Selection and influence effects in defending a victim of bullying: The moderating effects of school context

In this paper we examined whether defenders of victims of school bullying befriended similar peers, and whether the similarity is due to selection or influence processes or both. We examined whether these processes result in different degrees of similarity between peers depending on teachers’ self-efficacy and the school climate. We analyzed longitudinal data of 478 Swiss school students employing actor-based stochastic models. Our analyses showed that similarity in defending behavior among friends was due to selection rather than influence. The extent to which adolescents selected peers showing similar defending behavior was related to contextual factors. In fact, lower self-efficacy of teachers and positive school climate were associated with increased selection effects in terms of defending behavior.

The “Out of Africa Tribe” (II): Paleolithic warriors with big canoes and protective weapons

It is generally difficult to establish a timeline for the appearance of different technologies and tools during human cultural evolution. Here I use stochastic character mapping of discrete traits using human mtDNA phylogenies rooted to the Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence (RSRS) as a model to address this question. The analysis reveals that the ancestral state of Homo sapiens was hunting, using material innovations that included bows and arrows, stone axes and spears. However, around 80,000 y before present, a transition occurred, from this ancestral hunting tradition, toward the invention of protective weapons such as shields, the appearance of ritual fighting as a socially accepted behavior and the construction of war canoes for the fast transport of large numbers of warriors. This model suggests a major cultural change, during the Palaeolithic, from hunters to warriors. Moreover, in the light of the recent Out of Africa Theory, it suggests that the “Out of Africa Tribe” was a tribe of warriors that had developed protective weapons such as shields and used big war canoes to travel the sea coast and big rivers in raiding expeditions.

Sexual Health Education from the Perspective of School Staff: Implications for Adoption and Implementation of Effective Programs in Middle School

Introduction: US teens are having sex early; however, the vast majority of schools do not implement evidence-based sexual health education (SHE) programs that could delay sexual behavior and/or reduce risky behavior. This study examines middle school staff’s knowledge, attitudes, barriers, self-efficacy, and perceived support (psychosocial factors known to influence SHE program adoption and implementation). Methods: Professional school staff from 33 southeast Texas middle schools completed an internet or paper-based survey. Prevalence estimates for psychosocial variables were computed for the total sample. Chi-square and t-test analyses examined variation by demographic factors. Results: Almost 70% of participants were female, 37% white, 42% black, 16% Hispanic; 20% administrators, 15% nurses/counselors, 31% non-physical education/non-health teachers, 28% physical education/health teachers; mean age = 42.78 years (SD = 10.9). Over 90% favored middle school SHE, and over 75% reported awareness of available SHE curricula or policies. More than 60% expressed confidence for discussing SHE. Staff perceived varying levels of administrator (28%-56%) support for SHE and varying levels of support for comprehensive sex education from outside stakeholders (e.g., parents, community leaders) (42%-85%). Overall, results were more favorable for physical education/health teachers, nurses/counselors, and administrators (when compared to non-physical education/non-health teachers) and individuals with experience teaching SHE. Few significant differences were observed by other demographic factors. Conclusions: Overall, study results were extremely positive, which may reflect a high level of readiness among school staff for adopting and implementing effective middle school SHE programs. Study results highlight the importance of several key action items for schools.

Subcritical Propagation and Coalescence of Oil-Filled Cracks: Getting the Oil Out of Low-Permeability Source Rocks

We use a fracture mechanics model to study subcritical propagation and coalescence of single and collinear oil-filled cracks during conversion of kerogen to oil. The subcritical propagation distance, propagation duration, crack coalescence and excess oil pressure in the crack are determined using the fracture mechanics model together with the kinetics of kerogen-oil transformation. The propagation duration for the single crack is governed by the transformation kinetics whereas the propagation duration for the multiple collinear cracks may vary by two orders of magnitude depending on initial crack spacing. A large amount of kerogen (>90%) remains unconverted when the collinear cracks coalesce and the new, larger cracks resulting from coalescence will continue to propagate with continued kerogen-oil conversion. The excess oil pressure on the crack surfaces drops precipitously when the collinear cracks are about to coalesce, and crack propagation duration and oil pressure on the crack surfaces are strongly dependent on temperature. Citation: Jin, Z.-H., S. E. Johnson, and Z. Q. Fan (2010), Subcritical propagation and coalescence of oil-filled cracks: Getting the oil out of low-permeability source rocks, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L01305, doi:10.1029/2009GL041576.

Search for long-lived stopped R-hadrons decaying out-of-time with pp collisions using the ATLAS detector

An updated search is performed for gluino, top squark, or bottom squark R-hadrons that have come to rest within the ATLAS calorimeter, and decay at some later time to hadronic jets and a neutralino, using 5.0 and 22.9 fb(-1) of pp collisions at 7 and 8 TeV, respectively. Candidate decay events are triggered in selected empty bunch crossings of the LHC in order to remove pp collision backgrounds. Selections based on jet shape and muon system activity are applied to discriminate signal events from cosmic ray and beam-halo muon backgrounds. In the absence of an excess of events, improved limits are set on gluino, stop, and sbottom masses for different decays, lifetimes, and neutralino masses. With a neutralino of mass 100 GeV, the analysis excludes gluinos with mass below 832 GeV (with an expected lower limit of 731 GeV), for a gluino lifetime between 10 mu s and 1000 s in the generic R-hadron model with equal branching ratios for decays to q (q) over bar(chi) over tilde (0) and g (chi) over tilde (0). Under the same assumptions for the neutralino mass and squark lifetime, top squarks and bottom squarks in the Regge R-hadron model are excluded with masses below 379 and 344 GeV, respectively.

