Elders’ Attitudes toward Extending the Healthy Life Span

Despite continuing debate between anti-aging researchers seeking major life span extension and concerned gerontologists and bioethicists, elders’ views have received little research attention. Study aimed to relate elders’ attitudes toward strong life span extension to psychosocial and background factors. Participants were 109 American elders (65% women) aged 60-99 (M = 77.08, SD = 9.05). Measures included attitudes toward living long and living forever, Desired Age, Death Acceptance, Goal Seeking, Internality, and background variables (age, gender, marital status, education, religion, health). Attitudes were more positive toward an extended life span than living forever (p \u3c .01). In regression analyses, more positive attitudes were related to greater Desired Age, less Death Acceptance, greater Goal Seeking, and greater Internality, and to lower age and non-Christian religious affiliation. Qualitative analyses explored goals for various periods of additional life. Elders’ positive attitudes toward extended life need consideration by experts debating this issue

Gesture Recognition by Using Depth Data: Comparison of Different Methodologies

In this chapter, the problem of gesture recognition in the context of human computer interaction is considered. Several classifiers based on different approaches such as neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM), hidden Markov model (HMM), deep neural network (DNN), and dynamic time warping (DTW) are used to build the gesture models. The performance of each methodology is evaluated considering different users performing the gestures. This performance analysis is required as the users perform gestures in a personalized way and with different velocity. So the problems concerning the different lengths of the gesture in terms of number of frames, the variability in its representation, and the generalization ability of the classifiers have been analyzed

Writing to Save the Earth

A Magazine of Sustainable Ideas from EN199 Writing for the Earth (Professor John Kucich, Fall 2015) A Sense of Place: Essays on Where We Live Fogo, Cabo Verde, by Leonarda Vieira Weweantic River, by Sydney Holbrook Carver Pond, by Brianna Gallagher Nantasket Beach, by Brianna Davidson Ames Nowell, by Cassidy Morrow Old Orchard Beach, by Jill Blye A Place in the Sky, by Danielle Souza Pond Meadow, by Samantha Cicirelli Imagining a Future: Speculative Fiction Peggy the Penguin in Antarctica, by Haley Piotrowski Lives Change in One Day, by Julianne Kilduff Dust, by Adam Hayes Taking Action: Policy, Politics and Activisim Climate Reality, by Brea Caisey Wind Turbines in Massachusetts, by William Tkaczu

Sibling relationships and family functioning in siblings of early adolescents, adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder

The purpose of the study was to investigate how family functioning (defined as the ability that family members hold to manage stressful events, and intimate and social relationships), the degree to which family members feel happy and fulfilled with each other (called family satisfaction), and the demographical characteristics of siblings (age and gender) impacted on sibling relationships. The Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems and Behavioral Systems constituted the theoretical frameworks that guided our study. Eighty-six typically developing adolescents and young adults having a sister or a brother with autism spectrum disorder were enrolled. Results indicated that the youngest age group (early adolescents) reported to engage more frequently in negative behaviors with their siblings with ASD than the two older age groups (middle adolescents and young adults). No significant differences were found among the three age groups regarding behaviors derived from attachment, caregiving and affiliative systems. Family satisfaction and age significantly predicted behaviors during sibling interactions. Suggestions on prevention and intervention programs were discussed in order to prevent parentification among typically developing siblings and decrease episodes of quarrels and overt conflicts between brothers and sisters with and without AS

A novel oncogenic BTK isoform is overexpressed in colon cancers and required for RAS-mediated transformation

20siBruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is essential for B-cell proliferation/differentiation and it is generally believed that its expression and function are limited to bone marrow-derived cells. Here, we report the identification and characterization of p65BTK, a novel isoform abundantly expressed in colon carcinoma cell lines and tumour tissue samples. p65BTK protein is expressed, through heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNPK)-dependent and internal ribosome entry site-driven translation, from a transcript containing an alternative first exon in the 5'-untranslated region, and is post-transcriptionally regulated, via hnRNPK, by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. p65BTK is endowed with strong transforming activity that depends on active signal-regulated protein kinases-1/2 (ERK1/2) and its inhibition abolishes RAS transforming activity. Accordingly, p65BTK overexpression in colon cancer tissues correlates with ERK1/2 activation. Moreover, p65BTK inhibition affects growth and survival of colon cancer cells. Our data reveal that BTK, via p65BTK expression, is a novel and powerful oncogene acting downstream of the RAS/MAPK pathway and suggest that its targeting may be a promising therapeutic approach.openopenGrassilli, Emanuela; Pisano, Fabio; Cialdella, Annamaria; Bonomo, Sara; Missaglia, Carola; Cerrito, Maria Grazia; Masiero, Laura; Ianzano, Leonarda; Giordano, Federica; Cicirelli, Vittoria; Narloch, Robert; D'Amato, Filomena; Noli, Barbara; Ferri, Gian Luca; Leone, Biagio; Stanta, Giorgio; Bonin, Serena; Helin, Kristian; Giovannoni, Roberto; Lavitrano, MarialuisaGrassilli, Emanuela; Pisano, Fabio; Cialdella, Annamaria; Bonomo, Sara; Missaglia, Carola; Cerrito, Maria Grazia; Masiero, Laura; Ianzano, Leonarda; Giordano, Federica; Cicirelli, Vittoria; Narloch, Robert; D'Amato, Filomena; Noli, Barbara; Ferri, Gian Luca; Leone, Biagio; Stanta, Giorgio; Bonin, Serena; Helin, Kristian; Giovannoni, Roberto; Lavitrano, Marialuis