A decade ago, Hoover‐Dempsey and Sandler offered a model of the parental involvement process that focused on understanding why parents become involved in their children’s education and how their ...involvement influences student outcomes. Since then, we and others have conducted conceptual and empirical work to enhance understanding of processes examined in the model. In this article (companion to Walker and colleagues’ article about scale development on the model in this issue), we review recent work on constructs central to the model’s initial question: Why do parents become involved in children’s education? Based on this review, we offer suggestions for (1) research that may deepen understanding of parents’ motivations for involvement and (2) school and family practices that may strengthen the incidence and effectiveness of parental involvement across varied school communities.
The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor Meegan, Charles; Lichti, Giselher; Bhat, P. N ...
The Astrophysical journal,
09/2009, Volume:
702, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) will significantly augment the science return from the Fermi Observatory in the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The primary objective of GBM is to extend the ...energy range over which bursts are observed downward from the energy range of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on Fermi into the hard X-ray range where extensive previous data sets exist. A secondary objective is to compute burst locations onboard to allow re-orienting the spacecraft so that the LAT can observe delayed emission from bright bursts. GBM uses an array of 12 sodium iodide scintillators and two bismuth germanate scintillators to detect gamma rays from ~8 keV to ~40 MeV over the full unocculted sky. The onboard trigger threshold is ~0.7 photons cm-2 s-1 (50-300 keV, 1 s peak). GBM generates onboard triggers for ~250 GRBs per year.
Background Cigarette smoking is a well-established risk factor for bladder cancer. The effects of smoking duration, intensity (cigarettes per day), and total exposure (pack-years); smoking cessation; ...exposure to environmental tobacco smoke; and changes in the composition of tobacco and cigarette design over time on risk of bladder cancer are unclear. Methods We examined bladder cancer risk in relation to smoking practices based on interview data from a large, population-based case–control study conducted in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont from 2001 to 2004 (N = 1170 urothelial carcinoma case patients and 1413 control subjects). We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using unconditional logistic regression. To examine changes in smoking-induced bladder cancer risk over time, we compared odds ratios from New Hampshire residents in this study (305 case patients and 335 control subjects) with those from two case–control studies conducted in New Hampshire in 1994–1998 and in 1998–2001 (843 case patients and 1183 control subjects). Results Regular and current cigarette smokers had higher risks of bladder cancer than never-smokers (for regular smokers, OR = 3.0, 95% CI = 2.4 to 3.6; for current smokers, OR = 5.2, 95% CI = 4.0 to 6.6). In New Hampshire, there was a statistically significant increasing trend in smoking-related bladder cancer risk over three consecutive periods (1994–1998, 1998–2001, and 2002–2004) among former smokers (OR = 1.4, 95% CI = 1.0 to 2.0; OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.4 to 2.9; and OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.7 to 4.0, respectively) and current smokers (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 2.0 to 4.2; OR = 4.2, 95% CI = 2.8 to 6.3; OR = 5.5, 95% CI = 3.5 to 8.9, respectively) (P for homogeneity of trends over time periods = .04). We also observed that within categories of intensity, odds ratios increased approximately linearly with increasing pack-years smoked, but the slope of the increasing trend declined with increasing intensity. Conclusions Smoking-related risks of bladder cancer appear to have increased in New Hampshire since the mid-1990s. Based on our modeling of pack-years and intensity, smoking fewer cigarettes over a long time appears more harmful than smoking more cigarettes over a shorter time, for equal total pack-years of cigarettes smoked.
Peripheral vascular disease remains a leading cause of vascular morbidity and mortality worldwide despite advances in medical and surgical therapy. Besides traditional approaches, which can only ...restore blood flow to native arteries, an alternative approach is to enhance the growth of new vessels, thereby facilitating the physiological response to ischemia.
The Actin
/R26
Rainbow reporter mouse was used for unbiased in vivo survey of injury-responsive vasculogenic clonal formation. Prospective isolation and transplantation were used to determine vessel-forming capacity of different populations. Single-cell RNA-sequencing was used to characterize distinct vessel-forming populations and their interactions.
Two populations of distinct vascular stem/progenitor cells (VSPCs) were identified from adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells: VSPC1 is CD45-Ter119-Tie2+PDGFRa-CD31+CD105
Sca1
, which gives rise to stunted vessels (incomplete tubular structures) in a transplant setting, and VSPC2 which is CD45-Ter119-Tie2+PDGFRa+CD31-CD105
Sca1
and forms stunted vessels and fat. Interestingly, cotransplantation of VSPC1 and VSPC2 is required to form functional vessels that improve perfusion in the mouse hindlimb ischemia model. Similarly, VSPC1 and VSPC2 populations isolated from human adipose tissue could rescue the ischemic condition in mice.
