L’Utilisation D’Entretiens Quantitatifs Pour Détecter L’influence des Parents Dans le Développement de Compétences Sportives Chez Les Athlètes

Past research has indicated that parents influence children’s sport performance, but studies using qualitative methodologies and lacking comparison groups have failed to outline specific parent behaviors that constitute support, pressure, involvement, and resource provision at each stage of development. This paper presents a quantitative methodology that assesses specific, observable, verifiable parent behaviors across development, allowing future researchers to highlight differences in parental behaviors of athletes who reach high levels of performance and those who do not. The combined survey and interview methodology examines parents’ demographic information, children’s involvement in sporting activities, and the nature of parents’ involvement in those activities. A case study conducted with the parents of three Canadian junior ice hockey athletes using this methodology found parents’ invested time and specific behaviors changed throughout the development of the athlete.

A Recursive Income Model for Canadians : The Direct and Indirect Effects of Family Background (Working Paper 28)

This paper presents the results of a multi-equation income model which has been estimated for Canadian men and women which incorporates the effects of a number of important family background variables, including mother’s and father’s education, parents’ immigration status, their age at immigration, place of birth, language development, and learning background. Not only education, but also the individual’s tested literacy and numeracy levels are treated as intermediate outcomes which are affected by background and which, in turn, affect income. Many of the background variables are found to have important indirect effects on income which would be missed by more conventional approaches. We also find some interesting gender aspects with respect to the influences of parents’ educations on their children’s outcomes. Various policy implications of the findings are discussed.

An immune modulatory role for the fes proto-oncogene

The Fes protein tyrosine kinase is abundantly expressed in phagocytic immune cells, including tumor associated macrophages. Fes knockout mice (fes-/-) display enhanced sensitivity to LPS, and this was shown to be associated with increased NF-κB signaling and TNFα production from fes-/- macrophages. Interestingly, tumor onset in the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV-Neu) transgenic mouse model of breast cancer is significantly delayed in fes-/- mice, and this was associated with increased frequency of CD11b+ myeloid and CD3+ T cells in the premalignant mammary glands. Recent studies have also implicated Fes in cross-talk between MHC-I and the NF-κB and IRF-3 pathways in macrophages. Signal 3, the production of inflammatory cytokines and Type I interferons downstream of NF-κB and IRF-3 pathways in antigen presenting cells, is considered an important component of T-cell activation, after engagement of T cell receptor by MHC presented antigen (Signal 1) and co-receptors by their ligands (Signal 2). Using a lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) model of immune activation, I show that LPS stimulated fes-/- macrophages promote more robust activation of LCMV antigenspecific CD8+ T cells than wild type macrophages (fes+/+). Furthermore, LPS stimulated fes-/- macrophages showed increased phosphorylation of NF-B and IRF-3. I also showed that Fes colocalizes with MHC-I in dynamic vesicular structures within macrophages. These observations are consistent with a model where Fes regulates Signal 3 in antigen presenting cells through roles in cross-talk between MHC-I and the NF-kB and IRF-3 signaling pathways. This suggests that Fes plays an immune checkpoint role at the level of Signal 3, and that Fes inhibition could promote tumor immunity through increased Signal 3 driven T cell activation.