The relation of secondary student's career choice readiness to a six-phase model of career decision-making

Based on common aspects of recent models of career decision-making (CDM) a sixphase model of CDM for secondary students is presented and empirically evaluated. The study tested the hypothesis that students who are in later phases possess more career choice readiness and consider different numbers of career alternatives. 266 Swiss secondary students completed measures tapping phase of CDM, career choice readiness, and number of considered career options. Career choice readiness showed an increase with phase of CDM. Later phases were generally associated with a larger increase in career choice readiness. Number of considered career options showed a curve-linear development with fewer options considered at the beginning and at the end of the process. Male students showed a larger variability in their distribution among the process with more male than female students in the first and last phase of the process. Implications for theory and practice are presented.

The effects of erythritol air-polishing powder on microbiologic and clinical outcomes during supportive periodontal therapy: Six-month results of a randomized controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES To characterize the physical characteristics of a new low abrasive erythritol powder (EPAP) and to evaluate its influence on the clinical and microbiologic parameters over a period of 6 months in patients undergoing supportive periodontal therapy (SPT). METHOD AND MATERIALS Prior to the clinical application, the particle size and abrasion level of EPAP were compared to glycine air-polishing powder (GPAP) ex vivo. Subsequently, 40 chronic periodontitis patients previously enrolled in SPT were randomly assigned into two groups for the treatment with subgingival EPAP or repeated scaling and root planing (SRP). At baseline (BL), bleeding on probing positive (BOP+) sites with probing pocket depth (PPD) of ≥ 4 mm but no detectable calculus were defined as study sites. During SPT, these sites were either treated by EPAP or SRP at BL, 3, and 6 months (3M, 6M). When indicated, additional SRP was provided. Plaque Index, BOP, PPD, clinical attachment level (CAL), and subgingival plaque were evaluated at BL and 6M. RESULTS EPAP yielded lower abrasiveness and smaller particle sizes when compared to GPAP. In 38 patients completing the study, EPAP and SRP resulted in significant reductions of BOP% (EPAP, 40.45%; SRP, 42.53%), PPD (EPAP, -0.67; SRP, -0.68), and increase of CAL (EPAP, 0.48; SRP, 0.61) while at 6M no statistically significant between-group differences were observed (P > .05). Microbiologic evaluation revealed minor shifts in the composition of the subgingival biofilm without influence on periodontopathogenic bacteria. CONCLUSION The subgingival use of EPAP by means of an air-polishing device may be considered safe and may lead to comparable clinical and microbiologic outcomes to those obtained with SRP. CLINICAL RELEVANCE The subgingival use of EPAP appears to represent a promising modality for the removal of subgingival biofilm during SPT.

Analytic validation of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for quantification of six amino acids in canine serum samples.

OBJECTIVE To analytically validate a gas concentration of chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for measurement of 6 amino acids in canine serum samples and to assess the stability of each amino acid after sample storage. SAMPLES Surplus serum from 80 canine samples submitted to the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University and serum samples from 12 healthy dogs. PROCEDURES GC-MS was validated to determine precision, reproducibility, limit of detection, and percentage recovery of known added concentrations of 6 amino acids in surplus serum samples. Amino acid concentrations in serum samples from healthy dogs were measured before (baseline) and after storage in various conditions. RESULTS Intra- and interassay coefficients of variation (10 replicates involving 12 pooled serum samples) were 13.4% and 16.6% for glycine, 9.3% and 12.4% for glutamic acid, 5.1% and 6.3% for methionine, 14.0% and 15.1% for tryptophan, 6.2% and 11.0% for tyrosine, and 7.4% and 12.4% for lysine, respectively. Observed-to-expected concentration ratios in dilutional parallelism tests (6 replicates involving 6 pooled serum samples) were 79.5% to 111.5% for glycine, 80.9% to 123.0% for glutamic acid, 77.8% to 111.0% for methionine, 85.2% to 98.0% for tryptophan, 79.4% to 115.0% for tyrosine, and 79.4% to 110.0% for lysine. No amino acid concentration changed significantly from baseline after serum sample storage at -80°C for ≤ 7 days. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE GC-MS measurement of concentration of 6 amino acids in canine serum samples yielded precise, accurate, and reproducible results. Sample storage at -80°C for 1 week had no effect on GC-MS results.

The utility of preoperative six-minute-walk distance in lung transplantation

RATIONALE The use of 6-minute-walk distance (6MWD) as an indicator of exercise capacity to predict postoperative survival in lung transplantation has not previously been well studied. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the association between 6MWD and postoperative survival following lung transplantation. METHODS Adult, first time, lung-only transplantations per the United Network for Organ Sharing database from May 2005 to December 2011 were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards modeling were used to determine the association between preoperative 6MWD and post-transplant survival after adjusting for potential confounders. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the 6MWD value that provided maximal separation in 1-year mortality. A subanalysis was performed to assess the association between 6MWD and post-transplant survival by disease category. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS A total of 9,526 patients were included for analysis. The median 6MWD was 787 ft (25th-75th percentiles = 450-1,082 ft). Increasing 6MWD was associated with significantly lower overall hazard of death (P < 0.001). Continuous increase in walk distance through 1,200-1,400 ft conferred an incremental survival advantage. Although 6MWD strongly correlated with survival, the impact of a single dichotomous value to predict outcomes was limited. All disease categories demonstrated significantly longer survival with increasing 6MWD (P ≤ 0.009) except pulmonary vascular disease (P = 0.74); however, the low volume in this category (n = 312; 3.3%) may limit the ability to detect an association. CONCLUSIONS 6MWD is significantly associated with post-transplant survival and is best incorporated into transplant evaluations on a continuous basis given limited ability of a single, dichotomous value to predict outcomes.

How parties justified the 2014 EP election debate. A comparative analysis in six EU countries

On the role of parties as important channels for people to voice their preferences there is a sound consensus in the literature. Traditional socio-economic concerns have been more and more displaced by culturally fought issues such as immigration and European integration. Scholarly works, however, have paid less attention how, if at all, parties combine different cultural issues. The primary aim of the analysis is to investigate if and under which conditions parties link immigration and European integration issues to address the growing discontent in the population with these issues. Our expectation is that parties endorse different strategies depending on the party competition, in particular the presence of a populist challenger. The analysis is based on a quantitative content analysis of press releases and newspapers articles published in the 12 weeks preceding the 2014 EP election in five European countries (Austria, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).

Interstellar neutral helium in the heliosphere from Interstellar Boundary Explorer observations. III. Mach number of the flow, velocity vector, and temperature from the first six years of measurements

We analyzed observations of interstellar neutral helium (ISN He) obtained from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite during its first six years of operation. We used a refined version of the ISN He simulation model, presented in the companion paper by Sokol et al. (2015b), along with a sophisticated data correlation and uncertainty system and parameter fitting method, described in the companion paper by Swaczyna et al. We analyzed the entire data set together and the yearly subsets, and found the temperature and velocity vector of ISN He in front of the heliosphere. As seen in the previous studies, the allowable parameters are highly correlated and form a four-dimensional tube in the parameter space. The inflow longitudes obtained from the yearly data subsets show a spread of similar to 6 degrees, with the other parameters varying accordingly along the parameter tube, and the minimum chi(2) value is larger than expected. We found, however, that the Mach number of the ISN He flow shows very little scatter and is thus very tightly constrained. It is in excellent agreement with the original analysis of ISN He observations from IBEX and recent reanalyses of observations from Ulysses. We identify a possible inaccuracy in the Warm Breeze parameters as the likely cause of the scatter in the ISN He parameters obtained from the yearly subsets, and we suppose that another component may exist in the signal or a process that is not accounted for in the current physical model of ISN He in front of the heliosphere. From our analysis, the inflow velocity vector, temperature, and Mach number of the flow are equal to lambda(ISNHe) = 255 degrees.8 +/- 0 degrees.5, beta(ISNHe) = 5 degrees.16 +/- 0 degrees.10, T-ISNHe = 7440 +/- 260 K, nu(SNHe) = 25.8 +/- 0.4 km s(-1), and M-ISNHe = 5.079 +/- 0.028, with uncertainties strongly correlated along the parameter tube.

Local Interstellar Medium: Six Years of Direct Sampling by IBEX

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has been directly observing neutral atoms from the local interstellar medium for the last six years (2009–2014). This paper ties together the 14 studies in this Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series Special Issue, which collectively describe the IBEX interstellar neutral results from this epoch and provide a number of other relevant theoretical and observational results. Interstellar neutrals interact with each other and with the ionized portion of the interstellar population in the “pristine” interstellar medium ahead of the heliosphere. Then, in the heliosphereʼs close vicinity, the interstellar medium begins to interact with escaping heliospheric neutrals. In this study, we compare the results from two major analysis approaches led by IBEX groups in New Hampshire and Warsaw. We also directly address the question of the distance upstream to the pristine interstellar medium and adjust both sets of results to a common distance of ~1000 AU. The two analysis approaches are quite different, but yield fully consistent measurements of the interstellar He flow properties, further validating our findings. While detailed error bars are given for both approaches, we recommend that for most purposes, the community use “working values” of ~25.4 km s⁻¹, ~75°7 ecliptic inflow longitude, ~−5°1 ecliptic inflow latitude, and ~7500 K temperature at ~1000 AU upstream. Finally, we briefly address future opportunities for even better interstellar neutral observations to be provided by the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission, which was recommended as the next major Heliophysics mission by the NRCʼs 2013 Decadal Survey.