These findings suggest that autologous cotransplantation of synergistic VSPCs from nonessential adipose tissue can promote neovascularization and represents a promising treatment for ischemic disease.
In 1995 and 1997 Hoover‐Dempsey and Sandler proposed a theoretical model of the parental involvement process. Taking a psychological perspective, the model explained why parents become involved in ...their children’s education and how their involvement makes a difference in student outcomes. In this article we describe our efforts to operationalize Hoover‐Dempsey and Sandler’s explanation and how, in turn, those efforts led to revisions in their theoretical model. Because investigations of the full model are ongoing, in this article we discuss only revisions in the original model’s first 2 levels, which focus on psychological and contextual contributors to forms of parent involvement. We conclude with a discussion of how our work exemplifies the reciprocal relation between theory and measurement and suggest how other researchers might use our scales to assess links between parents’ psychological motivations for involvement and their involvement behavior.
We use long-term electron and proton in-situ measurements made by the CXD particle instruments, developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory and carried on board GPS satellites, to determine total ...ionizing dose (TID) values and daily/yearly dose rate (DR) values in medium Earth orbits (MEOs) caused by the natural space radiation environment. Here measurement-based TID and DR values on a simplified sample geometry-a small (with a radius of 0.1 mm) Silicon detector within an Aluminum shielding sphere with a thickness of 100 mil-are compared to those calculated from empirical radiation models. Results over the solar cycle 24 show that electron TID from measurements in GPS orbit is well above the values calculated from the median/mean fluences from AE8 and AE9 models, but close to model fluences at high percentiles. Also, it is confirmed that in MEOs proton contributions to TID are minor and mainly dominated by solar energetic protons. Several factors affecting those dose calculations are discussed and evaluated. Results from this study provide us another out-of-sample test on the reliability of existing empirical space radiation models, and also help estimate the margin factors on calculated dose values in MEOs that pass through the heart of the Earth's outer radiation belt.
We report gamma-ray spectroscopy measurements of trinitite samples and analogous samples obtained from detonation sites in Nevada and Semipalatinsk, as well as in situ measurements of topsoil at the ...Trinity site. We also report the first isotopic composition measurements of trinitite using the novel forensics technique of decay energy spectroscopy (DES) as a complement to traditional forensics techniques. Our gamma spectroscopy and DES measurements are compared to other published results.
Microcalorimeters based on transition-edge sensors (TESs) have been successfully deployed in numerous spectroscopic instruments that operate over a large range of incident photon energies. TES ...microcalorimeter arrays combine unmatched energy resolution with broadband spectral coverage and high quantum efficiency. An important application requiring these characteristics is nondestructive isotopic analysis via gamma-ray spectroscopy of the complex mixtures of actinide isotopes found in the nuclear fuel cycle. Steady progress has been made over the last ten years to develop TES microcalorimeter instruments for this application, leading to arrays that demonstrate significantly better energy resolution than the state-of-the-art high-purity germanium (HPGe) sensors. However, further algorithm development and automation of the data analysis procedure have been required to bring these systems closer to being ready for production use. In this article, we describe recent advances in data analysis techniques for gamma-ray data acquired with microcalorimeter systems. In particular, we discuss new approaches to automated calibration of our spectra, and a new approach for quantifying the uncertainty of peak area estimation for isolated peaks. Our data analysis pipeline has also been automated, requiring minimal manual intervention for full processing of data sets, with performance that is sufficient to allow future deployment of real-time spectrum generation. We show that, using this pipeline, we are able to achieve ~0.25% statistical uncertainty in isotope ratios, which indicates that if systematic errors are controlled, microcalorimeter arrays can achieve better than 1% total uncertainty in these measurements.
Signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4) is expressed in hematopoietic cells and plays a key role in the differentiation of T helper 1 cells. Although STAT4 is required for immunity ...to intracellular pathogens, the T cell-independent protective mechanisms of STAT4 are not clearly defined. In this report, we demonstrate that STAT4-deficient mice were acutely sensitive to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. We show that STAT4 was expressed in neutrophils and activated by IL-12 via a JAK2-dependent pathway. We demonstrate that STAT4 was required for multiple neutrophil functions, including IL-12-induced ROS production, chemotaxis, and production of the neutrophil extracellular traps. Importantly, myeloid-specific and neutrophil-specific deletion of STAT4 resulted in enhanced susceptibility to MRSA, demonstrating the key role of STAT4 in the in vivo function of these cells. Thus, these studies identify STAT4 as an essential regulator of neutrophil functions and a component of innate immune responses in vivo.
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