assessing parental risk in parenting plan (child custody) evaluation cases involving internet sexual behavior

One type of claim in parenting assessment (child custody)1 cases is that one parent, typically the father, is alleged to be engaging in improper or compulsive sexual behavior via the Internet. The sexual behavior at issue can range from frequent sexually explicit chats with other adults to compulsive viewing of adult pornography. In more extreme cases, the problematic behavior may involve viewing child pornography, and in some cases the parent faces actual criminal charges in this regard. The present article reviews the current scientific knowledge base for evaluation of risk in such parenting evaluation cases and provides some guidelines and recommendations for an evaluator in the assessment process

Engaging Teaching Dilemmas to Foster Culturally Responsive and Antiracist Teaching Practice

This special Issue of the Race and Pedagogy Journal features artist statements and images of projects created by Master of Arts in Teaching candidates in their master’s coursework focused on developing anti-racist and culturally responsive teaching practices

Supersymmetry breaking and weakly vs. strongly coupled string theory

In the context of the field theory limit of superstrings, we consider an almost realistic model of supersymmetry breaking by gaugino condensation which includes, through nonperturbative corrections to the K\"ahler potential, dilaton stabilization at a value compatible with a weak coupling regime. Invariance under modular transformations is ensured through a Green-Schwarz term and string threshold corrections, which lead to moduli stabilization at the self-dual point. We are thus in a position to discuss several issues of physical relevance: gravitino, dilaton and moduli masses, axion, soft supersymmetry breaking parameters and gauge coupling unification.Comment: LATEX, 15 page

Diabetes, Glycemic Control, and New-Onset Heart Failure in Patients With Stable Coronary Artery Disease: Data from the Heart and Soul Study

OBJECTIVE Diabetes is a predictor of both coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure. It is unknown to what extent the association between diabetes and heart failure is influenced by other risk factors for heart failure. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We evaluated the association of diabetes and A1C with incident heart failure in outpatients with stable CAD and no history of heart failure (average follow-up 4.1 years). RESULTS Of 839 participants, 200 had diabetes (23.8%). Compared with patients who did not have diabetes, those with diabetes had an increased risk of heart failure (hazard ratio [HR] 2.17 [95% CI 1.37-3.44]). Adjustment for risk factors for CAD (age, sex, race, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol), interim myocardial infarction, and myocardial ischemia did not alter the strength of the association between diabetes and heart failure. After inclusion also of other risk factors for heart failure (left ventricular ejection fraction, diastolic dysfunction, and C-reactive protein) and medication use, diabetes remained an independent predictor of heart failure (HR 3.34 [95% CI 1.65-6.76]; P = 0.001). Each 1% increase in A1C concentration was associated with a 36% increased HR of heart failure hospitalization (HR 1.36 [95% CI 1.17-1.58]). CONCLUSIONS In patients with stable CAD who are free from heart failure at baseline, diabetes and glycemic control are independent risk factors for new-onset heart failure. The mechanisms by which diabetes and hyperglycemia lead to heart failure deserve further study, as the association is independent of baseline functional assessment of ischemia, systolic and diastolic function, and interim myocardial infarction

Metal Abundances in the Magellanic Stream

We report on the first metallicity determination for gas in the Magellanic Stream, using archival HST GHRS data for the background targets Fairall 9, III Zw 2, and NGC 7469. For Fairall 9, using two subsequent HST revisits and new Parkes Multibeam Narrowband observations, we have unequivocally detected the MSI HI component of the Stream (near its head) in SII1250,1253 yielding a metallicity of [SII/H]=-0.55+/-0.06(r)+/-0.2(s), consistent with either an SMC or LMC origin and with the earlier upper limit set by Lu et al. (1994). We also detect the saturated SiII1260 line, but set only a lower limit of [SiII/H]>-1.5. We present serendipitous detections of the Stream, seen in MgII2796,2803 absorption with column densities of (0.5-1)x10^13 cm^-2 toward the Seyfert galaxies III Zw 2 and NGC 7469. These latter sightlines probe gas near the tip of the Stream (80 deg down-Stream of Fairall 9). For III Zw 2, the lack of an accurate HI column density and the uncertain MgIII ionization correction limits the degree to which we can constrain [Mg/H]; a lower limit of [MgII/HI]>-1.3 was found. For NGC 7469, an accurate HI column density determination exists, but the extant FOS spectrum limits the quality of the MgII column density determination, and we conclude that [MgII/HI]>-1.5. Ionization corrections associated with MgIII and HII suggest that the corresponding [Mg/H] may range lower by 0.3-1.0 dex. However, an upward revision of 0.5-1.0 dex would be expected under the assumption that the Stream exhibits a dust depletion pattern similar to that seen in the Magellanic Clouds. Remaining uncertainties do not allow us to differentiate between an LMC versus SMC origin to the Stream gas.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, LaTeX (aaspp4), also available at http://casa.colorado.edu/~bgibson/publications.html, accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Evidence of tidal debris from Omega Cen in the Kapteyn Group

This paper presents a detailed kinematic and chemical analysis of 16 members of the Kapteyn moving group. The group does not appear to be chemically homogenous. However, the kinematics and the chemical abundance patterns seen in 14 of the stars in this group are similar to those observed in the well-studied cluster, Omega Centauri. Some members of this moving group may be remnants of the tidal debris of Omega Cen, left in the Galactic disk during the merger event which deposited Omega Cen into the Milky Way.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, 11 tables. Accepted for publication in A

High molecular prevalence of HPV and other sexually transmitted infections in a population of asymptomatic women who work or study at a Brazilian university

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) represent a global health problem with variable prevalence depending on the geographical region and the type of population. Human papillomavirus (HPV) encompasses widespread virus types related to cervical carcinogenesis. The present study investigated the molecular prevalence of HPV and seven other important STIs in asymptomatic women working or studying at a Brazilian university. A secondary aim was to assess cytological abnormalities associated with HPV and other STIs coinfections. We recruited 210 women from a Brazilian university. HPV was detected using a single-round polymerase chain reaction (sPCR) followed by a viral genotyping by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP-PCR). The presence of seven STIs: Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Treponema pallidum, Trichomonas vaginalis, Mycoplasma genitalium, herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 and HSV-2 was detected by multiplex PCR (M-PCR). Furthermore, cytological findings and epidemiological characteristics were evaluated.The mean age of the participants was 27.1 years old. HPV prevalence was 33.8%, and HPV16 was the most frequently detected papillomavirus genotype. Moreover, multiple HPV infections were common (42.2%). We detected at least one STI agent in 11.4% of the tested women, most frequently C. trachomatis (6.7%). Among HPV-positive women, 14.1% were coinfected with other STI agents. Cytological abnormalities were observed in 9.5% of smears, and HPV-DNA, high-risk HPV (HR-HPV), HPV16 and HPV multiple infections were associated with abnormal cytological findings. There was a high prevalence of HPV, and C. trachomatis was the most prevalent STI agent, with low rates of cytological abnormalities. These findings highlight the need of timely STI diagnosis in young asymptomatic women and of a public policy design for STI prevention

No evidence for differential gene expression in major depressive disorder PBMCs, but robust evidence of elevated biological ageing.

The increasingly compelling data supporting the involvement of immunobiological mechanisms in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) might provide some explanation forthe variance in this heterogeneous condition. Peripheral blood measures of cytokines and chemokines constitute the bulk of evidence, with consistent meta-analytic data implicating raised proinflammatory cytokines such as IL6, IL1β and TNF. Among the potential mechanisms linking immunobiological changes to affective neurobiology is the accelerated biological ageing seen in MDD, particularly via the senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP). However, the cellular source of immunobiological markers remains unclear. Pre-clinical evidence suggests a role for peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), thus here we aimed to explore the transcriptomic profile using RNA sequencing in PBMCs in a clinical sample of people with various levels of depression and treatment response comparing it with that in healthy controls (HCs). There were three groups with major depressive disorder (MDD): treatment-resistant (n = 94), treatment-responsive (n = 47) and untreated (n = 46). Healthy controls numbered 44. Using PBMCs gene expression analysis was conducted using RNAseq to a depth of 54.5 million reads. Differential gene expression analysis was performed using DESeq2. The data showed no robust signal differentiating MDD and HCs. There was, however, significant evidence of elevated biological ageing in MDD vs HC. Biological ageing was evident in these data as a transcriptional signature of 888 age-associated genes (adjusted p  0.6) that also correlated strongly with chronological age (spearman correlation coefficient of 0.72). Future work should expand clinical sample sizes and reduce clinical heterogeneity. Exploration of RNA-seq signatures in other leukocyte populations and single cell RNA sequencing may help uncover more subtle differences. However, currently the subtlety of any PBMC signature mitigates against its convincing use as a diagnostic or predictive biomarker

The Radial Velocity Experiment (rave): Second Data Release

We present the second data release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), an ambitious spectroscopic survey to measure radial velocities and stellar atmosphere parameters (temperature, metallicity, surface gravity, and rotational velocity) of up to one million stars using the 6 dF multi-object spectrograph on the 1.2 m UK Schmidt Telescope of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). The RAVE program started in 2003, obtaining medium resolution spectra (median R = 7500) in the Ca-triplet region (8410-8795 ) for southern hemisphere stars drawn from the Tycho-2 and SuperCOSMOS catalogues, in the magnitude range 9 < I < 12. Following the first data release, the current release doubles the sample of published radial velocities, now containing 51,829 radial velocities for 49,327 individual stars observed on 141 nights between 2003 April 11 and 2005 March 31. Comparison with external data sets shows that the new data collected since 2004 April 3 show a standard deviation of 1.3 km s-1, about twice as good as for the first data release. For the first time, this data release contains values of stellar parameters from 22,407 spectra of 21,121 individual stars. They were derived by a penalized χ2 method using an extensive grid of synthetic spectra calculated from the latest version of Kurucz stellar atmosphere models. From comparison with external data sets, our conservative estimates of errors of the stellar parameters for a spectrum with an average signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 40 are 400 K in temperature, 0.5 dex in gravity, and 0.2 dex in metallicity. We note however that, for all three stellar parameters, the internal errors estimated from repeat RAVE observations of 855 stars are at least a factor 2 smaller. We demonstrate that the results show no systematic offsets if compared to values derived from photometry or complementary spectroscopic analyses. The data release includes proper motions from Starnet2, Tycho-2, and UCAC2 catalogs and photometric measurements from Tycho-2 USNO-B, DENIS, and 2MASS. The data release can be accessed via the RAVE Web site: http://www.rave-survey.org and through CDS