Invasive coronary treatment strategies for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a consensus statement from the European association for percutaneous cardiovascular interventions (EAPCI)/stent for life (SFL) groups

Due to significant improvement in the pre-hospital treatment of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), an increasing number of initially resuscitated patients are being admitted to hospitals. Because of the limited data available and lack of clear guideline recommendations, experts from the EAPCI and "Stent for Life" (SFL) groups reviewed existing literature and provided practical guidelines on selection of patients for immediate coronary angiography (CAG), PCI strategy, concomitant antiplatelet/anticoagulation treatment, haemodynamic support and use of therapeutic hypothermia. Conscious survivors of OHCA with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) should be treated according to recommendations for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and high-risk non-ST-segment elevation -ACS (NSTE-ACS) without OHCA and should undergo immediate (if STEMI) or rapid (less than two hours if NSTE-ACS) coronary invasive strategy. Comatose survivors of OHCA with ECG criteria for STEMI on the post-resuscitation ECG should be admitted directly to the catheterisation laboratory. For patients without STEMI ECG criteria, a short "emergency department or intensive care unit stop" is advised to exclude non-coronary causes. In the absence of an obvious non-coronary cause, CAG should be performed as soon as possible (less than two hours), in particular in haemodynamically unstable patients. Immediate PCI should be mainly directed towards the culprit lesion if identified. Interventional cardiologists should become an essential part of the "survival chain" for patients with OHCA. There is a need to centralise the care of patients with OHCA to experienced centres.

Dear Brand, Please Help me to Become a True-Man Out of the Truman: The Role of Brand Authenticity

Although brand authenticity is gaining increasing interest in academia and managerial practice, empirical studies on its contribution to the branding literature are still limited. The authors therefore conceptually and empirically examine the emergence and outcomes of perceived brand authenticity (PBA). A prior multi-phase scale development process resulted in a 17-item PBA scale to measure its four dimensions of credibility, integrity, symbolism, and longevity. Brand authenticity perceptions are influenced by indexical, existential, and iconic cues, whereby the latter’s influence is moderated by consumers’ level of marketing skepticism. Further, PBA increases emotional brand attachment. This relationship is particularly strong for consumers with a high level of self-authenticity. In addition, PBA effects are stronger in a North American market context compared to a European context.

Genomic knock-out of rancRNAs in the archaeon H. volcanii

As translation is the final step in gene expression it is particularly important to understand the processes involved in translation regulation. It was shown in the last years that a class of RNA, the non-protein-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), is involved in regulation of gene expression via various mechanisms [1]. Herein included is the prominent example of gene silencing caused by micro RNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Almost all of these ncRNA discovered so far target the mRNA in order to modulate protein biosynthesis, this is rather unexpected considering the crucial role of the ribosome during gene expression. However, recent data from our laboratory showed that there is a new class of RNAs among the well-studied ncRNAs that target the ribosome itself [2,3]. These so called ribosome-associated ncRNAs (rancRNAs) have an impact on translation regulation, mainly by interfering / modulating the rate of protein biosynthesis. Recent studies show the presence of small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) in archaea which are involved in many biological processes including stress response and metabolic regulation [4]. To date the biological function and the targets of these archaeal sRNAs are only described for a few examples. There are reports of sRNAs binding to the 5’ as well as to the 3’ of mRNAs [5,6]. In addition to these findings, a tRNA derived fragment (tRF) of Valine tRNA was found in a genomic screen of RNAs associated with the ribosome in H. volcanii in our laboratory [3]. This Valine tRF seems to be processed in a stress-dependent manner and showed in vitro binding to the ribosome and inhibited in vitro translation. These results showed that Valine tRF is capable to regulate translation in H. volcanii by targeting the ribosome. The main goal of this project is to identify and describe novel potential regulatory rancRNAs in H. volcanii with the focus on intergenic candidates. Northern blot analyses already revealed interactions with the ribosome and showed differential expression patterns in response to stress conditions. To investigate the biological relevance of some of the ribosome-associated ncRNA candidates, knock-out and phenotypic characterization studies are done. The genomic knock out of a hypothetical ORF (198nt), where one putative rancRNA candidate (46nt) named IG33 was detected in the library at the beginning of the ORF, showed interesting growth phenotype under specific stress conditions. Furthermore a strain with an introduced start to stop codon mutation in this hypothetical ORF still shows the same phenotype indicating that rather the missing protein than the missing sRNA causes this growth phenotype.