The personal belief in a just world and domain-specific beliefs about justice at school and in the family: A longitudinal study with adolescents

This article investigates the relationship between the personal belief in a just world (BJW) and domain-specific beliefs about justice and examines how justice cognitions impact on adolescents' development, particularly on their achievement at school and their subjective well-being. A longitudinal questionnaire study with German adolescents aged 14-19 years was conducted over a period of five to eight months. The pattern of results revealed that evaluations of the school climate and of the family climate as being just were two distinct phenomena, both of which impacted on the personal BJW, which in turn affected the domain-specific beliefs about justice. However, the domain-specific beliefs about justice did not impact on each other directly. Moreover, an evaluation of the family climate (but not of the school climate) as being just reduced depressive symptoms, whereas depressive symptoms did not weaken the evaluation of one's family as being just. The evaluation of the school climate as being just improved the grades received in the next school report, whereas the grades received did not affect the justice evaluation of the school climate. Finally, all relationships persisted when controlling for age and gender. In sum, the pattern of findings supports the notion that justice cognitions impact on development during adolescence

Dagga (cannabis) usage among medical students in Johannesburg

Of 1020 undergraduate medical students at the University of the Witwatersrandsurveyed in 1981 as regards attitudes to and patterns of illicit drug use 868 completed the questionnaire; 32,4% had tried dagga (cannabis) and 16,4% were still using the drug. There was a large increase in the number of students using the drug as they advanced through their studies (6% of the 1st-year class as against 24% of the 5th-year class). The timing of dagga use and previous experimentation with habit-forming drugs· are mentioned, and reasons for non-experimentation· and attitudes towards legalization of dagga are analysed

5 year follow up of a hydroxyapatite coated short stem femoral component for hip arthroplasty: a prospective multicentre study

Short stem, uncemented femoral implants for hip arthroplasty are bone conserving achieving stability through initial metaphyseal press-fit and biological fixation. This study aimed to evaluate the survivorship, mid-term function and health related quality of life outcomes in patients who have undergone total hip arthroplasty (THA) with a fully hydroxyapatite coated straight short stem femoral component with up to 5 years follow-up. 668 patients were recruited to a multicentre study investigating the performance of the cementless Furlong Evolution® stem for THA. 137 patients withdrew at various time points. The mean follow-up was 49 months. Clinical (Harris Hip Score (HHS), radiographic and patient-reported outcome measures—Oxford Hip Score (OHS) and EuroQol 5D (EQ-5D), were recorded pre-operatively and at 6 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, 3 year and 5 year follow ups. At 5-year follow-up, 12 patients underwent revision surgery, representing a cumulative revision rate of 1.8%. Median OHS, HHS and EQ5D scores improved significantly: OHS improved from a pre-operative median of 21 (IQR 14–26) to 47 (IQR 44–48) (p < 0.001). HHS improved from 52 (IQR 40–63) to 98 (IQR 92–100) (p < 0.001) and EQ5D improved from 70 (IQR 50–80) to 85 (IQR 75–95) (p < 0.001). This fully HA-coated straight short femoral stem implant demonstrated acceptable mid-term survivorship and delivered substantial improvements in function and quality of life after THA

GRB 050408: An Atypical Gamma-Ray Burst as a Probe of an Atypical Galactic Environment

The bright GRB 050408 was localized by HETE-II near local midnight, enabling an impressive ground-based followup effort as well as space-based followup from Swift. The Swift data from the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and our own optical photometry and spectrum of the afterglow provide the cornerstone for our analysis. Under the traditional assumption that the visible waveband was above the peak synchrotron frequency and below the cooling frequency, the optical photometry from 0.03 to 5.03 days show an afterglow decay corresponding to an electron energy index of p_lc = 2.05 +/- 0.04, without a jet break as suggested by others. A break is seen in the X-ray data at early times (at ~12600 sec after the GRB). The spectral slope of the optical spectrum is consistent with p_lc assuming a host-galaxy extinction of A_V = 1.18 mag. The optical-NIR broadband spectrum is also consistent with p = 2.05, but prefers A_V = 0.57 mag. The X-ray afterglow shows a break at 1.26 x 10^4 sec, which may be the result of a refreshed shock. This burst stands out in that the optical and X-ray data suggest a large H I column density of N_HI ~ 10^22 cm^-2; it is very likely a damped Lyman alpha system and so the faintness of the host galaxy (M_V > -18 mag) is noteworthy. Moreover, we detect extraordinarily strong Ti II absorption lines with a column density through the GRB host that exceeds the largest values observed for the Milky Way by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, the Ti II equivalent width is in the top 1% of Mg II absorption-selected QSOs. This suggests that the large-scale environment of GRB 050408 has significantly lower Ti depletion than the Milky Way and a large velocity width (delta v > 200 km/s).Comment: ApJ submitte

Modeling cancer genomic data in yeast reveals selection against ATM function during tumorigenesis

The DNA damage response (DDR) comprises multiple functions that collectively preserve genomic integrity and suppress tumorigenesis. The Mre11 complex and ATM govern a major axis of the DDR and several lines of evidence implicate that axis in tumor suppression. Components of the Mre11 complex are mutated in approximately five percent of human cancers. Inherited mutations of complex members cause severe chromosome instability syndromes, such as Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome, which is associated with strong predisposition to malignancy. And in mice, Mre11 complex mutations are markedly more susceptible to oncogene- induced carcinogenesis. The complex is integral to all modes of DNA double strand break (DSB) repair and is required for the activation of ATM to effect DNA damage signaling. To understand which functions of the Mre11 complex are important for tumor suppression, we undertook mining of cancer genomic data from the clinical sequencing program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which includes the Mre11 complex among the 468 genes assessed. Twenty five mutations in MRE11 and RAD50 were modeled in S. cerevisiae and in vitro. The mutations were chosen based on recurrence and conservation between human and yeast. We found that a significant fraction of tumor-borne RAD50 and MRE11 mutations exhibited separation of function phenotypes wherein Tel1/ATM activation was severely impaired while DNA repair functions were mildly or not affected. At the molecular level, the gene products of RAD50 mutations exhibited defects in ATP binding and hydrolysis. The data reflect the importance of Rad50 ATPase activity for Tel1/ATM activation and suggest that inactivation of ATM signaling confers an advantage to burgeoning tumor cells

Structured evaluation of virtual environments for special-needs education

This paper describes the development of a structured approach to evaluate experiential and communication virtual learning environments (VLEs) designed specifically for use in the education of children with severe learning difficulties at the Shepherd special needs school in Nottingham, UK. Constructivist learning theory was used as a basis for the production of an evaluation framework, used to evaluate the design of three VLEs and how they were used by students with respect to this learning theory. From an observational field study of student-teacher pairs using the VLEs, 18 behaviour categories were identified as relevant to five of the seven constructivist principles defined by Jonassen (1994). Analysis of student-teacher behaviour was used to provide support for, or against, the constructivist principles. The results show that the three VLEs meet the constructivist principles in very different ways and recommendations for design modifications are put forward

Urban transportation: Perspectives on mobility and choice

A study of urban transportation systems are presented characterized by intensive scrutiny of many ideas, philosophies, and academic perspectives. This report is intended to communicate some dimensions of the urban transportation problem to the general public

How well are Tropical Cyclones represented in reanalysis data sets?

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are identified and tracked in six recent reanalysis data sets and compared with those from the IBTrACS best track archive. Results indicate that nearly every cyclone present in IBTrACS over the period 1979-2012 can be found in all six reanalyses using a tracking and matching approach. However, TC intensities are significantly under-represented in the reanalyses compared to the observations. Applying a typical objective TC identification scheme, it is found that the largest uncertainties in TC identification occur for the weaker storms; this is exacerbated by uncertainties in the observations for weak storms and lack of consistency in operational procedures. For example, it is unclear whether certain types of storms, such as tropical depressions, subtropical cyclones and monsoon depressions, are included in the best track data for all reporting agencies. There are definite improvements in how well TCs are represented in more recent, higher resolution reanalyses; in particular MERRA2 is comparable with the NCEP-CFSR and JRA55 reanalyses, which perform significantly better than the older MERRA reanalysis

Ab Initio Liquid Hydrogen Muon Cooling Simulations with ELMS in ICOOL

This paper presents new theoretical results on the passage of muons through liquid hydrogen which have been confirmed in a recent experiment. These are used to demonstrate that muon bunches may be compressed by ionisation cooling more effectively than suggested by previous calculations. Muon cooling depends on the differential cross section for energy loss and scattering of muons. We have calculated this cross section for liquid H2 from first principles and atomic data, avoiding traditional assumptions. Thence, 2-D probability maps of energy loss and scattering in mm-scale thicknesses are derived by folding, and stored in a database. Large first-order correlations between energy loss and scattering are found for H2, which are absent in other simulations. This code is named ELMS, Energy Loss & Multiple Scattering. Single particle trajectories may then be tracked by Monte Carlo sampling from this database on a scale of 1 mm or less. This processor has been inserted into the cooling code ICOOL. Significant improvements in 6-D muon cooling are predicted compared with previous predictions based on GEANT. This is examined in various geometries. The large correlation effect is found to have only a small effect on cooling. The experimental scattering observed for liquid H2 in the MUSCAT experiment has recently been reported to be in good agreement with the ELMS prediction, but in poor agreement with GEANT simulation.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure